While everyone can ogle the bridge crew all they want, the people who really keep every Star Trek operation running are the engineers. After all, without a spaceship there’s nowhere to explore, is there? Exactly. Take that, medical degrees and diplomacy.
Far too often shoved down by the warp core and ignored, it’s time to give the best engineers of the franchise their dues. With such brilliant minds, they really deserve a lot of credit for keeping everything together. That, and advancing technology so that The Federation’s future only looks brighter every day.
Here are the best engineers in Star Trek, ranked.
Wesley Crusher
Throughout TNG, the show makes it very clear that Wesley is a child prodigy, a genius before his time. He accidentally puts the ship in danger too many times with his experiments getting out of hand. This includes frying the systems when everyone was space drunk and accidentally creating intelligent life and trapping it in the ship’s systems.
As I said, a genius. However, Wesley’s fatal flaw is lack of experience and arrogance. He’s been told he’s incredibly smart all his life and it makes him think he always knows what to do. He has great potential, but his youth knocks him down quite a few pegs.
Rom
Rom never was good at being a typical Ferengi. He was always too soft, too caring, too un-businesslike. His species’ lust for gold was never for him. He cared more about machinery and his son. After Starfleet took over DS9, and a few years passed, Rom finally found his calling: engineering. The Ferengi had a knack with technology that his species doesn’t normally value.
While Rom is a star engineer under Chief O’Brien, he never was formally trained. He does have his mistakes and gaps in knowledge. That doesn’t stop him from being one of the most brilliant self-taught engineers, though.
Paul Stamets
Stamets is a multi-talented scientist. Helming the engineering crew as well as conducting research as an expert mycologist, the Discovery was lucky to have him. His work helped the crew on multiple levels, even without including engineering. Paul Stamets’ multiple disciplines only made him a more effective, cross-study engineer.
Also lucky for Discovery, they had him on board for their experimental spore drive and fungal-based technology. He was the perfect person to deal with it. In such a unique and bizarre engineering system, Stamets used all his capabilities to overcome and modify the problem at hand. Considering how temperamental and untested the tech was, he did wonderfully.
The fact his partner is also a fantastic medic is just a bonus.
Trip Tucker
Despite his unprofessional behavior and distrust of T’Pol, Trip Tucker was a fantastic engineer. Early starship exploration was wildly dangerous and he didn’t just have to be intelligent, but also diplomatic. Trip had to get along with alien engineers to learn new technology and share best practices for surviving in space.
Over his years on the Enterprise, he greatly improved the ship around him and helped make long-term space travel safer and more efficient. Pretty impressive considering how little he often knew about what they were up against.
B’Elanna Torres
Sure, B’Elanna did drop out of Starfleet Academy in her first year. Despite her engineering aptitude, all the rules and regulations didn’t fit her personality (or her fears). She did find a purpose and a home in the Maquis, though, a group of renegade Federation civilians fighting for their homes on the Cardassian border. They used her engineering skills to help aid in their cause.
When she joined Voyager, she was an easy choice for chief engineer. She helped create balance in the crew and was stellar at her job. She may have the shortest temper in Starfleet, but she deactivated a murderous AI ship and made many modifications that slowly helped them find their way back to earth faster. Without a stellar chief engineer, they never would have survived.
Reginald Barclay
When fans first met Reg, he was a socially anxious, sort of creepy dude that worked down in engineering. While he had potential, he wasted all of it on holodeck addiction and the disorders that crippled him. After Reg started working with Deanna Troi, though, he became a new man. Reg was able to manage his anxiety, focus on his work, and become an amazing engineer.
From TNG to Voyager, Reg grew professionally and became a front-running expert on holograms and long-range communications. While his holodeck addiction still plagued him sometimes, his brilliance still stuck out. Because of him, Voyager was able to finally communicate with Starfleet despite being in the Delta Quadrant. He changed the face of long-range communication forever.
Montgomery Scott
The classic Star Trek engineer, trying to fix countless things that keep breaking, Montgomery Scott always had a lot of work to do. However, no matter what they faced, he always figured out a way to solve the problem. Iconic and sarcastic, there are few engineers that could deal with all Kirk asked of him.
He deserves credit as one of the best engineers to ever grace Starfleet. After all, in the roaring chaos that is the USS Enterprise he always got the job done. No wonder, years later, he’s honored as an engineering hero.
Miles O’Brien
While many of the engineers on this list had a natural aptitude or were always dedicated to their field, Miles O’Brien came to engineering by happenstance. During the Cardassian War, he was the only one in their unit that had any engineering training. Therefore, he became the go-to tech guy. Under situations of stress, he kept his team alive by fixing necessary tech and making life-saving modifications.
From war-time ensign to transporter engineer, to chief engineer, Miles ranked up the only way he’s ever known how: as a persistent, hard-working every-man. Though the guy’s suffered through a lot, he saved a lot of lives in the Enterprise’s transporter room and kept the entirety of DS9 running in top shape. He’s impressive.
Seven of Nine
Even though the Voyager crew stuck Seven in the observatory, she always was an amazing engineer. Her Borg upbringing made her have a unique relationship with tech since she lives with so much in her body.
While she isn’t meant for leadership, it doesn’t diminish her engineering capabilities. She integrated Borg tech into Voyager’s systems, she saved the ship several times with her personal modifications, and she revolutionized other uses for Borg nanotech.
Fans never saw what she did after Voyager, but anything she engineered could upgrade Starfleet in ways we never imagined. Hopefully Star Trek: Picard will show that.
Zefram Cochrane
A mad scientist type, Zefram Cochrane is by far one of the greatest engineers in Star Trek history. While he was drunk and a little off-kilter, he made the greatest discovery vital to the future of mankind: the warp drive. This led to humanity meeting the Vulcans, their eventual space travel, and the entire formation of the Federation and Starfleet.
His great work in changing the face of space travel was pivotal and genius. Zefram deserves endless praise for his engineering contributions to humanity and its progress.
Geordi LaForge
As chief engineer of the USS Enterprise, Geordi dealt with a lot of bizarre scenarios that he had to engineer himself out of. It’s part of the job. However, Geordi really went above and beyond. He was the first engineer to have to fight against the Borg. His modifications helped give The Federation a chance when in conflict with them. Also, he was the close friend of the only Soong-type android in Starfleet. He learned so much from his existence and friendship.
These are only a few examples, but Geordi got an experience like no other and made contributions to Starfleet like no other. With his visor and his dedication, Geordi was the best engineer out there.
