Special Sub-Topic: Starfleet Academy: Engineering Exam Click Here To Play: Starfleet Academy: Engineering Exam

According to a Scottish engineer, what should you tell your captain when he asks how long a repair will take?

Multiply the actual time so you'll always finish things early.. "TNG" episode "Relics" - Scotty gives LaForge this advice and says that it helps keep up one's reputation as a 'miracle worker'. Also, apparently O'Brien also follows this idea.

Two candidates for Chief Engineer: Candidate A is a strait-laced, by-the-book engineer who follows Starfleet protocols to the letter. Candidate B doesn't always follow protocol and is known for finding 'creative' solutions to problems. Who will end up as Chief Engineer?

B - Creative solutions are an extremely important quality.. "Voy" episode "Parallax" - Janeway had to decide between Carey and Torres. However, at the start of the episode Torres had just broken Carey's nose so her prospects didn't look too good. But Janeway listened to Chakotay and decided to consider Torres for the position. In the staff meeting, her ideas where so creative and intelligent that she and Janeway got on quite well - and Torres was promoted.

When faced with an attention-loving computer program that has infiltrated your station's systems, what do you do?

Make a program to contain it and give it attention.. "DS9" episode "The Forsaken" - O'Brien and company were trying to download information from a random, unknown probe (always a good idea, by the way). But the program kept crashing the computer system and O'Brien decided it was like a puppy. He created a little program to keep the little dog... er, program occupied and that was that.

You've just been offered a promotion to captain. According to an old Scottish man, what should you do?

Refuse - Chief Engineer is the best position you can ever have.. "TNG" episode "Relics" - Scotty told LaForge to cherish his time as Chief Engineer because it is the best time. And besides, captain has all that responsibility - saving the ship and all.

You can't get your old ship started so you can play this wargame with the best ship in the fleet. How do you get power?

Steal a teenager's science project.. "TNG" episode "Peak Performance" - Riker was commanding a crew who had to get this derelict ship space-worthy in a couple days. And nothing worked on the ship. So Wesley offered up his science project to connect it to their ship's warp core in order to get some power. And it's a good thing because the Ferengi came and wanted to destroy Riker's ship!

A weapon you 'fixed' years ago when you were more of a rebel decides it wants to kill an entire planet, how do you stop it?

Transport aboard and try to reason with/trick it.. "Voy" episode "Dreadnought" - B'Elanna had re-programmed a Cardassian weapon so it would kill a Cardassian fuel depot. However, that nasty Caretaker pulled the weapon into the Delta Quadrant and it decided to go after an innocent planet. B'Elanna beamed over and tried to disarm it two ways: trying to get it to realize those innocents weren't Cardassians and tricking it into letting her disarm it.

Your captain has proposed the insane idea of going to a Borg vessel in order to liberate some of them so they can become individuals. The mission will entail becoming a Borg drone, always a frightening idea. Do you volunteer?

Yes - the mission has the best chance of succeeding if you're there to help.. "Voy" episode "Unimatrix Zero" - Janeway was perfectly willing to go alone, but B'Elanna and Tuvok volunteer to go too as it would increase the odds of success. Tom, of course, was upset about this. Once turned into a drone, B'Elanna was the lucky recipient of a vocal processor that made her sound like she had a bad cold.

Do you prefer Cardassian technology over Federation when running a station?

No - Cardassian technology is insane - just replace the whole thing with Federation!. "Deep Space Nine" O'Brien was always fiddling with the Cardassian technology, and always complaining how crazy it was set up. But he never went home - his offers to request a transfer were because Keiko was unhappy on Deep Space Nine. I think Miles would sell Molly to get a real Federation station!

The warp core is about to breach! The entire ship is going to explode! What do you do?

Send everyone else out of engineering, you stay and try to dump the core.. In "The Next Generation," LaForge would typically run with the rest of the engineering crew. In "Voyager," B'Elanna usually kicked everyone else in engineering and would try to fix the problem herself. (After all, if the thing explodes, you're all dead anyway.) In the "Voy" episode "Renaissance Man," Chakotay (actually the Doctor, but that's beside the point) orders an evacuation due to a core breach. B'Elanna tries to stay, but Chakotay says that she shouldn't risk her unborn child's health.

There's a stellar core fragment about to hit a colony. How do you get enough power to move the thing without overloading the circuits?

Use the blind guy's VISOR to avoid overloading the circuits.. "TNG" episode "The Masterpiece Society" - LaForge and a member of the colony (Hannah) could not figure out what to do about this problem. So, they did as all typical engineers do and began chatting. Hannah starts asking about Geordi's VISOR, specifically how he avoids sensory overload. This gets them thinking about how to use the VISOR technology in order to avoid overloading the circuits.