The Original Series

[Lexi]

Yeah, O'Brien is the most famous noncom, or whatever. I don't really understand it myself.

[Mr. Atoz]

In an episode (called, I think, "Family") where Worf's parents came on board, Mr. Rozhenko said he had been a Petty Officer, and the implication was that O'Brien was also one. But I thought I remembered seeing one episode where O'Brien had lieutenant pips. Yes, it is confusing.

[Lexi]

Yeah, I think Picard calls him "lieutenant" at some point, but I am pretty sure he's a Chief Petty Officer - he remarks in "Little Green Men" that when Nog comes out of the Academy, "I'll have to call him 'sir'".

[Mr. Atoz]

I assumed he was an officer because in "Encounter at Farpoint", he held one of the bridge Ops positions. Didn't he?

[Lexi]

I haven't a clue what rank insignia he has in Encounter at Farpoint, but he does man the conn on the battle bridge. However, that could just be because he was available at the time, and has the skills.

[Mr. Atoz]

I recently saw a Season Two episode where O'brien figured pretty prominently, and he definitely had two lieutenant's pips on his collar. (Maybe he was demoted later or something.)

But -- time for a new topic. How many casualties did the Enterprise suffer in the Original Series? I was counting them up the other day (strickly from memory), and the best I figured, 17 crewmen were killed in the first season, 15 in the second, and I could only think of 7 in the third season.

[Decind]

Was there that many in the first 3 seasons?

[Mr. Atoz]

Do you want to add them up, episode by episode? It might pass the time.

[Niemz]

Sounds like a plan!

[Decind]

So it was always the guys in the red shirts that got killed off right?

[Mr. Atoz]

No, it wasn't. In the pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before", Lt. Kelso and Cmdr. Mitchel were both command officers (gold shirts). Dr. Dehner was a blue shirt. That's three "non-redshirts" right there!

Also if I remember correctly, six crewmen were killed when the ship hit the energy barrier. I'd have to check, though.

[Decind]

Sounds good. Thanks.

[Mr. Atoz]

Okay, I checked and I was wrong. NINE crewmen died when the ship hit the energy barrier. Counting Kelso, Mitchell and Dehner, that brings the body count to 12 for "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

In "The Man Trap", they lost Darnell, Sturgeon, Green, and Barnhard, none of them redshirts, either.
In "What Are Little Girls Made of?", they lost Matthews and Rayburn, both red shirts.
In "Balance of Terror" they lost Tomlinson (phaser specialist).
In "Galileo Seven", they lost Latimer (navigator) and Gaetano (redshirt).
In "Arena", they lost Oherlihy (redshirt).

That's 22 so far in the first season. I think in the Second Season, they lost a lot more redshirts. But there's another First Season episode I'm forgetting, though...

[Decind]

Cool thanks for the insight.

[Mr. Atoz]

"The Devil in the Dark", that's the one I was forgetting. Poor Kelly (another redshirt) got flattened. If I haven't forgotten anybody, that makes 23 deaths in the first season, only 5 of them redshirts. But as I said, in the second season, it's practically nothing but redshirts who get it in the neck.