https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp263
Commander Kelby served aboard Archer's Enterprise and was selected to take over the chief engineer position when Charles "trip" Tucker decided to leave for the same post on the Columbia. However, this stint at chief engineer does not go well for Kelby.
Before Kelby can even get fully adjusted to the leadership role, a Klingon sabotage threat causes him to become overwhelmed. Trip ends up needing to return to Enterprise to help purge a series of subroutines added to the control system by the Klingons that prevented Enterprise from dropping out of warp. Trip then decides to stay on board to help out with repairs, and Kelby takes offense to this decision.
Over a couple episodes, we see Kelby and Tucker come to odds with one another over various situations in the engineering department. This leads up to a fist fight in the episode Bound, when the pheromones produced by three Orion females on board the ship allows the frustrations of both characters to move to physical conflict. As Kelby feared, Tucker does end up staying permanently as chief engineer following these events.
Kelby does remain on the engineering staff as a senior officer, and we see him later in the episode Terra Prime take over as acting chief when Tucker is kidnapped by the Terra Prime terrorist group. Kelby is suspected of sabotaging a shuttlecraft in this episode on behalf of the terrorist group, but it is later discovered to be an ensign who took Kelby's role on the shuttlecraft team when Trip came back from the Columbia. So in the end, Kelby remains a loyal crew member.
QUOTE (from Terra Prime)
Reed: On your feet, sir. Shuttlepod One was sabotaged. We nearly crashed!
Mayweather: Is this your signature?
Kelby: Yes. You think I had something to do with it?
Malcom: Is there any reason why we shouldn't.
Kelby: That's a shuttlepod maintenance log. Commander Tucker took me off that team when he returned from Columbia.
Kelby is one of those characters who briefly shows up in an arc of episodes, but has a well-developed story that adds to the tapestry for one of the main characters, in this case, Trip. It's one advantage in character development and storytelling seen in the more modern Trek shows, as compared to the fully episodic earlier versions.
Commander Kelby was played by Derek Magyar. He continues to act today, with mostly television series credits on his resume. Other than Enterprise, his longest recurring roles have been on the soap Days of Our Lives, and on Boy Culture. When not acting or directing in LA, he is an avid Dodgers fan.
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