Scotty as second officer
- Thread starter Lance
- Start date
Certainly a commander can pick someone else if they choose. Others have pointed out that Sulu is often in command while Scotty is in engineering and DeSalle, who used to be a command officer, pops up to take command once after being transferred to engineering as well .
In NuTrek, Kirk places Ensign Chekov, a 17 year old who graduated that day, in command during a time of crisis when the ship must have had dozens of superior officers on board. Don't assume that there is always any logic behind the writers' thinking.
I'm not sure relaying an order from one superior to another is "being in command". YMMV.
Just so. A bridge without an officer of the deck is yet another example of the loss-of-control theme that runs through the episode.
Not TOS, but TAS (The Lorelei Signal)
That's why I specified TOS. Retcons not included.
I always wondered if they'd forgotten that in Mike barrier's two previous appearances he'd been in gold command colours rather than security/engineering red?
JB
Being in command doesn't necessarily = sitting in the chair.There are many reasons why the relief person in charge wouldn't take the chair, such as not being comfortable with it, not wanting to send the wrong message (captain's in peril and sitting in his chair is like saying he's definitely dead), not being told to, having the ability to run the ship and still do their own job at their station, for which they need to be seated there more than they need to take the captain's chair, etc
Doesn't make much sense to me. Wouldn't "The Chair" be their duty station??
Seems like a good place to run things.
Spock frequently stays on the science station when in command, although Chekov does sometimes take over. Scotty can't keep his hands off the engineering station while he's in command.
Scotty, like Spock, is the head of a division and he--like Spock-- has subordinates who can handle ship to ship operations. Also, the Bridge is the central hub for all operations and Scotty could and has supervised technical duties there. Geordi's duties were different because he wasn't the second officer, is that what they're called, Data was and I would like to think Scotty was not only the chief engineer but shared operation manager duties with Spock to help balance the responsibilities. I'm for a ship's officer who can multi-task in their duties, it seemed multi-tasking was the thing on the Enterprise during Kirk's tenure.Why, do we think, was Scotty a part of the Enterprise chain of command?
I know in theory, the officer on deck could be whoever the Captain appoints
So we got DeSaul for one episode
But from what we gather, more often than not if Kirk and Spock were not aboard ship, Scotty was the default
Is it common for chief engineers to be placed in charge?
My feeling is they have very specialized skills that would basically require them to stay 'downstairs'
Geordi, Torres, etc were never placed in command
(Geordi did command the Enterprise early on, but he was a bridge officer at that time and still in command red)
It seems as though Scotty was formally part of the command structure
I always read the TOS chain of command as being Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura
Unless it was simply that Kirk had reasons to personally trust him in command, or he'd had some experience with starship command that other chief engineers hadn't?
It's peculiarly noteable that he never performs the role after the original five year mission, but then by The Final Frontier it's simply presumed the likes of Chekov have moved up in rank
Any idea if there's precedent for any of this?
And what are your thoughts of Scotty in command?
Anyone who stands watch on the bridge does sit in the command chair. They may get up and walk around if the situation requires it, but typically, whoever's in command of the bridge sits in the chair. (Nobody sits there who isn't in command, I know that much.)
So if Scotty is in command, he sits in the chair. He'd have somebody else manning the bridge engineering station.
When did he do that? As far as I know, Spock has always sat in the chair when he's in command of the ship.
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Technically, I don't think the first officer on a real-life navy ship would also be full time head of sciences, either. But Starfleet isn't the navy.
...or is it?
Kor
Vulcans are smarter than humans, (and need less sleep) joining Starfleet is like a summer job for them, so doing two major jobs is no big deal. RL reason give Nimoy more lines and action
Vulcans are smarter than humans... all humans??? No wonder Dr. Daystrom became mad.
Maybe I'm mis-remembering the times before Chekov. They do sometimes declare the helmsman to be officer of the deck while at the helm and don't offer up a replacement helmsman.
This does beg the question, do they have replacement personnel on hand or not? When Uhura needs the toilet, who mans her station? When Kirk invites Bailey to join him on the landing party, who takes over? If it's Uhura, who mans her station? Presumably all stations need to be manned. Do they have a floater that is trained on all stations or do they just leave stations unmanned? Which station takes priority?
Hmm, I could've sworn I would see personnel replace the officer or they were keeping their seats warm when the landing party officers returned to the bridge. I doubt stations were unmanned.
I would think each station has a bench, who are on call..
If the ship runs on a 24 hour Sol system it needs to be, there is no concept of day or night in space
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