Who was in Command after Data?

[Bacl]

I know Data was in Command after Riker, but who would take over if Data too was somehow incapacitated?

What is the traditional chain of command on Starships? After First Officer and...whatever Datas official title was...how far down does it go until the situation just calls for whoever jumps into the Captain's Chair?

 

[USS Triumphant]

As of season 7, the Chain of Command would have been Picard, Riker, Data, Crusher, Troi, La Forge, and then Worf - all assuming that there were no other crewmembers with bridge officer training that we have simply never been introduced to.

 

[C_Miller]

As of season 7, the Chain of Command would have been Picard, Riker, Data, Crusher, Troi, La Forge, and then Worf.

Crusher and Troi were out of the chain of command, I believe. They were bridge officers, because they had taken the test, but I don't recall ever seeing them in-charge when Picard, Riker and Data were gone. The best evidence we have is in Gambit when Worf became Data's first officer. Crusher, LaForge and Troi were all able to fill that role, but it was given to Worf.

 

[USS Triumphant]

At a guess, Crusher passed due to a conflict with her existing responsibilities as CMO. By rank and seniority and having passed the Bridge Officer's Test about two years prior to "Gambit", though, she should have had the prerogative.

As for Troi, I probably should have said, "as of the end of Season 7", since she didn't pass the test until "Thine Own Self", 12 episodes after "Gambit".

 

[Tiberius]

Who'd give command to Deanna "What's a containment breach?" Troi? She can't even park the ship....

 

[USS Triumphant]

Who'd give command to Deanna "What's a containment breach?" Troi? She can't even park the ship....

Look, I really don't like Troi, and I never have - but I'm going to give her props for her performance at the helm in Generations. It wasn't her fault that the ship got destroyed - that "honor" goes to Geordi and Crusher, who should have checked him and his VISOR over a lot better before putting him back on active duty, and to whomever was on sensor duty, who should have picked up unauthorized transmissions from inside the ship. She managed to complete an emergency saucer landing (in which the saucer is supposed to do pretty much exactly what she did) even after the explosion of the secondary hull sent the saucer hurtling end over end. An emergency saucer landing for the saucer of a Galaxy-Class starship is, I might add, not part of the routine operations that she or anyone else on the ship might have been expected to have had practice at the actual helm for prior to that. She did well.

 

[Marten]

Wouldn't La Forge be tied up in Engineering, just like Crusher in Sickbay?

My best guess is that whoever the captain puts in charge is in charge, otherwise it's chosen by rank.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

The status of medical officers who have passed the Bridge Officer's Test is somewhat unclear. They're fit to take command, but normally they don't do it. In TNG, Crusher and Troi were only in charge of the ship under special circumstances. Don't know whether this is an actual regulation or more of a custom that medical officers stay in their field of work unless it is absolutely necessary for them to take charge. Even after passing the Bridge Officer's Test, they're still the least experienced command officers around.

Let's assume that Picard, Riker, and Data suddenly vanish from the bridge. I guess Worf would assume command until he relinquishes to La Forge (which happens as soon as La Forge makes it to the bridge). Crusher and Troi could probably pull rank on either La Forge or Worf and assume command themselves, but it's unlikely that they'd do it.

 

[CaptainStoner]

They would all have to know who they'd be appointing to their previous post in the odd event of having to take command for any length of time.

I seem to remember LaForge being given the Big Chair somewhere in S1, though, at an even lower rank and not yet CE. ???

 

[Wil has a posse]

Wouldn't La Forge be tied up in Engineering, just like Crusher in Sickbay?

I never understood the Chief Engineer's high position in the chain of command for just this reason. (i.e. Scotty, LaForge, Tucker)

Shouldn't the C.E. be, I dunno, handling the engines? Especially in a crisis.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I seem to remember LaForge being given the Big Chair somewhere in S1, though, at an even lower rank and not yet CE. ???

I think La Forge also served (off-screen) as Riker's first officer on the USS Excalibur in "Redemption, Part 2".

 

[Vanyel]

In Descent, while Data is missing and Riker co-coordinating the search party planet side, LaForge is Picard's XO. I would think LaForge's rank and position would make him next in line after Data. Crusher and Troi, while having taken the Command test, would still be out of the loop unless something drastic happened.

So I think the chain of command would be:
Picard
Riker
Data
LaForge
Worf

 

[USS Triumphant]

Wouldn't La Forge be tied up in Engineering, just like Crusher in Sickbay?

If not for the precedent set by Scotty, I would think that his duties as Chief Engineer would interfere. But apparently the Engineering department is more capable of excusing its Chief for other duties than the Medical department is - probably because Engineering has more people in it on most ships.

 

[Lor'Vela]

TBH, I think it's really Captain's discretion after Data as there is no designated third officer. If there was such a position, I'd imagine it to be Worf, despite him being the lowest ranking senior officer. There are indications he may very be next in line after Data, since:

1) He's a bridge officer.
2) He was Data's replacement at Ops in The Most Toys.
3) He was Data's XO in Gambit.
4) XO is some parallel realities in Parallels (even superceeding Data.)
5) Riker considered Worf for the position of XO as well as Data in Best Of Both Worlds over the other senior officers.

S7+ was a bit odd, since Troi passed her bridge officers examination, she seemed to be after Data, as seen in Genesis and Insurrection (where she was placed in command of the Bridge despite Worf and LaForge being present.)

 

[Admiral Shran]

Who'd give command to Deanna "What's a containment breach?" Troi? She can't even park the ship....

Look, I really don't like Troi, and I never have - but I'm going to give her props for her performance at the helm in Generations. It wasn't her fault that the ship got destroyed - that "honor" goes to Geordi and Crusher, who should have checked him and his VISOR over a lot better before putting him back on active duty, and to whomever was on sensor duty, who should have picked up unauthorized transmissions from inside the ship. She managed to complete an emergency saucer landing (in which the saucer is supposed to do pretty much exactly what she did) even after the explosion of the secondary hull sent the saucer hurtling end over end. An emergency saucer landing for the saucer of a Galaxy-Class starship is, I might add, not part of the routine operations that she or anyone else on the ship might have been expected to have had practice at the actual helm for prior to that. She did well.

I really don't like Troi as well. But, I'm going to have blame Worf for this one since he apparently forgot how to remodulate the shield frequency.

 

[Timo]

I think that on a ship as big as the E-D, the question "who comes next after main character X" is meaningless. On one hand, the ship will be so full of high-ranking officers that none of the "supporting main characters" would ever realistically get a stab at command. On the other hand, dramatic and budgetary concerns require that these low-ranking main characters always get the job, through some sort of a contrivance that prevents us from finding out who would "really" be in command after Data gets fried.

There never was any situation where Data would have needed a successor, so we never got data on who he, she or it might be. Worf was a candidate, yes - but Kirk's ship also had high-ranking Security chiefs who nevertheless never ever got the chance to try the center seat - the job went to people of junior rank, presumably because Security chiefs have better things to do than command the ship. Worf might thus be disqualified on the same grounds as LaForge. And the E-D would have dozens of Lieutenants in row ready to take the position if our two LtCmdrs were not "it". Or hundreds, quite possibly, as we actually saw those dozens but we also learned the ship had a crew of a thousand people, a (to our eyes) disproportionate number of whom were commissioned officers.

Really, even though we never saw anybody succeed Data, and thus got no solid evidence, we could well argue that Starfleet has no definite system of who succeeds whom below the level of Second Officer. All the officers on the ship appear extremely cross-trained and probably could handle the job; there might be a simple rule there that the most senior officer in sight gets the job in an acute crisis, not the most senior officer aboard the ship or otherwise within the cubic mile. Our heroes would supposedly be above and beyond petty squabbles and wouldn't have any reason to argue no matter who took command.

Then again, see "Disaster"...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tiberius]

Who'd give command to Deanna "What's a containment breach?" Troi? She can't even park the ship....

Look, I really don't like Troi, and I never have - but I'm going to give her props for her performance at the helm in Generations. It wasn't her fault that the ship got destroyed - that "honor" goes to Geordi and Crusher, who should have checked him and his VISOR over a lot better before putting him back on active duty, and to whomever was on sensor duty, who should have picked up unauthorized transmissions from inside the ship. She managed to complete an emergency saucer landing (in which the saucer is supposed to do pretty much exactly what she did) even after the explosion of the secondary hull sent the saucer hurtling end over end. An emergency saucer landing for the saucer of a Galaxy-Class starship is, I might add, not part of the routine operations that she or anyone else on the ship might have been expected to have had practice at the actual helm for prior to that. She did well.

My point was that if they'd had a more skilled pilot at the helm, they might not have crashed at all.

I mean, Riker was standing right there, and he's the best pilot on the ship, according to Geordi! I simply can't believe that Troi was the right choice for the job.

 

[USS KG5]

As of season 7, the Chain of Command would have been Picard, Riker, Data, Crusher, Troi, La Forge, and then Worf - all assuming that there were no other crewmembers with bridge officer training that we have simply never been introduced to.

I think you could probably bring La Forge and Worf up a bit and push Crusher and Troi down. They were not line officers, and while they had passed the test to prove competency, that does not automatically mean they had seniority over officers better trained for the position.

In Starfleet position seems to mean more than rank. It is also a TV show and therefore inconsistent. We see two frigate Captains in "Conspiracy", and in modern navies a frigae would likely only rate a Commander (though in the 19th century Royal Navy, seemingly a model for Starfleet a frigate would easily rate a post-Captain). On the other hand Ben Sisko is given a very important command, and indeed has his own starship and still has to wait a year for his promotion to four-pips.

 

[Timo]

...To be sure, Sisko got his promotion almost immediately after receiving his ship. That he wasn't given one to go with the ship already might be argued to be because he was supposed to go on a suicide mission. Although one would think a prehumous promotion would be nice for somebody volunteering for such...

His original position as supervisor of a wayside space station doesn't really sound quite as demanding or brassworthy as the command of a starship capable of sterilizing entire planets. The difference between frigate and battle cruiser is probably minimal in that respect, hence also the difference in rank requirements for commanding either ship type.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[USS Triumphant]

I really don't like Troi as well. But, I'm going to have blame Worf for this one since he apparently forgot how to remodulate the shield frequency.

Well, okay - or for that matter, the ship's computer should have detected that problem after (or maybe even before) the first torp hit and remodulated. But then, Star Trek has never shown us as much automation for some things as would make sense IRL.

But, regardless of whether it was Worf or the computer that fell down there, it wouldn't have been relevant if Geordi had been examined better when he came aboard.

My point was that if they'd had a more skilled pilot at the helm, they might not have crashed at all.

I mean, Riker was standing right there, and he's the best pilot on the ship, according to Geordi! I simply can't believe that Troi was the right choice for the job.

The Galaxy-Class saucer isn't warp capable, and a controlled crash is what it is supposed to do, according to the relevant diagrams.

And as much as I dislike Troi, I despise Riker that much more. BUT - it was the right command decision to move Troi to the helm (especially if he knew more about her ability to pilot than we did at that point, which he almost certainly did.) He was in command, and had to keep his eyes on the bigger picture of what was going on.