Originally posted by Tobian
. Troi, in that instance does have dominion because she istrained to handle situations like that. If the ship had been under attack then the command would probably have gone to Ro.
That's a negative, Ghostrider. The chain of command in any organization cannot be defined by the situation, because interpretation of the situation is subjective. That's the same reason why the stupid Voyager-ism of the commander of the vessel in the "superior tactical positition" having command won't work. Who defined what is the superior tactical position? The chain of command has to be based on something objective... predetermined succession, rank, date of rank, class standing, time in service, age, etc.
Voyager coulod have avoided it by making the commander of such a small vessel as Equinox a mere Commander and sidestepping the whole mess.
In Enterprise's case the senior officer present took command. You can't have officers arguing about who should command. You can't have staff officers dithering about whether to relinquish command in an emergency. You can't have senior officers from outside the vessel's chain of command jumping in and disrupting the crew (a-la Commodore Decker) in a crisis.
The crew should know immediately, no matter who is present at any given moment, who is senior to who and who takes command if something happens suddenly. "Attached casuals" such as Decker should know they have no place in the chain of command unless Enterprise is assigned to their command... or unless the chain of command was so disrupted by the disaster that no one else did step up and take charge.
“I am a soldier. I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.”
General George S. Patton, Jr.