Chain of Command

[Salinger]

I've got a quick question in regard to the chain of command on board a Starfleet starship.

Is there a set chain from top down to the bottom (or at least through the senior staff) by department, or is it just rank?

Obviously the ship's captain is at the top of the chain, followed by the executive officer. Where from there? Department? Rank? A combination of both?

This may be in either Player's or Narrator's Guides, but I am at work and they're at home... :-)

Anyway, thanks in advance for any responses...

Marc/TheDuck

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

DOne by both.

Say you have three Lieutenants (Science, Engineering, Ops)

On a Nova class vessel the science department would be the highest ranked of the three.

[Perrryyy]

Not sure if I asked exactly the same question in this thread or not, but here's how I resolved it

CO
XO
Ops

After that is where I get fuzzy, but my guess is you're right, that rank is the deciding factor. We've seen Geordi on command once or twice, as well as Crusher. I suspect those were issues of rank (IIRC, they both had the same rank after Geordi made CEO?).

Probably CMO followed by CEO after Ops.

[Lt Cmdr Matt]

You also have to remember time in grade and whether he/she is a bridge officer. If you are a Lieutenant in Engineering and another Lieutenant at the Helm the Helm person is of higher rank because he/she is a bridge officer.

[Dan Gurden]

However, after the Captain and Executive Officer, the third in line is the Second Officer. This seems to be the next senior ranking officer aboard the ship.

Kirks 3IC* was Scotty or Sulu (I would have said Scotty from sheer usage, but Sulu was the first to get his own command, showing advancment in the ranks...)
Sulu's 3IC looks like it might have been Janice Rand
Picards 3IC was Data
Sisko's 3IC was Jadzia and then Worf
Janeways 3IC was Tuvok

So form that grouping alone it appears that the 2nd Officer is not limited by department.

As for my take I tend to run the usage explained by O'Brien to Nog, and that 'Line' Officers, ie those with the command training in the hotseat are rated by rank, so the Bridge officers are all in line by rank... And then it simply falls by rank and time in grade. thus when Nog was due to take command there would be "nobody left to call him sir."



* 3IC = Third in Command

[Sea Tyger]

On large US Navy ships, the Operations Officer is typically the "Second Officer," which is why most people think that Ops would be 2O, as well.

IMO, I would have the third most senior line officer (Helm/Nav, Science, Engineering, Security) as the Second Officer.

(For TOS, I would consider Scotty 2O, because he was senior to Sulu in rank and time-in-service).

[Capt. Chris]

Just to throw a monkey wrench in but Troy at one time was left in charge of the bridge because of her rank even though two other though lesser ranked bridge officiers were on it but seemed to have more important positions (helm and engineering).

Wishing I could remember the episode. It was the one with Picard trapped in the turbolift with kids.

[Perrryyy]

IIRC, the ep was "disaster", and Troi was in charge because she was the ranking bridge officer.


Ensign Ro stated "she carries the rank of lieutenant commander" (If I remember all that right).

[toadkiller]

If it bears anything in common with the US Navy - which it needn't, but many things Trek do - then the chain of command is decided by:

Rank
Position

That is first off - rank is the primary factor. However, if in the USS Neverfly the next ranking officer following the XO is the LCDR w/ 3 years in rank Doctor - then while the Doc has the rank he doesn't have the position. They'd find the LCDR w/ 2.5 years in rank Ops, Engineer, or whatever and give her the job. Now IMHO any of the "line" officers could have it - ops, security, engineering, random red shirt dude, etc.

I'd just not give it to anyone in a blue shirt - they seem to be "staff" officers and thus not into the operational business.

On the other tentacle in the Navy and in Trek it seems possible for medical types to qualify as OOD underway in which case....

(OOD underway in trek terms would be being able to be in charge on the bridge while the Skipper's away)

[Shrekhar]

In a few star trek games I have played, the second officer (third in command) and the subsequent layers of command were set by the commanding officer (usually with due respect to rank, position (Dept Head, etc) and time in service -- though occasionally exceptional performance or ability trumped the above, in these cases the exceptional individual was usually on the fast track for rank or position advancement. This kind of plays up the meritocracy aspect of Starfleet and the Federation.

[Phoenix]

Originally posted by Dan Gurden
Kirks 3IC* was Scotty or Sulu (I would have said Scotty from sheer usage, but Sulu was the first to get his own command, showing advancment in the ranks...)

Actually while Sulu got command of a starship first, Scotty was promoted to Captian of Engineering in ST:III (what ever the heck that means) well ahead of Mr. Sulu. So with that out I would say Scotty was the 3rd in command, followed there after by Sulu, the senior "bridge" officer.

[Sea Tyger]

Originally posted by Phoenix
Actually while Sulu got command of a starship first, Scotty was promoted to Captian of Engineering in ST:III (what ever the heck that means) well ahead of Mr. Sulu. So with that out I would say Scotty was the 3rd in command, followed there after by Sulu, the senior "bridge" officer.

I think the "captain" of engineering thing was simply a statement of rank, as opposed to any special title. He was receiving a promotion in addition to his transfer to the Excelsior.

[Cmdr. Maddox]

As I have read There are only 3 departments from were you can get an Senior officer!

Helm
Ops
and Command


by the way I believe that Picard often choose who will be his follower on the chair!

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by Sea Tyger
I think the "captain" of engineering thing was simply a statement of rank, as opposed to any special title. He was receiving a promotion in addition to his transfer to the Excelsior.

Not only that. But I also stated that Sulu got his own command first (rather than refering to the ranks)... Which indicated a certain amount of advancement up the chain...

However, I totally agree that during the TV shows Scotty did appear to be the officer that was left in charge of the ship when Spck and Kirk went on away teams. This does argue that he was 2nd officer. He also held the highest ran outside of the 'holy trinity' at Lieutenant Commander while all the others were Lieutenants and Ensigns.

During the movies however when they were all Lieutenant Commanders or higher the chain of command was far more blurred after Spock and Kirk...

[pathstrider]

Personally I think 3rd officers, like bridge console layouts are the purview of the the commanding officer.

In my games it has turned out to be the tactical officer - though all three times it was because they looked like they were going to go for XO 'next' if you see what I mean. But I see no reason it couldn't be anyone else.

It also tended to work out that the 3rd officer was someone on the existing crew rather then the XO - who tended to be brought in from outside.

I also tended to give the 3rd officer the night shift - though they got beta shift off - to sleep at least! This meant that they were on what I call 'homework' duty on alpha watch - they weren't nailed to their console.

Later days!

MArk