Who has the bridge during duty shifts??

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by Mage, Feb 11, 2013.

  1. Mage

    Mage Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Ofcourse, the captain is in command of the ship.

    But who has the bridge during which shift?

    I would assume that, since we've seen captains in their readyrooms with their first officers on the bridge, that the first officer has the bridge during alpha shift.
    But what about beta and gamma shift?

    In some novels, it's been established that ships have command officers, usually in the Lt.Commander rank, who are in command then. Nothing has been clearly stated about beta-shift. Has anything ever been mentioned about this onscreen?

    And how would it work on an actual navy vessel?
     
  2. Finn

    Finn Bad Batch of TrekBBS Admiral

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    Data
     
  3. Bry_Sinclair

    Bry_Sinclair Vice Admiral Admiral

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    There were some efforts to have Data in charge of another shift (when they pointlessly turned down the lights). But in "Disaster" there was a watch officer who was killed in action (can't remember her name though), which led to Troi taking command.

    In my fanfic, I like to have the other two shifts having their own Watch Officer, who is in charge of the standard day-to-day running of the ship. But when an emergency situation arises its all hands of deck and the senior staff assume their posts.

    But thats just me.
     
  4. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    This really isn't covered in Star Trek. We know Data frequently commanded the Enterprise's night shift, and on Voyager Harry Kim was said to command the night shift once a week or something like that, but otherwise that's it.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2013
  5. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'd think the menial job of being in charge of the bridge during a shift would be given to as many junior officers as possible, as part of their further training. It would only be on a rare occasion that the senior officers would bother to sit through these watches unless something interesting was going on, or unless they needed to get more "frequent flyer" points or whatnot.

    So, Data would not mind doing the tedious task, as he could do a dozen other tasks simultaneously, including relaxing; Spock wouldn't be far behind in that respect. Worf might do it out of a sense of duty. Riker or Dax would do it if the helmsgirl was cute enough. Kim or Chekov would do it in hopes of finally getting a promotion. Sulu would do it on those weeks when professionalism was one of his hobbies. McCoy would do it only on Diane Duane's orders. And Scotty or LaForge would do it only if there was a chance to wreck the ship and thus get sent back to Engineering.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  6. Delta Vega

    Delta Vega Commodore Commodore

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    I always thought that Scotty was a pretty decent stand in Command Officer when Kirk etc were indisposed on some misadventure down on the Planet surface.
     
  7. The Librarian

    The Librarian Commodore Commodore

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    I'd assume that, as with Disaster, unless there's something special going on it would be some random junior officer on a rotation, so that they could get experience. The senior officers would only occasionally take it to keep in practice, or when there's some sort of crisis or other important event going on that requires a senior officer's attention at all times.
     
  8. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    Agreed, If it wasn't for his love of engineering, it would seem as if Scotty would have made a decent starship commander.
     
  9. Chaos Descending

    Chaos Descending Vice Admiral Admiral

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    On an American naval vessel, the "Officer of the Deck" is in charge of the ship, on the bridge. The Captain doesn't spend all of his work day on the bridge in any case. Neither does the XO.

    This wikipedia article give the general gist of that the OOD does.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officer_of_the_deck

    During general humdrum operations, there may be no need for the Captain to set foot on the bridge for several days in fact.
     
  10. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    I think in Starfleet, starship bridge shifts vary, with the schedule written by the first officer and approved by the captain. Some shifts may find both the captain and exec on the bridge, while others may not, IMO.
     
  11. Mage

    Mage Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    @ Finn: I was talking about Starfleet in general, which has more ships then just the E-D. ;)

    @ Chaos Descending: Thanks for that link!!

    I assumed that there were officers assigned to the ship especially for those shifts, officers on the command track who can get some on the job training for commanding a ship of their own.
     
  12. sbk1234

    sbk1234 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Possibly a sign up list, which must be approved by the captain or first officer. Something like how Lavelle wanted to volunteer for another duty shift, but Riker turned him down in Lower Decks.
     
  13. Bigjoe

    Bigjoe Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    This.

    He needs no rest or sleep so is the obvious choice for bridge duty.
     
  14. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    Data's so good that he can stand watch for every ship in Starfleet? Wow. No wonder Maddox wanted to take him apart....
     
  15. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Had Maddox been successful, that's exactly what Data could have done...

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  16. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It's really thoughtful of the Federation's enemies to always wait until Alpha shift to attack.
     
  17. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    Or maybe when there's something serious going on, the Alpha Shift takes over regardless of what time of the day if it's comprised mainly of the ship's department heads and other senior personnel.
     
  18. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    Doctors with command rank and a skeleton crew. They are good enough to destroy Borg ships with one shot! :lol:
     
  19. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Obviously everyone all over the galaxy is on the same sleep cycle. It makes things easier thay way.
     
  20. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I don't think that has ever been a problem in Star Trek.

    After all, for this to be a problem, the enemy would have to be proactive. But Star Trek is about the heroes being the active party. It is them who choose when to engage in an adventure, and this timepoint of their choosing resets the clock for the teaser of each episode. The ship enters the orbit of the target planet with Alpha Shift in charge; the ship responds to the emergency call by summoning Alpha to the bridge and then the teaser begins.

    On the other hand, when an episode begins without Alpha in charge, nothing much is happening. "We are en route to a conference" is a classic way to launch a teaser, too.

    Timo Saloniemi