Spock's the best 1st Officer in Starfleet?

Watching "Amok Time", and it was said that Spock is the best First Officer in Starfleet. This is after he's kidnapped his old CO, falsified orders, hijacked Enterprise and set course for the forbidden world Talos IV. And in this episode, he apparently killed his CO, after altering the ship's course from Altair to Vulcan against orders. This man is the best XO in Starfleet!? The standards must be low! What has the second best XO done, then? Committed genocide?

It's amazing what Starfleet officers can get away with and still stay in the service, even be considered exemplary officers. The admiralty must like nonconventional thinkers!

 

While "Amok Time" may have been premature, the Enterprise was the only ship of the original 12 Constitution-class ships to return from it's 5 year mission.

Best surviving First Officer, maybe?

 

Yup, all that and still kept a clean service record.

"Forget ..."

I'd say that's pretty damn good.

 

Everyone in Trek says their crew is the best. They can't all be. But this time it's true. Spock > Riker, T'Pol, Chakotay, Kira and every XO-of-the-week we ever saw.

I'm pretty sure that's not the case. We heard of the Yorktown and other Constitution-class ships in the movies.

 

Perhaps Janeway's assessment of 23rd century Starfleet was quite accurate.

 

Kirk said Spock was consider the best first officer in the fleet, perhaps that appraisal is by the people actually in the fleet.

The example you sight is a display of personal loyalty, Spock risked the death sentence to come to the aid of a fallen comrade. He put his life on the line for the benefit of another.

It isn't a matter if Starfleet Command thinks him the best, the officers and crews of the hundreds of starships out there in the darkness admire him for what he did.

 

Would the rest of the fleet be aware of what kind of crap Spock has pulled, though? Would Starfleet publicize the events of "The Menagerie" and "Amok Time", among other episodes? Obviously there would be rumors, since people were involved indirectly in some events (the computer tech that tried to stop Spock in the Starbase 11 computer center, or Commodore Mendez's secretary), but would many people in or out of the service learn of these transgressions? I don't think so. So maybe that's why he's still "the best".

 

Being a quasi military service, I would guess each ship's incidents would be classified. Its not like today's Twitter/Facebook culture, where people cannot stop talking about crap no one wanted to know. In Starfleet--including Starbase 11, we should assume Miss Piper, the computer technician and anyone else was sworn to secrecy for the sake of Starfleet--even Federation security, so Spock's reputation remained perfect.

I think the only exception would be disasters in the nature of that seen with the Intrepid, Constellation, Defiant and Exeter. Disasters should become general Starfleet knowledge, since each incident would pose the same dangers to everyone else patroling the galaxy.

 

Well let's not forget, they did recruit and appoint Ron Tracy as Captain of the Exeter; a man given to distraction for power and profit, apparently.

One has to wonder what kind of standards SF went by for their recruitment practices.

 

I think the real question is, does Starfleet have any means of assessing the performance of its officers after they embark on these multi-year missions far away from civilization? Tracey was probably squeaky-clean until confronted with the Omega Scenario; Spock might have been well respected as well, before he started serving under Kirk and was forced to lower his standards.

Timo Saloniemi

 

As a 1st officer vulcans never bluff !!!! So perhaps he is......

 

I wonder if aboard other starships, the first officer normally only had one job, but Spock had two (exec and chief sciences officer), and did them both effortlessly.

 

Sigh. Kirk said that Spock was "called" the best first officer in the fleet, and the quote came from McCoy in another episode.

This is really nitpicking. Kirk recognized that Spock was extremely ill and wanted to help. It wasn't a formal proclamation from God, Shaka-Ri or the Grand Admiral of Starfleet.

We get it. You don't like TOS.

 

I don't like TOS? Sez who? I like it just fine. After watching it for decades, though, what's left to do but nitpick and poke fun? Is gushing the only way to appreciate a classic?

 

The statement is just an opinion, probably that of Spock's crewmates and friends. It's not an official statement from Starfleet Command.

 

I doubt many other Starfleet XOs are one-man problem solvers like Mr.Spock.

 

Still, he must be considered pretty valuable to retain him even after hijacking a starship. Who would be able to hijack a cruiser or destroyer nowadays and not be at least discharged from the service, even quietly?

 

Hard to say, we didn't meet any in TOS. Could be a kickass Andorian out there who's better than Spock.

 

Highly connected family.

 

How many TOS officers could be the XO and chief Science officer and do both very well? Hard to tell with onscreen data, but seeing as each is a full time job you might have to be superhuman to do both excellently?