Best First Officer in the history of Trek

[DavidHill]

Whoever commands the ship holds the position of captain regardless of rank. Same goes for first officer.

 

[Ometiklan]

...but Kira and Chakotay had analytical and calculating elements to their personalities that sometimes made them feel like they were mimicking Spock and...

I never thought I would hear someone call Kira "I don't give a damn" Nerys described as analytical and calculating. It's a new one on me.

 

[cooleddie74]

Oh, she had her moments. They're there.

 

[Search4]

Well Spock. Easy. It’s canon!

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

Um no. While the acotr does a great job and the alien species is unique and different, I hate Saru. He is a coward and has no business being a Starfleet officer and no way would I want to server with him much less under him. Saru should be a non-Starfleet scientist and have no command responsibilities.

Saru is a monumental and spineless coward. It embarrasses me that there are humans serving under him. Hes the biggest pussy in the history of the milky way galaxy and thats saying something.

I don't think he is a coward at all. He still proceeded on the dangerous mission of saving Lorca even after Burnham, Stamets, and Culber all gave him a what could be considered a viable "out".

So, no -- he isn't a coward. On the contrary, if you do something without understanding the personal risk to yourself, you are not necessarily brave, but just uninformed or stupid. A brave person is the one who understands the personal risk, but takes those risks anyway. Saru knew the personal risk of saving the Captain -- and was even given a valid reason not to take that risk -- but still chose to save the captain anyway.

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

One of the big problems with Discovery for me. We never got to know Burnham as a character or first officer. We are thrown directly into a mutiny that didn't make much sense.

It is hard to come back from the first impression that she is a broken idiot.

If it were easy, it wouldn't be much of a redemption story.

And for the record, I think she's (generally) off to a good start with her redemption. Both Saru and Lorca have noticed that good start, and have praised her efforts in their own ways.

 

[BillJ]

If it were easy, it wouldn't be much of a redemption story.

Since I never knew the character, it is hard to see her as anything other than the broken idiot she is first introduced as. They should have actually used those first two episodes to show us a capable officer, an officer that is in line for her own command. Given us something likable about the character to latch on to, to care about. Then have her busted down for mutiny.

It is much the same reason "The Naked Now" doesn't really work. We have no real baseline for how the characters are supposed to act. So when we see them, they simply come across as silly.

 

[Nyotarules]

Spock is the "best first officer in the fleet" according to canon.

No according to Captain Kirk's opinion.

 

[BillJ]

No according to Captain Kirk's opinion.

KIRK: Spock! You've been called the best first officer in the fleet.

 

[Nyotarules]

Kira, Spock, T'Pol, reboot Kirk, Riker, Number One under Prime Pike, the rest

 

[Nyotarules]

Saru is a monumental and spineless coward. It embarrasses me that there are humans serving under him. Hes the biggest pussy in the history of the milky way galaxy and thats saying something.

Its not the Terran empire...

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

Since I never knew the character, it is hard to see her as anything other than the broken idiot she is first introduced as. They should have actually used those first two episodes to show us a capable officer, an officer that is in line for her own command. Given us something likable about the character to latch on to, to care about. Then have her busted down for mutiny.

It is much the same reason "The Naked Now" doesn't really work. We have no real baseline for how the characters are supposed to act. So when we see them, they simply come across as silly.

I was editing my post to add this, but since you already wrote your reply, I think it's only fair I add this to a new post:

To add to my post above, I think they gave us enough of a feel for Burnhan's career potential, the mutiny notwithstanding. As for her character traits before the mutiny, I think she has often displayed those in her actions since the mutiny. Other than her occasional (early in the series) moping around, we have seen her personality and character traits and actions on display, which I have no reason NOT to assume that are the same traits

That is to say, the Burnham we see now (sans the occasional mopiness and feeling sorry for herself, especially as we saw early) is the Burnham from the Shenzou who became First Officer.

 

[galad2003]

I don't think he is a coward at all. He still proceeded on the dangerous mission of saving Lorca even after Burnham, Stamets, and Culber all gave him a what could be considered a viable "out".

So, no -- he isn't a coward. On the contrary, if you do something without understanding the personal risk to yourself, you are not necessarily brave, but just uninformed or stupid. A brave person is the one who understands the personal risk, but takes those risks anyway. Saru knew the personal risk of saving the Captain -- and was even given a valid reason not to take that risk -- but still chose to save the captain anyway.

I am specifically referencing Saru's behavior in "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" and how he turned on his crewmates on Pahvo. That act was done out of cowardice and he should have been removed from Starfleet for acting that way. He was not under any alien infleunce nor did he "redeem himself" in anyway. Burnham stopped him and completed the mission. Without her actions the mission would have failed.

 

[cooleddie74]

It is much the same reason "The Naked Now" doesn't really work. We have no real baseline for how the characters are supposed to act. So when we see them, they simply come across as silly.

Yeah, and at least in TOS there'd been six episodes aired by the time we got around to "The Naked Time." Enough time for audiences to become at least somewhat familiar with the personalities of the main characters and to understand that Spock repressed his emotions in order to be the analytical and scientific being he wanted to show his shipmates. When Spock broke down crying in that episode it had an impact, not just because we understood even that early on that Vulcans were a race that suppressed their emotions for their own good but also because of the pacing of the scenes in the briefing room and Nimoy's superb acting. In TNG all we knew by the third episode was that Picard was stuffy, Riker was a Kirk-like dynamic action character, Data was an android, Tasha had a bad temper, Troi was empathic and Wesley got on people's nerves. So when they all fell under the influence of the Psi 2000 virus nothing revelatory happened to their characters with the arguable exception of learning that Picard and Beverly had strong feelings for one another.