Stamets isn't chief engineer because he isn't actually an engineer. He's a mushroom scientist with an engineering post because of the spore drive.
...I guess the big problem here is that a ship that is constantly being run against specs and falling apart from the abuse should have the engineering personnel up and front. Never mind the CEO, where are the engineers in general? Why are they using Reno for getting stuff done?
Culber isn't CMO because of the idea this show had of not wanting the senior staff to be the focus of the show. While I understand that desire and agree with it in principle, they did kind of screw things up in regards to Culber. They gave him a rank CMOs typically have and made him the only medical authority during the first half of season 1, only to have a throw-away line establishing he's not the CMO that served no purpose other than establish he isn't a senior officer.
There's the in-universe rationale for Culber being his own thing, though. If the CMO is the Commander guy glimpsed in "Magic", why isn't he treating Stamets who is the most important patient aboard? Why, because Lorca very specifically wants Stamets to be treated by his lover, so that he can play the conflict of interest to his advantage. Similarly, he's segmenting everything else, so that the officers under his command aren't really in speaking terms with each other.
However, we don't have to assume Culber was a major medical authority overall. The CMO may have been the one who performed those careful and competent tests on Tyler after his rescue from the Klingon ship, say; Culber is the one later discussing this with Tyler merely because he's the one at Sickbay 24/7, because Stamets.
To say nothing of the fact that when Dr. Pollard ran out of options regarding Voq Tyler, the only other option was to get L'Rell to perform surgery. I should think the CMO should be consulted before a POW. And before anyone suggests Pollard is the CMO, I think we can safely assume she's not. Her rank is only Lieutenant JG, which makes her the second lowest ranking officer on the ship, above only Tilly.
Well, it
would be convenient for the Commander Guy to disappear at some point. I mean, Mudd killed him often enough. His profession is a fairly dangerous one; perhaps Pollard really is the highest-ranking survivor out of the original team.
What I don't get is why they bothered to introduce Naan as an engineer in the premiere to begin with. She didn't really do anything engineering related there anyway, and the next time we see her, they establish the Enterprise's chief engineer is someone else, only to go on to establish Naan is now a security officer in her third appearance. Why didn't they just introduce her as a security officer in the premiere to begin with?
Indeed. But that one's easy - the
Discovery underling who thought Pike would be beaming over with an engineer and a science fellah didn't know his or her Morse code. Nhan never was an engineer in dialogue!
Discovery is the fastest ship in the fleet, an experimental testbed, and was probably a much sought-after position during the war.
Except nobody, but nobody, knows the
Discovery is fast. She's a secret asset, in "Choose Your Pain" explicitly kept from fighting the war because Starfleet thinks the danger of exposure is too great.
During the war, the ship doesn't have a reputation. She has a cloak of invisibility instead. Nobody comes or goes, lest there be exposure. Which suits Lorca just fine. (The ship having cadets aboard is really odd in the context. But perhaps turning down those would have been suspicious activity for Lorca?)
After the war... Well, the spore drive is deactivated, so the ship never does anything past warp 5. And Starfleet still keeps the spore drive secret, it seems, so that Pike is out like a snowman when our heroes start matter-of-factly discussing tardigrades and mycelial networks and the ability to do any better than the
Enterprise speedwise. I can't see anybody volunteering to serve aboard this silenced-to-death ship, really - and indeed we never really see anybody new. If anything, we see old characters oddly disappear, such as the one transporter officer who knows Captain Philippa Georgiou, Ret. is in fact Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Qo'nos and Regina Andor.
Now, a few comments - sorry that the quoting screws up the numbering.
Discovery has 130 crew. Here's all we know, by rank:
- Captain:
- Lorca(†), Commanding Officer - Veteran Starfleet CO. Allegedly.
- Georgiou, Commanding Officer - Not the real Georgiou, the mirror one that they left on Qo'noS.
- Pike, Commanding Officer - Most decorated Captain in Starfleet. Prove me wrong.
- Cdr. Saru, Executive Officer - Also acting Captain at several points (and treated as a sort of "co-Captain" by Pike). Saru was only promoted after the Shenzhou disaster, but his position likely gives him authority over the other commanders.
Plus he's quite likely to have seniority in that rank. I mean, which of the other Commanders is played by an older actor? Also, Saru is an overachiever who may have rapidly risen in rank to the level we see, but lacks the ambition or guts to compete against others for the narrowing range of positions open to the high ranks, further speaking for his seniority to most folks; Burnham possibly only trumps him on the
Shenzhou because of her similar overdrive from her Vulcan upbringing (and possible good connections).
3. Cdr. Burnham, Chief Science Officer - Originally an imprisoned specialist, Burnham was restored to her rank from her time as XO on the Shenzhou. She may or may not be in the chain of command.
Her seniority in rank may have been zeroed, too, with her demotion and restoration. Although one'd think not. So she should outrank Saru, and only stays out of the XO spot because she's sidelined at Sciences.
- Cdr. (Security Chief)
- Cdr. Landry(†), Chief of Security - High rank could be because of the very classified nature of Discovery's mission and she may have been recruited by Lorca from a junior command post or XO post elsewhere.
- Cdr. Nhan, Chief of Security - Might have an engineering background, but most likely was the Security Chief onboard the Enterprise, with the highest rank achievable and the ability to command the ship if necessary. Again, Discovery is a classified craft with a large security apparatus.
The engineering bit may well be a communications glitch, but she certainly ranks high. Then again, Kirk's Security Chiefs never did chain-of-command stints, not even the ones with Commander braid.
- Cdr. Gotthelf - ordered to report to Deck 2 (mess hall?). Could be the Chief Engineer or the CMO.
- Cdr. Webb - ordered to report to security. Possibly Landry's replacement as Security Chief abd Tyler's predecessor, but who knows what happened to him or her. Could just be the Chief Engineer or CMO getting a briefing.
- Cdr. Wilson - ordered to report to the transporter room. I don't think they are a transporter chief, so my best bet is this is the Chief Engineer.
- Cdr. ??, physician - inspected the gormagander and was killed by Harry Mudd. Could be the CMO and/or Gotthelf, Webb, or Wilson mentioned elsewhere in the series.
All good and well. And any of these (other than #4) could have the rank of LCdr, rather than full Commander, if that makes us feel better. Also, many appear after Pike takes over; his defunct ship might be bleeding extra officers in all roles and positions, and the current crew of the
Discovery might be more like 200 people now. After all, the Red Mystery is a big secret, as apparently is the Spore Drive: keeping the people who interact with these secret confined to one starship, commanded by the authorized holder of at least one of the secrets, makes sense.
Timo Saloniemi
