Another: Chekov taking the helm one solitary time. He knew his way around the engineering station (UC, SB), was Spock's primary relief at the library computer station (numerous episodes), and served as a versatile presence on landing parties. I'm pretty sure he could fly the ship. Never happened.
It's always been a pet theory of mine that "helmsman" and "navigator" are really just creative names for pilot and co-pilot. Anything one side of the console can do, the other side can also do. Chekov fires weapons from the right seat in "Journey to Babel" (and also from the science station!?), "Obsession" and "Elaan." "Lights of Zetar" is kind of confusing because Kirk tells Chekov to change course and Chekov responds like he's steering the new course. Then Kirks orders evasive action and Sulu does it.
If the TOS consoles were like today's workstations, you could do any job from any seat on the bridge. Just log in, and your individual permissions would determine what the console can do. You could even "work from home" with a keyboard in your quarters.
Fair point. But the controls at each station are completely different. This lasted through TWOK, after which the Okuda principles mostly took over and yes, it was implied in the later movies and mostly on TNG that any station could do anything. That doesn't resonate with me because (a) ultimately it makes no sense as this isn't a cube farm with different people doing much the same work; (b) it's boring; and (c) even a modern-day U.S. Navy ship with decades of technological advances since the era of original Star Trek doesn't work that way.
He was in command, and interestingly in the presence of Scott and Sulu, but not at the helm. I did, however, like that moment.
Yeah. I hear you. Just boring to me and this isn't some Silicon Valley startup, but an advanced warship with different personnel doing very different tasks, and in a mission-critical, military setting.
I just wish Chekov had been seated in the iconic "left seat" just once. The very moving closing shot of the crew at the end of TUC (ST VI), featuring a vacant helm because they didn't want the extra who replaced Valeris in the frame, would have been a perfect moment for it.
It's a tough call in some ways about how to get screen time for the junior officers. By the time the original series developed, it was very much focused on Kirk, Spock and McCoy. A fourth season could have given more time with Scotty at the center of the story (they wanted to make Scotty another main-tittle co-star for season three, but could not afford it). To give junior officers like Chekov, Sulu, Uhura, and Chapel more screen time would mean that in a given episode, less time could be spent with Kirk and Spock. The show would have been changed in style to spend more time with other characters, and that could have been helpful or hurt the show continuing to run.
Regarding Chekov at the helm, I'm left with the impression that, actually TOS has a more "CONN and OPS" style command module than I thought for years. It seems that Helm and Navigation can do some of the same things, but in a given episode, and therefore "shift" of work, one crewman is more focused on flying the ship, and one on "other stuff."
Here's my best theory:
The two stations in the command pit are actually in charge of functions on their side of the bridge, but with a little overlap so that the writers can give the most important job in a particular story to the regular character. Using the blueprints from the book, "Inside Star Trek," we have this:
The person on Sulu's side in charge of engineering, environment, and alert status. This person is usually the ship's #1.
The person on Chekov's side would be in charge of Communication, Sciences, Navigation, and Weapons. This person is usually a junior officer, being trained for a leadership role. (Spock is a special case and is first officer but serves from the science station instead. Also, The Communications Officer, directly behind the captain, might outrank the person in Chekov's place.)
Both positions can fire weapons, maybe a redundancy in case of damage or injury, and while the "#1 or Helm" station might have more precise control of flight dynamics, it seems that a course entered at the "Navigator" station can also be executed with little input from the other officer if needed.
Perhaps different bridge layouts, like those shown in TMP and other TOS movies, reflect in-universe ship designers expectations of who answers to whom on a ship with a given fleet role. In TMP, it is the science station that is directly behind the Captain and thus not necessarily answerable to the officers down in the command pit.
The idea of a more experienced officer and a younger officer begin paired up this way for fulfilling CONN and OPS roles is supported by Data and Wesley on TNG, and by Harry Kim's place in Voyager's command structure.
