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What does the Command division actually.. do?

Life Support should fall under the category of Engineering. Clearly, the most important thing about life support is that it be kept operational.
 
The Command division is supposed to be for training future Captains and other line officers. The qualities for this career path are rather different than those helpful in other paths, such as Engineering.
I admire them, but I would never want to be in the Captain's chair, unless it were on a Science or Engineering ship.
I doubt the goldskirt serving coffee in "The Galileo Seven" was on her way to being a Captain. ;)
 
The Command division is supposed to be for training future Captains and other line officers. The qualities for this career path are rather different than those helpful in other paths, such as Engineering.
I admire them, but I would never want to be in the Captain's chair, unless it were on a Science or Engineering ship.
I doubt the goldskirt serving coffee in "The Galileo Seven" was on her way to being a Captain. ;)

You never know. An effective commanding officer is someone who has done every job at least once.
 
The Command division is supposed to be for training future Captains and other line officers. The qualities for this career path are rather different than those helpful in other paths, such as Engineering.
I admire them, but I would never want to be in the Captain's chair, unless it were on a Science or Engineering ship.
I doubt the goldskirt serving coffee in "The Galileo Seven" was on her way to being a Captain. ;)

You never know. An effective commanding officer is someone who has done every job at least once.
Is that in the manual?
 
No but surely it is beneficial that someone in charge has done or is prepared to tasks that they are asking others to do.
 
No but surely it is beneficial that someone in charge has done or is prepared to tasks that they are asking others to do.
That's why there is a chain of command. The CO needs something done in engineering. The CEO tasks that to a team of engineers. The engineers report back on the task to the CEO. The CEO tells the CO. The CO doesn't need to how to do the task, just that the people under him can do it.
 
The the CEO (who is in command of Engineering) has no doubt done the tasks he is asking others to do. Rather than saying just coming in knowing all the theroy behiind how to do something but never actually having done it themselves. It's not unheard of people to have more respect for someone who has worked they way up from the bottom than for people who have just say graduated University and are in a senoir positon.
 
The the CEO (who is in command of Engineering) has no doubt done the tasks he is asking others to do. Rather than saying just coming in knowing all the theroy behiind how to do something but never actually having done it themselves. It's not unheard of people to have more respect for someone who has worked they way up from the bottom than for people who have just say graduated University and are in a senoir positon.
Only in entertainment does the guy in charge know everything. In the real world, when running a large complex organizations like a Starship, you have to rely on experts in subordinate positions. Now the guy in charge may have a background in Engineering, but that won't help when the problem is best served by someone in the Sciences. Even if the problem is an engineering one, you want the transporter expert to handle a transporter problem, not the guy who expertise is in Warp engines.
 
I take your point, but who would gain more respect someone who started out in a particular role say as a Transporter technicain and had worked his way up over the years to Transporter Chief or someone who just graduated the Academy and was given the post of Transporter Chief?
 
I take your point, but who would gain more respect someone who started out in a particular role say as a Transporter technicain and had worked his way up over the years to Transporter Chief or someone who just graduated the Academy and was given the post of Transporter Chief?
That's a different question than a CO knowing how to do every job on the ship. Though in real militaries young officers are often placed in charge of older more experienced men. The smart ones know how to ask questions. Seems doubtful that the Transporter chief would be someone just out of the academy. Though in ST we see guys like Geordi and Worf placed in charge of departments they seemingly had no experience in. But being regulars gives them the jump over the more experienced officers. ;)
 
Harry Kim seemed to go straight from the academy to being Operations Chief on Voyager.

They almost did the same thing with Wesley i.e giving him command of a survey team when he was just a kid who got a special type of field promotion without a single day of training.

The retail industry where I work, is a lot like the command structure . You got District Managers (Admirals) managers (captain), assistant managers (Commander), supervisors (Lt. Senior Grd), and non com clerks (senior clerks, second man).

Some come right out of college (academy) others work their way up.

Re; Worf's position on DS9-- Strategic Operations Officer--I always got the impression Sisko quickly thought it up in order to give Worf a position so he could stay.

His chosen field was already taken with Odo and Eddington. He already had a first officer with Kira.

He definitely needed Worf, (like commanding the Defiant) but couldn't Eddington, Dax and Kira do exactly what his role was to do?
 
He definitely needed Worf, (like commanding the Defiant) but couldn't Eddington, Dax and Kira do exactly what his role was to do?

Actually, the only other one on the station with the necessary security clearance to do Worf's job was Dr. Bashir. Seriously, Soldiers of the Empire establishes this. Although, I suppose Eddington probably could back when he was on the station.
 
He definitely needed Worf, (like commanding the Defiant) but couldn't Eddington, Dax and Kira do exactly what his role was to do?

Actually, the only other one on the station with the necessary security clearance to do Worf's job was Dr. Bashir. Seriously, Soldiers of the Empire establishes this. Although, I suppose Eddington probably could back when he was on the station.

A medical doctor? no other Starfleet chief security officer, or Sisko, Kira or even Obrien?

This is exactly why I first thought Sisko made up the post on the spot to give Worf the job :lol:
 
Or what do the helm officers do when they're not at the helm, the junior command division seems kinda pointless. Since everyone can fly a ship in Starfleet then the helm should be manned by someone from Engineering who are the best pilots who also have a better understanding of the engines they're flying.
 
Or what do the helm officers do when they're not at the helm, the junior command division seems kinda pointless. Since everyone can fly a ship in Starfleet then the helm should be manned by someone from Engineering who are the best pilots who also have a better understanding of the engines they're flying.
Not sure that understanding how the engine works necessarily makes you a good pilot.

As for what they do when not at the helm, my guess like many other people they pursue their hobbies. Maybe botany, antique weapons or 20th Century culture. If on duty they might command landing parties, you know leadership training.
 
Harry Kim seemed to go straight from the academy to being Operations Chief on Voyager.
Only because of the horrid casualties the ship took. Before those events, he wasn't considered a Chief or a Department Head or anything, just an Operations Officer (of which there may be a dozen even on a ship that small).

I'm curious: what do you all think that "Good "Shepherd" graphic is all about?

I mean, it lists categories such as Command, and items such as Tactical, but what does that mean? This is supposed to be an efficiency analysis, as per the text in the graphic. But all we hear in Seven's own words is "I've given Operations an efficiency rating of seventy six out of a possible one hundred." Thereafter, the discussion concentrates on evaluating the efficiency of individual personnel.

Some of us are thinking that this is a list of departments, clustered under divisions. But it would be more natural to think of this as a list of Divisions plus the tasks in which they perform well or poorly. It wouldn't be a list of Departments at all, especially as the number of items (21) bears no relation to the number of Department Heads (14, per an episode I forget, sorry)...

On the other hand, each list of items under a heading seems too narrow a range of responsibilities for the Division indicated. There are extremely specific items there, such as Electroplasma Systems, and there really should be dozens more at such level of "resolution".

Given what Seven is ranting about there, the items under the headings are likely to be tasks in which each Division has shown competence or incompetence worth pointing out, not comprehensive lists of responsibilities or departments or whatnot. Something like "Environmental" might go under each Division heading, but it only gets a mention under Command because Command personnel did particularly well or poorly in it and thus require Seven's attention.

Timo Saloniemi
 
Harry Kim seemed to go straight from the academy to being Operations Chief on Voyager.
Only because of the horrid casualties the ship took. Before those events, he wasn't considered a Chief or a Department Head or anything, just an Operations Officer (of which there may be a dozen even on a ship that small).
Actually because the Voyager was a small ship (or rather, had a small crew), I think Kim was the only operations officer when it departed DS9, with the rest of his ops department consisting of enlisted personnel. He wouldn't be referred to as chief operations officer if that was the case.
 
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