Is there any situation or possibility that Worf could have become the official first officer of the Enterprise D under Picard?
He did in the novels, so I guess the answer to your question is: if Riker gets promoted to captain and Data dies.
Is there any guarantee that Data would move from second officer to first? There was a quantum reality in Parallels in which Picard was killed by the Borg, and Worf became Riker's first officer. That always made sense to me.
Worf becomes FO in Gambit, when Picard is presumed dead and Riker is captured, so Data becomes acting captain.
Or if Data becomes the Captain of his own ship or is transferred somewhere else...maybe Deep Space 9.
Maybe it even should have! 1. Riker accepts his own command after excelling at it in BoBW. As second officer, Worf becomes a lieutenant commander. 2. After hearing about Lal, the Daystrom Institute offers Data a staff position there, to follow up on his work. Data, intrigued at the idea of not being alone anymore, agrees. Worf is a strong candidate for first.
Don't get me wrong, I love Worf, but I've never understood in BOBW why Worf was considered for the post of first officer along with Data with LaForge sitting right there. Here is an officer who jumped two ranks almost in a calendar year and seems to have proven himself as a quality engineer and department head, seems like he'd be right up there if you were going to consider someone other than Data as your first officer.
Because Worf was a warrior, and Enterprise was fighting the Borg. Had Riker become captain during a period of routine operations, I think he'd have probably chosen Data as his first, rather than Shelby. But Shelby was the Borg expert, so she was the proper choice under the circumstances.
Yeah, but does Geordi have any interest in command? I know he eventually becomes a captain in a possible future, but at least for the moment, he seems to have found his niche.
Well, let's consider Riker's choices at that time. Data would have been a very solid choice under nearly any circumstance. What he lacked in interpersonal skills, he more than made up in other capabilities. Worf would have been adequate, as he was at the time, but the fact that battle was imminent would have made him rate a closer look. Geordi would normally be a solid choice, but he's a people person. He can handle himself in battle, but it's not where he excels. Shelby was contentious, and had a tendency to take the initiative too easily. Under normal circumstances, an adequate choice as first, but far from ideal. Had conflict with the Borg not been imminent, Data would have been the best choice, Geordi probably a distant second, and Shelby and Worf not ideal. But the situation changed that. Shelby and Worf moved up on the list, Geordi moved down, and Data was about the same.
Man I love Data in that red uniform, I wish Jellico had given him a promotion to commander that would have stuck.
I know, right? I mean, he got Troi to start dressing like an officer... why couldn't his other personnel change have stuck, too? Here's a thought... Picard needs a couple months to recover from being tortured, so they leave Jellico where he is until he's better. A week at most, and Riker eagerly jumps at the first Big Chair berth available. When Picard returns, Data's been rocking that red uniform and the first officer slot for almost two months, so Picard lets him stay there. Jellico goes home to the Cairo, and happy ending for all!
Except that it wouldn't be very believable that he would need months to recover from torture. Not if after being assimilated by the Borg, all it took to heal the trauma was a bit of mudwrestling and getting drunk afterwards with his brother.
So your issue is that Geordi isn't being considered? I mean does he really want to pull that guy from where he is right then? In truth, his final decision was to keep everybody where they were, because that's about the best case scenario for ship operations, seeing how they just so happened to have someone capable of stepping up to the XO spot right then anyhow. I'm sure when he was coming to that conclusion, he thought about each of them & what a catastrophe it would be to lose them from the post they were currently in, & the first guy he probably thought that about was Geordi. No WAY he wanted to move THAT guy, regardless of his deservedness or qualification to be promoted.. It's a bloody end of civilization crisis. "Please Mr. Super-Engineer stay where you are & keep us operating just like you have been." Frankly, even if he had to promote one of his current officers instead of Shelby, Data & Worf were both already serving at bridge posts. Making them XO might have meant very little in the way of changing what actually gets done on that bridge in a crisis. Without Shelby, I personally would've promoted Data to #1, but kept him sitting right where he'd been, & left the right hand seat empty, & fly it Kirk/Spock style
He was still a member of the senior staff. Under the circumstances, he was in the pool of potential officers who could fill that gap, even if he began with long odds. In a crisis situation, you get people where they’ll do the most good - it could be argued that Worf’s value as acting first officer is in the strategic operations side of the tactical officer duties. Riker ultimately chooses to keep the crew where they’ve been and make Shelby first officer, but Worf wasn’t lacking for an argument to make him first officer.
Worf as Picard's XO? In the TV show? My gut would have said no but taking the universe where Riker was captain in "Parallels" into consideration I guess it's possible, and that's even with him leapfrogging Data to the position. In maybe an alternate futures where the D never got blown up? Sure. Geordi became Picard's XO in the Myriad Universe story "Brave New World" which is set around 2378.