Chief Science Officer
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Did they really need a science officer to kill V'Ger?
I've asked may times what exactly was Kathryn's mission?
Voyager was carrying a weapon of mass destruction which could in every likely hood (since a photon torpedo is thousands of times more powerful than the nuke that took down hiroshima, should be able to take out a city) take out an unshielded planet...
Their mission was to kill Chakotay and "remove" his resources.
There was no wonder the ship didn't need a science officer since they didn't need to be tricky, they could over power almost anything with a weapon that hadn't been used since TOS... It was a tactical mission, not a science mission. Hell, you want any sciency bullshit done you send in a Nova class science vessel like Equinox. Ater the destruction of 40 ships from the battle Wolf 357, Starfleet seemed to be be building smaller specialist ships like the defiant, the steam runner and the nova more so that jack of all trade behemoths like the Sovereign. Good god, youcan build 12 to 20 of those smaller ships for the same resources it takes to build one ship of the line.
Considering they were all assassins, sent to murder the Indian, it's no wonder Voyager wasn't given a consellor. The crew was disposable. It would take years of therapy before any of those officers would be useful again after they were used as bagmen to fire off superweapons to exterminate a poitical annoyance to the federation since for some reason in this instance the powers that be weren't interested in rehabilitation.
Maybe supernuking (tricobalting?) a Cardassian intelligence officer was the real goal which it was above janeways to know about or that they didn't know which Maquis was about to destroy the Maquis.
Destroying Chakotays cell to save the rest of the resistance.
Who does that sound like?
Section 31.
I've asked may times what exactly was Kathryn's mission?
Voyager was carrying a weapon of mass destruction which could in every likely hood (since a photon torpedo is thousands of times more powerful than the nuke that took down hiroshima, should be able to take out a city) take out an unshielded planet...
Their mission was to kill Chakotay and "remove" his resources.
There was no wonder the ship didn't need a science officer since they didn't need to be tricky, they could over power almost anything with a weapon that hadn't been used since TOS... It was a tactical mission, not a science mission. Hell, you want any sciency bullshit done you send in a Nova class science vessel like Equinox. Ater the destruction of 40 ships from the battle Wolf 357, Starfleet seemed to be be building smaller specialist ships like the defiant, the steam runner and the nova more so that jack of all trade behemoths like the Sovereign. Good god, youcan build 12 to 20 of those smaller ships for the same resources it takes to build one ship of the line.
Considering they were all assassins, sent to murder the Indian, it's no wonder Voyager wasn't given a consellor. The crew was disposable. It would take years of therapy before any of those officers would be useful again after they were used as bagmen to fire off superweapons to exterminate a poitical annoyance to the federation since for some reason in this instance the powers that be weren't interested in rehabilitation.
Maybe supernuking (tricobalting?) a Cardassian intelligence officer was the real goal which it was above janeways to know about or that they didn't know which Maquis was about to destroy the Maquis.
Destroying Chakotays cell to save the rest of the resistance.
Who does that sound like?
Section 31.
I thought Harry was a jr. Engineer?The Next Generation also lacked a science officer, although Data essentially did that job (despite wearing yellow and not blue) in fact if not in title. Harry, as Voyager's ops officer, would seem to be the closest they had. He scanned things every now and then.
As far as science officer, wasn't that where Ensign Wildman filled in as.
I figured she wasn't promoted to Cheif due to lack of field experence, like Harry.
TNG era ships don't really have one top Science Officer, they had several representing different fields of Science.
When they were looking for Saddam, how many of the foot soldiers had a nuke with them?
The tricobolt device was a special weapon for a special mission they needed to complete the mission or else there was no need to load it, and they never seemed to replace it if it was ever supposed to have been part of Voyager's regular compliment.
Same with the Bomb they built in the Omega Directive. Which turned out to be too small so they built a more awesome weapon to deal with Omega.
It would've made sense if they had a chief science officer who was killed, just like the first officer and chief medical officer, and, presumably, chief operations officer, who Harry later filled in for. However, I can buy the argument that due to the short-term nature of it initial mission, that just like not having a counselor on board, they didn't have a science officer. Certainly, Harry kind of filled in that role, and later, Seven was an even better choice to fulfill that role, owing to her superior Borg intelligence.
Borg cheat sheet you mean.
Anyone who asked could have had the entire repository of her intellect downloaded and integrated into their minds. They chose to be stupider than she was. With out all that hardware in her brain however it makes me wonder how much of this "knowledge" she could actually retain clearly?
Harry was the Operations chief. Always. It was a job for an Ensign.
The ship was staffed with green officers and hasbeens who would never amount to anything, since with the exception of Bartlet there wasn't a full commander on board and really almost a hundred and 50 crewmen that can be bossed around by a Lieutenant junior grade (B'Elanna). If the ship had stayed in the Alpha Quadrant, one didn't get promoted ON Voyager, they got promoted OFF Voyager. It's just not a ship that demands many officers with the higher ranks.
Voyager was obviously a ship where you proved you weren't a fuck up before they moved you onto a ship where there was some possibility that if you weren't good enough people were going to die, or you proved you were a fuck up and you got posted in the giftshop outside the academy thereafter.
Anyone who asked could have had the entire repository of her intellect downloaded and integrated into their minds. They chose to be stupider than she was. With out all that hardware in her brain however it makes me wonder how much of this "knowledge" she could actually retain clearly?
Harry was the Operations chief. Always. It was a job for an Ensign.
The ship was staffed with green officers and hasbeens who would never amount to anything, since with the exception of Bartlet there wasn't a full commander on board and really almost a hundred and 50 crewmen that can be bossed around by a Lieutenant junior grade (B'Elanna). If the ship had stayed in the Alpha Quadrant, one didn't get promoted ON Voyager, they got promoted OFF Voyager. It's just not a ship that demands many officers with the higher ranks.
Voyager was obviously a ship where you proved you weren't a fuck up before they moved you onto a ship where there was some possibility that if you weren't good enough people were going to die, or you proved you were a fuck up and you got posted in the giftshop outside the academy thereafter.
That could be true for larger ships, like the Enterprises, but probably smaller vessels like Voyager do have one chief science officer.
In any case, like I said, it's a stretch to assume they didn't have such a science officer just because we never met them. TOS' cast didn't have a chief of security, yet we all know the ship itself had one... (several, actually, over the years)
Agreed.
However, I have to also agree with a poster(s) that said it would be Janeway. If you watch the first two seasons, she always quoting scientific theories to explain many of the new anomolies they encountered.
That's because she used to be Owen Paris' science officer.
It's in her blood.
It's in her blood.
Even though Harry Kim was the ops manager, I always kind of imagined that he was constantly getting sensor data piped up to his console from the ship's science department.
On some ships, the chief sciences officer isn't a bridge officer--on some ships, it is, IMO. I tend to agree with the idea that the Voyager didn't have so much a chief sciences officer, but rather multiple science officers in charge of individual sciences. On the Voyager, they could very well have been "lab rats" who rarely ever poked their heads outside of their particular labs, but made all their data and research available through the ship's computer for anyone to access on a terminal or PADD.
On some ships, the chief sciences officer isn't a bridge officer--on some ships, it is, IMO. I tend to agree with the idea that the Voyager didn't have so much a chief sciences officer, but rather multiple science officers in charge of individual sciences. On the Voyager, they could very well have been "lab rats" who rarely ever poked their heads outside of their particular labs, but made all their data and research available through the ship's computer for anyone to access on a terminal or PADD.
Your lab rats characterization reminds me of a TNG ep where Wedley is put in charge of special project where most of the crew who worked with him wore sciences blue. Even though Harry was just an ensign, as head of ops, he probably performed much the same way Data did on Enterprise. In charge of science and ops officers. Of course, Harry should have had a higher rank, full lieutenant, in order for that to be believable.
Of course, he wasn't because he was supposed to be a fresh-faced, naive recent Starfleet graduate. I would have established he was a young officer with most of his experience at starbases who is on his first deep space assignment, which would explain his naivete. Janeway then promotes to full lieutenant once he's posted to her command, based on his record and potential.
For that matter, B'Elanna should have a full lieutenant, and Tom should have remained a full lieutenant, so that the guest stars who worked with them (other pilots and engineers) could've easily been lieutenants, junior grade, or ensigns. Also, Tuvok should have remained a lieutenant commander, and Chakotay should hve been a full commander (his brevet rank pin made it look like he was a lt. cmdr.) That's always been my nitpick about the show.
^ Or, in this case, the Chief Spambot Officer. 
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I think on most starships, the operations manager serves as a liaison between the bridge and other departments on the ship, controlling resource allocations as well as reporting crucial information from those departments when necessary.
On the Voyager, that position may have only warranted an ensign's billet, but on another ship or posting it may require someone of higher rank or even a lower rank (like Chief O'Brien). It depends on how a particular chain of command is set up by her captain, IMO.
Data, though, may have been acting double duty as both ops manager and chief sciences officer in the same way Spock did double duty as exec and chief sciences officer. Because of their unique abilities and skills, they were able to do the jobs of two people effortlessly.
TNG and Voyager should both have featured regular science officers. Let's not forget that in season 1 of TNG the chief engineer was something of an afterthought too. Data fulfilled the role of science officer, ops officer and engineer but really on a ship that size there should have been a formal science officer on the bridge.
In Voyager, Wildman was an astrobiologist and the chief scientist is usually more of an astrophysicist (since astrobiology is more research based and the chief scientist is required to supervise and interpret a lot of sensor data about planetary and space phenomena). Even if the chief scentist was killed the best replacement (possibly Wildman) should have been appointed. Since sensors must always be manned there should be three qualified scientists available for the bridge post at all times (stupidity of Decker's comments in TMP notwithstanding - although admittedly he said nobody was 'fully' rated on the new Enterprise).
Overall, the writers made the mistake of introducing regular characters for story purposes (Troi's empathy, Kes' cuteness and psychic powers) that didn't really warrant them having a purpose in every episode whereas a science officer would have had a purpose in every episode. Deep Space 9 did a better job of making sure that the characters were relevant with an impressive cast of loyal returning guest actors. I think all versions of Trek would have benefitted from a smaller principle cast and a larger number of regular co-stars or guest stars making sure that key roles were filled similar to Babylon 5, Farscape, or the early Season 1 of TOS.
In Voyager, Wildman was an astrobiologist and the chief scientist is usually more of an astrophysicist (since astrobiology is more research based and the chief scientist is required to supervise and interpret a lot of sensor data about planetary and space phenomena). Even if the chief scentist was killed the best replacement (possibly Wildman) should have been appointed. Since sensors must always be manned there should be three qualified scientists available for the bridge post at all times (stupidity of Decker's comments in TMP notwithstanding - although admittedly he said nobody was 'fully' rated on the new Enterprise).
Overall, the writers made the mistake of introducing regular characters for story purposes (Troi's empathy, Kes' cuteness and psychic powers) that didn't really warrant them having a purpose in every episode whereas a science officer would have had a purpose in every episode. Deep Space 9 did a better job of making sure that the characters were relevant with an impressive cast of loyal returning guest actors. I think all versions of Trek would have benefitted from a smaller principle cast and a larger number of regular co-stars or guest stars making sure that key roles were filled similar to Babylon 5, Farscape, or the early Season 1 of TOS.
Well, when the Kazon stranded the crew after taking the ship, you see alot of red and gold uniforms.
Since you need engineering to run the ship, security to protect the ship, and command to boss the ship around there probably just wasn't as many science officers assigned to Voyager in relation to something the size of a Galaxy class.
We don't know how many science positions there were before they lost crew members in the transport to the Delta quadrant either. And I also have a hunch that a typical Maguis would be more qualified to fix an engine or fire a phaser.
All the times I've seen a blue-shirt sitting at the rarely seen science station on the bridge of Voyager, its been someone I didn't recognize. (I'm still watching it though. Up to season 4.)
Also, I remember thinking that TNG mentions a couple times about how science teams and researchers rotate on and off the Enterprise. I specifically remember Riker having to manage what teams got what sensors when. You think having one bridge officer solely in charge of science crew would have been helpful instead of having Riker deal with it along with the standard crew onboard.
Since you need engineering to run the ship, security to protect the ship, and command to boss the ship around there probably just wasn't as many science officers assigned to Voyager in relation to something the size of a Galaxy class.
We don't know how many science positions there were before they lost crew members in the transport to the Delta quadrant either. And I also have a hunch that a typical Maguis would be more qualified to fix an engine or fire a phaser.
All the times I've seen a blue-shirt sitting at the rarely seen science station on the bridge of Voyager, its been someone I didn't recognize. (I'm still watching it though. Up to season 4.)
Also, I remember thinking that TNG mentions a couple times about how science teams and researchers rotate on and off the Enterprise. I specifically remember Riker having to manage what teams got what sensors when. You think having one bridge officer solely in charge of science crew would have been helpful instead of having Riker deal with it along with the standard crew onboard.
