Does it make sense combining Chief Of Security with Tactical Officer?

[Skipper]

I was wondering if combining these two very different positions made sense. The real life reasons are clear, not having too many regular actors and having a justification why the one who plays the head of security is always on the bridge.

But the two positions don't have much in common (except having to occasionally have to shoot something / someone) but I imagine that preparation and career path should be very distinct from each other. Also remember that the Enterprise is practically a small town, with a good chunk of the crew made up of civilians. It makes perfect sense that the security chief's duties can keep him off the bridge from time to time. So (given how unpredictable the Star Trek universe is) the tactical officer should be someone always present on the bridge (as was practically the case in TOS). And there might be times when (I imagine a Total War scenario) where s/he should have to do both of his duties at the same time.

Some might argue that the tactical officer on the Enterprise doesn't really do much, just press a button when ordered "Shoot the Phasers" "Shoot the photon torpedoes". Then it would be one more reason to have someone else do it and not someone who would have other things to do in a critical situation.

Your thoughts?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I was wondering if combining these two very different positions made sense. The real life reasons are clear, not having too many regular actors and having a justification why the one who plays the head of security is always on the bridge.

But the two positions don't have much in common (except having to occasionally have to shoot something / someone) but I imagine that preparation and career path should be very distinct from each other. Also remember that the Enterprise is practically a small town, with a good chunk of the crew made up of civilians. It makes perfect sense that the security chief's duties can keep him off the bridge from time to time. So (given how unpredictable the Star Trek universe is) the tactical officer should be someone always present on the bridge (as was practically the case in TOS). And there might be times when (I imagine a Total War scenario) where s/he should have to do both of his duties at the same time.

Some might argue that the tactical officer on the Enterprise doesn't really do much, just press a button when ordered "Shoot the Phasers" "Shoot the photon torpedoes". Then it would be one more reason to have someone else do it and not someone who would have other things to do in a critical situation.

Your thoughts?

Probably.
In TOS, the duties of tactical officer was part of helm and/or nav.

however, as the D is a big town it stands to reason that day to day duty of security is likely done by middle management anyway.
And Worf’s security duties are “limited” to a specialized version of what Riker does administratively and getting beat up by the alien intruder of the week.

 

[Skipper]

however, as the D is a big town it stands to reason that day to day duty of security is likely done by middle management anyway.

You are right, still it doesn't make a lot of sense. In a modern ship, the Chief of Marine / Military Police / Security is also not present on deck directing missile and cannon operations. And I'm sure even their jobs don't keep them busy full time and much of the work is done by their subordinates.

And Worf’s security duties are “limited” to a specialized version of what Riker does administratively and getting beat up by the alien intruder of the week.

I was actually thinking more about Tasha Yar (I was reading the thread dedicated to her). She seemed to spend more time worrying about his physical fitness than doing anything related to the ship's tactical systems. I guess this somehow mirrored Roddenberry's thinking that Starfleet was not a true military and that the use of force was always the last and last option. But still a little strange that the position Tactical Officer is almost an afterthought which can be filled by almost anyone. Even O'Brien, an enlisted crewman who spent almost all his career as a transporter chief or doing technical things did it.

 

[Skipper]

And I remember correctly that sometimes Worf had to leave his tactical station during a battle to fight some intruders?

 

[Skywalker]

It doesn't make sense. A chief tactical officer wouldn't just be manning the weapons/shields console on the bridge, they would also be in charge of other officers who do so, officers who supervise fire control rooms elsewhere on the ship, the torpedo room, etc. Those are all completely different jobs than security.

The two just got merged together for convenience.

 

[Oddish]

It's even more convoluted than that. On Voyager, the operations officer regularly handled the tactical systems. Even though Tuvok's station had Security/Tactical on it.

 

[Orphalesion]

I mean it made sense to combine the two positions into one character from the point of view of a TV show, just like it made sense to put the therapist on the bridge so she'd get more screentime.

 

[Oddish]

Star Trek does a great many things for that reason, I think. Many of which don't make sense in the real world.

 

[Timo]

Well, letting people do whatever is convenient gets the more plausible, the higher the century count goes. With advanced enough expert systems, a single officer might very well handle three jobs; eventually, the ship would do whatever the officer requires, allowing every position but those of the CO and the Combat Repairs Officer to be eliminated.

TOS only ever tried one merger, and the superhuman Spock was the right man for handling the two jobs of XO and CSO. ENT had the excuse of launching with less than complete crew. And DSC, for all its oddities, didn't try and merge positions: Lorca made sure the working environment was convoluted enough even without such things.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[gakelly]

You could almost have the captain control the tactical efforts too. It cuts out him having to give an order.

 

[Kor]

I think TMP was the first time that tactical and security were combined into one job, with Chekov. I'm not sure if any of the tie-in books explained why tactical had its own station with the new design, instead of being part of helm/nav like in TOS. In TOS, security seemed to be more of a 'below decks' job, and we saw a couple of different security chiefs as secondary characters over the course of the series.

Kor

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

In TOS, security seemed to be more of a 'below decks' job, and we saw a couple of different security chiefs as secondary characters over the course of the series.

Yup.
Which is more or less in-line with the way it works in reality.
Although Worf particularly is something of an amalgamation of at least a couple of RW officer jobs and at least one NCO job:

Tactical (Action) Officer: Co-ordinates operation of the ship's weapons, sensors and some communications functions.
First Lieutenant/Bosun: Officer or Senior NCO/Chief Warrant Officer, co-ordinates below deck activities including security (with the Master-at-Arms).
Master-at-Arms ("Security Chief"): Senior NCO/Chief Warrant Officer, runs physical security and criminal investigations (co-operates with Agent Afloat or external sworn agents on major crimes), may also be in charge of physical fitness.
Weapons Officer/Gunner's Mate ("Armory Officer"): Responsible for running the "armory" (phaser rooms, torpedo bays), in reality would likely be an Engineering Officer, rather than a Warfare/Deck/Bridge Officer.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Probably.
In TOS, the duties of tactical officer was part of helm and/or nav.

For what we knew, it was on the Enterprise, probably needed to consolidate positions to keep the story going and just add another character which wasn't needed. I would like to think Captain Kirk preferred his officers to be jack of all trades, just in case a crewmember from a position went down and another person could take over. Other vessels could've had a person distinguish for defense.

 

[Skipper]

Yup.
Which is more or less in-line with the way it works in reality.
Although Worf particularly is something of an amalgamation of at least a couple of RW officer jobs and at least one NCO job:

Tactical (Action) Officer: Co-ordinates operation of the ship's weapons, sensors and some communications functions.
First Lieutenant/Bosun: Officer or Senior NCO/Chief Warrant Officer, co-ordinates below deck activities including security (with the Master-at-Arms).
Master-at-Arms ("Security Chief"): Senior NCO/Chief Warrant Officer, runs physical security and criminal investigations (co-operates with Agent Afloat or external sworn agents on major crimes), may also be in charge of physical fitness.
Weapons Officer/Gunner's Mate ("Armory Officer"): Responsible for running the "armory" (phaser rooms, torpedo bays), in reality would likely be an Engineering Officer, rather than a Warfare/Deck/Bridge Officer.

Even considering computer and automation, they seem to me full time jobs. Exactly why the writers decided to merge all these positions? It they needed an excuse for having the security chief on the bridge, they could just keep making him/her do the communication duties too. And actually, it was the thing that Tasha and Worf did 90% the time they were on the bridge. In TNG space battles were a rare thing.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I think Security & Tactical shold be seperate jobs, just like the Field Manager for a Tactical away mission should be it's own position.

 

[Orphalesion]

Even considering computer and automation, they seem to me full time jobs. Exactly why the writers decided to merge all these positions? It they needed an excuse for having the security chief on the bridge, they could just keep making him/her do the communication duties too. And actually, it was the thing that Tasha and Worf did 90% the time they were on the bridge. In TNG space battles were a rare thing.

From what I remember there was the idea in early TNG that Federation ships were extremely automated, to the point that the early designs for the bridge were more of a conference room crossed with an observation lounge than a bridge, with the table that later was put into the briefing room placed in the centre of the bridge and everything.
Though them merging those positions was, again, probably mostly convenience in the number of characters to portray. You can see in Season 1 how awkward it was to have a new Chief Engineer every week, now imagine they had a new Chief of Security (or Chief Tactical officer, depending on which Tasha would have been) and Weapons Officer every episode too.
Even if you'd split Chief of Security and Chief Tactical Officer between Tasha and Worf it would have still cut into the screen time each character could have had (one only seen on the bridge and one only during fights and away missions) And Denise Crosby already left because she felt her character was too monotonous, now imagine they had cut down the role even further.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I think Security & Tactical shold be seperate jobs, just like the Field Manager for a Tactical away mission should be it's own position.

You right in all, but for some reason I see those jobs as the same thing.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

You right in all, but for some reason I see those jobs as the same thing.

Yes & No, kind of like different shades of your favorite color.

The focus of each one is quite different.

Security is to make sure there are no threats breaking into your Facility/Vessel or traitors leaking out OpSec info.
If threats have broken in, you should have a solution ready to solve said threat.
e.g.
The only reason the Galaxy Class Enterprise-D lost was because of OpSec was violated when Dr. Tolian Soran modified Geordi's visor to leak Visual Info to the Klingons he was working with. That Visual info from Geordi's visor fed the Shield Frequency to the Dura's Sisters which let the Disruptors and Photon Torpedo's waltz right through the Enterprise's shields without any resistance. The fact that when they recovered Geordi, they didn't take away his current VISOR and hand him the spare backup VISOR. Check his Cortical implants, etc. Geordi's job is incredibly important and he is able see ALOT of sensitive OpSec info. It was security's job to check if Geordi's VISOR has been tampered with. It's also Security & Comm's job to monitor Subspace radio frequencies and make sure info that shouldn't be leaving the Enterprise is leaving. Normally a computer should be able to account for every single Wireless Subspace Radio transmission, if one is out of place, you're leaking data to the enemy.

Tactical's job is to man the weapons and monitor the shields so that a vessel is ready to fight and ready to win. Part of that is training, maintenance, practice runs in HoloDeck simulations, get everybody on the crew trained so that if there is a sudden need for battle, everybody knows the roles that they have to perform and aren't running around like headless chickens figuring out what to do on the fly.

Field Manager for a Tactical Away mission is similar to what Emily Bett Rickard's character of Felicity Smoak did on Arrow.
Felicity as "OverWatch" sat on comm's, monitored the progress of the field mission, hacked as needed, watched Satellite Overview for any 3rd party attackers coming the way of her team and gave her teams heads up about it, helped plan out the mission along with figuring out alternate solutions when things inevitably goes south. She also helps with research on problem solving when in the field and they need a quick and dirty solution.

So the job of a Field Manager is different since their responsibilities are different and they focus most of their time on making sure the away team's mission runs as smoothly and successfully as possible and if they fail, not to fail too hard and lose lives or screw up the objective too badly that they can't recover in a follow up mission.

 

[The Wormhole]

I've never understood why communications were handled at tactical.

 

[Oddish]

Season 1 TNG had it right. It had a security officer (Yar) and a tactical officer (Worf). When Yar died, Worf should have stayed the latter or become the former.