Enterprise destruct sequence participants

[JonnyQuest037]

Chekov was actually, officially, the XO of the USS Reliant at this point, which means he may have the priority over Sulu from a chain of command standpoint.

How can you actually, officially, be the XO of a ship that had been destroyed by that point? Chekov would still be a Commander, of course, but his current ship assignment, the Reliant, went kablooey in the previous movie. Unless Kirk requested transfer orders for him between movies, Chekov was just unofficially helping out on the Enterprise, probably because most of the cadet crew had been reassigned.

 

[Trimm]

I suppose the simple explanation is that it required the commanding officer, science officer, and chief engineer. Note that in LTBYLB Spock does not identify himself as First Officer, but as Science Officer. This is echoed in TSFS where Chekov identifies himself to the computer as Acting Science Officer.

So what if one of these department heads is missing/dead? Interestingly, in the novel Vuclan's Heart, during the battle of Narendra III, Garrett notes at one grim point that she cannot activate the self destruct of the Enterprise C with her science officer and chief engineer dead.