If You Could Invent a New Starfleet Role

"Just wait until you see what I've done with the ready room!"

 

Navy quartermasters have nothing whatsoever to do with supply.
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/to-be-a-quartermaster-3345857

 

The Quartermaster/Cargo Chief/Supply Officer would look after the freight, whilst the RAMO would be the one who is constantly re-carpeting or repainting rooms, swapping out old furnishings, tweaking uniforms, combadges, tricorders, phasers, etc.

During the ENT-era at least Starfleet utilised the army definition for the post (see "Affliction").

 

Ignorance on the writers' part, plain and simple.

 

If nobody has any objections, I'd like to make myself "Morale Officer"...

 

Diplomatic/First contact officer.
Now, with T'ryssa Chen in the books, to me, her job is wrong. She is the first contact specialist, but any other time she's just a go fer or other jobs officer. As a Contact Specialist, she would be busy unless its a 3 month study of a nebula unless they find a planet. Her job would be to look forward into the mission plan, and research the planets that are to be visited, even if there not first contact. Her job would be to brief the command officers before they get to the next system, on who is there, what is happening in the system,what kind of observations she has on customs, etc. Basically he/she would be an researcher on whats comming, and sometimes go with the away team on missions, or be called in if an away team member pulls a Westley, and breaks some law, or some kind of dust up. She would be the lawyer/diplomat that would be the "expert" on whatever planet they are visiting.
On a first contact mission, she would be busy with going over all the transmissions from the surface, seeing ther customs, there current fashions, laws, how to greet someone properly. etc. and she would take the third seat on any contact on the bridge, pulling the captain aside to inform him on anything he/she needs to know.

 

Morale officer? so like that tartdigrade on Orville getting the lattest porn?

 

It's a quote from an episode of Red Dwarf, in case anyway is unfamiliar with it.

 

http://scriptsearch.dxdy.name/?page=results&query=({line|quartermaster,})

Given that 'quartermaster' has been consistently used for supply officer and depot managers in Starfleet and Federation civilian jobs since Tomorrow is Yesterday (TOS) I think the ENT writing team can be forgiven on that one (particularly as the "Naval Quatermaster" was identified as being called "Navigator" no later than The Corbomite Maneuver (TOS)).

 

What makes you say that? Why would we assume a direct lineage from the US navy to Starfleet?

 

I like the idea of a contact specialist/minor diplomat. As has already been pointed out, the books have already implemented it.

Another idea from the books: a linguist/cryptographer.

How about someone who specializes in history/ancient alien tech? Someone who is capable of identifying, studying, and securing all of the weird technology Starfleet stumbles upon.

An intelligence officer. The ships are always being infiltrated by alien intruders. ALso, Starfleet does more than its fair share of secret missions on alien ships and planets. You need somebody to plan this stuff.

 

Choreographer?! Is that for those aliens who communicate via the Lindy Hop or whatever?

 

I've been saying this for years. Every ship in the fleet should come equipped with an E.C.H.*

*Emergency Cobbling Hologram

 

Data has you covered. Although he might have a bit of an identity crisis when 'Tick this Box to Prove You Are Not a Robot' comes up.

 

Even splitting the role in two seems like an insufficient number to me: There needs to be a Security Chief, a shipboard weapons officer, and *at least one* Remote Operations specialist who remotely drives guided torpedoes, drones, probes, etc.

I added one of these to my fan fiction crew, in reaction to a new psychic and shapeshifting adversary that I came up with that made having one aboard ships more advisable.

Where Data is from, we call that a Master Royale.

 

Hey, Dr. Crusher has a medical bay to run. She can't drop everything every time some robot wants to learn how to cabbage patch.

We need an Orion who specializes in this sort of thing on the bridge at all times in every show. Maybe a team of them. Two teams.

You know what? Do these fancy high tech 24th century ships even need a traditional bridge crew? I say we scrap them altogether, install M-5 and make room for Orion Dance Teams # 4 and 5.


You never know when you might run into a Tak Tak colony, or a Klingon captain with a true appreciation for the art of dance. Better safe than sorry, I say.