Operations Officer and Science Officer on Bridge

[ngc7293]

Technically this is all about a PBeM game, but I have questions not having to do with gaming.
In STNG there is the Operations Officer (Data) but no Science officer on the Bridge. There might be a Science officer of the moment but not all the time. Roughly the same thing on Voyager. In our game we have Ops and a Science officer on the bridge.

I was wondering on such a trek ship what the Ops job would be? On STNG Data took the place of the Science officer.

Also, I have tried researching what the Ops station does on the bridge without much success. What does the Ops station do?

Thanks

 

[C.E. Evans]

Ops normally would handle resource allocations across the ship to make sure that that there's no conflict between various departments for power, sensors, personnel, or whatever they might need. It also has the ability to override and take control of various systems, when necessary. Ops would probably relay information from the various departments to the bridge--an example would be sensor data from a below decks science lab, without the bridge having to call the actual lab for the information.

In some cases, an ops officer/specialist is a de facto science officer. In others, he or she may be more of an engineer or a systems manager.

 

[Sgt_G]

For what it's worth, Wiki - Memory Alpha says that the Ops Station combines internal systems monitoring, communications, and sensors. So, basically does what Scotty, Uhura, and Spock did rolled into one. But it's funny because they often had Worf at the Tactical Station work the communications and sensors. And by the way, they combined Helm (Sulu) and Navigation (Chekov) into the Conn Station (Acting Ensign Crusher).

In my world, the Ops Officer is in charge of "the front of the ship" (the Chief Engineer owns "the back of the ship"), and is also the Second Officer / third in command.

 

[Spot261]

Operations, -quite literally. They manage the ships systems and resources, power supplies, etc. An awful lot of that role will go unnoticed I suppose on screen as we tend to watch the primary events affecting the bridge crew which by definition take precedence over other things occurring around the ship. Picard orders the main deflector dish taken off line and it is, but for the lower ranks and non starfleet specialists that abound elsewhere things are a different matter.

Below decks so to speak there are an awful lot of other functions happening at any time and they all require resource allocation, scheduling and so forth. You need access to the sensors to run a sweep for anti neutrinos as part of your ongoing research program? But the exo biology team have got them at 3pm. You need a shuttle to run maintenance operations on the port nacelle, I can fit you in later today. You need a work crew to help audit the contents of transporter bay 2? Security has a few bodies free, I'll relocate them....

Even the main ships functions will inevitably at times compete for power, personnel, etc. Sorry sir, we can't go to warp at the moment, I just shut the port nacelle down so a maintenance crew could debug the coil regulators.

 

[MacLeod]

For what it's worth, Wiki - Memory Alpha says that the Ops Station combines internal systems monitoring, communications, and sensors. So, basically does what Scotty, Uhura, and Spock did rolled into one. But it's funny because they often had Worf at the Tactical Station work the communications and sensors. And by the way, they combined Helm (Sulu) and Navigation (Chekov) into the Conn Station (Acting Ensign Crusher).

In my world, the Ops Officer is in charge of "the front of the ship" (the Chief Engineer owns "the back of the ship"), and is also the Second Officer / third in command.

That might be the way Picard preferred it. Though I think there was a bit overlap in the sensors. Worf seemed to handle the sesors relating to other vessels, whilst Data handled the science sensors.

But as others have said Ops seemed to be more about managing power/system resources etc...

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I look at Ops as being shipboard logistics whilst Science is more research/analysis.

For example, Ensign Ricky at Ops might detect an unknown ship approaching, but whilst Ricky begins allocating resources and prepping the ship for the encounter, Lieutenant Dahl at Science conducts a more thorough scan of the ship, gathering all necessary data about it.

 

[Tomalak]

Didn't they specifically find another job title for Data, because the original plan to call him "Science officer" would have felt too much like a pale imitation of Spock? He is, essentially, the science officer on the bridge, like Seven of Nine was on Voyager. I bet she would even have stood at the Ops console if the original plan to sack Garret Wang had gone through.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Didn't they specifically find another job title for Data, because the original plan to call him "Science officer" would have felt too much like a pale imitation of Spock? He is, essentially, the science officer on the bridge, like Seven of Nine was on Voyager. I bet she would even have stood at the Ops console if the original plan to sack Garret Wang had gone through.

Since Data was Lieutenant Xon from Phase II he probably was meant to be the Science Officer, though I heard it was because his makeup clashed with the uniform colour, which is why they made a new position for him.

 

[Longinus]

Since Data was Lieutenant Xon from Phase II he probably was meant to be the Science Officer, though I heard it was because his makeup clashed with the uniform colour, which is why they made a new position for him.

Then again, at least in the test shots Xon wore gold, not blue. And even in the make up test shots Data wore gold.

 

[Tomalak]

The uniform clash was more to do with Stewart and Frakes, wasn't it? They looked far better in the wine-coloured uniforms, so the command and ops divisions were switched.