Scotty as second officer

Of course that makes sense but I mean if your helmsman falls out of chair and is knocked out, do you just praise the Lord that Rand was bringing coffee up or do you have an emergency replacement standing by in the bridge at all times or does say the officer on the internal security station take over temporarily. Leaving communications unmanned seems like a bad idea.

 

It's possible some personnel rotate stations, like whoever is manning science 2 covers for science 1 until a replacement comes up to man science station 2.

 

Thinking about it, we do most often see Lesley (a security officer) manning the engineering station (unless his twin is an engineer) and occasionally helm.

 

It seems like the bridge crew can sub for each other for short periods at least. In "The Naked Time" red shirt Eddie Paskey (sounds like Spock calls him "Rand") takes the helm after Sulu leaves, then Uhura takes the nav chair when Spock sends Riley off, then Spock calls a blue shirt named Brent to relieve Uhura. Then Paskey gets drunk and is relieved at the helm by Kirk who is then relieved by the real Rand.

 

Doesn't that depend of the day and the Leslie?

 

...Which ones of our heroes are department heads? Sulu and Uhura share rank with their competitors at their respective workstations, but Chekov is junior to the other navigators and unlikely to be navigation chief. Spock has no peers in sciences even if nobody outright states he would be the "chief" science officer (a distinction made in the 24th century, even though Kirk already had multiple officers doing science for him). McCoy is an explicit chief, Scotty likewise.

There's also an (unseen) transporter chief in dialogue, say, in "Tomorrow is Yesterday", but is that the department head officer, or (as O'Brien might make us to think) abbreviation for the fact that the guy/gal is a mere CPO?

What other departments would be relevant in TOS?

Timo Saloniemi

 

There is also this line from "Amok Time"

Spock: Doctor, please, let me finish. There can be no excuse for the crime of which I'm guilty. I intend to offer no defence. Furthermore, I shall order Mister Scott to take immediate command of this vessel.

If Scotty wasn't next in line of Command why would command be handed over to him and not the next in line?

 

Backroom meeting that occurs inbetween whatever season that fits.

Scott "Ladees I'm up to neck with things in engineering. You'd wannae give that wee ladee Sulu a crack at the old third in command now and again?"

Kirk: "yeah".

Spock: "I see I am not the only one depositing logic bombs around here".

 

It's just who's next in line, it's not a full-time job. Navy-wise, command should have gone through all qualified lieutenant commanders, by seniority, before any lieutenant, but obviously that wasn't thought of. First and second officer are not naval titles, anyway.

If you go by a US Navy cruiser organization of TOS's day, yes, there would be lieutenant commanders and even a commander or two heading all departments (the operations officer seems to have usually been a commander). For security, there wasn't really an equivalent, but a cruiser's marine detachment of 30-35 marines would be headed by a captain with a 1st lieutenant assistant. In TOS when a "security boss" was seen, he was a lieutenant commander with commander stripes as was common in season one.

 

So, on a aircraft carrier if the captain and first officer were unavailible, the next senior officer should be in command.

Even if that officer were in command of a aircraft squadrant and had no experience commanding a major naval vessel?

 

The squadron officers are assigned to a separate command which happens to be located on the carrier, so they are not in line of command for the ship. They would be in line to command the carrier air wing.

 

Several people in this thread are looking for an internal consistency in TOS when frequently, there was none. TOS wasn't remotely about trying to figure out logically or consistently the command structure of the crew. It was about the STORY. Story trumps all in TOS.

 

I always found it strange that Scotty was nowhere in sight every time the Enterprise went to Vulcan!
JB

 

If Leslie can take the conn, anyone can.

I might cross-post this to the "bottom half of the Academy" thread; that LCDR might be the poster child.

 

The Deadly Years

 

Not that I have any problem with Scotty being next in line, when I built my master crew roster, I have:

Captain (O6) == Commander of the ship == runs the mission
Exec Officer / First Officer (senior O5) == Second in command == runs the ship
Operations Officer (junior O5 / senior O4) == Third in command == runs the front part of the ship

The three above often are not scheduled to sit in Center Seat for entire shifts at a time, but may fill in occasionally. During combat, one will be stationed in Aux Con instead of being on the main bridge.

Chief Navigator (senior O4) == senior Bridge Watch officer, de facto fourth in command
three or four Navigator (O4 or senior O3) == Bridge Watch Officers working a rotating duty schedule

These are the guys/gals who typically sit in the Center Seat during routine (i.e., BORING) patrol missions when nothing is happening, leaving the top three officers time to do all the command stuff (e.g., paperwork).

Chief Engineer (O5 or senior O4) == runs the back of the ship
Chief Weapons Officer (O4 or senior O3) == may fall under Ops Officer or be separate department under Exec

These two may or may not be in the line of succession, depending on their training and experience and the whims of the ship's Captain. They rarely have time to pull shifts in the Center Seat, depending on the experience level of their respective deputies.

Of course, we can't forget the Master Chief aka Chief of the Boat. He owns the ship and allows the officers to use it.

 

In "The Enterprise Incident," there was an unnamed red shirt in the briefing room who outranked Scotty. There's also an unnamed gold shirt Lt. Cmdr.

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x02hd/theenterpriseincidenthd0213.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x02hd/theenterpriseincidenthd0214.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/thumbnails.php?album=39&page=9

In my head canon, the red shirt Commander is a special security officer on temporary assignment to the Enterprise for this secret mission.

 

^^^
My guess: Red Shirt Commander is the ship's Chief of Security. The yellow shirt Lieutenant Commander - shrug? Maybe he's the Chief Navigator (i.e. Chekov's boss)?