First, we know Dr. Culber isn't the CMO on the ship, as he has referenced the CMO as being a different person. He excused himself from engineering once saying he had to assist the CMO with a tonsillectomy on and Andorian. And yet, for the majority of situations requiring medical personnel, Culber is the one who shows up. The one exception was when the whale was aboard. At the time I toyed with the idea that medical officer was the CMO, as he had Lt Commander's rank on his arrowhead, but since Culber is himself a Lt. Commander, that really doesn't mean anything.
At this point, we have seen medical situations involving a mysterious space creature necessary to operate the spore drive, and later the officer who became necessary to operate the spore drive, and a few situations where it was deemed necessary to get Captain Lorca down to sickbay to be informed. These are situations where the CMO should be involved, especially when Lorca becomes involved, if it's important enough to get the ship's captain involved, it's important enough to get the CMO involved. Yet, Culber is the only one who ever takes point in any matter. Hell, last week Stamets talked as though Culber was the only doctor on the ship, which is preposterous. Even if this elusive CMO is refusing to do his/her job, there is the guy who looked after the space whale, though I'll concede he could he a specialist in alien lifeforms.
Is there a reason the writers just didn't make Culber the CMO? I know they're trying to get away from the Trek trope of it only being the senior officers who do anything or get to be the story focus, and from that point of view, I guess it is more realistic that we're not seeing the department heads doing everything, as in the real world such people are the ones who do the least amount of work in their department, not every damn thing. But at this point, Culber pretty much has filled the role of the CMOs on the other Trek shows in every aspect except for the fact that he has referenced someone else as being the CMO.
So where is Discovery's CMO and why don't they seem to do anything except removing an Andorian's tonsils?
At this point, we have seen medical situations involving a mysterious space creature necessary to operate the spore drive, and later the officer who became necessary to operate the spore drive, and a few situations where it was deemed necessary to get Captain Lorca down to sickbay to be informed. These are situations where the CMO should be involved, especially when Lorca becomes involved, if it's important enough to get the ship's captain involved, it's important enough to get the CMO involved. Yet, Culber is the only one who ever takes point in any matter. Hell, last week Stamets talked as though Culber was the only doctor on the ship, which is preposterous. Even if this elusive CMO is refusing to do his/her job, there is the guy who looked after the space whale, though I'll concede he could he a specialist in alien lifeforms.
Is there a reason the writers just didn't make Culber the CMO? I know they're trying to get away from the Trek trope of it only being the senior officers who do anything or get to be the story focus, and from that point of view, I guess it is more realistic that we're not seeing the department heads doing everything, as in the real world such people are the ones who do the least amount of work in their department, not every damn thing. But at this point, Culber pretty much has filled the role of the CMOs on the other Trek shows in every aspect except for the fact that he has referenced someone else as being the CMO.
So where is Discovery's CMO and why don't they seem to do anything except removing an Andorian's tonsils?
