When Janeway and Chakotay are left behind and Tuvok become acting captain in "Resolutions" (good episode, by the way, the painful "Angry Warrior" speech notwithstanding), who is Tuvok's first officer? I can't imagine that someone of Tuvok's disposition would take command on what appeared likely to be a permanent basis without establishing who would be in command in his absence and if anything happened to him. The two likeliest candidates would seem to be Torres and Paris. Memory Alpha lists Torres as having the rank of a full lieutenant upon her promotion to chief engineer, but later being referred to as a lieutenant junior grade; it's not clear whether she would have outranked Paris at this particular point in Season 2. Tuvok might have seen Paris as a better choice due to him being an Academy graduate (and also because he's on the bridge more, while Torres' duties usually keep her in engineering ... if Tuvok were incapacitated in a crisis, it would be easier for Paris to take command). But Torres definitely had Janeway's confidence, and Tuvok would likely have taken Janeway's advice on the matter. Any ideas?
Politically a Maquis had to be his second. Could B'Elanna be the XO and Chief Engineer? XO is higher status, but CE is more necessary. Who was the next Maquis in line?
Well, in the TOS era, the first officer always had another function on the ship. And I think Tucker was supposed to be the NX-01's first officer before T'Pol came aboard, so the chief engineer doubling as exec wouldn't be unprecedented. For whatever reason, I have an easier time picturing B'Elanna in that role than Tom. Memory Alpha lists several other crewmembers, both Starfleet and Maquis, with the rank of lieutenant. But none were ever considered senior officers. Another Memory Alpha discovery: I never realized before that an onscreen graphic makes J. Bartlett, L. McGarry, T. Ziegler, J. Lyman, S. Seaborn, Claudia J. Cregg and Charles Young canon members of Voyager's crew (albeit deceased ones).
Everyone had an officers rank... A military however runs on a ratio of maybe 9:1 in favour of Noncoms and Enlisted... So it's marvellous that janeway was ignoring a few officers, what about 90 or so crew who were petty officers and able crewmen? Deduction says that Voyager had three shifts. Maybe Bartlet had the shift inbetween Captain Janeway and Captain Kim?
Whether Tom and Torres were both JG lieutenants or SG ones, Tom outranked her. "By about five minutes", according to Torres in one episode. That's probably a reference to the fact that he was re-commissioned into Starfleet at the end of "Caretaker", and she had to wait until the next episode for a commission.
I'd guess Paris as XO. B'Elanna would be needed in engineering and thus having her in command of the ship would be counterproductive in any sort of crisis. One thing that bothered me about this episode is that, despite them saying that Tuvok's promotion was permanant and that life had to go on for everyone, he never changed into the red command uniform. It really would have hammered home the message of change to the viewer and given the idea that they're really leaving Janeway and Chakotay behind some credibility.
That's an excellent point. Remember when Data switched to red upon becoming XO in "Chain of Command"?
They'd been travelling for months each way and NOTHING happened, Tuvok avoided all the space time whoopsy oddity bullshit Picard, Sisko Kirk and Janeway couldn't help but logjam, until Voyager had to rescue Janeway by confronting the Vidiians which technically put Tuvok back into the position of acting Captain which is when all their trouble started at the very end of his command of the vessel... Janeway is a shit magnet. Carey Would get Engineering if B'Elanna had to stand on the bridge and wait for Chakotay to be incapacitated, that if he had to run Engineering, Carey would have to be promoted to maintain control over that area since position dictates rank, that would put him in equal pegging with Tom and B'Elanna (if you're thinking third dimensionally) for the XO position and if Carey and B'Elanna had equal rank then he should get the XO position because she is the better engineer. It's sucks to be indispensable? But CE and XO are not mutually exclusive. Hells in some of my fanfiction I made Crusher Picards first Officer (and she's turned the war ship into a really big ambulance.). The XO's job is to control the crew for the captain and it doesn't matter where they're standing when they do that, command of the bridge doesn't have to fall to who is sequentially the highest ranking officer on board one must suppose? So the CMO or CE could be XO while never ever spending much time on the bridge or in command of the bridge... Until the something happens to the Captain. Logically the CMO is as important to the command structure as the CE (despite rank?) and logically the doctor is not real. He's fake. Kes (In season One/two, and Nurse Tom later) was the Highest Ranking REAL medical Officer on board ipsofacto that put her in the running for XO despite being outside the command totem, and from how she manhandled the Vulcan so carefully and tactfully to turning his will inside out, quite honestly she might have just been the best person for the job if the job, if the job is to control the crew and not just lay in wait for the captain to get knocked out.
Which is pretty odd since Chakotay was the only thing stopping the Maquis from killing him in his sleep in the beginning.... SUPPOSEDLY!