Worf

[Bry_Sinclair]

I would say that unless its stated otherwise, it would be a safe assumption that the Security Chief is also the Senior Tactical Officer--even if they are not referred to in such a position.

Though I am of the belief that it would fall to the Captain how to organise his/her/its ship. They may want to have two separate chiefs or combine them into one. The size of the ship would also be a factor. The Enterprise-D could have easily had two separate officers, but for Voyager (being a much smaller ship) it would make sense to have the posts combined.

Also on Voyager, Tuvok's console is labelled as Security/Tactical from the time they left DS9 to the time they returned to Earth. I'd therefore say that Tuvok was in fact the Chief Security/Tactical Officer. As for all the Commanders and Lieutenant Commanders listed as being KIA, for a ship that had a complement of 141 when it left the Alpha Quadrant, having so many would seem to be a little preposterous in my opinion.

Anyways, just my thoughts.

-Bry

 

[Timo]

I would say that unless its stated otherwise, it would be a safe assumption that the Security Chief is also the Senior Tactical Officer--even if they are not referred to in such a position.

Why should two unrelated but important jobs be handled by the same person? Unless there's a pressing reason to do so (such as heavy casualties), it seems like a massive handicap - the ship cannot simultaneously send out an away team and fight a space battle, or deter intruders when a space battle is going on.

Also on Voyager, Tuvok's console is labelled as Security/Tactical from the time they left DS9 to the time they returned to Earth. I'd therefore say that Tuvok was in fact the Chief Security/Tactical Officer.

Or then the Security officer can utilize a bridge console when needed, even though his primary tasks don't involve the bridge much - so he shares with somebody, in this case the Tactical officer. It's not as if the Chief Security Officer would have much use for consoles anyway.

As for all the Commanders and Lieutenant Commanders listed as being KIA, for a ship that had a complement of 141 when it left the Alpha Quadrant, having so many would seem to be a little preposterous in my opinion.

Kirk's ship had only about three times as much personnel, and yet there were nine known people of LtCmdr rank or above on that ship in TOS. Having five on Janeway's ship is not really out of the ordinary in that sense. Especially as Kirk's ship eventually came to feature three Captains, two Commanders and a Lieutenant Commander in bridge positions...

Timo Saloniemi