Chain of command is 'Who do I get orders from, and to whom do I give orders?' - Unless you're the captain, someone is above you aboard. The Chain of Command differs for almost everyone aboard - only the Commanding Officer, Vice Commander, and Executive Officer are in everyone else's. It is important, however, to understand several elements of 'Naval Tradition' to make sense of things. We know that, after episode 1, Spock is the executive officer as well as Chief Science Officer Making Sense of things. Gary Mitchell (C.Helm), Spock (C.Sci), Scott (C.Engr), McCoy (C.M.O), Giotto (C.Sec), Finney (C.Rec.). In the run of the series, we see the following LCdr ranked personell: Mitchell was the first officer until his death. However, it's been customarily assumed that Mr. The Pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, has several lieutenant commanders (LCdr) on board. Ranking officers who are capable of being in command of the Enterprise may, from time to time be placed in command of the ship in lieu of regular ship officers due to their experience or political power in the Federation.Īs far as landing parties go, it was the Captain's prerogative to go on Landing Parties but Spock was very fond of citing regulations against the entire command structure going on hostile missions on the surface of alien planets. While the Doctor has respectable rank, he has no experience in command and no desire for the training to become a command officer. McCoy and Nurse Chapel are the only members of this image who would never be left in a command role unless there were NO other living officers on board the ship available. Commander - Leonard McCoy - Ship's Lead DoctorĮnlisted Nurse - Christine Chapel - Lead Nurseĭr. Commander - Montgomery Scott - Chief Engineer, Second Officer His experience in combat may also be superior because of his time in Starfleet.

However, we are often left with Lt Commander, Montgomery Scott, who despite being in Engineering most of the time, is still considered, the Second Officer and in charge of the ship since he outranks all of the bridge crew except for Mr. This would be the order of command in the event of an emergency with only the bridge crew available. Ensign - Pavel Checkov - Helmsman, Weapons Officer.Lieutenant - Nyota Uhura, Communications Officer.Lieutenant - Hikaru Sulu, Helmsman, Navigation Officer.Commander - Spock, First Officer, Science Officer If we were to use this image below as a reference for the Original Series Star Trek Crew, the command structure would be:

Why have one commander captain