Who would you consider Voyager's science officer?

[Tyyr]

Harry was as close to a science officer as Voyager had until Seven showed up.

[Reliant121]

They seemed to both act as science officer interchangeably. I'd personally go with Kim, but I have no reason or explanation for it.

[McAvoy]

Harry Kim and I have no real explanation for it.

[Foxbat]

I've dabbled in participating in and leading Star Trek group story writing in my past. A person sets up a writing crew with themselves as captain, and others taking on various ship positions and the group together writes the missions somewhat collaboratively. Invariably, the chief science officer slot has a lot of 'turnover' because of the general vague nature of the position on any given ship and people lose interest. It's an odd phenomenon...

writing group examples:

http://www.obsidianfleet.net/

http://bravofleet.com/

[alexmann]

Memory Alpha lists the Voyager's science officer to be Samantha Wildman.

[Mikey]

Memory Alpha lists the Voyager's science officer to be Samantha Wildman.

What source do they cite?

[alexmann]

Elogium.

[Mikey]

Hmm. I'd have to check the script, but if that's in the ep it's a pretty open-and-shut case.

[Captain Seafort]

It's the ep that I raised in the original thread in DITL that sparked this one: she was clearly acting as science officer on the bridge. People objected to that logic.

[Mikey]

Personally, my objection was that seeing her function as a science officer doesn't make her the science officer, read: member of senior staff and regularly able to command a department. In any event, was she referred to in the ep as "the" science officer, head of sciences, or anything similar?

[Captain Seafort]

member of senior staff

Why should being a member of the senior staff be a prerequisite for being science officer?

regularly able to command a department

She was the senior blueshirt aboard, on a ship where the Operations Manager was an Ensign and the 2iC a Lt Commander. Happy?

[Mikey]

Why should being a member of the senior staff be a prerequisite for being science officer?

As I said, it's not a prerequisite for being a science officer. I can't really imagine how the chief of a department is anything other than senior, however. Was Wildman ever consulted by the captain or her court for her advice in a steering committee? Was she ever consulted on the operation of "her" department, or advised on how to best run it?

She was the senior blueshirt aboard, on a ship where the Operations Manager was an Ensign and the 2iC a Lt Commander. Happy?

Yes, rather - I just had a very nice game with the kids. As to this discussion, however...
The fact of a number of people being lost in the transfer to the DQ is both well-known and completely irrelevant.

[stitch626]

I seem to remember Wildman being in those briefings... but then again so was Neelix.

[Graham Kennedy]

But was she A science officer or THE science officer? Surely any officer who works in a science department would be considered as a "Starfleet Science Officer", but that doesn't make them the department head.

[Captain Seafort]

As I said, it's not a prerequisite for being a science officer. I can't really imagine how the chief of a department is anything other than senior, however.

You mean like Neela Darren, who was head of stellar cartography, outranked Worf, and was not part of the senior staff.

Was Wildman ever consulted by the captain or her court for her advice in a steering committee? Was she ever consulted on the operation of "her" department, or advised on how to best run it?

On occasion. Rarely, but she was occasionally consulted. The key problem was that Janeway was both a science branch officer herself and prone to micromanagement, so she tended to refer to herself (as usual) rather than Wildman.

The fact of a number of people being lost in the transfer to the DQ is both well-known and completely irrelevant.

Indeed, so why do you mention it?