VOY: The Gift

[Mark]

Good point. Would have been alot more believable to have the Defiant with her own seperate crew and simply be ATTACHED to the station, at Sisko's disposal.

[SomosFuga]

So while Sisko took over command of the Defiant it wasn't large enough for Starfleet to bother finding a Lt. Commander or the like to be chief engineer of a depart of a dozen enlisted men.

I think the Defiant itself is an odd situation. By it's size and complement, one might well expect it to be skippered by a commander if not even an experienced lieutenant. However, byt virtue of it being the hot new shiny toy in the UFP's box, one could expect it to be skippered by a prominent captain.

Ok, i agree, it is and should be commanded by a captain because it's the Defiant. But can other relatively small ships or maybe support ships be commanded by lesser officers like a commander or Lt commander? i don't remember having seen or heard something like that in SF.

[Mikey]

We haven't often seen the command structure of a smaller ship at all. In addition, the skipper of any ship will be referred to as "captain" by virtue of his position, regardless of his actual rank.

[Captain Seafort]

But can other relatively small ships or maybe support ships be commanded by lesser officers like a commander or Lt commander? i don't remember having seen or heard something like that in SF.

Yes we have - the Defiant, when Jadzia or Worf were in command (on which point I agree with Graham that Worf should have been given permanent command of the Defiant, rather than makework).

[SomosFuga]

In ep The Arsenal of Freedom when Picard had to go down to the planet along with Crusher and with Riker, Data and Tasha already on the planet, he left Geordi in charge of the ship. There was a lieutenant (i think he was the chief engineer) who out ranked Geordi and yet Geordi was in charge, this guy even asked La Forge to give the command to him but La Forge declines his orders and then he sends him back to engineering saying he's in command until relieved by Riker or Picard.

So, having at least one senior officer aboard Geordi was in charge. They make the situation even clearer when this officer demands the command and his claim is utterly rejected.

[Captain Seafort]

So, having at least one senior officer aboard Geordi was in charge. They make the situation even clearer when this officer demands the command and his claim is utterly rejected.

That, however, goes back to the same thing as before - Geordi had no authority of his own to tell the Chief Engineer to get lost. However, as he pointed out in the episode, he'd been placed in command by Picard, and therefore derived his authority from him.

[Mark]

Not to clear on WHY Picard would put Geordi in command, being a LTJG at the time, and only the Conn officer. Always struck me as strange.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Well, it was revealed that Picard had encountered Geordi before and he had impressed Picard. Maybe he wanted La Forge a chance to prove himself?

[stitch626]

Haven't seen the ep in a while...
Was the guy questioning LaForges authority the Chief Engineer?

Perhaps the reason Picard put LaForge in charge was because he was the highest ranking bridge officer. Someone who's on the bridge all of the time would know a bit more (on average) about commanding a ship than someone who sits by a warp core all the time.

[Mikey]

Maybe Picard was just a big fan of Reading Rainbow?

[Tsukiyumi]

[Mark]

Haven't seen the ep in a while...
Was the guy questioning LaForges authority the Chief Engineer?

Perhaps the reason Picard put LaForge in charge was because he was the highest ranking bridge officer. Someone who's on the bridge all of the time would know a bit more (on average) about commanding a ship than someone who sits by a warp core all the time.

Your reasoning makes sense............but we SAW Scotty getting dragged out of engineering quite often to take command when Kirk and Spock both beamed down.

[stitch626]

Yes, but Scotty also spent a large number of episodes on the bridge during battle (and even normal ops) as well (presumably as some sort of engineering station, or maybe a com station to direct damage repair teams).

[Aaron]

The Big E also didn't need her engineering section babysat to the extent the E-D did.

[SomosFuga]

Haven't seen the ep in a while...
Was the guy questioning LaForges authority the Chief Engineer?

Perhaps the reason Picard put LaForge in charge was because he was the highest ranking bridge officer. Someone who's on the bridge all of the time would know a bit more (on average) about commanding a ship than someone who sits by a warp core all the time.

Your reasoning makes sense............but we SAW Scotty getting dragged out of engineering quite often to take command when Kirk and Spock both beamed down.

Well, Kirk and Picard are captains with very different styles. This may not be common or standard practice in SF but something Picard did because it seemed the right time to prove one of his young officers, or maybe was not common in TOS but it is common or even standard by the time of TNG. Maybe Picard just didn't like this particular guy.