Ship departments?

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

A discussion about MACOs in another thread, and looking at Anti Drone's amazing NX-01 deck plans got me thinking about what kind of departments and functions there would be on a starship. This is roughly what I came up with:

• Command
  The commanding officer [Archer], the executive officer [T'Pol], helm/navigation [Travis]
• Science
  The science officer [T'Pol] and various science labs (astronomy, stellar cartography, astrophysics, archeology, anthropology etc. depending on mission profile and length of mission)
• Medical
  Chief Medical Officer [Phlox], life sciences, biology labs
• Communications/Linguistics
  [Hoshi] At least in the ENT era this post is more scientific and not just a subspace switchboard operator.
• Engineering
  Chief Engineer [Trip]; Including technical maintenance, repair shops, damage control
• Logistics
  Quartermaster, cargo bays, shuttle bays, galley, cleaning
• Environmental systems
  Including hydroponics
• Tactical/Security
  Armoury officer [Reed], weapons, weapons systems, defence systems, security guards, MACOs

Have I forgotten something? As far as department heads go, we haven't seen a Logistical officer/Quartermaster (that latter title might not work for naval usage) or an Environmental Systems officer. Perhaps those positions aren't filled with commissioned officers but with Warrant Officers or senior NCOs?

ETA: Crap, the board went out for a while, and when I tried posting this again it ended up in the wrong forum. This should be in the "Non-fanfic forum" or the "General Chat forum".

[Elessar]

what about Storage? and the Shuttle bays?

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

what about Storage? and the Shuttle bays?

Look carefully, it's under Logistics.

[blacknblue]

Environmental should be under Engineering. It falls under Life Support Systems.

I am thinking that for simplicity of administration, Logisitics would be under Security. Security would be responsible for inspecting and guarding all supplies, especially weapons and foodstuffs but also any ship's stores that might either be used against the crew and/or could cause critical problems if they were attacked.

[CX]

Have I forgotten something

Operations.

[blacknblue]

Would that be under Command?

[CX]

Nope. Well, I honestly don't know how the Navy does it, and since that's what Starfleet seems to be modeled on I guess you'd go with that. On an air base the wing staff is generally considered a separate entity from Operations Group.

[blacknblue]

Educate me then. Just what exactly does Operations handle?

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Environmental should be under Engineering. It falls under Life Support Systems.

I am thinking that for simplicity of administration, Logisitics would be under Security. Security would be responsible for inspecting and guarding all supplies, especially weapons and foodstuffs but also any ship's stores that might either be used against the crew and/or could cause critical problems if they were attacked.

Still, logistics is a huge operation in itself. Loading cargo bays, supply the crew and ship with just about everything they need, keeping inventory, store and cook food, etc. seems like a full time job.

Educate me then. Just what exactly does Operations handle?

Yeah, me too! "Operations" sounds so generic that it can be pretty much whatever you want it to be.

On TNG Data was the operations officer and he seemed to do whatever the plot required for each episode. Mostly he seemed like a substitute science officer.

[Elessar]

Look at whatever Harry Kim did... he was the Ops officer.

[CX]

Operations helps to control everything that happens on a ship. They manage the resources so they are used more effectively, and they keep track of what exactly is happening on the ship and the space around it. I know the old Iowas had an entire room dedicated to Operations.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Well, they never had an operations officer on Kirk's Enterprise. And from the description it seems like it would be a position to allow you to have the ops officer do whatever (within reason) was needed in the episode.

At any rate, if there should be an operations officer on board the NX-01, I'd put him in the command department. He/she can lurk behind the bridge by that "pool table" they've got.

[CX]

That's actually the perfect spot for one, and that's where I'd put one.

[JadziaKathryn]

Would Chef be under Logistics?

[Rigil Kent]

Well, I honestly don't know how the Navy does it

Then visit the website of FFG-57 USS Reuben James (a guided missile frigate with a complement of 15 officers & 190 enlisted, plus 6 pilots & 15 enlisted crew for the choppers) and be enlightened.

Point of order: the captain is not in any department. His purview is the entire boat, so making a "command" department doesn't really make any sense to me (all officers are supposed to be capable of command, after all). But then, making T'Pol the XO in ... well ... any season of the show doesn't make any damned sense either (including season 4 where Trip outranks her by time in grade and time in service). Technically, the XO is also not part of any single department either.

Anyway, I'd revise the departments to:

• Administration. also known as logistics. The CMO is part of this department (Phlox isn't a member of Starfleet so he can't command a department, and since, for whatever reason, the ship only has one medical officer, it doesn't make sense to make an entire department around him), as is the ship's quartermaster and cook. If the XO commands any department, it's this one. Sato is probably a member of this department in her capacity as COM officer - it just doesn't make any sense to me to devote an entire department to communications since they do have that silly UT present.
• Combat Systems (aka WEPS or Tactical or Security). Armoury officer [Reed], weapons, weapons systems, defense systems, security guards, MACOs under its aegis.
• Engineering. Chief Engineer [Tucker]; Including technical maintenance, repair shops, damage control, environmental systems.
• Flight Operations. (Eventually shortened in later years to simply Operations and likely combined with Admin) ENS Mayweather actually commands this department (although why the frak they've got an ensign doing this job is beyond me. He should be LT JG at least.) It covers helm/navigation which, contrary to what we generally see on the show, is going to be more than just the pilot pushing buttons. I'm pretty sure that there should be both a Helmsman (who pilots the ship) and a Navigator (who plots the course of the ship ... somewhere else!) All pilots (including 'pod pilots) should technically belong to this department, but the show insisted on basically having everyone and their third cousin be pilots.
• Science. Well, duh. The science officer [T'Pol] and various science labs (astronomy, stellar cartography, astrophysics, archeology, anthropology etc. depending on mission profile and length of mission), life sciences, biology labs

People in Admin and Science would wear the blue stripe, CombatSys and Engineering would wear the red, and FltOps gets the gold.

JMHO.