Oh I agree it was completely an artificial plot contrivance to keep him in the "gullible sidekick" role. Garrett Wang has been quoted as saying when he brought up the issue with Braga he was told "well, someone has to be the ensign."
If true, that's a pretty lame out. They could easily have brought up any of the failed Maquis starting out as officers, or busted down survivors from the Equinox, a pick-up from any disaster of the week, and so on.
If you have a chance sometime, read Ronald D. Moore's lengthy interview where he goes off on Voyager. "Lame out" is pretty much how he thinks they did EVERYTHING on Voyager.
If I was going to say if it's based off of US Navy... then it's CO/XO then based on the rank and time in rank of the next person and so on and so on.
But to muddle it up a bit the US Navy has Command Duty Officers (or CDOs) who are in charge of certain aspects of the ship (like the bridge and such) to a certain degree. So often when you see a officer just sitting on the bridge that may be because at that particular moment they are "on duty" as the CDO and in charge of the bridge.
Then you may also have to take into account positional authority. So your Medical Officer may actually by time in rank outrank your XO, but by position your XO is in charge of your Medical Officer (this is also having to do with things like Line Officer vs a support or non-line officer)
The Soviet Navy (and some others) muddle this positional authority even up more with at times your Engineering officer outranking your CO.
Now if you really want to make it crazy, add in embarked personnel to the mix, and then you need to worry about missions and such.
I'll use a prime example of this while I was in the Navy. Our Captain (who all so held the rank of Captain) was in charge of the ship unless the Fleet Admiral was on board. Than by default he was in charge. The Captain was still the Captain but if the admiral wanted him to do something other than his best judgment he would have to go with the Admirals call.
Now line officers and none line officers. You can have Commander Medical officer and a Lt in Operations/weapons or what not and if those where the only two officers alive than the Lt will take command of the ship cause he's a line officer and the Medical officer is not.
While it's a crappy movie to compare to, but look at Battleship. When the Captain and XO got killed, that left the Lt of a lesser department in charge. There might of been a Medical or supply officer that out ranked him, but in line of chain of command, he is the next in line as a line officer.
Now Star Terk all ways confused me, basically it's who ever they really wanted to be in charge. Than again they switched the RED SHIRTS on us from the first as some enlisted guy to the TNG where all the line/command officers wore red.
In my experience of both watching the franchise shows, my service in the army, and my father's service in the navy. Command lineage is most often deferred to rank, but the individual in charge can make a command decision of change as they see fit. Except in the case of the leader's death were it is dictated by most senior rank.
It TNG episode: "All good things" Picard gave a tactical command to Worf, forgetting Tasha was a part of the current time-line. Tasha Yar protested and asked if the captain would like to make a change in command structure.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I was Klingon before Klingon was cool.
Comments
If true, that's a pretty lame out. They could easily have brought up any of the failed Maquis starting out as officers, or busted down survivors from the Equinox, a pick-up from any disaster of the week, and so on.
Edit:
Heck, here's a link...http://www.lcarscom.net/rdm1000118.htm
I'll use a prime example of this while I was in the Navy. Our Captain (who all so held the rank of Captain) was in charge of the ship unless the Fleet Admiral was on board. Than by default he was in charge. The Captain was still the Captain but if the admiral wanted him to do something other than his best judgment he would have to go with the Admirals call.
Now line officers and none line officers. You can have Commander Medical officer and a Lt in Operations/weapons or what not and if those where the only two officers alive than the Lt will take command of the ship cause he's a line officer and the Medical officer is not.
While it's a crappy movie to compare to, but look at Battleship. When the Captain and XO got killed, that left the Lt of a lesser department in charge. There might of been a Medical or supply officer that out ranked him, but in line of chain of command, he is the next in line as a line officer.
Now Star Terk all ways confused me, basically it's who ever they really wanted to be in charge. Than again they switched the RED SHIRTS on us from the first as some enlisted guy to the TNG where all the line/command officers wore red.
It TNG episode: "All good things" Picard gave a tactical command to Worf, forgetting Tasha was a part of the current time-line. Tasha Yar protested and asked if the captain would like to make a change in command structure.
I was Klingon before Klingon was cool.