Part I: Data

USS Enterprise, NCC-1701, crew 430

Commanding Officer: Captain
Executive Officer: Lieutenant Commander, later Commander [later Captain] (also Science Officer)
Second Officer: not specified - Lt. Cdr. Scott? Lt. Cdr. Gary Mitchell?
Chief Engineer: Lieutenant Commander, later Commander [later Captain]
Chief Medical Officer: Lieutenant Commander, later Commander
Conn Officer: Lieutenant, later Lieutenant Commander, later Commander [maybe even Captain!] (also Tac Officer)
Nav Officer: Ensign, later Lieutenant, later Lieutenant Commander, later Commander (also Tac Officer)
Comms Officer: Lieutanant, later Lieutanant Commander, later Commander
Tac Officer: not specified - Lt. Cdr. Giotto in Security?

Note: I included the later ranks in square brackets to sdet them apart, since the advancing age and seniority of the crew became increasingly unlikely, as indeed is the TNG crew now. . .

USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-D (& -E), crew 1014 (& ?)

Commanding Officer: Captain
Executive Officer: Commander [also a Captain, theoretically]
Second Officer: Lieutenant Commander (also Operations Officer)
Chief Engineer: Lieutenant, later Lieutenant Commander (other Lt. Cdr.'s also seen)
Chief Medical Officer: Commander
Ship's Counselor: Lieutenant Commander, later Commander
Helmsman: Ensigns, various Ensigns-of-the-week, Lieutenant J.G.'s, Lieutenants
Nav Officer: NONE (amalgamated with Conn)
Comms Officer: NONE (Riker/Troi internal comms, Worf external. . .)
Tac Officer: Lieutenants, one later Lieutanant Commander

USS Voyager, NCC-74656, crew c. 155 (now 135-140)

Commanding Officer: Captain
Executive Officer: Lieutenant Commander (as was the original, Cavit)
Second Officer: Lieutenant, later Lieutenant Commander (also Tac Officer)
Chief Engineer: Lieutenant (J.G.? Original not known)
Chief Medical Officer: Lieutenant Commander (originally; now no rank)
Ship's Counselor: NONE (made clear from start)
Helmsman: Lieutenant J.G., later Ensign (was Stadi a Lt. or J.G.?)
Ops Officer: Ensign

Note: I considered including the Defiant, but since it was added later and has a bizarre command structure that includes the Science Officer (the return of this term, and the assigning of Operations Officer to both the Chief Engineer - aka Chief of Operations - and even the Strategic Operations Officer!) as helmsman, and a Bridge crew that has included members of the Bajoran Defense Forces AND the Obsidian Order, Founders, and Ferengi Starfleet Cadets!

Part II: Discussion

1. Executive Officers:: The rank held here seems to largely depend on the size of the ship. Spock WAS initially a Lt. Cdr., but that might have been down to error by the costume department, since I don't think he was ever called that; at times, in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" it's almost implied that Gary Mitchell, of equal rank, is the exec. . . Two Miranda-class ships - the Reliant and the Saratoga had Lt. Cdr.'s as Execs, as does the Voyager. I think that whenever possible the Commanding Officer is always a Captain, while the Exec's rank depends on the size of the departments and the ranks of their Department Heads, all of whom report to him.

This is where I start to think that the science staff complement and their ranks gives a clear indication of what that ship's overall mission is. . .

2. Despite being seen now as overtly militaristic, I believe The Original Series depicted the mission of the Enterprise as being mainly peaceful exploration, albeit an expedition loaded for bear! No prominent Security Officer, Tactical duties shared between Conn & Nav, and the Second-in-Command is the Science Officer! Plus, they have a Comms Officer whose role it is to warn the crew of changes in alert status and receive reports from Departments, something that Riker would be seen doing in TNG (while Worf would handle external Comms).

3. In The Next Generation, the sheer amount of science being carried out makes the job of a Science Officer almost an absurdity. Instead the Exec, Ops Officer, Engineer and Cheif Doctor all assist in coordinating the ship's research, with the Captain, Tac Officer and Counselor lending a hand (yes, and there was The Boy. . .). Their continuing refusal to even consider that the ship's Head of Ops/Second Officer, plus the rise in rank of almost everyone else, makes the whole thing increasingly ridiculous, however.

4. On Voyager, the situation changes dramatically. VERY few scientific staff, the Ops Officer is a mere Ensign, while instead the Tactical Officer is a Lieutenant Commander (and given the early mixup over insignia, maybe should have been one from the start) AND the Second Officer. The Astrometrics Lab is in disuse until Seven of Nine comes along. Voyager is not a scientific ship.

Two more points I'd like to make:

5. As time goes on, I wonder more and more exactly how powerful the Sovereign-class starship is meant to be. Sure, we haven't seen families on board, but these days I doubt many Starfleet vessels take that risk. Plus, there is the assigning of a command crew with a clear scientific background, so much so that they complain bout the sheer amount of diplomatic work they undertake - and no-one wonders why they aren't in the thick of the Dominion War! Then there's First Contact: their surprise at not being included in the Typhon Sector fleet is as much their proximity to the marshalling point, and their experience in fighting the Borg, as in their belief that their ship is so powerful it makes a natural addition to the fleet.

Last one. . .

6. Many of the senior command staff, by which I mean Captains and Execs, have a certain background which has characterised their time in Starfleet prior to attainig high rank. Picard was a scientist initially (and might have stayed that way, as in "Tapestry") and always takes an interest in his ship's research; Riker was once in Operations (gold tunic in "Second Chances") and is often sent down to help in Engineering. Sisko's background is less clear, but after Wolf 359 he is sent first to a shipyards, then to a decrepit space station - is he an engineer? Lastly, Janeway, who we KNOW was a Science Officer, takes an according interest. . . yet, in times of crisis, she's more likely to go down to Engineering to help, leaving Chakotay (who seems to have been a rising star in Starfleet, probably with a pure Command background) on the Bridge. . . with more interest in science and engineering, how did she end up commanding a small warship?!

So, go figure. . . much of this we already knew, but I thought I'd take a fresh look at it. Just goes to show that TNG was actually quite well thought out, as was DS9, in terms of the characters. . . but Voyager wasn't! It's harder to spot any such themes in TOS, but I hope that what I've said will make those of you who don't rate Classic Trek give it another look.

A few comments. Voyager's original mission to track down and arrest members of the Maquis explains the lack of science crew. However, due to their location in the Badlands, you might want a commanding officer with a fair bit of knowledge about esoteric spatial activity.

Regarding the Sovereign class, I agree that we don't know much about it. It performed well against the Borg, but that only lasted a few minutes, and much of that was due to the Enterprise's crew rather then the ship itself. The ship gets rather battered in Insurrection, though.

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"How many people does it
take before it becomes
wrong? 6,000? 60,000?
How many people does it
take admiral!?!" -Ambassador
Picard during his command
of the Enterprise-E in the
Ba'ku incident.

Other stuff:
Strategic Operations Officer. Isn't that the Commanding Officer?

Nice work First One.

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The real problem with the United States of America is that is was founded by Europeans, Asians, and Africans.

Plus, why would they offload the science crew for a simple police action in the Badlands? If there was a science team they didn't take, they'd have had to - but since the whole point of the Intrepid class was that it had the kind of tech to help it operate in places like the Badlands, wouldn't it be the perfect opportunity to take along a team to study local conditions and see how the ship stood up?

Troi's rank is incidental. She was a Lt. Cdr. long before she was even qualified to stand a Bridge watch. And Crusher has always outranked Data - and she IS a Bridge officer and has been from the start - I think. I believe there might be a line of dialogue in the ep where Troi takes the test that clarifies this.

The Second Officer doesn't have much to do, normally - except act as Exec when the First Officer is in command. But they've always treated this very loosely, and it sucks. In BOBW, Riker gives Worf an equal shot at becoming SO, before discounting them both in favour of Shelby. "Gambit" is a fave of mine purely because you see Data in command with Worf - who's given the place of Exec rather than Troi, note - as Exec. Very rarely do we see Tuvok as Exec, either.

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I drink therefore I am.

Good one, Daryus - I'd forgotten that. . .

Since Scotty took part in the self-destruct sequence in Let That be your Last Battlefield and Trek III, it does seem to indicate that he was second officer. At least at that time

Spock was referred to as Lt Commander in Court Martial. But I always thought that he had commander's stripes.

In Conspiracy, Riker says 'Science officer' to Quinn. I assume he's talking about Data, since Quinn says '[the parasities] won't like your science officer', presumably because they wouldn't be able to infect an android. So that makes Data science officer, according to Will anyway.

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Parallax