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Starship Roles Arranged by Authority (quokk.au)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/tenforward@lemmy.world
35 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/435:_Purity

Stick figures standing along the horizontal axis of a chart, lined up based on authority. The individuals are labeled civilian, cadet, ensign, lieutenant, captain, and chief medical officer. The captain says "It's nice to be on top", and the chief medical officer says "Oh, hey, I didn't see you guys all the way over there"

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[–] 32 points 10 months ago (19 children)

The CMO can only override the captain in matters of health. They can't just walk onto the bridge and declare captaincy.

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  • [–] [S] 33 points 10 months ago (15 children)

    The CMO could just declare all of the senior officers as medically unfit for duty or whatever, and the chain of command would then render the CMO as effectively the captain. Of course, the CMO would be expected to justify that action in their medical log once the emergency has passed.

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  • [–] 26 points 10 months ago* (13 children)

    If the captain believed the CMO was illegitimately declaring officers medically unfit I’m highly skeptical such a ploy would work just because it seems possible on paper

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  • [–] [S] 18 points 10 months ago (11 children)

    What we are describing here is effectively mutiny, just with an officially sanctioned way to justify it with a paper trail after the dust has settled. And like with any mutiny, it all comes down to the collective strength of the mutineers. If the captain understood that the CMO was just staging a mutiny, and the majority of officers onboard were behind the CMO for whatever reason, there is not really anything the captain can do about it in the moment.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (9 children)

    Well now we’re talking about a mutiny and I don’t see why the officers would side with a CMO committing mutiny, if anything they’d almost certainly side with the captain. We would need an elaborate plot to substantiate the CMO successfully rallying star fleet officers to commit a mutiny.

    The captain can simply relieve the CMO for cause, promote another medical officer, and that would be that.

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    I mean that "the CMO illegitimately declaring officers medically unfit" is, in all reality, just mutiny if the end goal is to take command. And like any mutiny, the success of that ploy depends on enough of the crew choosing to back the ploy.

    The captain can simply relieve the CMO for cause, promote another medical officer, and that would be that.

    At that point, it still comes down to who the crew sides with. If they think the "real" CMO is in the right, then they will not recognize the "new" CMO as legitimate, and back up the "real" CMO's decision to relieve the captain of duty. If they instead believe that the "real" CMO is not in the right, they will recognize the authority of the "new" CMO and not consider the captain to be relieved of duty.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (6 children)

    Well now we’re talking about a mutiny and I don’t see why the officers would side with a CMO committing mutiny, if anything they’d almost certainly side with the captain.

    i don't think you understand what mutiny is. it is a situation where the mutineers do not side with the captain 😂 and it can happen for like infinite number of reasons.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (5 children)

    Sure, but the point is that not all of the officers are necessarily mutineers themselves.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (4 children)

    yes, that is true for absolute majority of officers in absolute majority of crews, both real and imaginary.

    the mutiny happens when there is enough mutineers to take control. if there is not enough of them, then there is no mutiny.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    Just also quote the part where I said we’d need an elaborate plot to have the CMO create a mutiny that officers go along with. Then there wouldn’t be any confusion

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    not really much elaboration needed. you just need the crew to be pissed at the captain, that is quite a simple plot. mutinies have happened in the past, they are not a science fiction.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mutinies

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  • [–] -1 points 10 months ago

    Sure except this is Star Fleet, which is science fiction, so we have every reason to assume that a mutiny would only occur for good reason, like when Kirk was possessed. An evil CMO trying to illegitimately seize power would indeed require an elaborate plot.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago*

    Both this and the opposite example where the CMO declares the captain unfit but the rest of the crew are still loyal and follow the captain as i I believe actually happened to Janeway.

    I also think that any bridge officier ranks above CMO to become captain in an emergency situation. So they would need to discharge all bridge officers and trust that they will all comply in order to become captain themselves.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    Nope. It's portrayed often as a unilateral move but without being seconded they cannot remove anyone. In the case of the captain you need key crew to second and for that matter any member of key crew can declare anyone else medically unfit and it works the same way.

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    • [–] 23 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Civilian < Cadet < Ensign < Lieutenant < Captain < CMO < CMO banging the Captain

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    • [–] 16 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    Q: am I a joke to you?

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  • [–] 16 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Usually, yes.

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    • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    This comment is to recognize all the forgotten Crewmen, Chief Petty Officer and all the other, never mentioned (at least onscreen) enlisted and NCO ranks.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    So many pieces of media get it... not "wrong" I guess, because maybe they just don't have those ranks or whatever, but come on, let's not pretend that Lieutenant anybody is fixing a goddamn thing

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    • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    admiral, "its nice to lord over starfleet subjects, and my own agenda."

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    [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    “Those people created a perfect society that made them move past the need to be fucking to reproduce. They’re spitting in God’s face, Jim, blow it up. Blow it all up.” - Chief Medical Officer Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy

    And so they did, because fuck The Prime Directive.

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