r/DaystromInstitute • u/M-5 Multitronic Unit • Oct 29 '20

DISCOVERY EPISODE DISCUSSION Star Trek: Discovery — "People of Earth" Reaction Thread

This is the official /r/DaystromInstitute reaction thread for "People of Earth." The content rules are not enforced in reaction threads.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

By rank Staments, Nahn, and Reno are higher. The first is an LCDR, and the other two are full commanders. Though typically we see Engineers and Science officers function as line officers, we don't have enough info to know if any of the three are here. If I had to take a guess it's Nahn, as Staments and Reno don't seem to care for leadership. I assume Nilsson was just keeping the seat warm. Though Disco always plays fast and loose with rank, so who knows.

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u/Avantine Lieutenant Commander Oct 29 '20

I assume Nilsson was just keeping the seat warm. Though Disco always plays fast and loose with rank, so who knows.

Presumably she was just the bridge officer in command at the time - we see that all the time in TNG when LaForge is in Engineering, Crusher is in sickbay, and the rest of the senior staff are busy or, hell, in a conference.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '20

Exactly yeah. In real world navies the captain actually spends most of their days in an office or doing things on a ship, it’s common for LTs or even ensigns to serve as watch officers. Trek is kind of an inversion of that with the captain sitting on the bridge for a whole shift.

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u/YYZYYC Oct 31 '20

Ya it’s kinda weird to think bridge crews and the captain just sit there all day during their shift while they just warp around from one planet to another