[Bridger]

There is also this bridge officer examination and it is unusal for sciences or medical officers to have this qualification.

[Taku]

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, etc…

Data will never be the Science Officer aboard the Enterprise. The end.

Spoilered due to length:

From Memory Alpha:

Aboard the Enterprise Edit

Data served as operations officer and second officer on board the USS Enterprise-D from 2364 until the vessel's destruction in 2371. (Star Trek Generations) Since he did not require sleep, he routinely stood night watch on the bridge. (TNG: "Data's Day") Data's quarters were located on deck 2, room 3653. (TNG: "A Matter of Time") He frequently participated in away missions undertaken by the crew, as was indicated by standard procedure for the second officer of a Federation starship.

and…

List of Science Officers Edit

Data – USS Enterprise-D, 2364 (TNG: "We'll Always Have Paris")

Data was the operations officer of the Enterprise-D and was only referred to as "science officer" once. It is likely that he was acting in that position, as Swenson was mentioned to be the science officer.

From startrek.com:

STARFLEET PERSONNEL FILE: Data

Final Rank: Lieutenant Commander
Last assignment: Second Officer/Science Officer, U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E (was promoted to First Officer, but died prior to position taking effect)
Full Name: Data
Date of birth: Permanently re-activated Feb. 2, 2338 (initial activation unknown)
Place of birth: Omicron Theta science colony
Parents: Created by Dr. Noonien Soong and Dr. Juliana O'Donnell Soong Tainer
Education: Starfleet Academy, 2341-45
Marital status: Single
Children: One, deceased
Quarters: Formerly, Enterprise-D: Deck 2/Room 3653
Date of death: 2379
Place of death: Destroyed with Reman ship Scimitar in line of duty
Service Awards: Starfleet Command Decoration for Valor; Starfleet Command Decoration for Gallantry; Medal of Honor, with Clusters; Legion of Honor; The Starcross

And from wikipedia:

…Data is a self-aware, sapient, sentient, and anatomically fully functional android who serves as the second officer and chief operations officer aboard the Federation starships USS Enterprise-D and USS Enterprise-E.

So… while there is certainly room for debate due to the inclusion of the Science Officer title at startrek.com, the same site excludes the Operations Officer title which we all agree is canon. Therefore, we cannot assume that startrek.com is the authoritative source. Once we accept that, we are left with the inescapable conclusion that:

There is one person that we are certain will hold the position, and carry the title, of Science Officer aboard the Enterprise-D. His name is Jay Gordon Graas. It is canon. As for the elusive Swenson? Well, there you go.

Lieutenant Commander Data will be many things, however, the Science officer aboard any starship named USS Enterprise will not be one of those things.

Let the beatings commence.

[Allan Hood]

Isn't it possible to be in more then one field (I guess studied) as officer? To my understanding you needed to be super smart to even be in Starfleet, however this is data we are talking about. He could of done each field with ease.

That's my point haha

- - - Updated - - -

haha, Yes.

hahaha

Did any other science officers step up and Data stayed on ops? Nope, someone replaced him at ops and he served as the science officer. Think of all the times that Picard paired La Forge and Data together for an assignment, engineering and science. Picard didn't pick any other science officer, but Data.

"Occupation: Operations officer, Second officer, Science officer"
"Science officers of the starships Enterprise: USS Enterprise-D; Data, USS Enterprise-E; Data"
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Data

He was the science officer on the Enterprise-D AND Enterprise-E haha

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There is one person that we are certain will hold the position, and carry the title, of Science Officer aboard the Enterprise-D. His name is Jay Gordon Graas. It is canon.
Let the beatings commence.

hahahaha
"Jay Gordon Graas was one of three children given a tour of the USS Enterprise-D by Captain Jean-Luc Picard in 2368 as a reward for the best science projects at that year's science fair."
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Jay_Gordon

[Taku]

"Occupation: Operations officer, Second officer, Science officer"
"Science officers of the starships Enterprise: USS Enterprise-D; Data, USS Enterprise-E; Data"
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Data

He was the science officer on the Enterprise-D AND Enterprise-E haha

Whatever. Your headcanon, not the canon.

There were HUNDREDS of Science officers aboard the Enterprises D & E.
Data was the Operations Officer (Chief of Operations), and the Second Officer. The end.
The Enterprise-D did not have a Science Officer like Spock. Unless you want to include the never-seen Science Officer Swenson.

The shirt colors changed, the positions morphed.
Helm & Nav combined. Tactical and Security combined. The XO is just that, an XO. No bloody science, no bloody engineering, no bloody doctoring. Just an Executive Officer.

The confusion about "Who was the Science Officer aboard the Enterprise-D?" comes from people trying to fit TNG personnel into TOS roles. How many Deanna Trois were there in TOS? Who was the Communications Officer in TNG? Who was the Security Officer in TOS? Where was Picard's Yeoman? How about Scotty's barber?

Many changes happen to chains of command over the course of 70 years. The elimination of a command title that served no purpose is one of them. Data made entries into the ship's science logs, but never as the Science Officer. It was science officers' log, not Science Officer's log.

You can believe he was The Science Officer. I have made my arguments and I am done.

--- EOF ---

[Allan Hood]

Whatever. Your headcanon, not the canon.
--- EOF ---

I just learned he was the science officer from Memory Alpha, that doesn't come from me haha it just makes sense considering everything we find out about him in all the previous posts.

[Alandrel]

Consider that Memory Alpha is an UNOFFICIAL source of information compiled by fans, and will contain inaccuracies. Due to the way each series was written, positions may or may not exist in each variant. Consider Commander Darren, the head of Stellar Cartography on the -D. (For those who forgot, she was the woman who played keyboard and fell in love with Picard). Whom did she report to? The XO (Riker). She was a DIVISION head. The chain of command is different. To be blatantly honest, if one were to follow the chain of command, Troi should report to Dr. Crusher (or Pulaski, depending upon episode) as she is a part of the medical staff. As I have helped to explain to Allan once before, not everything is translatable between series. As Operations Officer, Data is the liaison between ship's services and the command staff. if Geordi needs something done, Data's the man to get it done. If Ensign Ricky down in Waste Reclamation needs some time to get his extraction units cleaned, he calls Data to let him know that his section will be out of order, THEN he calls his boss to get things done. Consider the Ops officer as the ship's bulletin board. Ops knows ship's status at all times. Perfect choice for a second officer, especially when they work well with the XO.

That's my 2 slips of latinum. I'm expecting change, since I've enclosed a strip.

~AZ

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Maybe Commander MacDuff was the Science Officer? But he wore red…

"Kieran MacDuff" was an alien imposter, silly.

Just to add more fuel to this already burning fire... I'm going to ramble.

For those saying that the uniform follows the position... in TOS, anyone on command track wore gold, ships services wore red, sciences wore blue. If this is the case, why did Uhura wear gold in The Corbomite Manuever and Mudd’s Women? Additionally, it's well known to those who can read into the characters (as well as a few of the TOS novels) that Spock prefers the role of Science Officer over the option of command, and therefore will wear the blue of sciences.

Why did Dr. Crusher wear the more teal of medical when Pulaski wore the dark blue? Pulaski was NOT a bridge officer. She held the rank of Commander as a formality (senior medical staff aboard a naval vessel usually hold a rank equivalent to a command grade for purposes of authoritative action such as relieving a senior officer of duty).

Oh, and someone mentioned something about Picard not having a yeoman... well, think about it. Why would he need a yeoman with a status console at his fingertips? He could authorize fuel and other resource expenditure at the touch of a keypad. He is clearly able to allow himself the luxury of selecting his daily uniform (seeing as he only wore the single variant of grey duty uniform with bomber jacket) and he is more than capable of selecting his meal from the replicator in his spacious cabin. I would assume that the position of yeoman has gone the way of the engine wiper. Newly enlisted personnel have a multitude of positions available to them. Who wouldn't want the prestigious posting in the upper warp pylon or even the nacelle inspection area?

Alright. Enough rambling. i'm going back to my quarters, where my yeoman has poured me some Saurian brandy and my comments are worth something.

[Allan Hood]

Consider that Memory Alpha is an UNOFFICIAL source of information compiled by fans, and will contain inaccuracies. Due to the way each series was written, positions may or may not exist in each variant. Consider Commander Darren, the head of Stellar Cartography on the -D. (For those who forgot, she was the woman who played keyboard and fell in love with Picard). Whom did she report to? The XO (Riker). She was a DIVISION head. The chain of command is different. To be blatantly honest, if one were to follow the chain of command, Troi should report to Dr. Crusher (or Pulaski, depending upon episode) as she is a part of the medical staff. As I have helped to explain to Allan once before, not everything is translatable between series. As Operations Officer, Data is the liaison between ship's services and the command staff. if Geordi needs something done, Data's the man to get it done. If Ensign Ricky down in Waste Reclamation needs some time to get his extraction units cleaned, he calls Data to let him know that his section will be out of order, THEN he calls his boss to get things done. Consider the Ops officer as the ship's bulletin board. Ops knows ship's status at all times. Perfect choice for a second officer, especially when they work well with the XO.

That's my 2 slips of latinum. I'm expecting change, since I've enclosed a strip.

~AZ

- - - Updated - - -



"Kieran MacDuff" was an alien imposter, silly.

Just to add more fuel to this already burning fire... I'm going to ramble.

For those saying that the uniform follows the position... in TOS, anyone on command track wore gold, ships services wore red, sciences wore blue. If this is the case, why did Uhura wear gold in The Corbomite Manuever and Mudd’s Women? Additionally, it's well known to those who can read into the characters (as well as a few of the TOS novels) that Spock prefers the role of Science Officer over the option of command, and therefore will wear the blue of sciences.

Why did Dr. Crusher wear the more teal of medical when Pulaski wore the dark blue? Pulaski was NOT a bridge officer. She held the rank of Commander as a formality (senior medical staff aboard a naval vessel usually hold a rank equivalent to a command grade for purposes of authoritative action such as relieving a senior officer of duty).

Oh, and someone mentioned something about Picard not having a yeoman... well, think about it. Why would he need a yeoman with a status console at his fingertips? He could authorize fuel and other resource expenditure at the touch of a keypad. He is clearly able to allow himself the luxury of selecting his daily uniform (seeing as he only wore the single variant of grey duty uniform with bomber jacket) and he is more than capable of selecting his meal from the replicator in his spacious cabin. I would assume that the position of yeoman has gone the way of the engine wiper. Newly enlisted personnel have a multitude of positions available to them. Who wouldn't want the prestigious posting in the upper warp pylon or even the nacelle inspection area?

Alright. Enough rambling. i'm going back to my quarters, where my yeoman has poured me some Saurian brandy and my comments are worth something.

Right, MA is unofficial, but everything's cited from canon haha so...

"Originally, Data was going to be the Chief Science Officer on the Enterprise (like Spock was on the original Star Trek (1966)) and wear a blue uniform. However, the color blue clashed with the android make-up and the idea was changed."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092455/...item=tr0750799

He was suppose to wear blue and even be Chief Science Officer, but they switched him to Ops because there was a color clash haha that's the real reason. This explains why he handles the sciences so often and has science honors. Why go into the sciences at the Academy to be Ops? They just didn't think his eyes went with his shirt haha it's not head-canon; that's just real life.

[Bar'ol]

I think to this point everyone is beating a dead horse. Suppose to and what he actually is completely different story altogether. Seriously you see a lot of officers going into other fields giving feedback and what not. You're arguing over a Android who/it can do ANYTHING. Why do you think Starfleet had trouble with even having android on their ship? (I think there is even a episode about it). End of the day all this is are titles. Offically or unoffically we see him doing Operations the most. I will however argue Beverly was technically med/science officer. Then again I think people were crossed trained to help in many areas of the ship, which goes back to my orginal statement with Data.

I suppose you can look at composition of Next Gen away teams - who did they call for specific rolls?

(btw im not really entering this arguement just talking from what I've seen so far in this thread)

[Three of Seven]

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Science_officer

"Data was the operations officer of the Enterprise-D and was only referred to as "science officer" once. It is likely that he was acting in that position, as Swenson was mentioned to be the science officer."

That's all you need to know really, he was not the permanent science officer.

[Petrarch]

Have a look at the episode Conundrum (Season 5, ep. 14) - the crew manifest is read out by the computer and Data is referred to as the Operations Officer. That's his official role within the command structure. Yes, there was a fake 1st officer listed in that same manifest but everyone else bar Riker (who was listed as 2nd Officer - actually another of Data's roles) was correctly titled.

[Allan Hood]

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Science_officer

"Data was the operations officer of the Enterprise-D and was only referred to as "science officer" once. It is likely that he was acting in that position, as Swenson was mentioned to be the science officer."

That's all you need to know really, he was not the permanent science officer.

"Occupation: Operations officer, Second officer, Science officer"
"Science officers of the starships Enterprise: USS Enterprise-D; Data, USS Enterprise-E; Data"
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Data

Just in case you didn't see my earlier post, Memory Alpha says a little more than that. It gets me thinking because they say "It is likely..."

[Three of Seven]

"Occupation: Operations officer, Second officer, Science officer"
"Science officers of the starships Enterprise: USS Enterprise-D; Data, USS Enterprise-E; Data"
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Data

Just in case you didn't see my earlier post, Memory Alpha says a little more than that. It gets me thinking because they say "It is likely..."

"Data was the operations officer of the Enterprise-D and was only referred to as "science officer" once. It is likely that he was acting in that position, as Swenson was mentioned to be the science officer."

Can we stop going round in circles please, I'm getting dizzy!

[Allan Hood]

Have a look at the episode Conundrum (Season 5, ep. 14) - the crew manifest is read out by the computer and Data is referred to as the Operations Officer. That's his official role within the command structure. Yes, there was a fake 1st officer listed in that same manifest but everyone else bar Riker (who was listed as 2nd Officer - actually another of Data's roles) was correctly titled.

Right, he's Ops, everyone agrees with that, but, it seems he did more than that, considering the episodes he helped LaForge with the science end while LaForge handle the engineering end. That's why it makes sense when they say behind the scenes that he was suppose to wear blue, but changed the color scheme and title cause his eyes.

We don't really see the official science officer on board, but when it came down to it, that's when they called him "science officer."

I don't see this as being so impossible considering Spock was first officer and science officer at the same time. Data can be Ops, second officer, science officer, whatever, he's an android haha

[Taku]

"Data was the operations officer of the Enterprise-D and was only referred to as "science officer" once. It is likely that he was acting in that position, as Swenson was mentioned to be the science officer."

Can we stop going round in circles please, I'm getting dizzy!

I regret that I have but one upvote to give.

All praise be unto our Borg Overlady.

Resistance is futile.

[Allan Hood]

I regret that I have but one upvote to give.

All praise be unto our Borg Overlady.

Resistance is futile.

"Swenson was A science officer..."
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Swenson

I imagine the ship had tons of science officers. I don't see how this would negate Data.