I think that's absolutely true, but I don't think that affects the uniform colors. Sure anyone CAN fly the ship, but they aren't going to go change their uniform before they take the post.Lord Revan wrote: ↑2023-08-07 06:24pm I suspect most starfleet officers have at least basic training at starship piloting and navigation so if the only person available to pilot a ship happens to be a science officer the ship ain't screwed, sure they wouldn't as good at as dedicated helmsman but could still do well enough that the ship might be able to get to a starbase to recrew (or handle the job during the graveyard shift).
If they're going to be reassigned long-term, then yes, just like Geordie switched when he went from Conn to Engineering, or Worf from Tactical to Command, or even something like TNG "Chain of Command" when Jellico removes Riker and Data becomes XO, he's in Red. It was a long-term transfer (at the time).
If it's a temporary move, they just... man the position.
Starfleet has a fairly complicated hierarchy of prestige. Take O'Brian for example... he was Tactical Officer on the Rutledge, and then got "promoted" to Transporter Chief on the Enterprise... and then "promoted" again to "Chief of Operations" on DS9... which is weird because "Operations" on DS9 was clearly "Engineering", although I suppose the departments and responsibilities are a bit different from a ship to a station. A station doesn't really need all the starship "Operations" things, so Ops and Engineering just get lumped together on a station.
Side note there, I also think sometimes there's a bit of Captain's prerogative on positions. "Science Officers" seem to be a choice. E-D didn't have one, DS9 did, VOY didn't (until Seven, who essentially becomes one without the title). Seems like a Captain can have "Operations" take over general science duties (while specific scientific departments would have their own heads), OR they can separate out some of the duties from Ops and assign a "Science Officer" to direct everything. In the case of DS9, seems to be the case... Dax handles all the science Ops duties while O'Brian handles the Engineering and Logistics end of things.
I like how Worf's role is never super clearly defined, but in reality Worf is probably the most important person on the station. Yeah, Sisko commands the station operations... but Worf is coordinating fleet activity in Bajor Sector.