star trek next generation communications officer

Communications officer

Communications officer Nyota Uhura at work

The role of communications officer (also known as comm officer ) was a specialized occupation held by crewmembers aboard Starfleet vessels , installations , and bases. Found across multiple divisions , the individuals holding the position were held responsible for managing all incoming and outgoing transmissions, whether they were visual, audio, or text communications.

During the 22nd and 23rd centuries, comm officers such as Ensign Hoshi Sato and Lieutenant Nyota Uhura held distinct positions on a starship's bridge . During the mid-to-late 24th century , tactical and operations officers such as Lieutenant Commander Data and Lieutenant Worf doubled as communications officer. ( Star Trek: Enterprise ; Star Trek: The Original Series ; Star Trek: The Next Generation )

Surprised that Larr was able to pick up the English language quickly on his own, Doctor Phlox commented to Hoshi Sato in 2151 , " Perhaps we've found an assistant comm officer. " ( ENT : " Dear Doctor ")

In 2266 , after Uhura expressed a frustration with hearing the word "frequency" that had nearly driven her to tears , Spock found himself unable to continue her line of conversation, given the illogic of a communications officer possessing such a sentiment. Uhura explained that she wanted him to talk with her about something else for a change. ( TOS : " The Man Trap ")

• 1.1 22nd century
• 1.2 23rd century
• 1.3 24th century
• 1.4 25th century
• 2 List of alternate reality communications officers
• 3 List of mirror universe communications officers
• 4 List of parallel universe communications officers

List of prime reality communications officers [ ]

22nd century [ ].

23rd century [ ]

24th century [ ]

• Chief Pendleton , USS Enterprise -D , 2369

25th century [ ]

List of alternate reality communications officers [ ]

List of mirror universe communications officers [ ]

List of parallel universe communications officers [ ]

See also [ ]

• Communications master
• Communications officer's log
• 1 Terri Garr

Star Trek: What Does A Communications Officer Actually Do?

A starship is a complex beacon of exploration — a tool used to send members of Starfleet to the farthest reaches of space. It is meant to take us to where no man has ever gone before. With such an ambitious undertaking, a very long list of specialized crew members must be needed. The communications officer is one of the most important and maybe most often overlooked. As hinted by the title, this person is primarily tasked with handling all communications to and from the ship, making them one of the most vital crew members aboard.

Everything from visual communications to the bridge and the captain to distress calls, hails, text, and other forms of contact are filtered through this single point on the ship. Not only does the communications officer need to be adept at operating a long list of exceedingly complicated communications equipment, but they also need to be fluent, or at least passable, in as many languages as possible. Of course, speaking the language isn't enough if they have to deal with text communications, as well as audio and visual. They would theoretically need to be able to speak it as well.

Sure, the ship's captain has to make all the most challenging decisions that can be the difference between life and death. Engineering is responsible for keeping the ship in the air. Security's job is to keep everyone safe and sound and deal with any intruders on the ship. And medical is there to ensure that if anyone is not safe and sound, they get that way soon. All are essential jobs, but if the ship can't communicate with Mission Control, the crew is lost in the vastness of space.

Famous communications officers

Perhaps the most famous and well-known of the many communications officers we have seen over the breadth of the "Star Trek" franchise is Lieutenant Nyota Uhura. Played by the late Nichelle Nichols in the original series, Uhura was one of the core members of the crew that introduced fans to the Starship Enterprise and the likes of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelly), Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), Scotty (James Doohan), and Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig). Uhura, along with the rest, were reintroduced in the 2009 reboot, "Star Trek," which reimagined their destinies. This time, Uhura was played by Zoe Saldana ("Avatar," "Guardians of the Galaxy").

Another big name that has sat in the communications officer chair is Ensign Hoshi Sato. What makes her vitally crucial to the history of the position and Starfleet, in general, is that she was one of the first. She served aboard the Enterprise NX-01 under Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula). The ship greatly expanded Starfleet's presence in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants and made first contact with many species. The ship and its crew, along with Sato, are also credited with saving Earth from the Xindi and setting the stage for the United Federation of Planets. Sato was instrumental enough that Uhura wrote papers about her work and her exploits while a cadet in the Starfleet Academy.

The evolution of the position

Like all industries, technology threatened to hamper the number of jobs available for communications officers. The universal translator was present all the way back when Ensign Hoshi Sato was working the chair, but it was in its infancy, and she was still needed to translate most communications. However, by the time Ronald A. Bryce (Ronnie Rowe Jr.) was sitting in the chair in "Star Trek: Discovery," the universal translator had been built into most ships and translated thousands of languages. Of course, there is always a chance that they malfunction, ensuring that people like Bryce are always needed.

Communications officers like Uhura, Soto, and Bryce are some of the most integral crewmembers of the ships, serving as a bridge to the outside world. The United States Navy has a similar position known as the radioman. In the days of World War II, these talented soldiers were responsible for filtering communications ashore, on ships, and on submarines. They needed to be proficient in all radio frequencies, the gear to monitor them, and the languages being transmitted, like English, Russian, German, Japanese, and even Morse Code. The communications officers in Starfleet seem to be callbacks to these brave and brilliant soldiers as they take the same job into the great unknown, navigating languages across the galaxy, both known and unknown.

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Communications Officer

"Broadsword calling Danny Boy, Broadsword calling Danny Boy..." — Where Eagles Dare

When The Captain needs to contact Mission Control to talk to the Voice with an Internet Connection , they have a number of options. They could call them up on their Comm Link , or maybe even find a pay phone . But maybe this is a job for someone more specialized, or maybe The Captain needs someone to delegate this to while they dealswith other things. They need the Communications Officer.

The Communications Officer need not be an officer, and in fact, will often be a lower ranking member tasked with maintaining and operating the complex radio equipment (such as a Western Union Man ). On a sci-fi show, they will often have a workstation on the bridge of the ship, while in a war movie, you can expect to see this guy running around two steps behind The Captain with a cumbersome backpack radio with a huge whip antenna. Whenever we see Mission Control , expect to see an entire squad of these guys at work. More mundane examples include a secretary in an office, who has the job of screening calls to their boss and sending out messages for them. If the officer is properly trained, they can also be a disproportionately dangerous individual , using their radio equipment to call in artillery fire and air strikes, bringing tons of high explosives down on their enemies' heads.

Against savvy enemies, they can expect to draw fire , especially if they have one of the bigger backpack radios. You can't call for help if nobody alive can use the communications equipment. If The Radio Dies First , they can be expected to be hard at work trying to fix it, or helplessly declaring that it can't be done.

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• Fullmetal Alchemist : Within Colonel Mustang's group of soldiers, Fuery is the one who is most often seen operating radio equipment.
• Amy Limietta had this role in the first and second seasons. Once had the unfortunate luck of getting thrown in a situation where she had to take the role of commanding officer when an emergency occurred while everyone ranked higher than her was away.
• From Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS and beyond , Lucino, Alto, and Shari all have this role in addition to their other duties starship helmswoman, helicopter pilot, and device meister respectively.
• Martian Successor Nadesico : Megumi Reinard is the communications officer aboard the titular battleship. She was apparently picked for the position due to her previous career as a voice actress.
• In Matchless Raijin-Oh , the giant robot in question is so complex to operate that it needs two communications officers.
• Kurogane Pukapuka Tai has Kushiku aboard the Unebi , a young woman with a great talent for decoding enemy transmissions and a rather reclusive personality. She can spend whole days in the radio room without speaking to anyone.
• Wonder Woman (1987) : The Durlan Nol Lapp serves as the communications officer for Diana's revolutionaries in the Sangtee Empire, this demands that she be a Cunning Linguist since most of the revolutionaries are escaped slaves from many worlds and cultures. She writes rousing poetry that gets circulated by the revolutionaries as well.
• Like his movie portrayal, Dr. Rick Stanton is presented throughout the MonsterVerse fic Abraxas (Hrodvitnon) managing the Monarch top brass's long-range communications.
• Operation ECLIPSE (Lermis) : The protagonist Padmin Vilmis is a communications officer for the STG. He knows several different languages as a job requirement, and while stranded on Earth he uses his skills to hack into encrypted radio signals.
• Mrs. Packard on Atlantis: The Lost Empire , although she spends most of the time chatting up her friend over the phone (which, unless she's also in the submarine, would be quite a feat using 1914 technology ).
• In Appointment with Venus , Sergeant Forbes is a radio operator with experience of operating behind enemy lines whose main role on the mission is tote around the backpack-sized radio and keep the squad in contact with their naval backup and headquarters in London. He also cuts the phone lines to cripple communication of the island before they evacuate.
• Crimson Tide has Seaman Vosler on whom the fate of the world hinges as he must put a radio back together almost from scratch in order to receive a message from the President.
• Down Periscope has Nitro, a skilled but very eccentric electrician who manages to coerce the aging ship's radio equipment to work via various short-circuits (including several passing through his own body ).
• Fantastic Voyage has Charles Grant, a rare example of where the Communications Officer is also The Hero .
• Parodied in Galaxy Quest with Lt. Tawny Madison, Gwen's character from the Show Within the Show . All she did was relay orders to and from the computer. I have one job on this lousy ship, it's stupid , but I'm gonna do it! Okay?
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) : Dr. Rick Stanton has shades of this when most of the team are gathered on the Argo 's bridge; being the one who tries to track the eco-terrorists ' video call, who remotely discovers that the Argo 's hangar doors are jammed, and who receives and screens Admiral Stenz' video call, all from his work-station.
• In Memphis Belle , Danny serves as the radioman for the eponymous airplane. At one point in the mission, he is even able to tune into music broadcast by the Armed Forces Network back in England, which he pipes over the intercom for the rest of the crew's enjoyment.
• Never So Few : A young Charles Bronson plays Sgt. Danforth, the Navajo "code talker" with a special forces unit, who speaks in unbreakable Navajo code with command staff back in Calcutta.
• Though unnamed, Platoon featured a radio man alongside the commanding officer during the climatic battle, matching his commander's pacing so that the cord was never pulled tight. Given that the actor portraying the commander was the technical advisor and actual veteran commander, this was probably very close to Real Life .
• In Saving Private Ryan a shore party radio man gets a brief appearance on Omaha Beach before he loses most of his face.
• In Small Soldiers , Link Static serves this role in the Commando Elite.
• Starship Troopers had a series of ( often short-lived ) characters fulfilling this role, with Dizzy and Ace each taking on the role towards the end of the film.
• During the Clone Wars, the Confederacy of Independent Systems would use the Munificent -class frigates for this role, as the InterGalactic Banking Clan had already equipped them with advanced communication suits for their own purposes before they joined the Separatists. This actually helped them on the strategic level, as the Republic has near complete control of the HoloNet and without the Munificents the Separatists would have had serious trouble communicating on interstellar scale... Or putting their own news on the HoloNet through their Shadow Feeds .
• The Pride of Tarlandia is the main communication ship and the secondary flagship, also tasked with jamming the Rebel scanners. Owing to her role she's not a Star Destroyer but a larger battlecruiser, allowing it to survive when a Mon Calamari cruiser comes after it... But it doesn't come out unscathed, allowing Rebel fighters to finish it off while the shields are still weak.
• The Avenger is the secondary communication ship (tertiary in Legends). Contrary to the Pride of Tarlandia it survives the battle, owing to the Imperial fleet just breaking down when the secondary flagship, the Death Star shield and the Executor are taken out in quick succession.
• In Star Wars Legends the secondary communication ship and tertiary flagship was the Chimaera , and as such had admiral Horst Strage on board - and was targeted by the Rebels for it, causing Strage's death and his job falling to his first officer, commander Gilad Pellaeon. As the other Imperial admirals at Endor were dead or otherwise unable to take over, note  admiral Blitzer Harrsk commanded a formation that joined Death Squadron at Endor and was next in command after Piett of the Executor , the admiral on the Pride , and Strage, but had been critically wounded and was incommunicado. Of the four Grand Admirals on the Death Star, Nial Declann had died with the Death Star, Afsheen Makati realized he wasn't up to the task and fled to his main command to fight another day , Miltin Takel fled as soon as he realized they were losing , and Osvald Teshik didn't manage to escape the Death Star and rally the fleet until most of it had already fled Pellaeon, knowing he was outmatched, ordered a general retreat to preserve as much of the fleet as possible .
• Actually, Ursula later reveals that they keep her on dispatch because the rest of them are Corrupt Cops who help Canadian drug lords move marijuana through Spurbury .
• The Thing (1982) has a character who serves this role appropriately named "Windows" (possibly a nickname meaning "window to the outside world"), although a dead radio made it impossible for him to ever contact anybody.
• The Communications Officer from Tora! Tora! Tora! receives a telephone message that radar operators have detected a large group of aircraft approaching Oahu from the north. "Yeah? Well, don't worry about it," he replies, mistaking the sighting for a flight of B-17's due that morning.
• Later, word comes through that Hitler is still alive. Not knowing which to believe, he sends through both.
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961). The comm officer aboard the Seaview (a U.S. government vessel) was called Sparks.
• Still standard practice. In the US Marine Corps it's part of a pilot's normal career path to spend time in the infantry. In the Army it's an enlisted Air Force NCO living with the infantry.
• Windtalkers is based on two Navajo enlistees fighting with the Marines in the Pacific theater. They function as the radiomen in their platoon, because the Navajo language defies all efforts to decrypt, making efforts to sabotage their messages futile. The Hero actually kills one of them rather than let him be captured by the enemy.
• Robert A. Heinlein 's The Number of the Beast . When Hildy Burroughs is captain of the Gay Deceiver , Zebadiah ("Zeb") Burroughs acts as her comm officer, especially when talking with the British colonists on Mars.
• Adele Mundy in the Republic of Cinnabar series.
• The Shadow : Burbank is the most mysterious of The Shadow's agents. Since he is quite skilled at electronics, wire tapping and tracking information, his chief duty is central communications for The Shadow and his network of agents and gathering needed facts. Some may argue that he is the most vital person of The Shadow's organization, as he is the only agent able to report directly to The Shadow when he is in his private sanctum. This is done through a special AirWire radio system.
• In the Star Trek Expanded Universe , Uhura's skills led her to teach communications at Starfleet Academy. Later, thanks to her abilities with cryptography and languages, she eventually became head of Starfleet Intelligence.
• Jedi Quest character Darra Thel-Tanis is an expert at jamming and intercepting signals.
• In the Wraith Squadron novels , this is Jesmin Ackbar's specialty. In addition to her experience with the actual communications gear, she is skilled at cryptography and codes, and is able to twice alert Wraith Squadron to forces attempting to ambush them by picking up supposedly encrypted low-power transmissions that the enemy thought were safe to use. After her death in Wraith Squadron , Runt begins cross-training to pick up the slack.
• Following the lead of the films, both Empire and Rebellion have communication ships. The Rebels had an unidentified ship stationed at Sullust keeping the rest of the Alliance informed about what was happening at the Battle of Endor, and the Empire was known to use the Allegiance -class battlecruisers for the role and to broadcast battles they were winning to the whole galaxy. The latter got at least the lead ship destroyed, as during the Battle of Dac New Republic reinforcements used the broadcast to home on it and emerge from hyperspace right on top of the Allegiance with guns blazing.
• Sten seems to like communications officers, as they figure prominently in his command staffs in multiple books, and he even promotes one to Captain.
• Cpl. Fife is this during his first battle in The Thin Red Line .
• Babylon 5 : On the station itself, this job would typically fall to Lieutenant Corwin (in the first season, it alternated between him and an un-named Bridge Bunny ). If Sheridan or Sinclair was in Command and Control, this job would instead go to Commander Ivanova. When traveling out and about aboard one ship or another, this job would fall to whichever character was serving as The Lancer for that mission (Lennier or Marcus, usually).
• Band of Brothers : T-4 George Luz, Easy Company's radioman who also doubles as the resident jokester / Pop-Cultured Badass .
• Battlestar Galactica originally had Commander Adama's daughter Athena in this role in the original series. In the reboot , the job was performed by Corporal (later Lieutenant) Dualla, as well as her replacement, Hoshi.
• Generation Kill : Cpl. Ray Person, the best RTO in Bravo Company. That said, since he was also Bravo 2-1's driver, Sgt Colbert ended up filling this role for the vehicles' occupants most of the time, communicating with Lt. Fick and relaying new information to the men riding with him.
• Hogan's Heroes : Sgt. James Kinchloe is the primary radio operator for Col. Hogan's crew, replaced for the final season by Sgt. Richard Baker.
• Jeremiah : One episode features Thunder Mountain's radioman, Jacob. He uses his position to contact his sister, who lives elsewhere, but inadvertently feeds information about their operations to a Wasteland Warlord who has his sister prisoner.
• In M*A*S*H , the Company Clerk also operates the camp communications center, which includes the telephone, the PA system, and a radio transceiver. In the first eight seasons, this is Corporal Radar O'Reilly; after he leaves, Corporal Klinger takes the job.
• Robert RO Dixon in Sea Patrol is a very snarky Communications officer. He does go on boarding parties and is the best person with software.
• Lieutenant JG Tim O'Neill from SeaQuest DSV . Like Uhura and Sato from Star Trek , he's also an Omniglot who is fluent in at least a dozen languages.
• Star Trek: The Original Series brings us one of the most famous examples, Lieutenant Uhura. In the Star Trek Expanded Universe and the 2009 film she is also a xenolinguistics expert . In the new series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Cadet Uhura is a prodigy who is fluent in over three dozen different human and alien languages and has a talent for language, and is dubbed by Captain Pike as "The Voice of the Enterprise."
• Star Trek: The Next Generation : This is the original duty for Worf, perhaps owing to his bicultural background.
• In the pilot of Star Trek: Voyager , Ensign Harry Kim gets a battlefield promotion to Operations Officer which also includes this trope.
• Star Trek: Enterprise : Hoshi Sato handles communications. Her linguistics expertise also come into play because the Universal Translator is still a work-in-progress. She's also responsible for Subspace Ansible equipment, which allowed the Enterprise to communicate back to Earth.
• There is a clear evolution of the comm officer role over the chronology — in Enterprise it is a science officer position, with Sato being recruited because of her linguistics expertise in the sense of 'the scientific study of language' and her primary focus being in translation (and helping develop the nascent universal translator). By TOS /2009 film series it is an operations officer position, with Uhura's primary focus (even if she is an expert in languages) being in the handling of transmissions to and from the ship and the equipment for doing so. By TNG it isn't even a formal bridge officer position — neither Worf nor Harry Kim were actually called communications officers, they just handled the hailing frequencies open/being hailed bit as part of their general duties.
• Star Trek: Discovery : Lieutenant R.A. Bryce.
• It is revealed at the end of the first season that Doug's habit of also broadcasting his personal logs and assorted classical musical selections into the void is how humanity makes First Contact with a race of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens . Unfortunately, this is also how these aliens first learn English , something that even the aliens are annoyed by.
• In BattleTech , a number of battlemechs have second seat for a communications officer, who takes control of the battlemech's radio and other communication equipment, and can have other tasks such as monitoring the Enemy-Detecting Radar . CP-10-Z Cyclops assault mech was purpose-built for Star League field officers and possesses an advanced tactical computer to coordinate an entire battalion. The AS7-D Atlas is often retrofitted for the same purpose. These mechs are often the first target in an engagement, both to take out the commander and to take out the 90+ ton bipedal murder tank .
• Darian "DX" Xenos from Crimestrikers . His primary function on the team is to monitor the field agents and give them whatever info they need.
• In Warhammer 40,000 , the Imperial Guard has "vox operators" with radio backpacks for battlefield-level communication. For the purposes of interstellar communication, the Imperium of Man actually uses specialized telepaths called Astropaths.
• The background information for the 2018 version of Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team mentions that Comms specialist act as a relay between the Kill Team, and their allies and commanders. This is represented in the game by the 'Command Relay' Level 3 Comms skill that can refund Command Points.
• Communications officer is one of the crew specialties noted in GURPS Traveller Starships .
• GURPS Steampunk 2 notes that radio is a steam age invention, but from very late in the day, so it's unlikely to appear in Steampunk games. If it (or something similar but more advanced) appears in Raygun Gothic games, though, where it's more likely to be appropriate, it's likely to be vehicle-mounted (probably in a "telegraphy cabin") and require skilled operation.
• One of the standard Mandatory Bonus Duties in Paranoia . In practice, it mostly plays into the Commie Hunt dynamic.
• G.I. Joe has had two communications officers. The first one, Breaker, was one of the first 3 3/4" G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero figures produced, and came with a helmet-mounted radio. The second, Dial-Tone, had a communications backpack and was introduced a few years later. Versions of both characters have been mainstays of the franchise; a Race Lifted Breaker was in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra , while a Gender Flipped Dial-Tone note  slightly renamed as Dialtone appeared in G.I. Joe (IDW) comic books and G.I. Joe: Resolute .
• In every incarnation of Transformers , some version of Soundwave is the Decepticons' Communications Officer. And in many continuities, Blaster serves the same role for the Autobots. There are also some occasional secondary characters who also fill the role, such as Hubcap in Transformers: Generation 1 and Kup in Transformers: Wings of Honor .
• Galaxy Angel : Almo Blueberry fills this role aboard the Elsior across the entire trilogy, while her friend Coco handles the ship's radar.
• Empire Earth : Some missions give you a Radio Man, who can summon squads of airdropped infantry up to three times.
• In the Mass Effect series, this role is typically filled by Joker , Yeoman Chambers, or Specialist Traynor. Unusually, both take steps to avert the "glorified secretary" aspects of this trope; Chambers is a psychologist (important when you have a crew like Shepard's ), whereas Traynor, before being drafted as Shepard's adjutant , was actually in charge of a complete refit of Normandy 's comms that allows it to coordinate an entire, galaxy-wide war effort involving thousands of ships on multiple fronts.
• In Space Quest V: The Next Mutation , Flo performs this function. Given that the game is a clear parody of Star Trek , this is all she does. Since the SCS Eureka only has a crew of four (with the position of the Science Officer left open), the rest of the bridge duties are done by Droole who appears to be a tactical/pilot/navigation/garbage officer.
• The Vietcong series has the radioman. In the first game, you have to use his radio whenever the radio icon shows up. In tunnel-based missions, you're equipped with your own radio. In the second game, he uses the radio himself.
• In Warhammer 40,000 Armageddon , you have one of these, and her story arc follows her loss of faith when the player character is seemingly killed following a major defeat in the Second War for Armageddon. And her subsequent corruption by Chaos.
• In Wing Commander III , " Radio " Rollins is both this in the literal sense, being the TCS Victory 's communication's officer, as well as in the informal sense, considering himself as the one person on the ship who will tell you exactly what's really going on. You have the option upon first meeting him to lay down the law and get him to stop hurting ship's morale with his rumors about Confed being on the ropes in their war with the Kilrathi (which, while largely true, are disastrous for morale to just come out and state them openly when there is still a fighting chance for them to recover).
• In World of Tanks , each tank has a radio operator who allows the player to "see" tanks spotted by teammates within radio range. Tanks with smaller crews may double up on crew roles, often with the tank commander operating the radio. Certain tanks place radio operators in relatively exposed positions, making them the first casualty when the tank comes under fire.
• In the early arcs of Schlock Mercenary a "communications slug" called Sergeant Sh'vuu filled this role for Tagon's Toughs. However, after they got a ship with an A.I. his role became less important, so he started piloting a tank part-time, until he was killed.
• Stand Still, Stay Silent : Tuuri is frequently seen taking care of radio communications with Mission Control . As the mechanic, she's also the one maintaining it.
• Terra Incognita (2023) : Li is a 1st Recon communications officer and is stuck attempting to reestablish communications with the Main Base and carrying around a backpack full of communications equipment during the Battle of Aurora III.
• An important position on the airships of Skies Unbroken , since comm officers handle the (equivalent of) sonar along with the communications proper, and this is essential in a World in the Sky . Nem, the Waif Prophet Kind Hearted Cat Lover of Kor's crew is also a cryptologist .
• Whateley Universe : God's Messenger, the Dragonslayers' comm officer, known mostly for the number of times where he deliberately instigated a Trial by Friendly Fire on his unit.
• In Noob , Ystos is in the unique position of being the only member of Justice guild that the Noob guild can contact without risking a Not Now, Kiddo response. In return, he has easy contact with the Noob guild should Justice find itself unable to spare its own members for a relatively simple task. This takes an important role in Season 3 finale and its novel equivalent as he ends up monitoring the Noob guild through a task that Justice had to abandon to take care of more urgent matters.
• Airwave from C.O.P.S. , who is also the team's Gadgeteer Genius .
• Exo Squad features team member Alec DeLeon , with his specialized Communications E-Frame.
• Invader Zim : The bridge of the Massive is crewed by officers who appear to be a mix of navigators/pilots and communications operators, who are identifiable by the high-collared uniforms they wear which obscure the lower halves of their faces. The most prominent one is the one who appears in the movie , proving himself to be the Only Sane Man by warning the Tallest about the danger of the Florpus Hole only for them to keep ignoring him.
• In Sealab 2020 and its Gag Dub Sealab 2021 , the com officer for the title installation was Lieutenant Sparks (apparently his real last name).
• Star Trek: The Animated Series introduces Lt. M'Ress, a Cat Folk alien who serves as comm officer when Uhura is off duty or otherwise unavailable.
• Transformers: Generation One : Blaster and Soundwave's official jobs. In Soundwave 's case, it's a painfully blatant euphemism, especially given his everyday duties and his unofficial third-in-command status.
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