A Commanding Officer is the highest ranking member of a chain of command.
Usually, these inviduals command a Space Station, Starbase or Starship of a military nature.
- Notable Commanding Officers:
- Captain Jonathan Archer
- Captain Charles Tucker III
- Captain James Kirk
- Captain John Harriman
- Captain Rachel Garrett
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard
- Captain Benjamin Sisko
- Captain Kathryn Janeway
- Notable Simulation Commanding Officers:
Someone runs the sim. For live Star Trek sims, this person is usually called the "CO" or Commanding Officer. They can also be called the GM or Game Master. The term Game Master comes from the time before computers and dice role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.
A CO or GM is responsible for planning the game, making up the plots, setting a schedule, sending out notices, prompting players, etc. In short they are responsible for keeping it going. In recent times, this person may also create and run a web page for the players in the game.
Of course any of these responsibilities can be delegated to someone one else, but the overall running of the game is the job of the CO/GM. (An older term, DM, may be familiar to some people. In Dungeons and Dragons, the DM was the Dungeon Master, who made and ran the dungeons and other parts of the game.)