Did she have but die in the first episode, or was Janeway acting as science officer and captain? If not, could another crew member or other alien plucked from the delta quadrant have been promoted to that position? Is something separate required to perform that position, such as approval from senior officers or passing some official test?
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They may have had one and they died, or they may have not had one because this was supposed to be a quick mission, or they may have had one and they just werent a member of the senior staff, and therefore not a main character on the show. The Next Generation crew doesnt have a Science Officer (Data is Operations not science although he often fills that role narratively, its not his actual job) so it doesnt seem like a requirement.
Voyager had a doctor too, but the doctor was killed in the first episode. Remember, Voyager had half of its crew die in the very first episode. This is catastrophic for any ship to randomly lose half of it screw, and its a coinflip if any of your specialists survive.
In addition, Voyager was still a very new ship full of untested and unproven technologies. The original mission was supposed to be a short, easy mission, effectively a 3 hour tour as part of shakedown cruises and trials. The ship was not fully provisioned for extended deep space travel.
The 3 hour tour did not go as planned.
Samantha Wildman, she was apparently only in 8 episodes though. I guess the science takes a back seat to security when your primary concern is getting home.
They didn’t have a Comm Officer, either. (which would have come in handy on several occasions) I guess they were pretty short handed after all the casualties in the first episode.
I don’t know what the point in answering you is, but they had lots of science officers.
Lower Decks explains that “Science Officer” is basically a role designed to advise the captain on weird space shit that they encounter along the way. Presumably, whether it’s necessary or not on a vessel is directly related to how much the captain knows about that stuff in the first place. Kirk, Sisko, and Archer clearly needed that guidance; Picard probably did too, but he had Data who could combine the role with his Ops position.
Janeway, meanwhile, came up through the Science division—she was the Science Officer on another ship before becoming captain. Having a separate crew member advise her on that stuff would have been redundant. She did have science officers who did the actual work, but the bridge position of “advise the captain on science” was unnecessary.
Much like TNG, Voyager had science officers, plural. Unlike TOS and DS9, the head science officer, if there was one, just wasn’t part of the main cast. Samantha Wildman was a science officer and was sometimes shown at science station on the bridge. 7 of 9 also often filled the role of science officer, even if not the position.
They did: Janeway.
She was a science officer before she was a captain. She didn’t need an officer to advise her on scientific phenomena.
And if she did, they died along with half the crew.