OK, How Does Starfleet Academy Work Exactly?

[T'Girl]

The Wormhole wrote:

---

In TOS we know Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Chekov did attend the Academy.

No, from that group we only know from dialog that Kirk attended.

True, Spock, Sulu and Chekov all knew a academy slang expression. But I know "wuba" is a derogatory slang expression in the US naval academy for female cadets, and I've never been there.

[The Wormhole]

Merry Christmas wrote:

---

No, from that group we only know from dialog that Kirk attended.

True, Spock, Sulu and Chekov all knew a academy slang expression. But I know "wuba" is a derogatory slang expression in the US naval academy for female cadets, and I've never been there.

The implication in the scene is that McCoy doesn't know what a stunsel is becaue he's never been to the Academy. Since Spock explainsit, and Sulu and Chekov recognise the term, it can be assumed they did. Especially when you factor in that 90% of everyone else in Star Trek is confirmed to have attended, even the enlisted and those around before the Academy was even founded.

[Timo]

In TOS we know Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Chekov did attend the Academy.

The case in TOS against Spock ever attending is pretty strong. He's a foreigner in an otherwise all-human service, he never took Kobayashi Maru, he holds high rank without having been in command... Quite probably, he would have brought some papers from Vulcan certifying that he is already qualified to receive a commission to such-and-such rank (and indeed holds comparable rank in the Vulcan forces already), and then attended the necessary ceremonies. Much like T'Pol in ENT.

STXI shows a different tack, which is at least equally likely, but doesn't quite explain why Spock never tackled the no-win scenario, especially when he is so heavily involved in making others tackle it.

In DS9 Sisko, Bashir, O'Brien, Nog, and Admiral Ross are all confirmed to have attended the Academy. Yes, even the enlisted man attended the Academy, apparentally.

Not really. The only piece of dialogue that ostensibly connects O'Brien to the Academy actually establishes the exact opposite - O'Brien is asked, in jest, if he was taught temporal mechanics at the Academy, and the answer is an obvious no.

Hell, in Enterprise a crewman on the NX-01 somehow had a diploma from Starfleet Academy over ten years before it was even founded.

We don't have founding dates for all the Starfleet Academies out there. Earth might have had a dozen before surrendering its independence to the Federation. And for the record, the diploma holder should be properly credited as Ensign, as "crewman" carries enlisted connotations not applying here at all (not to mention suggests the wrong gender).

Timo Saloniemi

[The Wormhole]

Timo wrote:

---

The case in TOS against Spock ever attending is pretty strong. He's a foreigner in an otherwise all-human service, he never took Kobayashi Maru, he holds high rank without having been in command... Quite probably, he would have brought some papers from Vulcan certifying that he is already qualified to receive a commission to such-and-such rank (and indeed holds comparable rank in the Vulcan forces already), and then attended the necessary ceremonies. Much like T'Pol in ENT.

Well, for what it's worth, novels do feature Spock attending the Academy.

And for the record, the diploma holder should be properly credited as Ensign, as "crewman" carries enlisted connotations not applying here at all (not to mention suggests the wrong gender).

Well, I forgot what the character's rank was, so I figured I'd be safe with crewman. And since modern militaries apply terms like "Airman" or "Seaman" to both males and females, I assumed Crewman could be applied to both as well. Indeed, there have been females referred to as "Crewman." Off the top of my head, Crewman Cutler.

[Timo]

Fair enough. OTOH, I don't think Trek has ever explicitly insisted that a commissioned officer could be addressed as "crewman" (to the contrary, Picard in "Where No One" calls a pipless woman "Ensign"), so let's cling to that for now, shall we?

Timo Saloniemi

[The Wormhole]

Well, when I said "Crewman" I was really just tryiing to say "member of the crew." Sloppy yes, but Trek has made many such sloppy mistakes. No reason a Trek fan can't.

[Star Wolf]

How is crewman wrong? It is Starfleet where Captain Janeway is a rebel because she doesn't want to be called sir.