Crew familiarity

[Grup]

I hope that the crew uses rank or 'Mister' when addressing each other. I do not believe that they all know each other well enough yet not to. The exception being (maybe) Kirk & McCoy. And only when speaking in private. Calling the Captain 'Jim' on the bridge is inappropriate. IMO.

Any thoughts?

[Timo]

The naval tradition would be for most crew be addressed by their surname only, for the NCOs to be addressed by their rank only (since there are basically never multiple NCOs around in Star Trek), and for senior officers to address junior officers up to LtCmdr rank as "Mister Surname" as an alternative to the more common "Rank Surname" or "Rank".

Using "Mister" for an enlisted person would go against tradition, regardless of who was doing the addressing. Using "Mister" for a superior officer would go against tradition, too. Using "Mister" for a full Commander or above would typically be considered insulting; you could just as well say "Buster Spock" and pronounce it "Bastard"... For some reason, though, the tradition for Starfleet is different, although perhaps simply in the sense that the top rank to be so addressed has been hiked from LtCmdr to Cmdr.

In theory, for people from Cmdr rank up, "Sir" is inappropriate as well: Sulu should really be saying to Kirk "Aye aye, Captain" or "Aye aye, Admiral" instead of "Aye aye, Sir". But that's something that has eroded away from naval tradition already, to some degree, from what I hear.

Enlisted people speaking between peers would use whatever they like - surnames, first names, nicknames, rude gestures - but it's common to use surnames simply because that's what everybody else uses anyway. Form of address for enlisted-to-enlisted talk is not all that important anyway because enlisteds are not supposed to talk to fellow enlisteds all that much.

Timo Saloniemi

[The Mirrorball Man]

I don't see why Starfleet should follow the U.S. naval tradition.

[Tosk]

Grup wrote:

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I hope that the crew uses rank or 'Mister' when addressing each other. I do not believe that they all know each other well enough yet not to. The exception being (maybe) Kirk & McCoy. And only when speaking in private. Calling the Captain 'Jim' on the bridge is inappropriate. IMO.

We've already seen time and again how they address one another. And they know each other exceptionally well. This seems like an odd thing to get hung up on after forty years.

Grup wrote:

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Any thoughts?

Only that you probably meant this to go in Movies XI+

[King Daniel into Darkness]

Grup wrote:

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I hope that the crew uses rank or 'Mister' when addressing each other. I do not believe that they all know each other well enough yet not to. The exception being (maybe) Kirk & McCoy. And only when speaking in private. Calling the Captain 'Jim' on the bridge is inappropriate. IMO.

Any thoughts?

Assuming you're talking about Into Darkness, from what I remember of the opening 9-minutes Sulu and Uhura called each other "Sulu" and "Uhura", with Kirk using "Uhura", "Scotty" and "Bones". Only Spock invoked rank.

This Trek has even less of an emphasis on ranks than the old. All are trained, one gets to be the captain, thats about it.

[Chaos Descending]

Timo wrote:

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Using "Mister" for a superior officer would go against tradition, too.

Untrue.

Naval tradition is not insulted in the least by enlisted men referring to superior officers up to the rank of LCDR as "Mister".

[Bry_Sinclair]

Starfleet does have a lot in common with the navy, but it is not purely a military force, but also humanitarian, exploratory, scientific and diplomatic entity as well, so a certain degree of familiarity would be expected.

Of course it would entirely depend on who was in command. There would be some CO's who would adhere to strict protocols and others who would be more relaxed in how they address their crew and allow themselves to be addressed.

And as The Mirrorball Man said, why does Starfleet have to conform to exact way of the US navy? You have the traditions and cultures of other planets to bring together when the Federation Starfleet was being created.

[Garrovick]

Grup wrote:

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ICalling the Captain 'Jim' on the bridge is inappropriate. IMO.

Well, I do remember that Spock and Scott both called Kirk "Jim" a few times over the years but that was usually in at least semi-private (WNMHGB, Amok Time), or high-stress situations (Mirror, Mirror). There were probably other examples I'm forgetting at the moment, but the business of calling him "Jim" on the bridge is basically a McCoy thing... and we all know what a stickler for protocol he is. But Kirk never seemed to mind, so why should we?

[Peach Wookiee]

This seems a better thread for GTD, folks. Moving to General Trek Discussion.

[Bigjoe]

If I didn't know the crewman's name I'd call him by his rank. "Ensign", "Lieutenant" etc.

Calling someone "Mister" is just wrong.

[Nerys Myk]

You really must hate the band Mr. Mister.

[Bigjoe]

Nerys Myk wrote:

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You really must hate the band Mr. Mister.

[T'Girl]

Bry_Sinclair wrote:

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why does Starfleet have to conform to exact way of the US navy?

Because it's so much cooler that way.

And beside, the ways of the US Navy are hardly unique for a uniformed military service. Many services around the world (and perhaps on other worlds?) have customs and courtesies that are, if not identical, then similar.

[TiberiusMaximus]

Starfleet is a fictional organization from the fictional future. It's not the US Navy (or even a fictional version of the US Navy), so it's not "wrong" if they do things differently. That's like an American watching a show about the navy of another country and complaining that the differences are inaccuracies. They're not inaccuracies, they're differences.

For example, some countries pronounce Lieutenant "loo-tenant" and some pronounce it "leff-tenant." One isn't "right" and the other isn't "wrong", they're just different.

Because it's so much cooler that way.

Fair enough. I don't agree, but that's a valid opinion. But it doesn't mean the writers had it wrong, because they're not trying to create an accurate representation of the US Navy.

Even so, a lot changes in a few hundred years. Things once considered proper and necessary are now considered unnecessary or even improper. It's not unrealistic for future military/paramilitary organizations to do things differently than those in the present.

Calling someone "Mister" is just wrong.

Why?

[Bigjoe]

Well because its not their name and just sounds unprofessional IMO.

Just my opinion.