Are there any average joe Starfleet officers left?

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Hartzilla2007, Aug 20, 2014.

  1. Hartzilla2007

    Hartzilla2007 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Thinking about it, it seems these days Starfleet officers are all uber important special awesome person and/or has a fancy new ship type or at least is rather fancy for the part of Starfleet they're in.

    So I was wondering if there were any regular people in bog standard starships left at this point.
     
  2. David Mack

    David Mack Writer Rear Admiral

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    The Shoveller: “We're not your classic heroes. We're the other guys.”
    Mystery Men
     
  3. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    Of course there are. They just don't get the exciting stories.
     
  4. fancealot

    fancealot Ensign Newbie

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    Well there must be, I mean the ent E has room for 750 crew, the new DS9 could hold 13000, so there must be some regular joe officers around just out of camera shot
     
  5. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    O'Brien...good point. I think he qualifies.
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2014
  6. bbjeg

    bbjeg Admiral Admiral

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    I thought people like Sonia Gomez was your Joe Blow Starfleet personnel. Her goal wasn't to be a captain or anything, she just wanted to serve aboard the Enterprise. Also, he may have teleported people from time to time but TNG's O'brien was a family man more than anything else.
     
  7. Paris

    Paris Commodore Commodore

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    He's not an officer. He's an enlisted man.
     
  8. David Mack

    David Mack Writer Rear Admiral

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    Technically, he's a noncommissioned officer, of at least chief petty officer rank or, more likely (given his duration of service and senior-staff billet), a senior CPO. (But probably not a master chief petty officer, or else someone would have called him "master chief" by now.)
     
  9. bbjeg

    bbjeg Admiral Admiral

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    Hey Mr. Laser Beam, did you beat me to bringing up O'brien or edit your post to agree with me before I said it?
     
  10. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ^ No, I edited it because you reminded me of the character, I should have been more clear on that point. I had totally forgotten about O'Brien. :alienblush:
     
  11. martok2112

    martok2112 Commodore Commodore

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    Don't forget (one of my favorite TNG episodes) "Lower Decks". :)
     
  12. DEWLine

    DEWLine Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Reflexive philosophical question: was there ever a "bog standard starship" to begin with? :-)
     
  13. Markonian

    Markonian Fleet Admiral Moderator

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    There were average Joe personnel in bits of Destiny. Another example is the SB 185 personnel in VOY: Protectors.
     
  14. Ithekro

    Ithekro Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I would assume the average regular people would be enlisted and non-coms, just like the current military structures.
     
  15. SPCTRE

    SPCTRE Badass Admiral

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    I can't help but imagine Miles O'Brien in green MJOLNIR Spartan combat armor now.
     
  16. Hartzilla2007

    Hartzilla2007 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    And then he had to go and design the new DS9.

    Seriously he works in a space station of (partially) his own design.

    Plus he tended to rub elbows with a space Jesus, the only augment allowed in Starfleet, the adopted brother of the ruler of the Klingon Empire, The latest incarnations of an ancient alien who's predecessors were a federation diplomat, and a science officer who married into a Klingon great house. And the accidental surrogate mother for his first born son was dating the head of the Bajoran government at the time and before that was dating the guy who almost became the Bajoran Pope.

    Even the guys who start out average joes get elevated to awesome.
     
  17. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I've always assumed that we just followed the most interesting and noteworthy people in Starfleet, while there are thousands of average people working on ships going on less extraordinary missions. There are probably also a lot of "average joe" crew members of the ships we do follow. Most of the ships have at least hundreds of crew members while follow just a small handful of them.
     
  18. Tim Walker

    Tim Walker Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    O'Brien, and I think Gomez, were mauve shirts.
     
  19. flandry84

    flandry84 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I thought that the point of Starfleet was that their guys were not just average in any way.

    Though there does seem to be an attitude seeping in to Treklit that is similar to what has happened in Marvel comics.
    I hate to see characters acting with a "cooler than thou" rock-star attitude.
     
  20. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I tend to think of them as being a bit like Contact in Iain M. Banks's Culture: For most people in the Federation, life is easy and utopian and fulfilling, but people who crave more challenge and excitement go into Starfleet.