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Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x14 - "The War Without, The War Within"

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Minor gripe.

Why did the crew call Saru Captain?

Did he promote himself?
I get that he was in command but surely he was still Commander?

At least he demoted himself again af the end.

Like I said, Minor gripe.
So so episode, I really liked the little scene in the canteen with Tyler, Tilly and the others. Not been enough of that sort of thing this season.
Once they knew (per Burnham) that Lorca was from the MU - Saru would be the acting Captain of the ship (and addressed as such). His official Rank was/is still Commander; but as the Commanding Officer, the crew would in fact refer to him as Captain
 
No, their rank doesn't change but they still get called Captain if they are the senior officer in charge of the ship regardless of rank. It's real world Naval tradition.

But there are countless examples throughout Trek history where this doesn't happen.

The Captain is off ship for whatever reason and whomever is in charge is talking with an alien race onscreen.

" I'm lieutenant Paris. I'm in command whilst Captain Janeway isn't here"

" Captain Archer isn't available, I'm in command in his absence. I'm Commander Tucker"

There are lots more across all the series.
 
But there are countless examples throughout Trek history where this doesn't happen.

The Captain is off ship for whatever reason and whomever is in charge is talking with an alien race onscreen.

" I'm lieutenant Paris. I'm in command whilst Captain Janeway isn't here"

" Captain Archer isn't available, I'm in command in his absence. I'm Commander Tucker"

There are lots more across all the series.

There is a difference between the captain being away and there being no captain.
 
There is a difference between the captain being away and there being no captain.
Agreed. We're talking who has been COMMISSIONED as Captain of the ship (or who in effect has a battefield promotion when the official Captain dies). Of course I'm sure someone with more knowledge can find a writer's mistake which still violates the naval tradition, but ST has pretty consistently followed the traditions of the big navies on earth of the now. One example that looks like a mistake but isn't is Chekov calling himself Captain in ST5. However, this was a necessary plot-point since a subterfuge was needed to convince Sybok.
 
Deep space nine early seasons don't agree.
Apples and oranges I'm afraid since navies in our time don't have starbases and there is no precedent for what the commander of a starbase would be called - ST had leeway to use any "official title" they wanted for a Deep Space starbase commander and they used it.
 
But there are countless examples throughout Trek history where this doesn't happen.

The Captain is off ship for whatever reason and whomever is in charge is talking with an alien race onscreen.

" I'm lieutenant Paris. I'm in command whilst Captain Janeway isn't here"

" Captain Archer isn't available, I'm in command in his absence. I'm Commander Tucker"

There are lots more across all the series.

There are also examples of where it does, like when Dax takes command of the Defiant during the dominion war. There is a whole conversation with between O'brien and a very confused Nog about why Dax is being called Captain. Also I believe there was a couple of instances of this occurring in TOS. In the examples that you provided, Paris and Tucker should have referred to themselves as Acting-Captain, if we are to believe that Starfleet follows the traditions of modern Navies which they seem to when it suits. Trek is pretty inconsistent with how they portray starfleet at the best of times. Sometimes they follow Naval tradition and sometimes the writers ignore it for various reasons
 
Apples and oranges I'm afraid since navies in our time don't have starbases and there is no precedent for what the commander of a starbase would be called - ST had leeway to use any "official title" they wanted for a Deep Space starbase commander and they used it.

*sigh*

Ok. Picard is gone, totally gone after being turned into Locutus.
There is no Captain.

Riker is Commander until Hanson promotes him.
 
There are also examples of where it does, like when Dax takes command of the Defiant during the dominion war. There is a whole conversation with between O'brien and a very confused Nog about why Dax is being called Captain. Also I believe there was a couple of instances of this occurring in TOS. In the examples that you provided, Paris and Tucker should have referred to themselves as Acting-Captain, if we are to believe that Starfleet follows the traditions of modern Navies which they seem to when it suits. Trek is pretty inconsistent with how they portray starfleet at the best of times. Sometimes they follow Naval tradition and sometimes the writers ignore it for various reasons

OK mate. I think I've taken this far enough. It really was a minor gripe but I've enjoyed the responses thus far.

:techman:
 
On the one hand, you'd think that people would realize it's actually only people who look like their lost loved ones. They're actually Completely Different People, often in pretty radical ways. It's like getting hung up on your ex's identical twin. On the other hand, the resemblance certainly seems to have swayed Burnham's emotions beyond the bounds of reason...

True, but the confirmed existence of the MU means that the Federation's previously hypothetical ideas about a "multiverse" is actually true. So people will extrapolate that, if there's a universe where X died, there's a universe almost exactly the same except for X not dying. You don't need to go all the way to a highly divergent parallel like the MU, just pop to the nearest one that shares almost all your history - some of the alternates Worf travelled to were almost exact except for very small differences you could learn to resolve.

Navigating might be a problem though.
 
Not referring to the Emperor by her name is a strange thing? Does nobody remember that in Star Wars we never hear Palpatine referred to as anything other than "the Emperor" or "Darth Sidious" after the Prequel Era ends? In England and the Commonwealth Elizabeth II is frequently called "the Queen" without mentioning her name.

I don't think not mentioning the name "Philippa Georgiou" in and of itself is a sign of some cheap storytelling trick to have a big reveal a couple of episodes later. In that universe wouldn't most subjects just call her the Emperor?
 
Apples and oranges I'm afraid since navies in our time don't have starbases and there is no precedent for what the commander of a starbase would be called - ST had leeway to use any "official title" they wanted for a Deep Space starbase commander and they used it.

What about Navy bases? I think whoever is in charge is called "Base Commander", regardless of rank, but I think it's usually an Admiral (if Great Lakes NTC is any example).
 
Not referring to the Emperor by her name is a strange thing? Does nobody remember that in Star Wars we never hear Palpatine referred to as anything other than "the Emperor" or "Darth Sidious" after the Prequel Era ends? In England and the Commonwealth Elizabeth II is frequently called "the Queen" without mentioning her name.

I don't think not mentioning the name "Philippa Georgiou" in and of itself is a sign of some cheap storytelling trick to have a big reveal a couple of episodes later. In that universe wouldn't most subjects just call her the Emperor?
It was really bizarre contrivance though that the name of the Emperor somehow was not in the database Discovery accessed.
 
Appoint a psychopath, mass murdering, power hungry tyrant from a universe where duplicity and treachery is a virtual religion in charge of what is your most useful ship. As long as she doesn't forget herself and have the first officer as a quick lunchtime pick-me-up what could possibly go wrong?

The way 'Captain Georgiou' looks at Saru once she is seated at the captain's chair makes me think that Saru is going to become her dinner if she succeeds and survives the Kronos mission :nyah::nyah:.

So here's hoping Burnham will finally realize keeping Mirror Georgiou alive would only bring about the Federation's destruction and she will put the Emperor out of her misery.
 
Yeah Cornwell really didn't impress in the episode at all, I appreciate that the last nine months have been terrible but I would expect a Starfleet Admiral to hold up better than that, her psychology background just makes it worse.

She spent almost her entire career treating psychopaths and other mentally challenged individuals, then was promoted an Admiral during a wartime where Starfleet lost hundreds of thousands officers, many of her were her friends and colleagues. That's eventually going to give you a nervous breakdown.

However, it's beyond me to see an admiral who's trained as a psychiatrist and can detect psychophatic traits from miles away let the most psychophatic person in the known universes (both Prime and Mirror) to take over as captain of a Federation starship that is supposed to save the Federation if it succeeds in its mission but also will bring the fall of the Federation if it fails :confused::confused:.
 
However, it's beyond me to see an admiral who's trained as a psychiatrist and can detect psychophatic traits from miles away let the most psychophatic person in the known universes (both Prime and Mirror) to take over as captain of a Federation starship that is supposed to save the Federation if it succeeds in its mission but also will bring the fall of the Federation if it fails :confused::confused:.

Many many successful CEOs score extremely highly on the two narcissistic traits of the main personality-type questionnaire, with a scary number actually verging on psychopathy/sociopathy. Much as we don't like it, those traits can be useful in certain circumstances (though typically make life awful for many of the people around them). War would, IMHO, make Starfleet ethics/morals even less strict.
 
It was really bizarre contrivance though that the name of the Emperor somehow was not in the database Discovery accessed.
I agree. Especially since later on, when Georgiou appeared as a hologram on the Shenzhou bridge, no-one really seems to bat an eye and everybody seems to instantly recognize her as the Emperor. It's clear now that the only reason they made her identity a mystery was so that they could pull this “Captain” Georgiou bullshit now.
 
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