Given that Uhura takes over navigation from time to time, and that there are a couple of instances of navigators apparently getting promoted to communications, I think it likely she was Pike's navigator at one point, and that would also explain (in-universe) why she wears gold early on. She also wears gold with a sciences patch, and the science station is on the same side of the Bridge as navigation and communications. This sort of fits a pattern with Chekov being navigator and a back-up science officer.
Pike and "Fleet Captain"?
- Thread starter BillJ
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Given that Uhura takes over navigation from time to time, and that there are a couple of instances of navigators apparently getting promoted to communications, I think it likely she was Pike's navigator at one point, and that would also explain (in-universe) why she wears gold early on. She also wears gold with a sciences patch, and the science station is on the same side of the Bridge as navigation and communications. This sort of fits a pattern with Chekov being navigator and a back-up science officer.
Interesting idea! If Uhura was originally on the command track, her cross-training in different stations certainly makes sense. Chekov certainly did his share of hopping around.
Personally, I've always assuming that cross-training in the essential stations (Helm, Navigation and Weapons) is standard for all bridge officers.
I disagree. I finished a full watchthrough of TOS literally two days ago. There were plenty of occasions that he interfered, though to be fair some of them did take place before anyone mentioned the Prime Directive.
I'm on the opposite side of this. The Sarek explanation at least tried to address the elephant in the wombI still go for the Spock is a naturally born person myself as it's never been referenced as a genetic splicing on any of the shows I've watched like TOS-VOY do like all this modern day style of destroying your heroes I'm against it!Plus in TNGs The Chase we learn that all of the major races of the Trek galaxy are linked by an earlier race of beings, possibly The Preservers!
JB
that two species from different planets simply should not be able to breed at all, let alone unassisted. That explanation was at least a sci-fi concept, so I said "fine" for Spock on that, but when Klingons and Romulans and every other fracking species started popping out hybrid babies it basically said, "no one is actually an alien".
It didn't get stated right away, but Roddenberry had included it in his unfilmed 2nd pilot script for "The Omega Glory", just under a different name, so it was planned before the series hit the air.
Oh, I dunno. Mendez asks if Kirk has ever met Captain Pike (TM), this highly decorated Starfleet hero everybody is gossiping about. Kirk dryly acknowledges: he indeed met him - on Day Zero, back when he first made (Fleet) Captain already. Mendez then drones on about who this hero is... And Kirk sighs "I know. That's the man I got this damn ship from! Spock has worked with him for years! I named my first five bastards as anagrams of his name, and he returned the favor! His left buttock is tattooed with an IDIC sign and a Type 3 Phaser on Libra cups! I know the man!".
Timo Saloniemi
Got these from another thread, but I think they apply.
Given that Gary Mitchel has only one stripe, but is a LTCMDR, I would concede it is possible that Pike was a LTCMDR and could refer to himself as "captain" by title and not rank, with other officers being the ranks of LT or below. If he is the captain, and thus the only LTCMDR, it may be deemed that he did not need to have further decoration on his uniform, since he is the only captain of the ship. I'm not saying I think this is true, but I am saying I could see it as possible. Pike and Kirk and even Picard were both supposed to be the youngest Star Ship captains on record, with each break the previous one's record.
Given that Gary Mitchel has only one stripe, but is a LTCMDR, I would concede it is possible that Pike was a LTCMDR and could refer to himself as "captain" by title and not rank, with other officers being the ranks of LT or below. If he is the captain, and thus the only LTCMDR, it may be deemed that he did not need to have further decoration on his uniform, since he is the only captain of the ship. I'm not saying I think this is true, but I am saying I could see it as possible. Pike and Kirk and even Picard were both supposed to be the youngest Star Ship captains on record, with each break the previous one's record.
I'm not nearly as familiar with the TNG characters' biographical details as I am with the TOS characters', so I checked out Picard's Memory Alpha entry and found this:
So it seems likely that Picard started commanding the Stargazer when he was still a Commander or perhaps even a Lt. Commander, and the Captain rank came later.
28 seems implausibly young to be promoted to Captain, anyway. Even Pike and Kirk becoming Captains in their early 30s is pushing it in terms of having a plausible advancement through the ranks. Which is fine. Picard doesn't need to make Captain more quickly than someone else to be an impressive character in his own right. I do think it's surprising that something as major as Picard being promoted to Captain has been so vaguely-defined in his biography, though.
But throwaway character Trayla Scott apparently broke everyone else's record, anyway.
Scotty and Uhura were very proud.But throwaway character Trayla Scott apparently broke everyone else's record, anyway.
<Does the math based on everyone's apparent ages> EEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW.
Yeah, there is that.
But hell, Trayla Scott could be from another branch of the family, or even the 24th Century equivalent of a test tube baby.
Would Starfleet put a full captain in charge of only two hundred crew?
Number of crew, especially in a space force command, should not dictate rank, rather, the class of the ship. In old British terms, the rank of Captain was given when one was given a "post" ship which started at frigates. Sloops and brigs were given to Commanders (but were called Captain). Clearly, the Enterprise warrants a Captain rank.
Even if we assume that Starfleet requires that all starship commanders are Captains during their tenure*, I think that it reasonable to assume that -- similar to the flag ranks above Rear Admiral/Major General -- that COs of lesser vessels are not permenantly promoted to the rank of Captain, but would revert to Commander or even Lieutenant Commander if they transferred to a desk job that didn't require a Captain after that.
*Not definative, but mostly consistent with canon.
*Not definative, but mostly consistent with canon.
But it's all tied together. What is the rate of the vessel if not a function of the size? In the old RN system, they counted guns, post ships starting at 20. But the ship's complement was directly tied to the number needed to crew those guns, and in turn the number of supervisory positions, so a sloop commander had one or two lieutenants, a frigate captain two or three, a 74 gun ship-of-the-line five and so on up to eight in a first-rate. A larger organization, of course, requires a more experienced manager, or in a military context, a higher ranking officer.
But why? What would the function of the real captains be? If a lieutenant commander or commander had the requisite experience to command the vessel, wouldn't that just be the normal grade for that position, as in a navy today and historically? No temporary promotion required.
It could be a function of role, rather size or crew complement... CO can sometimes be higher in rank in SSBN community compared to surface warfare.
Personally, I agree that that would make sense, I'm merely suggesting the above as a possible explanation for the idea that a Nova-class, Intrepid-class and Galaxy-class all "apparently" warrant the same rank of CO, I also think it's instructive that the rank of the XO/2-in-C is different (Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander and Commander respectively), which in the RW would suggest that their substantive rank (rather than assignment title) is actually (Lieutenant) Commander, Commander and Captain respectively.
...
28 seems implausibly young to be promoted to Captain, anyway. Even Pike and Kirk becoming Captains in their early 30s is pushing it in terms of having a plausible advancement through the ranks. Which is fine. Picard doesn't need to make Captain more quickly than someone else to be an impressive character in his own right. I do think it's surprising that something as major as Picard being promoted to Captain has been so vaguely-defined in his biography, though.
But throwaway character Trayla Scott apparently broke everyone else's record, anyway.
What did Picard mean by making Captain "faster than anyone in Starfleet history"?
If Picard meant fastest since birth Tryla Scott would be the youngest captain in Starfleet History/ If Picard meant the fasts since joining starfleet Tryla Scott could have joined Starfleet comparatively old and been promoted very fast and so have become a very young captain but not the youngest ever.
Ursaline Byrant was born 4 November 1947 and was forty years old when "Conspiracy" was produced in early 1988. If Tryla s Scott was as old as Byrant she could have been 40 years old, and recently promoted to captain. Or she might have been much younger when promoted some unspecified number of years earlier. Thus it is possible she became captain when older than Kirk or Picard and Picard meant that Scott became captain soonest after entering Starfleet.
Other characters who may have become captains at young ages include, Garth of Izar, Pike, Kirk, and Picard.
The Making of Star Trek says that Kirk: "..was the youngest academy graduate to be appointed a starship command captain". And of course that only means the youngest up to the era of TOS.
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True. There is a distinction between "youngest" and "fastest." Perhaps Trayla Scott had previously served in the Merchant Service, joined Starfleet at (just to pick a number at random) 33, and made Captain by age 40 because her experiences were somehow transferable.
