Theory & revisions re: Kirk's rapid promotion(s) [3 merged]

[Red Ranger]

Could the Kirk makes captain be an extension of another silly promotion scheme? While not firmly established in canon, Picard was supposedly skipped three grades to full captain when the Stargazer's captain was killed, as postulated in the Star Trek book on management. So, they decided to one-up that preposterous promotion and jump Kirk six grades! -- RR

 

[Jax]

If you saved Earth in real life I think you would be given almost anything so I have no prob with Kirk being capt

 

[Pauln6]

Could the Kirk makes captain be an extension of another silly promotion scheme? While not firmly established in canon, Picard was supposedly skipped three grades to full captain when the Stargazer's captain was killed, as postulated in the Star Trek book on management. So, they decided to one-up that preposterous promotion and jump Kirk six grades! -- RR

Lol! Well, in Picard's defence, he wasn't fresh out of the Acadamy and he was captaining a small science research vessel. That is a bit less of a stretch than one day out of the Acadamy, under investigation for cheating, abusing drugs (although McCoy might be in the frame for that one), repeatedly disobeying orders, and then being put in charge of the Federation's flagship! He's the kind of maverick they always wanted... in Star Trek VI!

 

[Pauln6]

If they genuinely believe he is ready to be a 'real' captain then the top brass needs to retire and promote some women to the admiralty to get some common sense in there.

they had a woman admiral.

Cool - they had a whole woman? I must have missed her. All they need now is an alien and they'll meet both their quotas! Better yet, demote the pesky human female and promote Gaila - then they fill both quotas in one go, plus the big brass office parties are guaranteed to be fun. Adds a new spin on the term 'vice' admiral.

Seriously though, how many male admirals did they have to sit alongside this lone female? It still doesn't portray Starfleet in a good light. I think this level of subsonscious sexism might be an American thing. Shows with Canadian, Australian, or British roots seem to do much better.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Starfleet General Order 2: "Any Starfleet officer who saves a member world of the Federation from destruction receives an immediate promotion to starship captain, no matter his or her previous rank. Starfleet officers holding the rank of Admiral are rewarded with a demotion to starship captain. Civilians are made Acting ensign."

 

[Pauln6]

Starfleet General Order 2: "Any Starfleet officer who saves a member world of the Federation from destruction receives an immediate promotion to starship captain, no matter his or her previous rank. Starfleet officers holding the rank of Admiral are rewarded with a demotion to starship captain. Civilians are made Acting ensign."

Lol - That's general order 2c. General Order 2 is the one that requires captains to wear removable velcro strips on their shirts in order to look sexier when in melee combat.

The real problem I have with Kirk is that the same one I have with Troi - their plans involved serious gambles that placed their crew at increased risk when other options were available.

In Troi's case, she waited overlong for survivors in the engineering section to fix the engines. Everything Ro said was correct and containment was right down to the minimum level. Troi was right to give possible survivors every chance but she waited so long that all the crew that she did know were alive would have been condemned to death because the saucer had insufficient time to get away. She got lucky and with hindsight it was the right decision but it was a bad command decision at the time; it was a gamble.

Was it really a good command decision for just two people with separate missions to beam onto Nero's ship when they had limited information regarding the Narada's security systems or troop numbers? Yes with hindsight the plan worked but Kirk or Spock could have been incapacitated very easily. They had no security back-up with them, no second team to beam in if the ship lost contact with Kirk and Spock etc. Kirk got lucky and saved everybody but I would hesitate to say it was due to brilliant strategising or intelligent usage of his crew's skills. He should have been greatly rewarded with a medal and/or commendation but I saw nothing that justified such rapid promotion to a position of such great responsibility.

You woudn't promote the kid who stuck his finger in the dyke to captain since he displayed no qualities that would justify this. While Kirk has displayed promise, he has proved himself insubordinate with a disregard for the chain of command and starfleet regulations and a tendency to take unnecessary gambles.

Obviously, with Trek's rich history of Kirk beaming down when he wasn't the most qualified crewman for the job is legendary. He even reprogrammed the M5 computer to go insane to teach it to try and exclude him from away missions.