Blah blah blah, I still want to see Pike in command of the ship! I won't complain if he returns as an admiral for the sequel, but he just oozes authority on the bridge of the Enterprise.
Do you think Kirk was made captain early
- Thread starter startrekrcks
- Start date
Blah blah blah, I still want to see Pike in command of the ship! I won't complain if he returns as an admiral for the sequel, but he just oozes authority on the bridge of the Enterprise.
You're right. He should've told his cadet crew he'd reprogrammed the simulator in advance. That way, they'd all be accessories and co-conspirators and would be expelled right alongside Kirk if the brass didn't appreciate the point he was making. After all, there's nothing more damaging to unit cohesion and morale than confidential information. Why, to pick a random hypothetical example, it'd be unthinkable if Kirk-Prime didn't tell the crew he'd faked his own death at the hands of Spock so he could spy on the Romulans.
Assuming that the Narada exhausted every single missile in its reserves, and not just, say, the ones that were loaded at that moment, I don't how it follows that it's as harmless as a soft bed full of teddy bears. It doesn't matter if the ship doesn't have any weapons. The ship itself is a weapon. Nero could smash it into 21st century Earth, if that's where he ended up, and wipe out the human race. Hell, he could just park it over a large city and set himself up as God-King if the black hole spit him out much farther back, and turned humanity into his personal slave-army for a mission of vengeance going across the stars.
Even if he decided to retire from villiany, just the fact that there was a giant freaking spaceship tooling around that wasn't there before could have a profound effect on history.
case in point just look at how much he messed with history just by trashing the Kelvin.
Sorry to be late, but just for the record... Of course Custer knew his rank of major general was not permanent: It was in the US Volunteers, which was wartime-only. His permanent grade in the US Army at the end of the war was captain, though he was soon promoted to lieutenant colonel.
The reason Custer and so many others rose so rapidly in rank in those days was that in the first year of the Civil War the Union army increased to over thirty times its pre-war size. Obviously, any officer with formal military training would be in high demand, and most pre-war officers were quickly promoted several steps in grade. U.S. Grant had been a captain but wasn't even in the army when the war started; he was a brigadier general by Sept. 1861.
No such massive expansion of Starfleet was shown in the movie, in fact it seemed to be rather undersized for demand at that point.
--Justin
War time casualties also lead to rapid promotions. Starfleet had lost in the space of a few minutes 7 starships worth of both experienced crew and cadets when they faced the Narada.
Also, there must be some kind of engagements going on, since the 'Primary Fleet is engaged in the Laurentian System' according to Pike, so there must be some active hostilities going on.
For clarification, what exactly do you mean 'undersized for demand'?
Also, there must be some kind of engagements going on, since the 'Primary Fleet is engaged in the Laurentian System' according to Pike, so there must be some active hostilities going on.
For clarification, what exactly do you mean 'undersized for demand'?
So one would expect a few commanders to be moved up to captain, some more LCDRs to be moved into CDR vacancies and so on down the line. The losses don't seem near big enough to account for a cadet-to-captain jump.
Maybe, but a massive wartime mobilization as I was referring to above wasn't apparent.
It was implied that the fleet's strength was drastically reduced by the loss of the seven ships at Vulcan, and the way they were pressing cadets into service made it seem that the fleet was stretched thin.
--Justin
He sure was, but who cares? 
He sure was, but who cares?
Ditto baby. Ditto.
oooooh NICE CAP Jeri! You rock gf, you know that?
middyseafort found it, so props to him/her.
All of you guys are missing a very important point:
Prime Spock is seen standing at the graduation ceremony for Kirk. Who's to say he didn't tell Starfleet of how Kirk was the best at what he does and also did in the Prime Universe? If he was the one looking for a suitable planet for Vulcan colonization and not the overpriced stellar cartographers under Starfleet, why wouldn't he be able to pull a few other strings as well?
Prime Spock is seen standing at the graduation ceremony for Kirk. Who's to say he didn't tell Starfleet of how Kirk was the best at what he does and also did in the Prime Universe? If he was the one looking for a suitable planet for Vulcan colonization and not the overpriced stellar cartographers under Starfleet, why wouldn't he be able to pull a few other strings as well?
Could be used as a good plot point for the sequel: Kirk knows it's a tremendous honour to be given full command of the flagship after getting promoted from lieutenant (nice find btw, it was in the novelization, nice to know it's canon) to captain, so he would try to be humble and just want to explore... until the ramifications of Vulcan's implosion escalate 
(argh, where's an Andorian, Gorn and Tholian smiley when you need one too).
(argh, where's an Andorian, Gorn and Tholian smiley when you need one too).
startrekrcks
Fleet Captain
I didn't mind the quick promotion of Kirk being captain.
Nice find, that cap. 
But yeah, i remember a discussion in the original 5,000 threads that we had about the fact that even though they were at the academy, maybe they were there doing extra tuition, or stayed longer than usual to achieve more grades/qualifications/experience etc, thus skipping the ensign rank (in the original theory some of us had, the ensign rank could be seen as an apprentice or "field trainee" or something, fresh out of the academy but not quite qualified) So, by skipping the ensign rank by staying on in the academy, Kirk and McCoy become Lieutenants upon graduation. And as Pike effectively banned Kirk from joining the emergency defcon scramble of the fleet during the attacks, Kirk was never given a uniform as he was smuggled aboard, but still holds the rank of Lieutenant on the service records.
so, to be perfectly honest, it isnt that fast a promotion as was first thought.
Its still too soon a promotion though, even if they had the cliched 'Two years later' flash up or something, that wouldve been ample enough to at least explain what had occured during that time in Kirks career.
But yeah, i remember a discussion in the original 5,000 threads that we had about the fact that even though they were at the academy, maybe they were there doing extra tuition, or stayed longer than usual to achieve more grades/qualifications/experience etc, thus skipping the ensign rank (in the original theory some of us had, the ensign rank could be seen as an apprentice or "field trainee" or something, fresh out of the academy but not quite qualified) So, by skipping the ensign rank by staying on in the academy, Kirk and McCoy become Lieutenants upon graduation. And as Pike effectively banned Kirk from joining the emergency defcon scramble of the fleet during the attacks, Kirk was never given a uniform as he was smuggled aboard, but still holds the rank of Lieutenant on the service records.
so, to be perfectly honest, it isnt that fast a promotion as was first thought.
Its still too soon a promotion though, even if they had the cliched 'Two years later' flash up or something, that wouldve been ample enough to at least explain what had occured during that time in Kirks career.
What exactly was that, BTW? Did we ever find out what the hell was *going on* in the Laurentian system?
