Are there any average joe Starfleet officers left?

[Hartzilla2007]

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.

 

[David Mack]

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

 

[RoJoHen]

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

 

[fancealot]

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

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

O'Brien...good point. I think he qualifies.

 

[bbjeg]

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.

 

[Paris]

O'Brien...good point. I think he qualifies.

He's not an officer. He's an enlisted man.

 

[David Mack]

O'Brien...good point. I think he qualifies.

He's not an officer. He's an enlisted man.

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.)

 

[bbjeg]

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?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ 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.

 

[martok2112]

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

 

[DEWLine]

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

 

[Markonian]

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

 

[Ithekro]

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

 

[SPCTRE]

O'Brien...good point. I think he qualifies.

He's not an officer. He's an enlisted man.

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.)

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

 

[Hartzilla2007]

O'Brien...good point. I think he qualifies.

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.

 

[JD]

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.

 

[Tim Walker]

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.

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

 

[flandry84]

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.

 

[Christopher]

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

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.