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Chakotay's Rank

What was Chakotay's provisional rank throughout Voyager?

  • Lieutenant Commander

    Votes: 28 51.9%
  • Commander

    Votes: 26 48.1%

  • Total voters
    54
What puzzles me more is that Tuvok was initially a mere lieutenant. He'd served about 25 years (the second time) and was a pretty high-up guy. Michael Eddington was a lt. commander, and their two roles seemed similar. I'd think that many years of service would get you to at least lt. commander automatically.
I think it depends on whatever billet one is assigned to and where it fits in an established chain of command. Promotions seem to be one area where Starfleet really differs from today's navies, because there apparently isn't a problem if someone stays at a certain rank for a very long time. Positions seem to carry more weight than actual ranks, IMO, but then some promotions are made simply at the discretion of a commanding officer.
I've never served so I might be talking rubbish, but I think rank is used to denote responsibility and thus the relative paygrade. In a Federation where that doesn't seem a concern, ranks (and rank promotions) might be much less useful than in current military.
I tend to see it the same way. Starfleet is similar to today's navies in many ways, but there are some differences...
 
^^^
You're right, I'm afraid. I don't quite understand what you mean. :( Could you please elaborate? Thanks! :)


I typed in Star trek Chakotay rank Lt. Commander first. I got no real response.
Then I typed in Commander Chakotay of u.s.s voyager, and got the wiki evidence in the first search result.
 
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As of 9:37 PM on April 19, I broke the tie between Lt. Commander and Commander. I believe someone holds the rank that their insignia suggests. And Lt. Commander could be abbreviated as both "Lieutenant" and "Commander". There are, at the time I wrote this post, 31 voters. Originally 30, 15 one way, 15 the other. I voted Lt. Cmdr..
EDIT: As of 4:50 on April 20, there is no an 18/18 tie! Boo hoo!

@PhaserLightShow
 
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It's all subject to interpretation, of course, but I voted Lt. Commander.

As far as credits are concerned, there are obviously no in-universe credits, and is really on par with a production note, despite the fact that it is "on-screen".

Commander spoken as short form, and likely to be used as the short form (IMO) for the XO to unofficially elevate him slightly.

Janeway's XO in Caretaker was a Lt. Commander. Why would she want or need to elevate Chakotay higher?
Additionally, since no one can be promoted above Commander on the ship by Janeway, it gives her some flexibility to give him a promotion at some point if he warranted it.

Rank insignia.

In the end, I'll just shrug and say "I dunno..." but the above sounds logical to me.
 
I read somewhere that Chakotay was Lieutenant-Commander (but they are commonly called "Commander" by others cadets/enseignes and lieutenant junior, like Tuvok was, after Revulsion in S4) when he resigned his commission at Starfleet to join the Maquis. At the end of Caretaker, Janeway simply suggested reinstalling him in this rank in a temporary way, the time of the journey in Delta Quadrant. What was trully important in fact was, that she suggested to let Chakotay becoming her First Officer/Number One (Tuvok being her Second Officer, well before he gets his rank of Lieutenant-Commander) with all prerogatives, including to relieve her of her duties if he considered that she couldn't assure anymore her fonction or replace her in the event of her death.
Frankly, that was a quite risked bet as seeing as she didn't still know him yet... . :wtf:
 
Or we could split the difference and suggest that Provisional ranks are one-step below the regular ranks, so a Provisional Commander is the same as a regular Lieutenant Commander, and Provisional LTJGs rank with regular Ensigns. We could also speculate that Wesley's Acting Ensign is the same as a Provisional Ensign, which fits with the idea that Provisional Ranks are 'less' than regular one?
 
id say he was a commander because when picard talks to others about data he sometimes refers to him as lieutenant commander
 
Or we could split the difference and suggest that Provisional ranks are one-step below the regular ranks, so a Provisional Commander is the same as a regular Lieutenant Commander, and Provisional LTJGs rank with regular Ensigns. We could also speculate that Wesley's Acting Ensign is the same as a Provisional Ensign, which fits with the idea that Provisional Ranks are 'less' than regular one?
No.

Provisional rank is totally made up, that people with real rank chose to pretend is real.

There is no weird code or equation that gives fake rank real authority.

Fake rank is an inside joke.

Who was the First Officer in Resolutions after Janeway and Chakotay left?
 
Provisional rank is totally made up, that people with real rank chose to pretend is real.

There is no weird code or equation that gives fake rank real authority.

Fake rank is an inside joke.

To be fair, Chakotay was a real Starfleet officer before he left to join the Maquis. (IIRC, he is supposed to be the "lieutenant commander" who was Ro Laren's instructor at Advanced Tactical Training.)

Most of the rest of the Maquis were never in Starfleet before they joined Voyager. So their ranks would be described as fake, but Chakotay's rank is very real.
 
Chakotay quit. Upon reinstatement he doesn't get to decide the rank he gets, when he should be in jail for treason and massmurder.

(They all should.)

B'Elanna didn't finish the academy, but she was made Lieutenant Junior Grade, in charge of engineering, after breaking Carey's face.
 
In fairness he should have been full Commander. He was pretty qualified and experienced for a rebel.
 
Experience dictates the job you get.

The job you have dictates your rank.

They will lower your rank, if you have too much, if they need you to do a specific job, rather than where to put you to use the fullest of your abilities. (Poor Dekker. :( )

If Experience, dictated rank and position, then Chakotay should have been the Captain... Oh, Tuvok should have been Captain, because he's been in the trenches for nearly a century, so the only reason he wasn't a Captain (somewhere else) is that he didn't care for the gig.

One version of the story is that Voyager is Janeway's first Command, they later changed that, but only if you were paying attention.
 
He had experience enough to be the highest ranked Marquis but to also command over the entire crew. His rebel status notwithstanding. What limited his preference to be Captain was that there already was one appointed to Voyager. Rank has order but Captaincy is both the highest command but is assigned to a vessel.
I didn't mind Chakotay being First Officer but given how small his crew were, their dislike for the Federation, and their continued divided loyalty, I kind of figured he was indebted to Janeway for the respect she gave him.
 
That reeks of Uncle Tom.

Janeway on the other hand should be indebted to Chakotay for not taking her in the middle of the night from her bedroom and spacing her.
 
I'd never even given this any thought. I'd always just assumed he was a Commander, as the vast majority of XO's we've seen are all full commanders. But after reading some of these posts it's certainly got me thinking.
 
No.

Provisional rank is totally made up, that people with real rank chose to pretend is real.

There is no weird code or equation that gives fake rank real authority.

Fake rank is an inside joke.

Who was the First Officer in Resolutions after Janeway and Chakotay left?
Without Janeway and Chakotay on the ship Tuvok is captain and Tom is first officer
 
Logically you should be right, but Tom was remarkably non present in that episode, and politically a Maquis needs to be in one of the top spots or they will revolt.

Tom had 12 lines in that episode (there's a list) and they were mostly about driving.

I can Argue that Tuvok's first officer was Kes, since she definitely had his ear and counselled him on command decisions. :)
 
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