Character questions

[EJA]

OK, how come McCoy and Uhura graduate from the academy with the ranks of Lt. and Lt. commander? Shouldn't they be ensigns?

And at one point, McCoy mentions a Nurse Chapel. But by this point in time, Christine Chapel should be off with Roger Korby and studying bioengineering (as in TOS "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"). How did she get on the Enterprise?

And what was nuScotty's position before he was sent to Delta Vega? It is mentioned in TNG "Relics" that he served on 11 different ships before being assigned to the Enterprise in the original timeline.

 

[Pauln6]

Doctors can often be given higher ranks because they fall slightly outside the standard chain of command. A junior doctor is likely to graduate as a Lt (jg) like Bashir whereas a fully qualified doctor like McCoy who has years of experience may be given a sort of honorary senior rank.

It is also possible for more promising students, perhaps those recommended for superior command training, to graduate as a Lt.

 

[Tom]

And going from 3 year cadet to Captain that's no big deal. LOL

 

[Michael]

And at one point, McCoy mentions a Nurse Chapel. But by this point in time, Christine Chapel should be off with Roger Korby and studying bioengineering (as in TOS "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"). How did she get on the Enterprise?

And what was nuScotty's position before he was sent to Delta Vega? It is mentioned in TNG "Relics" that he served on 11 different ships before being assigned to the Enterprise in the original timeline.

I'm not entirely sure, but don't they mention something along the lines of an alternate timeline? I could be mistaken, but I seem to remember it being of minor importance to the characters. Maybe this would explain these inconsistencies.

 

[Pauln6]

I'm sure Scotty worked on mining ships in his TOS history (or am I tinking of Geordi?) but there is no reason why a starfleet officer couldn't be asked to oversee civilian projects that are of importance to the Federation.

Chapel's precise history is unclear. Part of Starfleet training is academic and part is starleet procedure and command school. She was a qualified biologist and could have skipped the academic training and just spent a year studying nursing and command training. Also remember that nursing degrees are a relatively modern phenomena - nurses in the sixties were required to use common sense more than medical training so the writers may not have worried about establishing this aspect of her training. Her precise rank on ship was never established although some say she was a 'provisional' ensign, known as a brevet. This could mean that she never officially graduated from Starfleet Acadamy but had sufficient qualifications to get on board a ship. Just 2.5 years later she was a Lt and an MD. It takes 7 years to qualify as a consultant in the UK - some of which includes training as a junior doctor. For Chapel to be qualified in such a short space of time, she should really have been a junior doctor on the Enterprise. Personally, I wished they'd just made a phd and transferred her to be the ship's astrobiologist to make her a more independent character.

McCoy was also a fully qualified doctor when he joined Starfleet so it isn't clear why it took him 3 years to graduate in NuTrek. Possibly the extra time was spent doing the advanced command training needed to become a Lt-commander but then he would not have been a cadet at the time of the crisis.

 

[EJA]

I recall nuScotty mentioning that part of the reason he was on Delta Vega was that he had had a debate with his instructor. To me, this suggests he was still a cadet at the time, but I'd want a more expert opinion.

 

[Pauln6]

Scotty is too old to be a cadet, surely - he's even older than McCoy. It is plausible that officers undertake regular training to keep on top of tech advances.

 

[EJA]

And at one point, McCoy mentions a Nurse Chapel. But by this point in time, Christine Chapel should be off with Roger Korby and studying bioengineering (as in TOS "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"). How did she get on the Enterprise?

And what was nuScotty's position before he was sent to Delta Vega? It is mentioned in TNG "Relics" that he served on 11 different ships before being assigned to the Enterprise in the original timeline.

I'm not entirely sure, but don't they mention something along the lines of an alternate timeline? I could be mistaken, but I seem to remember it being of minor importance to the characters. Maybe this would explain these inconsistencies.

I hardly think the Kelvin blowing up in 2233 would change peoples' lives that much.

 

[OneBuckFilms]

It's possible that some of Scotty's Engineering expertise, including some of those 11 starships, may have been on the Civilian Side, then he joined Starfleet and went through the Academy like McCoy.

Also, in TWOK, Saavik was a Lt., possibly JG, and she was still a cadet on a training mission.

Bear in mind, most of the events of the movie are set in 2258, while in the Prime reality (TOS), events basically started in 2266.

 

[Pauln6]

Ah but I can see why the query regarding Chapel was raised then! Korby wasn't missing in action in 2258 so she should be a research biologist rather than a nurse? I was just a bit slow on the uptake. Still, chekov shouldn't be there either. You just have to shrug your shoulders and move on I guess.

 

[EJA]

You just have to shrug your shoulders and move on I guess.

While I can understand this to a degree, I just can't bring myself to do it. If things are that different, I like to have a sensible, logical and believable explanation as to why they're that way.

 

[Pauln6]

You just have to shrug your shoulders and move on I guess.

While I can understand this to a degree, I just can't bring myself to do it. If things are that different, I like to have a sensible, logical and believable explanation as to why they're that way.

We both wish! Janice Rand should have been Pike's yeoman, Number One should have been Pike's first officer, Chekov should have been saved for the sequel, and Chapel should have been one of the scientists on board.

There were logical reasons why they made the decisions they made but believable would be too much to hope for

 

[Shadowcat_559]

I really doubt Scotty was still a cadet. I assume Scotty was an Academy Aide like Spock. I saw it mentioned in his bio on the official Star Trek XI site. He mentioned Admiral Archer was his instructor on Delta Vega. Maybe he came back to Stalrfleet Academy after serving on other ships or perhaps special research assignments to work with his former instructor. My belief is that Scotty must have been helping teach other engineering cadets before the incident with Admiral Archer's pet beagle. I assume he must have served on various ships before and after he joined Starfleet.

BTW, I saw a brief bio of Scotty somewhere on another Star Trek site stating he attended college in his mid-teens after disproving an engineering theory about Photon Torpedos. In the old timeline, Scotty joined Starfleet when he was in his twenties. I assume he is in his early to mid-thirties in the new timeline.

 

[Pauln6]

Officially I think TOS Scotty is 5 years older than McCoy, who is 6 years older than Kirk, so he'd be 36 in NuTrek.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Simple answer for the various "why isn't [character] doing such and so:

altered timeline

The farther back from any given reference point changes are made, the longer chaos theory and the "butterfly effect" has to skew events downstream from the point of change. And the bigger the initial change, the larger the downstream impact.

Nero and the Narada making the nature of the Romulans known to the Federation some 3 decades earlier than the Prime timeline is one hell of a initial change.

It's entirely possible that Chapel never even MET Korby in the Nu-Universe, for example, or that Scotty spent his early career planetside and Enterprise was his first shipboard post. We know the launch of the Enterprise herself was delayed 13 years. Spock and Pike (on Enterprise) should have already visited Talos IV by 2258.

 

[Nerys Myk]

You just have to shrug your shoulders and move on I guess.

While I can understand this to a degree, I just can't bring myself to do it. If things are that different, I like to have a sensible, logical and believable explanation as to why they're that way.

We both wish! Janice Rand should have been Pike's yeoman, Number One should have been Pike's first officer, Chekov should have been saved for the sequel, and Chapel should have been one of the scientists on board.

There were logical reasons why they made the decisions they made but believable would be too much to hope for

Colt was Pike's yeoman. Janice was supposed to be a young woman in her early 20s in TOS. In 2258 she might not even be in Starfleet. Unless like Chekov she's a Doogie Howser. (And like Koenig, Whitney was older than the character she played)

As for Chapel, it was a nice nod to the character and only a single line. You guys could suck the fun out of a carnivale. Why not just assume that Korby got to Exo III a little earlier in this timeline. ( if you really need an explaination)

 

[Pauln6]

Apparently they retconned Rand's age in Flashback. I never noticed it myself but I'm told that her bio appears on screen somewhere and they upped her age to be equal to Whitney's real age at the time she played the character i.e. 36, which would mean that she would be 27 in NuTrek.

Apart from that the only other reference to her age was in a line that was edited out of Miri, where she claimed to be 24 in 2266, which would have made her 9 years younger than Kirk, or 16 at the time of NuTrek.

Strong female drives not withstanding, Colt seemed rather dull. At least Janice had personality. I really hope they find a role for her in the next movie.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Apparently they retconned Rand's age in Flashback. I never noticed it myself but her bio appears on screen somewhere they upped her age to be equal to Whitney's real age at the time she played the character i.e. 36, which would mean that she would be 27 in NuTrek.

That why I said supposed to be. It's VOY so it doesnt count. ( I kid!!!!)
Charlie Evans Prime must like the cougars. The idea that she's as old as Kirk and Spock just doesnt seem right for the character. Makes her kind of pathetic.

 

[Pauln6]

Charlie Evans Prime must like the cougars. The idea that she's as old as Kirk and Spock just doesnt seem right for the character. Makes her kind of pathetic.

Lol - well, she made it quite clear that she was much older than Charlie. I think he was just fooled by the softglow machine that she took with her everwhere.

I don't think that being 36 makes Rand pathetic! She was the Captain's Yeoman which is a senior enlisted position on the ship (most probably a senior petty officer). In TMP she was a CPO, which is a senior enlisted rank and was shown to be part of the engineering team. She was equivalent to O'Brien, a (retconned) CPO of similar age to Rand who was operating as a transporter officer in TNG and I've never heard anyone suggest he was pathetic.

I was disappointed that they didn't make better use of her character overall but all of the women in TOS were woefully underused.

 

[Glacial]

Scotty's not a cadet in the movie, is he? I thought he was just a Starfleet officer who screwed up big.

I know in the Canadian military, at least, an MD joining the service does basic training, some officer training, and then is commissioned as a Captain right away.