I'm a little confused. According to most sources, the lowest rank on a Constitution class starship is Ensign, with no enlisted personnel. What I'm confused about is 1) Does only the Constitutions/Bonhomme Richards have this set up? and 2)What ships would there be enlisted/NCO personnel be assigned to?
Ensigns and other ranks
- Thread starter therritn
- Start date
Incorrect. Starfleet has enlisted as well as officer ranks. And this is everywhere, not just in specific classes of ships.
Part of the confusion probably stems from the fact that, in TOS, Ensigns and enlisted personnel both had no rank braids.
If you want to see what the enlised ranks are for TOS go to Spike's Star Trek Page, although I can't give you the exact url, perhaps one of the previous posters can post the link?
Anyway, this website has the ranks from the TOS show "The Cage" right through TOS run, TOS movies TNG era shows, it has them all!
James
Anyway, this website has the ranks from the TOS show "The Cage" right through TOS run, TOS movies TNG era shows, it has them all!
James
No jokes? NO JOKES!? THIS IS THE INTERNET! *Kicks into a pit*
I'm sure there was a lot of seaman on Kirk's Enterprise.
Well Kirk obviously did not have "Able Seamen" to call on, he put it about A LOT and only ever had one son.
Just thinking about it but if they had went for 3 full stripes for Captain in TOS then working down it would be 2 stripes 1 dashed for Commander, 2 stripes for Lt Commander, 1 stripe 1 dashed for Lieutenant, 1 full stripe for Ltjg and then a dashed stripe for Ensign. That way they could leave blank for NCO and enlisted ranks and at least then we'd know who was an Ensign and who was enlisted.
I may be misremembering, but didn't Roddenberry once claim that everyone was an officer in Star Fleet?
Roddenberry figured that all the crew members of a starship were as highly trained as any 20th century astronaut. Seeing as all 20th century astronauts were officers, he "logically" figured that the Enterprise would only have officers aboard.
Of course there is no reason why an able crewman of the 23rd century can't be as highly trained as a 20th century astronaut, and seeing as there are references to "chiefs" in TOS, there must have been enlisted crew and noncoms aboard since the beginning of Star Trek.
If any series is to "blame" for perpetuating the myth of officer-only crews, it is TNG. And that blame is mitigated by the fact that TNG is the series that introduced Chief O'Brien, so in the end it's a wash.
Of course there is no reason why an able crewman of the 23rd century can't be as highly trained as a 20th century astronaut, and seeing as there are references to "chiefs" in TOS, there must have been enlisted crew and noncoms aboard since the beginning of Star Trek.
If any series is to "blame" for perpetuating the myth of officer-only crews, it is TNG. And that blame is mitigated by the fact that TNG is the series that introduced Chief O'Brien, so in the end it's a wash.
Yeah, the problem with star trek is that it consistently screwed up the whole enlisted rank thing. They are there, you just rarely see them since the powes that be just didnt get the military rank structure. That being said, the TOS movie franchise actually did a very good job in this regard, and had a full enlisted rank system set up and specific uniforms for enlisted crewmen. Not only that, but there were many more enlisted than officers in the TOS movies, something that is more realistic and believable than what we got in the TNG and post TNG series
Well at first O'Brien was a Lieutenant in TNG until they decided he should be a Chief Petty Officer instead; I think the episode "Family" is the first time they call him Chief as a rank instead of just Chief as in Transporter Chief. IIRC, Riker calls him Lieutenant in the 2nd and 3rd seasons.
I remember looking into this very topic a while back. I forgot which Star Trek site I got info from, but here is what I found (and I also made these the ranks for my forum).
http://www.startrekcollective.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3
What I came up with probably is not "perfect" (as there is some debate to the issue) but I believe this to be close and quite accurate.
http://www.startrekcollective.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3
What I came up with probably is not "perfect" (as there is some debate to the issue) but I believe this to be close and quite accurate.
I had always figured that there were enlisted ranks in TOS and had just assumed that they were the ones usually walking around in the coveralls.
Anyone can wear the coveralls. I don't think they're strictly for enlisted. Even an officer can do it, if the situation warrants. (We saw Geordi do this on TNG a couple of times.)
It could possibly be argued that--with the exception of TOS movies II through VI--that Starfleet really doesn't have uniform distinctions between officers and enlisted.
That we know of.
Yeah, what the hell is up with that?
