Higher Ranks in the Sciences and Operations Divisions

[TommyR01D]

Theoretically there are three large divisions within Starfleet - Command (which includes helmsmen), Sciences (includes medical) and Operations (engineering and security). Departments are supposed to be orthogonal to ranks, yet in practice there seems to be a glass ceiling.

Michael Eddington comments in The Adversary that you don't get to be a captain wearing a gold uniform. (Obviously this is in the TNG era when operations wore gold and command wore red, as opposed to the TOS-era inverse.)

We know that even cadets can be in the command division (see Wesley Crusher and Nicholas Locarno, as well as some in Red Squad), but at the other end there are not many examples of officers above the rank of Lieutenant Commander outside the command division. I think we saw a yellow-uniformed flag officer at some point in DS9 or TNG (I can't find the picture now.) and Beverly Crusher became an Admiral as Head of Starfleet Medical in PIC. Montgomery Scott also appears to reach the rank of Captain by the end of the TNG films while switching between Engineering and Command colours on an inconsistent basis. Are there any other examples?

 

[Christmas Canon Spock]

Admiral Toddman I believe was a gold shirt admiral.

I would reasonably expect flag ranks in Blue and Gold divisions.

 

[Shawnster]

TOS era Commodores Stone and Stocker both wore operations red and commanded A starbase.

 

[Christmas Canon Spock]

TOS era Commodores Stone and Stocker both wore operations red and commanded A starbase.

Stone also commented that he had commanded a starship like Kirk and one of the captains on the court martial board was in blue.

 

[Santa Kang]

Theoretically there are three large divisions within Starfleet - Command (which includes helmsmen), Sciences (includes medical) and Operations (engineering and security). Departments are supposed to be orthogonal to ranks, yet in practice there seems to be a glass ceiling.

Michael Eddington comments in The Adversary that you don't get to be a captain wearing a gold uniform. (Obviously this is in the TNG era when operations wore gold and command wore red, as opposed to the TOS-era inverse.)

We know that even cadets can be in the command division (see Wesley Crusher and Nicholas Locarno, as well as some in Red Squad), but at the other end there are not many examples of officers above the rank of Lieutenant Commander outside the command division. I think we saw a yellow-uniformed flag officer at some point in DS9 or TNG (I can't find the picture now.) and Beverly Crusher became an Admiral as Head of Starfleet Medical in PIC. Montgomery Scott also appears to reach the rank of Captain by the end of the TNG films while switching between Engineering and Command colours on an inconsistent basis. Are there any other examples?

Captain is a position as well as a rank. Eddington might be referring to commanding a ship.

 

[Unionized Elf]

In Picard, we had Commodore Oh wearing a gold uniform, likewise Geordi was a commodore and wore gold. Worf wore a gold uniform with Captain's insignia.

 

[NCC-73515]

A science 4 star full Admiral is the highest non-Command division rank we've seen

 

[TommyR01D]

Unfortunately we can't view Imgur pictures in Britain anymore.

 

[Set Harth]

you could fit two admirals in there

 

[Mojochi]

Well, as Data's career seems to suggest, there must be some kind of ceiling aboard ships, for commander positions, when Troi can get her hand held thru a 1st time bridge test, and then outrank him, due to some exception for blue suits, for her, Crusher & Nella Darren. They've shown high ranking yellow suits, who command as admirals of Starfleet security roles, or the like, but don't bump Data to a yellow shirt commander, aboard a ship, for what has to be some kind of protocol about his division, even though he's risen to 2nd officer in it. Were he to switch divisions, to move up, he'd likely have to seek out a 1st officer posting somewhere else. So, he seems to have topped out where he is.

The messed up thing to consider, is that maybe Data would have a hard time getting someone, besides Picard, to offer him a 1st officer spot, because of biases against an android in command roles. There's been quite a few officers outside the Enterprise, who just don't respect him enough to even be considered an equal officer, let alone have him in command.

Picard is knowingly doing something special for Data, that he might not get anywhere else, because it's the right thing to do. So, the fact that Riker has turned down 3 ship commands, to stay in his #1 spot with Picard, isn't just stymying the position for the overall command track, it's outright personally robbing Data of a chance to move up, that he'd maybe not get anywhere else ever, except from that captain, who Riker is blocking.

Data is stuck at LCDR for 15 years, possibly for the sole reason that he has nowhere else upwards to go, except Riker's spot, & Riker won't vacate. Then, Data dies & Riker immediately vacates.

Jellico was the only opportunity Data ever got to officially put on a red suit, as a legit 1st officer, (even though he wasn't raised in rank) because Riker got removed. Ironically, if Data were to have had any ambition, he should've tried to latch onto Jellico, after that, to see if he stood a better chance of promotion over with him. Because he didn't do that, he stays in his same rank & post for another 10 years, until he dies. Thanks, Will