How many Admiral Komacks are there in Starfleet?

[JonnyQuest037]

I established Robert Comsol as the head of Starfleet during TOS (in Forgotten History) because that's quite clearly legible on the "Menagerie" HD screencap on Memory Alpha. The Concordance's interpretation of it as an abbreviation was an error, like its mistaken references to "Dr. Joseph Boyce" and to the Enterprise as a "Constellation-class" ship.

Oh, so THAT'S why Captain Pike calls Dr. Boyce "Joe" in DC's first Star Trek Annual! Learn something new every day!

Christopher, did you come up with an explanation for why "The Menagerie" report lists Spock as "Vulcan Science Officer"?

 

[Stevil2001]

Admiral Comsol was forced to resign amidst charges of space-racism.

 

[Idran]

UHURA [OC]: Captain Kirk is here by relieved. You are ordered to assume command of the Enterprise. Disable vessel if necessary to prevent further contact. Message signed ComSol, Starfleet Command.

It is even rendered that way here:
http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/16.htm\\

Also,
"COMSOL Script is a numerical computing and programming environment..." (Wikipedia)

Well, yes, but Chakoteya is just by-ear transcription; that's just Chakoteya's representation of what they hear. That's a fan view, not something official, it doesn't tell us anything about what the writers meant. And the company COMSOL that created COMSOL Script was founded in 1986, it's irrelevant to talking about the intention of an episode from the 1960s.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Just out of curiosity, is Comsol currently a real human surname? A search on Canada411 returns 0 hits. And a general Google search returns too many hits related to the software or the company that made it, even when trying to filter out keywords related to that.

OK, I guess it could still be someone with a human first name, but an alien last name.

 

[Christopher]

Just out of curiosity, is Comsol currently a real human surname? A search on Canada411 returns 0 hits. And a general Google search returns too many hits related to the software or the company that made it, even when trying to filter out keywords related to that.

I tried "Comsol surname" and I got an Ancestry.com page claiming to find one Comsol family in the 1920 Pennsylvania census, but I've found that site to give false positives before, due to OCR misreading something in an old text. So I'm inclined to say no, it isn't a real name. But then, neither is Uhura. Or Sulu, really -- it's a geographical name rather than a personal name.

 

[Avro Arrow]

So I'm inclined to say no, it isn't a real name. But then, neither is Uhura. Or Sulu, really -- it's a geographical name rather than a personal name.

Good point. I guess names can evolve, too.

 

[Idran]

I tried "Comsol surname" and I got an Ancestry.com page claiming to find one Comsol family in the 1920 Pennsylvania census, but I've found that site to give false positives before, due to OCR misreading something in an old text. So I'm inclined to say no, it isn't a real name. But then, neither is Uhura. Or Sulu, really -- it's a geographical name rather than a personal name.

I happen to have an Ancestry account, so I took a look myself. Hard to say, really.

 

[Stevil2001]

I was going to say that "COMSOL" as an abbreviation for "Commander, Sol" reminded me of the kind of things I read in The Winds of War, from World War II. I dug up this list of WWII military abbreviations: http://www.ww2f.com/topic/37564-abbreviations-and-acronyms-of-ww2-and-service-records/

Which includes:

COMSOWESPAC - Commander, South West Pacific
COMSUBPAC – Commander, Submarines, Pacific
COMSUBSOWESPAC – Commander, Submarines, South West Pacific

"COMSOL" would seem to fit right into that genre.

Also: a search for pre-1900 instances of "comsol" on Google Books didn't turn up anything that wasn't an OCR error, mostly for "consol" (either a "consolidated" bond in the UK or short for Consolation).

 

[Therin of Andor]

Chakoteya is just by-ear transcription; that's just Chakoteya's representation of what they hear. That's a fan view, not something official...

Sigh. I realize that but I don't have my actual script handy. Anyone?

"COMSOL" would seem to fit right into that genre.

Exactly. As I said, my introduction was reading "The Caine Mutiny" in 1973.