As I understand it, the standard military methodology is that the higher your rank, the less actual soldiering/sailoring you do, in favor of paperwork. The rarified heights of generalship/admiralty are swimming in red tape and bureaucracy.
Is promotion "Sometimes" a bad thing?
- Thread starter Kamen Rider Blade
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Spock says of Kirk "it was a mistake for you to accept promotion. Commanding a starship is your first, best destiny. Anything else is a waste of material."
A Starfleet officer should be advanced and promoted toward what they do best. This might be a lieutenant commander in charge of counting beans in a supply post, a commander post in a ship design facility, a captain's chair on a starship, or an admiral's office at Starfleet HQ. Hopefully it won't be anything like Picard's alternate version in Tapestry, though.
A Starfleet officer should be advanced and promoted toward what they do best. This might be a lieutenant commander in charge of counting beans in a supply post, a commander post in a ship design facility, a captain's chair on a starship, or an admiral's office at Starfleet HQ. Hopefully it won't be anything like Picard's alternate version in Tapestry, though.
At the end of the day, you are blocking other people who might be best at some particular function.
This reminds me of my buddy Tony, an I/O Psych. Tony and I frequently talk Trek, and one day he said to me "If all these people make a much better crew, then they should all be sent back to the Academy to teach other people the skills makes them so much better."
I said "That presumes that they could isolate and define those skills."
Very true. You can be phenomenal at a job, but terrible at explaining the hows and whys to other people on what you do that works so well.
I always felt bad for who ever had that position in the real time line. Did Picard look down on them after that? They're probably perfectly nice.
With the amount of people and ships that seem to be in starfleet, I doubt you'd be much of a blockage.
That wasn't the point of "Tapestry". He wasn't looking down at the position or other people who work that job.
He was looking down at what he would have become if things went different. It was the conversation with Riker and Troi that was the nail in the coffin. That version of Picard didn't really live his life. He just meandered. Never took a chance, or stood out, or did anything to be noticed. In his own words, it was a life "bereft of passion and imagination." That was not the man he is.
He was looking down at what he would have become if things went different. It was the conversation with Riker and Troi that was the nail in the coffin. That version of Picard didn't really live his life. He just meandered. Never took a chance, or stood out, or did anything to be noticed. In his own words, it was a life "bereft of passion and imagination." That was not the man he is.
But in the real world that's an important part of a service member's job and a factor that they are judged on for promotion. Someone who is bad at passing on their knowledge is not likely to go very far.
Only if Picard, Riker et al are rare exceptions. If most ships and stations have their own set of captains and commanders who stick around for 15 or 20 years, it's going to create a blockage, it doesn't work out otherwise.
Starfleet has new ships built and commissioned constantly. There will be a lot of new assignments to be had even if many stick to a job.
There will probably be a upper limit to what rank they can go to.
easy to imagine that retention is a problem too. crews run into too many close ones, or find someone to settle down with, or just want to go back to earth and spend their bonus or whatever the equivalent is. It can't be that easy getting qualified people to venture out, anyway, in the idyllic circumstances on the core worlds.
The ultimate implication of that would be that new vessels are being built primarily to create more Starfleet postions. Each vessel of new construction will have its own pyramid of personnel, a few highly experienced at the top and a lot more less experienced at the bottom. Those at the bottom of the pyramid will need more high-level positions to open up as their career experience level progresses, which, if people aren't required to move up the ranks or out, apparently means more new construction, which will mean more personnel and more positions and more ships and on and on. Rather than a more conventional model where there is a certain level of requirements which calls for a certain level of vessels and facilities, and Starfleet's total personnel adjusted up or down according to those requirements.
Space is vast, unlike a planet based armed forces which has finite spots to defend due to a finite planet. There should always be more room for new Starfleet positions as the Federation expands. This is why staff can stay in the same posts for decades, factor in there would be a difference in how beings deal with careers when you live way past 130, even 200 or longer, folks are not retiring at 65 and dropping dead 20 years later.
E.g IRL it takes 20 something years to make it to Captain the USN, in the Trek universe it should take almost twice as long which makes a mockery of Kirk being Captain at 32 and Kelvin Kirk being Captain at 25, and Spock being a Commander at 28? please! (that bit really bugs me, stupid writers!)
(Sulu being a Captain at the age he was made more sense)
E.g IRL it takes 20 something years to make it to Captain the USN, in the Trek universe it should take almost twice as long which makes a mockery of Kirk being Captain at 32 and Kelvin Kirk being Captain at 25, and Spock being a Commander at 28? please! (that bit really bugs me, stupid writers!)
(Sulu being a Captain at the age he was made more sense)
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Wouldn't it depend on the needs of the fleet? I mean, right before Kirk's time there was that whole war thing that would be pretty devastating to the personnel department, among other things.
Nearly a decade before, after which they were likely focusing on building the numbers up in case of more trouble.
Don't forget every species brings their own StarFleet/Military equivalent to merge into StarFleet.
Imagine every Federation Member Species having similar numbers or greater to Earth's Population and having to merge into our Fleets and convert their tech to our tech or integrate them.
Ergo new Construction of vessels, training on common standards.
Retirement of older Member Species military vessels and repurposing them for potentially PMC duties.
Don't forget Lots of StarBases located around major Lagrange points of every major Planetoid including the major Planet's moon's Lagrange points.
Then add on top Planetary Bases for duty.
That's ALOT of facilities and ships everywhere considering the hundreds of species within the UFP.
Imagine every Federation Member Species having similar numbers or greater to Earth's Population and having to merge into our Fleets and convert their tech to our tech or integrate them.
Ergo new Construction of vessels, training on common standards.
Retirement of older Member Species military vessels and repurposing them for potentially PMC duties.
Don't forget Lots of StarBases located around major Lagrange points of every major Planetoid including the major Planet's moon's Lagrange points.
Then add on top Planetary Bases for duty.
That's ALOT of facilities and ships everywhere considering the hundreds of species within the UFP.
Yes, so fast tracking people who demonstrate aptitude in their fields would make sense.
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