Lt. Charlene Masters -- an explanation

The general consensus about "The Alternative Factor" is that it's a stinker, perhaps the worst episode of Star Trek (certainly the worst of Season One).

But everyone liked Charlene Masters, the brave engineer who put ship and crew above personal safety.

Nevertheless, some nagging questions remain:

Why is "Lieutenant" Masters without a stripe? Why is she in blue, when all other engineers are in red? Why do we never see her again? Why, on this night, do we eat reclining? (the last question added to maintain the traditionally prescribed Four Questions).

The Doylian explanation for her uniform is cinematographic (or if I'm being cynical, maybe because the showrunners were worried that two black women in red uniforms with one stripe would be indistinguishable.) We never see her again because most guest stars only appear once.

But that's unsatisfactory to a Trekkie. What is a good Holmesian explanation?

My wife had a good one. She's in blue because she's not an engineer. She's a scientist. Her specialty must have something to do with engines (dilithium crystals, specifically), and she's clearly hot stuff since her assistant, wearing a gold stripe, treats her with deference.

She lacks a stripe because she might not even be in the standard Starfleet heirarchy, merely given a uniform to fit in. She gets the brevet rank of Lieutenant since her current position is one of seniority.

This would also explain why we never see Masters again. She's not really part of the crew, only on board for this particular mission.

Has this explanation been advanced before? What do you think?

 

Good explanation.

 

In universe... maybe she was in a subcategory, like designer - a la Dr Daystrom? Only designers seem to be given blue rather than red?

In reality, it's so early in the show's run and it's amazing they kept consistent continuity with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy (save for Kirk's green shirt with sideways-banding insignia for season 2.)

Wow. I hope not. It's a bizarre claim, ranking up there with why NEMESIS needed to show a photo of "young Picard but he's also bald in case the audience can't figure it out they're different people. And don't make any mention to any previous TNG episode or movie where any photo of him has more hair than Cousin Itt."

100% agreed. (Oh, I replied in chronological order and not peeking downward before it's due. More fun to guess and fess up if I'm wrong right off the bat. Didn't recognize the arm insignia either... )

That's rather a good point! But would it be necessary, when Dr Daystrom and a boatload of ambassadors hadn't, having their own respective outfits as needed?

Despite those inferences, I still think she was part of the crew - but designers can engage in multiple duties so she's off working on some piece of kit for Spock or being a backup for Lt Maguivers for the historian stuff? Still, from what I recall the episode doesn't say either way and relies on base assumption rather than exposition (not a bad thing)

I recall reading somewhere they were going to have her in a more expanded subplot, also shown in an interracial relationship but the execs did a 180, believing it to be offensive? (The series is still so young that more than Kirk could have been showing the universe what love was about and all...)

 

All the scripts refer to Masters as a chemoscientist. And in the first draft, Sulu says she's a girl genius and pride of the Enterprise.

 

Good enough.

Superior officer does not mean automatic lording it over people.

 

She's a temp, filling in for Scott. She left Starbase without a uniform and none were in stock that fit her.

 

I always figured she was part of the high energy physics team. There is a whole physics department and monitoring the energy output and efficiency of ship's systems would be right up their street.

Also Helen Noel, as a doctor, would have been a lieutenant and also did not have a rank stripe.

 

She was recently promoted and didn't have a chance to upgrade her uniform yet.
She's a scientist who works in engineering.

 

Daystrom wasn't onboard very long. Ambassadors aren't part of the crew.

Even Khan got a uniform (for a little while)

Maybe. Again, the whole deference thing. She's clearly in charge in that episode.

Why would a doctor have to be a Lieutenant? (I know there are minimum commissions in the U.S. Navy, but we don't even known what Dr. M'Benga's rank is).

That fits very nicely (except for why we never see her again, but of course, we never see Lt. Commander Giotto or the Lt. Commander who's at Navigation in "Alternative Factor" again, either). Thank you for that!

 

Winner

 

Doctors who join the service become officers. Lieutenant is probably the lowest rank she could be.

 

I always though Bashir gave an impression that junior doctors are posted with the rank of Lt (jg) which makes sense since senior nurses tend to be ensigns.

 

Ensign is an officer, too...

 

Not for Doctors, they're usually commissioned as an O3 or O4,captain or major (Army/Air Force), or lieutenant or lieutenant commander (Navy), or higher if more experienced So it's possible for an experienced physician to enter the service as an O5. M'Benga might be one.

 

Like I said -- that's how things are done in the U.S. Navy. It might not be how things are done in Starfleet.

 

Have you met Star Trek?

 

U.S. Navy practices inform a lot of Trek. Obviously, they are not the same (for instance, that everyone is an officer).

I remember reading in TMOST (I think) that, in the future, everyone on a starship is a PhD equivalent. When talent gets that rarefied, I could see an MD coming on board as an Ensign.

 

Nice on paper, but we've seen NCOs and crewmen since the Cage.

Again, nice on paper but we've yet to see it on screen. A Starfleet MD is probably an expert in things a 21st Century can only dream of. I assume that given the scope of their responsibilities, "Ensign Doctor" probably won't be a thing.

 

Have we? Aside from "The Cage", which takes place considerably before Kirk-TOS, who do we have who is explicitly a non-officer? The coveralls don't really distinguish rank -- we've seen people who are explicitly officers wearing them sometimes.

Maybe. McCoy seems to know very little about a lot of things a lot of the time. Maybe "Country Doctors" get to start at O4...

 

There are numerous crewmen in TOS - Crewman Green in Man Trap for starters. Geological Technician Fisher would be a way of describing a petty officer (or possibly a senior crewman since he is a technician rather than a specialist). Yeoman Rand was another petty officer (and had the rank of a chief petty officer in TMP) and the distinction in rank with Tina Lawton being a Yeoman 3rd class suggests that there are grades in the non-commissioned ranks. Crewman Tarses in TNG, not to mention Chief O'Brien who was expressly retconned to be a non-commissioned officer.

Michael Burnham was stripped of her rank in season 1 of Discovery and given the title Specialist - which would be a petty officer.