Lt. Charlene Masters -- an explanation

[cooleddie74]

My favorite thing about the engineering layout in "The Alternative Factor" is that there was a separate room away from Main Engineering for dilithium crystals and it was the first time they'd expanded the scope of the engineering section in TOS as far as I can recall. McMasters being in charge of that room was pretty cool.

 

[Neopeius]

Again

I apologize for that. I shouldn't have been so touchy.

 

[Neopeius]

My favorite thing about the engineering layout in "The Alternative Factor" is that there was a separate room away from Main Engineering for dilithium crystals and it was the first time they'd expanded the scope of the engineering section in TOS as far as I can recall. McMasters being in charge of that room was pretty cool.

That's a really good point. We all just assumed they'd forgotten to use the engineering set or something.

 

[cooleddie74]

I can picture the dilithium crystal room in that episode being adjacent to the main Engine Room but even if it's decks away that's a testament to how the ship's designers decentralized engineering across the whole vessel so as to not place every important component in the warp core or the Engine Room.

 

[J.T.B.]

^Warp core? This is TOS we're talking about!

 

[cooleddie74]

There's still one.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The fact that Franz Josef seemed to think there were no crewmen on the Enterprise is significant.

There's a wrinkle. I just checked Franz Joseph Sheet 2 of 12, where he lists out and enumerates the entire crew. He says, "The standard ship's complement is 43 officers and 387 crew members: Total 430."

But the "crew member" positions are all listed as ensigns. So apparently FJ didn't realize that ensigns in the Navy are officers. Or else, in Starfleet, they are not considered officers.

 

[J.T.B.]

There's still one.

Never!

 

[cooleddie74]

That's the good stuff.

 

[XCV330]

Star Trek does handle ranks differently so Ensign could be something more like a warrant-officer position. Midshipmen like young Kirk and Peter Preston were cadets during the time they had that rank, so that may be a warrant officer position reserved for people serving in uniform but still officially not graduated yet. Maybe that was Tilly's official rank, too, in season 1.

 

[Maurice]

Roddenberry wrote that the ranks in Starfleet are more akin to job descriptions, so it's more your level in your job less than an a military rank. In a letter to Nick Meyer he admitted that they were not always consistent on these details due to the pressures of getting the show cranked out. He also said that the number of people on a starship with purely military functions (weapons crew, etc.) was comparatively tiny compared to the number of technicians and scientists and that Starfleets primary job was scientific and that military type functions were on an as-needed basis. In sort, the ship was mostly astronauts who could pick up a weapon as needed as opposed to soliders who did science as a secondary concern.

 

[Pauln6]

Weren't there crewmen in Enterprise, DS9, and Voyager as well? Also, although it never made it on screen, Rand was put in charge of a security team in the early draft of CotEoF, implying that her rank (PO 1st class most likely) was superior to a bog standard security guard.

I remember watching the Apple and noting that everyone in the landing party was an officer except for the yeoman.

 

[Neopeius]

The Star Trek [Writer's] Guide (third revision, April 1967--so, end of 1st season, but it may be a section that was in the earlier revisions) says in the Some Questions and Answers section:

Is the starship U.S.S. Enterprise a military vessel?

Yes, but only semi-military in practice -- omitting features
which are heavily authoritarian. For example, we are not
aware of "officers" and "enlisted men" categories. And we
avoid saluting and other annoying medieval leftovers. On
the other hand, we do keep a flavor of Naval usage and
terminology to help encourage believability and identifica
tion by the audience. After all, our own Navy today still
retains remnants of tradition known to Nelson and Drake.

(emphasis added)

I recognize some rating-esque terms slipped into the show, but let's face it: out of dozens (hundreds?) of named and ranked characters on the show in 100 episodes between TOS and TAS, we can name less than ten who have grades instead of officer ranks.

I'm pretty sure, based on that, the guide, and TMOST, this was the intention, a handful of aberrations aside.

Roddenberry wrote that the ranks in Starfleet are more akin to job descriptions, so it's more your level in your job less than an a military rank. In a letter to Nick Meyer he admitted that they were not always consistent on these details due to the pressures of getting the show cranked out. He also said that the number of people on a starship with purely military functions (weapons crew, etc.) was comparatively tiny compared to the number of technicians and scientists and that Starfleets primary job was scientific and that military type functions were on an as-needed basis. In sort, the ship was mostly astronauts who could pick up a weapon as needed as opposed to soliders who did science as a secondary concern.

Exactly.

(which is why Enterprise security officers are so bad at their jobs... )

There's a wrinkle. I just checked Franz Joseph Sheet 2 of 12, where he lists out and enumerates the entire crew. He says, "The standard ship's complement is 43 officers and 387 crew members: Total 430."

But the "crew member" positions are all listed as ensigns. So apparently FJ didn't realize that ensigns in the Navy are officers. Or else, in Starfleet, they are not considered officers.

At the very least, they're not considered "enlisted men" (q.v. the section I quoted above).

Which is ultimately what I'm concluding. TOS has "officers" and "crewmen" as roles, but their rank structure is simply O1-O? with no E1-E?

 

[Pauln6]

I think what it comes down to is that people who only want to do science, or hug engines, or see the universe might not bother with officer training but might get promoted over time as they gain confidence and experience. Everyone in the command uniform should be an officer IMO unless shuttle maintenance is carried out by command crew.

 

[J.T.B.]

Midshipmen like young Kirk and Peter Preston were cadets during the time they had that rank,

Wait, Kirk and Preston were cadets, midshipmen and ensigns all at the same time?

For example, we are not aware of "officers" and "enlisted men" categories.

"We are not aware" is an odd way to phrase it, it seems that it could mean that the categories are there but are not emphasized. As in "we are not made aware of 'officers' and 'enlisted men' categories."

I recognize some rating-esque terms slipped into the show, but let's face it: out of dozens (hundreds?) of named and ranked characters on the show in 100 episodes between TOS and TAS, we can name less than ten who have grades instead of officer ranks.

Nonetheless, they are there. One could posit a more air force than naval model, where there is a large "ground" establishment with a lot of enlisted personnel, while the "flight" component has relatively few enlisted slots. But the on-screen evidence leans toward not everyone being an officer.

I'm pretty sure, based on that, the guide, and TMOST, this was the intention, a handful of aberrations aside.

Maybe, or maybe Roddenberry formed that idea later and it was too late to do much about it. But STTMP and TWOK took it as read that there were enlisted personnel and designed insignia for them. This was forgotten again, of course, by TNG.

I am not personally opposed to the concept of everyone in a space service being an officer; it's a genuinely interesting, futuristic idea. I just don't think it was executed in TOS.

 

[Pauln6]

Wait, Kirk and Preston were cadets, midshipmen and ensigns all at the same time?



"We are not aware" is an odd way to phrase it, it seems that it could mean that the categories are there but are not emphasized. As in "we are not made aware of 'officers' and 'enlisted men' categories."



Nonetheless, they are there. One could posit a more air force than naval model, where there is a large "ground" establishment with a lot of enlisted personnel, while the "flight" component has relatively few enlisted slots. But the on-screen evidence leans toward not everyone being an officer.



Maybe, or maybe Roddenberry formed that idea later and it was too late to do much about it. But STTMP and TWOK took it as read that there were enlisted personnel and designed insignia for them. This was forgotten again, of course, by TNG.

I am not personally opposed to the concept of everyone in a space service being an officer; it's a genuinely interesting, futuristic idea. I just don't think it was executed in TOS.

I always assumed that the majority of enlisted would be red-shirts - possibly 60%+ enlisted maintenance engineers and guards - with a much smaller number of blue shirt enlisted (maybe 20%) who spend their time cataloguing and monitoring experiments, some yeomen, plus junior nursing staff, and then possibly a few yellow shirt maintenance engineers for the shuttle bay and weapons systems, being assigned to the command department rather than engineering (going by Balance of Terror).

Ilia was the ship's navigator but she would not be on shift all the time so why was Chief DiFalco summoned to the bridge instead of Ensign Beavis or Ensign Butthead? I would guess she was on shift supervising the shuttle bay.

Is it possible that Masters was a Lt (jg) ? Although wouldn't that be a broken stripe?

 

[ATimson]

It's interesting the use of Technician First Class or Yeoman Third Class -- that strikes me more WW2 rating style than 60s.

The writers probably wouldn't have had much contemporary military exposure, though - wasn't their experience from WW2 or maybe Korea?

Roddenberry wrote that the ranks in Starfleet are more akin to job descriptions, so it's more your level in your job less than an a military rank.

I wish this had been more explicit - there's some things it would definitely help make sense of (e.g. why Voyager and the Enterprise-D are both commanded by officers with the same rank, or Kevin timeline Kirk's quick ascent to captain). But there are multiple cases of rank promotions without a job change (Sulu, Uhura, Scotty, Worf, Tuvok) so I'm not sure if it actually works at this point.

 

[Greg Cox]

The writers probably wouldn't have had much contemporary military exposure, though - wasn't their experience from WW2 or maybe Korea?

Richard Matheson, who wrote "The Enemy Within," definitely served during WW2. He later wrote a semi-autobiographical novel about it, THE BEARDLESS WARRIORS. (A very good book, btw. I reprinted it at Tor some years ago.)

 

[GNDN18]

Gene Coon served as a Marine during both the Second World War and the Korean conflict. He wrote a couple of books drawing from his experiences in Korea, Meanwhile Back At The Front and The Short End of the Stick.

 

[Nerys Myk]

How different were the ranks in the 40s compared to the 60s?