Odd Things about Starfleet

[David.Blue]

I've noticed these and would like to hear (read) others' reactions to same, what they might mean or how to explain them in-universe.

1. So many officers! As far as we can tell, in terms of actual Starfleet personnel, officers would seem to outnumber enlisted men (i.e. Crewmen) by something like 3 to 2. Likewise, we saw one Non-Commissioned officer identified as such! One!
2. Uninformative Uniforms Okay, this largely comes down to insignia in TNG and all series afterwards. In TOS one glance at the wrists of any crewmember from any direction told you precisely what rank that individual was, no problem. This helped make any question of "who obeys who" instantly answerable in a crisis, such as combat or other kind of emergency. Given Starfleet's major roles was both military and space exploration, this seems real important to me. Then, we get these tiny pips on exactly one side of a collar to serve the same function. Such pips resemble those of the Imperial Japanese Navy (although they wisely put them on both sides of the collar), from a society with a tradition of extremely strict hierarchies. Not much like what we think of for Starfleet or the Federation.
3. No saluting. Maybe not so odd, but interesting/notable that we never see Starfleet personnel ever engage in saluting. Ever!
4. JAG. I genuinely cannot figure out how this works. As far as I can tell, specific rulings carry no weight as a precedent. Otherwise, a ruling that Data is a member of Starfleet, i.e. a person, would have simply held. Likewise, how come nobody is seemingly ever prosecuted for violating the Prime Directive, even though it happens all the friggin' time?
5. Personal ranged weapons slower than the speed of sound. Uh...why?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Personal ranged weapons slower than the speed of sound. Uh...why?

If you mean speed of light, then I agree.

 

[BillJ]

Personal ranged weapons slower than the speed of sound. Uh...why?

Because it is TV and we want to see the action...

 

[topcat]

actually the whole rank structure is an asinine oddity in star trek. Only made worse with TNG and DS9. The star trek magazine tried to get into detail with rank and command structure but it fell flat. The best it did was that there are two types of command. Departmental and ship/military command.
Departmental is generic officer. The JAG officers that prosecuted "is data human" were admirals and commodores. They were treated as officers and had the rank of officers, but if they went onboard a star ship they are just passengers. But command officers are always in command, regardless of if they are also science or engineering personnel.
Its like specialist and corporal in the us army. they have the same pay grade and rank, but the specialist does NOT command. A corporal is able to give commands and be obeyed.

As far as the JAG system not being able to make actual laws.. that's debatable. The case about Data being sensient was not ever in that episode about robots as a whole, but about Data being sensient and if he had the rights of regular humans as a result.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Sentient.

Starfleet Regulations, The Prime Directive is a General Order, similar enough to regulations, are not Federation Laws, and therefore as only binding as the Cubscout Manual to a Cubscout.

I understand however that disobeying orders from a superior officer is a serious legal infraction in the military code of justice that can result in jail time, which I suppose is maybe the difference between a Starfleet Regulation and a General Order, that it's wrote that ignoring or disobeying a General Order is like telling the Admiralty themselves to suck it, because general orders come from them with a rubber stamp.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I've always looked at Starfleet as something that was based loosely off the oceangoing navies of "ancient" Earth and had many similarities here and there, but was ultimately not one of those historical navies and was free to observe some aspects and completely ignore others after a few hundred years. Stuff like salutes and a strict adherence to the way things were done 300 years ago in a previous navy were probably tossed out when Starfleet was founded, IMO.

 

[David.Blue]

Personal phasers are slower than the speed of sound. Sometimes they are slower than the speed of arrows in flight.

I agree about Starfleet changing, which is why I was hesitant about mentioning salutes.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I've noticed these and would like to hear (read) others' reactions to same, what they might mean or how to explain them in-universe.

1. So many officers! As far as we can tell, in terms of actual Starfleet personnel, officers would seem to outnumber enlisted men (i.e. Crewmen) by something like 3 to 2. Likewise, we saw one Non-Commissioned officer identified as such! One!

I tend to assume that there are "really" more enlisted than officers, and it's just that since it's a TV show, we focus on the officers. Although SF probably does have a higher officer-to-enlisted ratio than modern navies.

2. Uninformative Uniforms Okay, this largely comes down to insignia in TNG and all series afterwards. In TOS one glance at the wrists of any crewmember from any direction told you precisely what rank that individual was, no problem. This helped make any question of "who obeys who" instantly answerable in a crisis, such as combat or other kind of emergency. Given Starfleet's major roles was both military and space exploration, this seems real important to me. Then, we get these tiny pips on exactly one side of a collar to serve the same function. Such pips resemble those of the Imperial Japanese Navy (although they wisely put them on both sides of the collar), from a society with a tradition of extremely strict hierarchies. Not much like what we think of for Starfleet or the Federation.

The TOS movies had pin rank insignia too, and they weren't necessarily any easier to read at a distance than the TNG pips. But then, modern armed forces use small metal pins today to denote rank, which are usually located on the shoulders or lapels or neck. They seem to be getting by OK, so I'm sure Starfleet will be fine.

3. No saluting. Maybe not so odd, but interesting/notable that we never see Starfleet personnel ever engage in saluting. Ever!

This doesn't bother me at all. Others have mentioned traditions evolving, which is true. The other thing is that (Federation) Starfleet should have a background in all the founding members' space navies, so saluting could just be a human custom that wasn't incorporated to the new interstellar organization.

4. JAG. I genuinely cannot figure out how this works. As far as I can tell, specific rulings carry no weight as a precedent. Otherwise, a ruling that Data is a member of Starfleet, i.e. a person, would have simply held.

Um, didn't it? I don't recall an instance after "Measure of a Man" where this was called into question?

Likewise, how come nobody is seemingly ever prosecuted for violating the Prime Directive, even though it happens all the friggin' time?

They probably are "really"... but it's not really a focus of the show.

5. Personal ranged weapons slower than the speed of sound. Uh...why?

The speed of sound was significantly increased in the mid-twenty-second century so that it would carry through space faster?

(Sorry, I had to turn off your ordered list and manually number your points, because it was really messing up the quoting.)

 

[2takesfrakes]

One odd thing about Starfleet - and STAR TREK, in general - that I, personally, feel should've been kept was the stage lighting used on the Enterprise sets in The Classic Series. Well ... on all interior sets, honestly. But if the movies and spinoffs could've preserved this approach in cinematography for the other ships and environments, I think it would've worked out rather well. And it would've given the entire franchise a consistent texture, or flavour, that just says STAR TREK, you know? The same way those big-ass, goofy red light bulbs on the nacelles do. Starfleet might feel it's using colour psychology using TOS lighting throughout, but that was not to be. I found this interesting article on the subject and it got me to thinking about that ...

http://brightlightsfilm.com/minimalist-magic-the-star-trek-look/#.VszaZYUo61t

 

[T'Arwen]

Female uniforms. In any other workplace, miniskirts and catsuits would be completely unprofessional. In Starfleet, that's normal and no one takes you any less seriously.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

They probably wanted rank to be seen as one linear progression to keep it simple for the audience.

They probably leave out saluting because it's something that evokes strict military discipline and they want characters to be seen as having casual relationships with each other.

 

[Timo]

So many officers! As far as we can tell, in terms of actual Starfleet personnel, officers would seem to outnumber enlisted men (i.e. Crewmen) by something like 3 to 2. Likewise, we saw one Non-Commissioned officer identified as such! One!

Seems they moved the old Royal Navy reality was transferred to the future as is: non-officers are brainless rabble, mere extensions of machinery (Kirk's certainly were nothing but trouble, ill-disciplined and basically feeding themselves to space monsters out of sheer stupidity), and officers are the brains of the outfit. Except now they have better machines, and need fewer enlisted...

Uninformative Uniforms This helped make any question of "who obeys who" instantly answerable in a crisis, such as combat or other kind of emergency. Given Starfleet's major roles was both military and space exploration, this seems real important to me.

Or then it's beneficial to have the most skilled person jump to the rescue, ignoring rules and regulations. Very little of what Starfleet does appears to require the cooperation of teams of people (which is of course due to Hollywood not wanting to pay for teams of actors), and skilled individuals can largely handle things on their own.

Then, we get these tiny pips on exactly one side of a collar to serve the same function.

Generally, we've been able to identify the TNG era rank of characters without having to resort to screencaps. Sounds like a sufficiently visible system to me.

No saluting. Maybe not so odd, but interesting/notable that we never see Starfleet personnel ever engage in saluting. Ever!

But why salute? Heck, in the early days of spaceflight, you probably got somebody killed if you tried to wave your hand around every time a higher-ranking person entered the confined space...

JAG. I genuinely cannot figure out how this works. As far as I can tell, specific rulings carry no weight as a precedent. Otherwise, a ruling that Data is a member of Starfleet, i.e. a person, would have simply held.

Starfleet or the UFP cannot go categorical about Data. He's but one specific type of machine AI, and the UFP has to deal with a multitude of those - as well as with a multitude of distinct biological species, all with special needs for rights, privileges and limitations.

Was there ever a "ruling" that Data is a member of Starfleet? Doesn't sound as if JAG or law in general would have had a reason to interfere when Data enrolled. Now that the issue arose, a ruling might be needed to establish that there had been negligence in the past.

Likewise, how come nobody is seemingly ever prosecuted for violating the Prime Directive, even though it happens all the friggin' time?

Because it basically hinges on the culprit confessing. Why would starship captains admit to wrongdoing? Why would their crews rat them out?

Personal ranged weapons slower than the speed of sound. Uh...why?

Why not? It's a small price to be paid for them doing basically everything from demolishing buildings to stunning suspected wrongdoers.

It's not as if the police today would mind using paintball-speed handguns instead of speed-of-sound ones, or that speed-of-light ones would be coveted: there's little or no issue with calculating lead for fast-moving targets, at the ranges involved. Paintball-style police weapons used for stunning today are suboptimal mainly because there are issues of accuracy involved, but while those are tied to the speed of the projectile, there would be other approaches where the speed would not be an issue.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

No saluting. Maybe not so odd, but interesting/notable that we never see Starfleet personnel ever engage in saluting. Ever.

Whose salute? American? British? Andorian? Tellarite? Zaldan?

 

[USS Triumphant]

Because it basically hinges on the culprit confessing. Why would starship captains admit to wrongdoing? Why would their crews rat them out?

As a network admin, it really bothers the crap outta me that the *ship itself* wouldn't "rat them out" - the recordings made from internal and external sensors should not be editable by people aboard the ships.

 

[Captain Rob]

Which kind of goes back to what I've said before. That a 23rd or 24th Century ship's computer system with reasonable features and security procedures in place. Would effectively destroy or severely impede most episode plots.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The ranged weapons are slow because the audience needs to see people dramatically dodge out of the way.

 

[topcat]

Data was a member of star fleet. Star fleet is the ships and crew, not the actual federation. Hes a crewman. With a service record.
As far as rank goes, everyone is supposed to go through star fleet academy in order to serve on star fleet property. However they only have one academy, and everyone I have seen in TNG who passed the academy is an ensign or higher. SO where do the un ranked "crewman" come from?

 

[The Wormhole]

SO where do the un ranked "crewman" come from?

Enlisted personnel still go to the Academy, according to Simon Tarses, Chief O'Brien and Tal Celes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Data was a member of star fleet. Star fleet is the ships and crew, not the actual federation. Hes a crewman. With a service record.

Is there a question here?

As far as rank goes, everyone is supposed to go through star fleet academy in order to serve on star fleet property. However they only have one academy, and everyone I have seen in TNG who passed the academy is an ensign or higher. SO where do the un ranked "crewman" come from?

I don't think there is a rule that everyone has to go to the Academy to serve. McCoy in TOS did not attend the Academy.

Crewmen have ranks. They are Crewmen and Petty Officers. O'Brien is a Chief Petty Officer. Tarses was a Crewman First Class. A Starfleet Technical Services Academy was seen in a TNG episode, it might be a possible training facility for enlisted personnel.

 

[Timo]

As a network admin, it really bothers the crap outta me that the *ship itself* wouldn't "rat them out" - the recordings made from internal and external sensors should not be editable by people aboard the ships.

Agreed, of course. But "Court Martial" already nicely preempts this plot-hindering inconvenience, by clearly stating that CO Kirk, SO Spock and RO Finney can forge records. While Spock is an explicit computer genius with the skill to outwit all security measures, Kirk and Finney probably get to forge records chiefly due to having formal access to them.

Also, "Captain's Logs" clearly are dictated after the fact, as narration to those recordings made in real time (sometimes they are even spoken in the past tense). Even when a skipper leaves the facts intact, he can spin-doctor the interpretation, then. But we also hear Kirk say a couple of times that he will suppress records of recent events outright, despite logs on them having been dictated.

The ranged weapons are slow because the audience needs to see people dramatically dodge out of the way.

Except that dodging doesn't actually happen, does it? Some characters dodge phasers before they have been fired (say, "Conspiracy"), but when the blast is en route, anybody who isn't already in motion will be hit. Assuming the beam was going to hit anything in the first place, that is (again, see the "Conspiracy" corridor scene - the possessed Admiral would not have hit either our heroes even if they didn't leap sideways).

Data dodges a high speed death ray in "Home Soil", sort of - but it's more a case of the death ray not having a particularly good aim.

McCoy in TOS did not attend the Academy.

Where would this have been stated? The Memory Alpha reasoning sounds faulty: attending a civilian university in no way excludes attending a military academy (indeed, this is clearly what happened to nuMcCoy, who already had MD papers before enrolling in the SF Academy). And never mind that no dialogue actually establishes McCoy as having studied in a civilian university - merely that Dax met him there, for unknown reasons.

Also, there's no obligation for McCoy to have learned the meaning of "dunsel" even if he attended the Academy. Hell, it's even theoretically possible he didn't meet Boothby in person!

Timo Saloniemi