Separate Defiant Crew vs the DS9 Crew

[Grendelsbayne]

Really, I thought TOS was pretty consistent about Scotty being 3rd in command. The rare times someone else was in the big chair could be put down to Scotty being off the ship on leave, or sick, or in a task that required his continuous attention (or IRL James Doohan being unavailable). You could also count the stripes.

If I had to guess who was 2nd officer in TOS I would definitely guess Scotty. But I'm really not sure based on what was actually shown if that Enterprise had any official 2nd officer at all, just like I'm really not sure if DS9 had one, either.

 

[Timo]

The thing is, the Chief Engineer should always be in a task that requires his continuous attention... And warrants high rank even if this carries no command privileges. We might just as well speculate that to be in the Nth Officer Club, you absolutely have to wear gold.

Unless you are Spock, that is.

There’s no such thing as career military or officer training really yet. Rank is almost based on fame.

In "Dax", we see what a centenarian Bajoran looks like - not too shabby. So what I'm saying is that General Krim might have been in his teens before the Cardassians shut down the Holy Temple of the Prophetic Kick in the Jaw and disbanded the Warrior Caste. That is, the Militia might be founded on actual military experience to some degree, even though it would be built on political squabbling and hero merit first and foremost - creating rifts such as the one between Krim and Day.

The stories told in Star Wars tend to be about more important figures - the emperor, military leaders equivilent to a senior general, senators.

Of course, that resistance movement was a prime example of promotion by arrogance, with "General Solo" and the like... Even a simple farmboy could and would become General overnight.

Perhaps not a great surprise when the Jedi Order only appeared to have two ranks: Commander or whatever for the padawan, General for the full Jedi...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[kkt]

Well... the chief engineer is a department head and should be assigning subordinate engineers and making sure they get trained so that they're as good as he is. But that's not as sexy to show on TV as the chief engineer being in the jefferies tube himself.