Starfleet entrance age during TOS...

[Matt]

In Charlie X, Rand introduces him to Yeoman third-class Tina Lawton who is the same age as Charlie, 17. It's unknown what her rank is, or if she is enlisted. We can assume she's enlisted, because 'third class' as a rank doesn't sound like an officer. It's also unknown (to me) if enlisted personnel go through Starfleet Academy as well, or if they go through a 'space boot camp' sort of training.

Regardless... Lets assume for a moment that Yeoman Lawton went to Starfleet Academy. We know the academy is a four year school... If Lawton went through the academy, she would have joined at 13 years of age or younger. Since the Enterprise had already been out there in deep space for a bit, it's safe to assume that she joined up even earlier than 13.

We know from TNG that Wesley Crusher first tried to join the Academy at age 15, but they found him annoying. (Or some other reason. Unimportant, really.)

Yeoman Lawton is an interesting one indeed.

 

[Duncan MacLeod]

According to the Star Trek Writer's Guide, Kirk entered the Academy at the age of 17, which was the youngest age allowed.

Lawton was probably a boo-boo. To quote Gene Roddenberry...

Just making a hour TV show (and making it well) has become almost an impossible task, physically, for the production team. For an "average" TV show, they find themselves working twelve to fourteen hours a day. Compare that to the situation we found ourselves in, with a complex show like Star Trek. It began to appear that even if we could work twenty-seven hours a day, seven days a week, we couldn't quite cut it. It was one bitch of a first season.

In that kind of high-pressure situation, boo-boos happen.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

I'd guess Lawton's an enlistee, not an Academy grad. Attendance at the Academy's not mandatory for service in Star Fleet, just as it's not a requirement for service in the modern Navy. McCoy's not a grad, otherwise he'd have known what a dunsel was, and from his bio in TMoST, I'd bet Scotty isn't either.

 

[Crewman47]

I usually see the Yeoman position as a Petty officer rank where Yeoman Rand could be Petty Officer 1st class, then promoted to Chief Petty Officer by TMP and with Yeoman Lawton she could be a Petty officer 3rd class, or either that going by her age she could be a 3rd class Crewman instead, as in the lowest of the low.

 

[Matt]

Duncan MacLeod said:
According to the Star Trek Writer's Guide, Kirk entered the Academy at the age of 17, which was the youngest age allowed.

Lawton was probably a boo-boo. To quote Gene Roddenberry...

Just making a hour TV show (and making it well) has become almost an impossible task, physically, for the production team. For an "average" TV show, they find themselves working twelve to fourteen hours a day. Compare that to the situation we found ourselves in, with a complex show like Star Trek. It began to appear that even if we could work twenty-seven hours a day, seven days a week, we couldn't quite cut it. It was one bitch of a first season.

In that kind of high-pressure situation, boo-boos happen.

Regardless, that "boo-boo" is canonical now. The Star Trek writer's guide is not. I'm not talking 'real world', I'm talking Star Trek world. If a minimum age was ever addressed, it was probably done during the Wesley Crusher academy episodes of TNG... Or possibly in Voyager. It seems like they always were talking about the academy in that.

 

[Duncan MacLeod]

Not to be nasty but I really don't give a damn about canon, and have a pretty low opinion of folks who rate it so highly. But then again I've been around long enough to have seen Paramount change what is canon often enough to see it for the nonsense that it is.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

The minimum age was never addressed on screen in Star Trek, only off screen in TMoST. If it's possible the issue was discussed on TNG or VOY, you may want to inquire over there.

 

[cooleddie74]

I think you could get in as early as 16 in both the TOS and TNG eras, based on both non-canon novels set in the Kirk era as well as the TNG episode "Coming of Age."

 

[Timo]

And even that'd only cover the humans. A Vulcan might quite probably join at eight; she or he'd be the mental and physical superior of a 21-year-old human.

The only way to impose any sort of equality in Starfleet would be to discriminate significantly between the various species. A two-year Ocampa might be too old to join; a hundred-and-seventy-year-old Brikar, too young.

But medical intervention might also help. And even humans wouldn't stand on the same line, then. Somebody like Lawton could dope up to cut it at eleven, and it remains unknown if Starfleet would frown on such "cheating", or eagerly encourage it to get the best possible crew material.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Therin of Andor]

Timo said:
A two-year Ocampa might be too old to join; a hundred-and-seventy-year-old Brikar, too young.

In TMP, Billy Van Zandt's Rhaandarite ensign was described in his character bio as being "75 years young" and that his people lived to be over 200. The closing credits even list him as "Alien Boy" when the actor was in his early 20s at the time of filming.

 

[Ronald Held]

With exceptions, maybe it could be made to fit, although I would have prefer her to be an enlistee.

 

[Phoenicianknight]

TOS and TNG happened 70 years apart.

Rules and regs change. If a cadet is allowed to join at 13 in one generation, that does not mean that requirement is a constant.