I'm another who never heard that Uhura was "supposed to be" a linguist. Language translation seems to be pretty much a non-issue in TOS, so that doesn't seem like something that would be part of her primary duties.
Uhura's job on the show can be mapped to that of the radio officer on a naval vessel, as could most jobs on the ship. The American Navy was the direct model and inspiration for the Enterprise.
That's the heart of it. Or, to picture the communications department leadership of a US Navy cruiser in the late '60s:
Of course time marches on, and our own present-day navy sounds more futuristic than TOS, with the Communications Department now absorbed into "Combat Systems," the good old navy Radioman now an "Information Systems Technician," and rated "skivvy wavers" (Signalmen) a thing of the past.
If Uhura is
the communications officer, there is a good case for her being a department head, which would place her in the captain's "inner circle" and would give her larger (and off-camera) responsibilities of running her department. Why the department head would actually stand communications watches on the bridge is another question, but the chief engineer also sometimes manned a bridge station.
Not quite - they made lieutenants of all the scientists, who are probably not part of the chain of command, about half the helmsmen and navigators, and the senior engineers.
And there were also a load of security lieutenants, who just seemed to stand guard posts.
I agree, but I would add that Roddenberry's pitch and his script for the pilot was more closely aligned with Hornblower's Royal Navy.
Well, in some ways, but it was also updated for what people understood of a mid-20th century navy. No engineers in Hornblower's time, for instance. No radio. No torpedoes.
Well, to be fair to the writers, it wasn't entirely clear sometimes if there actually were enlisted personnel during the original show. Sure there was the occasional "crewman" plus all the yeomen - but those were always younger people, I don't recall ever seeing any senior enlisted personnel, and "chief" seemed to be more of a job title than rank. Most of the Treknical pubs of the 70s seemed to believe that "crewman" simply equalled ensign - and it's arguable that TNG contuinued that until they hamhandedly converted Lieutenant O'Brien to a CPO. Only in the movies was there ever a clear enlisted crew structure.
Agreed that it was muddled, but TOS had "Yeoman third class Tina Lawton," "Chief Humboldt," "Technicians First Class Thule and Harrison," "Watkins, John B., Engineer Grade Four." The idea of enlisted personnel in TOS is not exactly unsupported.
