Uniform question

[The_Baroness]

Right...so Chuckles, Belanna, and all the other maquis got field commissions and got themselves shiny new rank insignia that were them metal bars...

Paris got a field commission and got proper pips.

What gives?

 

[Farrens]

Fair question, I guess Janeway was more forgiving of Paris's crimes than the treason of the maquis.

 

[Tiberius]

The metal bars are provisional ranks, given to those who came aboard from the Maquis ship. Given that tom wasn't a member of the Maquis at the time, and that he had been official hired by starfleet, he got a full commision.

 

[Yevetha]

Werent they promted too quickly?

At least they should had familiarized themseves with Starfleet equipment.

 

[propita]

Federation equipment seems fairly similar. That wooden-ship captain on Dr Who had a good line about wood ship v. space ship controls being similar, but I don't remember it.

 

[Tiberius]

They were using a spaceship with a similar interface, so I think it's pretty safe to say that they knew enough about Voyager's systems to operate them.

 

[MacLeod]

Well given that at least some of the Maquis had served in Starfleet, and they were piloting a Federation build craft. I think we can assume a reasonable level of understanding of Federation tech.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Right...so Chuckles, Belanna, and all the other maquis got field commissions and got themselves shiny new rank insignia that were them metal bars...

Paris got a field commission and got proper pips.

What gives?

Tom was a lightning rod.

If the Maquis were going to spazz out and and rampage they "might" go after the traitor first before the lady who is feeding them.

She had reinforce the tension between that boy and all that scum, otherwise it would have been her head on a pike.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It seems clear that Paris never really was a full member of the Maquis to begin with. He was not a revolutionary, he didn't really believe in their cause, he just joined because he thought it would be fun. Thus Janeway probably trusted him more because of that alone - if Paris really had believed in the Maquis cause, Janeway would have been more suspicious of him.

This would be why Chakotay, for example, only got a 'provisional' rank, even though he was a full Starfleet officer before he joined the Maquis.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Chakotay would have gotten a provisional rank to prove he was still tight with the Maquis.

It would have been a dick move making them feel isolated and left behind to pip him up.

In the before and After Timeline, CAPTAIN Chakotay had four Pips.

 

[od0_ital]

^

In 'Before and After', Chakotay wasn't Janeway's bitch anymore!!!!

 

[Guy Gardener]

I suspect Captain Chakotay's animal spirit guide suddenly became an avatar of Janeway every time he plugged his consciousness into that matrix/hivemind machine.

Captain, to ghost to god.

 

[The_Baroness]

So basically, the producers cocked up.

gottit.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Perhaps?

I thought, however, that it was a brave choice to say that Chakotay was now a real (Think Pinochio) officer, and I wondered along with him, I was deeply curious if the rest of the Maquis had also graduated into real Starfleet Officers too? Which really means back "home" that it was only Janeway's ego that relgated the Maquis relgated to halflife pretend wimsy slave lifestyle ranks.

Or they still stayed "provisional" despite Chakotay's pips.

The truth however is pretty simple from a production point of view...

TPTB didn't have any four stripe provisional rank badges locked up in the props department and they didn't want to budget for the creation of any new four stripe provisional rank badges for just one episode when no bugger would ever even notice.

Gods below! It was such a nicer ship without Janeway that the Doctor felt less manic and a little comfortable enough to find himelf a name. Names. Many (many) names. So much more room for freedom of expresson.

 

[Timo]

Why Paris got the pips in the first place seems pretty clear-cut. Starfleet made a deal with him: he helps catch the Maquis and Starfleet arranges for his release from the penal colony, gives him back his rank, and promotes him one step to boot.

Starfleet didn't make any deals with Chakotay and his crew. So they didn't get pardons, and they didn't get their rank (if any) back. Janeway just adopted them into her crew out of necessity - but the first time she could have pardoned them was when she got into proper two-way touch with her superiors. Apparently "Message in a Bottle" wasn't it yet. And for some reason, "Pathfinder" didn't suffice, either... Or then Starfleet told her over private channel that no pardons would be forthcoming, and she had no incentive to break that to her crew.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Guy Gardener]

Looked up the text for the pilot the other day.

Tom used the word "cashiered" when describing to Kim his fall from Grace.

Technically cashiered means (just looked at the wikipage) removal of rank rather than discharged from the service even if both acts are usually conjoint with the other.

Which would mean that Tom would have been the same as the Equinox 5 after Janeway stripped them of all Rank, because if he wasn't a part of Starfleet then he couldn't have been answerable to a military tribunal rather than a civilian hearing.

Not that Starfleet security doesn't seem like the police and the army put together despite how 'safe" that made Joseph Sisko feel when they had boots on the ground goose stepping up and down main street outside his restaurant.

 

[Ninjacore]

Why not wear real clothing and not pajamas, I like star trek but seriously this really bothers me.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Replicator rationing.

Some clothing is recyled through replicators rather than washed.

Complicated clothing,equals more processing utility.

These things build up.

Which then begs the question of creative control and licensing that clothing designers, in a world without money, can maintain control of their brand when everyone is a factory.

There is no mass market.

There's no profit, artistic or otherwise in designing clothes.

Fashion is dead.

Ergo basic Spartan commodities.

Pyjamas.

 

[od0_ital]

^

I don't remember any part of the deal sayin' Paris would get back into Starfleet - it was just he would get paroled out of New Zealand's penal colony a little quicker in exchange for his cooperation. He asked to be a pilot & Janeway told him she already had one.

That Stadi died early on in the mission was a windfall for Paris.

 

[zar]

It seems clear that Paris never really was a full member of the Maquis to begin with. He was not a revolutionary, he didn't really believe in their cause, he just joined because he thought it would be fun. Thus Janeway probably trusted him more because of that alone - if Paris really had believed in the Maquis cause, Janeway would have been more suspicious of him.

This would be why Chakotay, for example, only got a 'provisional' rank, even though he was a full Starfleet officer before he joined the Maquis.

I don't think the rank type has anything to do with trust or suspicion. Even though Paris had a "real" rank, he was just the pilot. Chakotay was the commander. That is, the guy who takes over everything when the captain's not around. So who was given more trust? The "provisional"-ness was just a formality. Since there was no Starfleet to actually report to, both types of rank were effectively equal.