Scotty wasn't a Lieutenant, he was a Lieutenant Commander and was Second Officer on the Enterprise, he took command of the ship a few times, so only one rank away from Trip.
Wasn't trip a little young to be a commander?
- Thread starter Infern0
- Start date
Scotty wasn't a Lieutenant, he was a Lieutenant Commander and was Second Officer on the Enterprise, he took command of the ship a few times, so only one rank away from Trip.
Rÿcher
Fleet Captain
Age has nothing to do with rank. O'Brien for example - he chose to remain an enlisted man. He could have been chief engineer of a starship - a full fledged commander even.
Trip, let's not forget who his best friend is; Captain Archer. Membership has it's privileges.
Geordi got there there through hard work.
Scotty made captain by overestimating his repairs and getting the job sooner than his quoted estimate. He saw that something needed doing. Gave a quote of four hours but knew it could be done in an hour, got it done in two, impressed the captain and got promoted. Smart man.
In any fleet or service where someone can be a starship captain as early as 28 - 30(Kirk, Picard, that young black female captain seen in "Conspiracy(TNG)"), a full commander in his mid-to-late thirties is really nothing. Even in that century.
Which I don't believe. I do know, for example, that the writers considered making Malcolm a LCDR. So obviously they were thinking of it on some level. Also, T'Pol is a LCDR in the Mirror 'verse...
Last edited:
trip played a big role in making henry archers engine work as shown in first flight.
as for malcolm it is possible some of the brass knew of his section 31 past and might have held it against him.
but the promotion situation on the show sucked.
people should have been getting promotions during the series.
spock in the first season of tos went from lt commander to commander.
as for malcolm it is possible some of the brass knew of his section 31 past and might have held it against him.
but the promotion situation on the show sucked.
people should have been getting promotions during the series.
spock in the first season of tos went from lt commander to commander.
In my interpretation, for the Star Trek Universe(s), this was my first thought as well.
Captain Kirk was just as young as Trip and he was the big man. Plus, I know it's been said, but Riker was XO/Commander at 29. I think what throws many is that Trip doesn't act with as much tact sometimes as you'd expect from a full commander. His comic relief belied his qualification.
Trip (as a Lieutenant) was vital to getting that dead-critical NX-Beta test run in First Flight purring to the point of saving that project along with Archer and AG. Also, Trip was one hell of an engineer keeping Enterprise flying at all in season 3. Scottie would've had his hands just as full with a ship with that many holes (and Scottie is THE MAN as far as engineers go - I like trip - but Scottie is the MAN.)
Lastly, I tend to think LC was off the table in the command structure of Starfleet ships of the day. If it had been my decision, I think he should've begun the series as a LC, not full commander until S4 - receiving that big LC to Commander promotion for that Season 3 work. (But the NX-01 is the black hole of promotions - so that probably wouldn't happen :-))
---
In our military system of today, taking the information from previous posts in mind along with my own somewhat limited military knowledge, attaining that rank as strictly an engineer at his age (or at all) would likely be difficult to impossible.
RhodesChroma.
Even in this day and age you see Air Force captains and majors in their late twenties. It's RARE, in part because the Air Force tends to be one of the slowest services to promote officers, but not unheard of...especially if a college student serves in the ROTC in school and graduates at age 22 or so already a second or first lieutenant.
But of course you're aware that a Navy (and Starfleet) Captain is much higher in rank than those.
I mean, you wouldn't see a full Colonel - the equivalent of a Navy Captain - in their twenties, would you?
I tend to agree with the O.P. Trip should've been a lt. cmdr. at best. We did see on TOS in season one that the highest ranked officers, aside from Captain Kirk, were lt. cmdrs. Spock as first officer was a lt. cmdr., then got a promotion to full commander I think either before or by the second season. So it wouldn't have been a stretch to have Trip at that rank, also, as T'Pol eventually was the equivalent of a full commander. OTOH, Geordi was a young lt. cmdr., so who's to say? -- RR
USAF equivalent of a Navy Commander would be a Lt Colonel.
But of course you're aware that a Navy (and Starfleet) Captain is much higher in rank than those.
I mean, you wouldn't see a full Colonel - the equivalent of a Navy Captain - in their twenties, would you?
But of course you're aware that a Navy (and Starfleet) Captain is much higher in rank than those.
I mean, you wouldn't see a full Colonel - the equivalent of a Navy Captain - in their twenties, would you?
True, and fair enough. But the Air Force tends to promote at such a slow rate that it's quite the sight to see full-blown officers in their twenties. But it DOES happen under the right training circumstances, and that
s the point. Sure, most TREK Starfleet captains are much older than 29 or 30 but that never negates one or a few getting there early because of exceptional skills or favoritism.
Similar threads
