Why do Ransom and Picard hold the same Starfleet rank?

[Paradise City]

It's amusing the career trajectory of Picard compared to Riker.

Picard gets the geriatric Stargazer for twenty or so years, that's destroyed in '55 by a passing Ferengi ship and it's 9 years before they give him the Enterprise.

Riker gets involved in the Pegasus debacle as a junior officer and in less than ten years he's offered the cuttin edge Nebula class Melbourne.

 

[Timo]

Just goes to show how the world works.

You save the ship when the Captain dies, you did your job adequately and perhaps get mentioned in dispatches.

You save the Captain when the ship dies, you suddenly have a good friend in a position of power.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Just goes to show how the world works.

You save the ship when the Captain dies, you did your job adequately and perhaps get mentioned in dispatches.

You save the Captain when the ship dies, you suddenly have a good friend in a position of power.

Timo Saloniemi

Which probably goes some way to explain why he's at one point at least four steps ahead of his yearmate Geordi LaForge in seniority, despite both being highly competent officers.