It would be odd he didn't but his son did.
In that case, it was K'Ehleyr's father who was Klingon, so presumably they went with the Klingon custom of no last name.
Why was Data never promoted?
- Thread starter alpha_leonis
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We don't know that it was patriarchal like that. It's possible, but not a given, & whether it's odd or not, Alexander took an adoptive name. Worf did not. It's really just about personal choice. Worf knew he had a biological father & didn't choose to take some other person's name out of respect for that. Alexander might've had issues with recognizing his own father's name (Son of Worf, or whatever) Lord knows they had a troubled relationship. So he took an adoptive name instead. It also might been done at a time when Worf was still facing discommendation, & to be recognized as his son would be dishonorable, & after that circumstance changed, Alexander felt it would be too disrespectful to change it back. It's all unknowable
When Klingons get formal, they mention their father's names, not their mother's. Sounds pretty damn patriarchal to me.
Alexander was unaware of Klingon customs at the time, so that seems unlikely.
But the name Torres isn't Klingon.
Torres was B'Elanna's father's name, which is why she went as "B'Elanna Torres" as opposed to "B'Elanna, daughter of Miral."
I'm pretty sure this is all far simpler than its being made out to be. Worf chose a Klingon style because he longed to be a part of Klingon tradition.
B'elanna and Alexander chose a non-Klingon style because they wanted nothing to do with Klingon tradition.
B'elanna and Alexander chose a non-Klingon style because they wanted nothing to do with Klingon tradition.
Exactly, or that Worf or K'Ehleyr didn't want to forsake their Klingon heritage for the sake of their adoptive or non-Klingon parents, which wasn't a similar predilection with Alexander or B'Elanna
Point being, the taking of a name not associated with her Klingon heritage was less likely a choice based in Klingon patriarchal precepts, than it was personal
The curse of Operations Officers? Neither Data nor Kim were promoted up except in simulations or alternate timelines
I seem to remember reading an article about Garrett Wang working with a group (Star Trek Online maybe?) and being presented with a gift of a jewelry box containing his lieutenant JG pips.
It has been common since WW2 for big ships to have multiple commanders. Even excepting aircraft carriers, it was common in WW2 for a US battleship or cruiser to have commanders heading gunnery, engineering, navigation, construction, medical and supply departments, and not uncommonly a full commander dentist and/or chaplain as well. A British battleship or cruiser invariably had an engineer commander, usually a paymaster commander as supply officer and frequently a surgeon commander besides "The Commander," the second in command..
He was made captain of a ship and commanded her quite successfully in action. To me that seems like all had been forgiven.
That may, in reality, be true. I'm not a naval historian. The modern day reality of military life in general or naval life specifically really has no bearing as the writers were always more than a little whimsical on those points (especially with respect to the "chain of command"). In our reality there is a definite line of command regardless of rank and seniority. A ship's doctor, for example, would not be in the command line, however, in Modern Trek anyone could be given command at any time for any reason. I felt this lackadaisical attitude on behalf of the writing staff regarding this point was a definite weakness of the series. It, at times, undercut the integrity and drama of the episodes.
That mostly came about as a means of getting Dr. Crusher and Deanna Troi able to command after Jeri Taylor took over and complained none of the female characters had command authority, an oversight Ron Moore admitted to being embarrassed by. So suddenly command officers could take command because that was the only way to get Crusher or Troi to have command authority.
That very well may have been, but it does not alter the fact it undermined the prestige and integrity of command and they rectified a problem in the laziest manner possible which made it comical therefore, ultimately, not as successful as it should have been. Basically the sent out the message: when the job of "starship captain" no longer has any real standards that's when our female leads will command the Enterprise. Rather than have the characters of Troi and Crusher rise to the occasion they lowered the bar. They were done a disservice.
In my opinion.
Also, Alexander was trying to be accepted on his own merit exclusively and trying to conceal his connection to his father.
Using the name of the people who raised him (as they had raised his father) gave him a way of hiding his parentage without actually lying.
Back to the original topic, a few years back I was comparing the careers of various characters and envisioned a scene between Data and Picard, basically echoing the scene where he gets a command in the Romulan blockade, so it starts with "maybe it isn't time yet" and "factors I haven't considered", but it builds to: "I've been a Lieutenant Commander since Deanna Troi graduated from the Academy, so why exactly does she outrank me?"
The same reason Riker outranks him apparently, merit in his specific field or track. Riker was still an ensign only 2 or 3 years out of the academy, when Data got promoted to Lt. Cmdr. Maybe it's just harder to get promoted to commander in a gold suit than it is in a blue or a red one. Bear in mind, I could be wrong, but I don't think we've ever seen anybody do it. Most gold shirt department heads are Lt. Cmdrs. So what must you do to go up from there? It might be something of a ceiling for them
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That’s a good point. Since we haven’t seen yellow shirts get promoted to Commander, maybe there are weird prerequisites like working on a space station for a period of time or something of that nature?
Have any of the other series promoted yellow shirts to commander?
The trick is, Data's career could've, potentially, been thousands of years long. It seems reasonable Starfleet would try to tailor rank and progression to accommodate different species lifespans and other attributes. A Vulcan might spend two or three times as long as a human in Starfleet, but the Vulcan officer corps doesn't seem to be especially top-heavy, with a ton of Vulcan captains and admirals between ages 40 and 180, and a smaller number of lower-ranked Vulcans that are all in the first twenty years of their century-and-a-half-long careers.
Data might've been on a similar schedule, not wanting to spend the majority of his career signing off on duty rosters and allocating patrol routes. Additionally, his life-cycle, such as it was, wouldn't be pushing him to an onward-and-upward trajectory. As long as his CO is willing to accept his input and analysis, he's not going to contribute much more as a Commander or Captain over any other officer, compared to how much he can outshine the lower-level, actually-doing-stuff officers with superhuman speed at swapping isolinear chips, reacting to surprises, using super-strength, or any of the other things that make Data so cool. He's not getting too old for that sort of thing.
(Though, we saw in AGT that it was at least possible that Data might've been aiming for a human-length career before he decided to try another kind of life. Though we don't really know why he decided to retire. Maybe he finally made Admiral and decided he thought it was boring.)
The problem with that is those aliens with an average lifespan longer than that of humans would then be getting unfairly penalized. Experience, maturity, and knowledge equate, hopefully to wisdom. Promotion should be determined by demonstrated proficiency and examination. Also elevation, promotion and rank has to do with minimums not maximums.
So what if Data would live for 1,000 years? If he could meet the requirements to become a starship captain in 40 years than that would be a boon to Starfleet. Their investment in him would payoff greatly in that he would be able to stay on the job for 960 years.
No the big danger would be rigidity of thinking and inability to adapt so aliens with long lives might still be retired around relatively the same time (or even, statistically speaking, sooner). In Data's case, he may even develop memory storage issues as even his positronic brain has limits.
In terms of Data not being promoted beyond Lieutenant Commander, well, the simple answer could be that he had declined those opportunities feeling his attained rank was suitable to keep him where he wanted to be and doing what he chose to be doing. Don't forget, the higher the rank the more the bureaucracy you have to deal with. At a certain point you go from doing to managing. Data may have wisely avoided those distractions.
And they made a point of Troi taking the Bridge Officer's Exam so she could take a command shift as a full Commander like Crusher.
But Data could still take command as a Lt. Cdr., so apparently the exam isn't contingent on rank.
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