It made sense for Janeway not to promote him: there was nowhere to promote him to. Kim should have been promoted very quickly after they got back to Earth, though.
@@valhar2000 Not really. We see that by Picard’s time, Helm was a Lt JG’s billet. He’s far too junior to have that job, so a brevet promotion (which we *did* see Janeway do, btw) or reassignment was in order.
Add to that the shenanigans of a university/scientific foundation board, and you get: Starfleet. Part science collab, part military, part political power player.
Seems like they used military ranks as the foundation of structure, corporates as the driver of structure and science as the tools of structure. Philosophy morality etc seems to come from post apocalyptic (They did nuke themselves) plus it seems to be part of the human identity in general. I think I get what their trying to make.
@@harrisonfnord5871 ...and part of mad 😁 Sorry, while reading your comment, I've suddenly rememberd Terry Prattchet's description of the fiercy creature that ist the Quetzovercoatl: half man, half chicken, half jaguar, half serpent, half scorpion and half mad.
It's a loosey-goosey adaptation, or rather a riff on American Naval Officer heirarchy; at least as far as commissioned officers are concerned. NCO and Warrant ranks are a different (and frankly butchered) beast altogether; amalgamating chain structures intersectionary to several American military branches.
There is a precedent for multiple officers with the rank of Captain in navies. An aircraft carrier will be commanded by a Captain, the executive officer is often a Captain, the commander of the embarked air wing will be a Captain, the chief engineer may be a Captain, and if serving as a flagship there’s likely to be a Captain or two on the Admiral’s staff.
Those are captains in different divisions, mind, and ultimately subordinate to the ship's commander. The movie-era ship of captains was incredibly silly.
Regarding the commander of the air wing, aren't those air force ranks? If so, an air force captain is not the same rank as a naval captain. A naval captain = air force colonel, while a air force captain = naval lieutenant
@@MaxRawhide no. the Navy pilots and the US Marine pilots who make up the air wing of a carrier use the same insignia but each branches naming structure. A Marine Captain is the same as a Naval Lieutenant. Insignia is the Double bar.
@@talideon Actually the Captains on the Admiral's staff are not part of the Carrier's crew and not subordinate to the ship's commander, in fact the ship's commander answers to the Admiral aboard. The Air Wing has a somewhat strange relationship to the carrier's captain as they both answer to him and are separate commands.
Lore is super sparse when it comes to enlisted ranks. The ranks are probably Crewman, Petty Officer, Chief Petty Officer, Senior Chief Petty Offier, Master Chief Petty Officer. All that was said was that their academy was 6 months long. Beside that I don't think there were that many discussions. I wouldn't doubt that, like astronauts coming out of the Air Force, the majority of ship crews were required to be made up almost entirely of officers. While part of the 32nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, the ships we were transported in had tiny amounts of officers. Pretty much you had the Captain, the XO, the head of each department, and that's it. The rest of the positions were from the enlisted ranks. Yeoman, navigation, radar operators, nurses, gun operators, all of them enlisted
As a US Navy vet I find Star Trek's ranks rather top heavy and vague. My ship had 300ish crew and 24 or so officers, and if any of the officers tried to touch machinery more complicated than a coffee maker the nearest Chief Petty Officer would chew their ass all the way out the door. In a respectful manner of course...
@@CheezyDee in large corporations the unions forced sharp separations of duties so that being hands-on for non union people gets you in trouble. Perhaps non union places allowed people to work together and help out when it seemed right. I had a mental image where soldiers in the field recognized Death does not care about your rank. So soldiers needed to work together.
You could write a book on the title Commodore alone. In the Age of Sail, Commodore was a temporary title granted to the most senior Captain of an ad-hoc flotilla. Sometime in the mid to late 1800s, the British Royal Navy made Commodore the naval equivalent of the One Star Brigadier General. The US Navy has had a complicated relationship with British naval traditions. They used the term Commodore, with the same British definition during WWII, Then dropped the rank entirely; brought it in the early 80s, changed it from Commodore to Commodore-Admiral, and now Rear Admiral(lower half) ...
During WWII there was also two ranks of Commodore in the Royal Navy with Commodore Second class using the thick Distinction Lace on shoulder strap and a Commodore First Class with an Admiral's shoulder strap showing an anchor and two small stars and no crossed sword and baton
In Bagdad, during OIF, there was a US Navy outfit commanded by a Captain (equivalent to a US Army "full-bird" Colonel) and when he was addressed directly or referred to informally, his title was Commodore. It was explained to me that this was because he didn't command a ship at sea... In true Army tradition, I saluted, called him "Sir!" and kept moving.
@@jacobbaughman748 The USN still uses the title of Commodore but it's no longer a rank, it's a billet. Commodore is the title of an O6 Captain that's in charge of a group ships, typically a squadron but can be just a task force of 2 or more ships.
@@Riceball01 okay, I can see that. The unit this guy commanded was called a Composite Squadron, but I couldn't tell you how many people were in it. Typically, in the Army, an O-6 commands between 3-5 thousand soldiers. Or, as many as 8 thousand.
@@jacobbaughman748 In the Navy, O-6 Captains are typically given command of larger ships, definitely aircraft carriers, possibly amphibious assault ships, cruisers, and I think SSBNs. Of course, they can be in command of a squadron of ships which would equal to several hundred men and women. But I think that overall, a Navy Captain is in command of fewer people, on average, than an Army or Marine Colonel who are usually regimental commanders at that rank.
Honestly, almost everything described here matches the real-world Navy nearly 100%. The ranks are nearly directly lifted, the disposition of duties is almost identical, the progression from operations to administration and political involvement is spot-on. Yeah, Starfleet isn't a military organization in cannon, but its framing is about 95% identical to the real world military progression. Source: career Air Force, brother career Navy. The annual football game is hilarious.
While the ranks are near identical I wouldn't say the progressions and duties were.I'm a 11 year veteran of the US Navy. As an example Operations Officers are a bigger deal in the real world than portrayed in Star Trek. There's no way a boot ensign fresh out the academy would report to a ship to be the Operations Officer.
Gene Roddenberry was part of us army Air corps. Star Trek Ranks were designed to imitate military. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_life_and_career_of_Gene_Roddenberry
@@joekerr3638 true but just because he had dirt and air military experience doesn’t mean he fully appreciated how military hierarchy (specifically naval military hierarchy) works
A lot of people don’t know is that when the Original Series came out in the ‘60s, all astronauts in the US were officers either in the Air Force, Navy, or Marines as they were pilots or aviators. Thus, most of the members on the original Enterprise crew were also officers; the naval ranks were used because it was a star fleet, although Starfleet didn’t show up as an organization until the second season.
Having multiple persons with the rank of Captain serving on the same ship has precedent in real world navies. On US Navy aircraft carriers for example, there are usually several officers with the rank of captain, the Commanding Officer of the ship is always one, the Executive Officer, the Reactor Officer and the Chief Engineer often are, and there may be others aboard as well, not to mention Captains in the Air Wing and on the embarked Admiral's staff. Also, in general, the Starfleet rank structure and chain of command actually is fairly close to that of the real world US Navy. The ranks of Commander & Captain in the US Navy haven't been directly tied to holding a command for well over a century.
@@kengaroo67 technically the original Harry Kim died when voyager entered that nebula that “twinned” The ship and was he was sucked out into space, body unrecovered anf Thr copy allowed to assume the originals life. Same thing with Naomi Wildman.
@@kengaroo67 Harry Kim has a copy of him assume his life in one form or another on 3 separate occasions in voyager if I recall. Edit: 5 times if you count time travel (episodes specific to him), each one ends up with a dead Harry Kim too. Also if you count all his near deaths your pushing it into the teens. Come to think of it he is something of a Kenny. Heck in one episode they straight up kill him.
Poor Harry... I don’t think I’ve pitied a fictional character more. Never appreciated, had a criminal promoted over him, demoted and promoted again. What ever nasty messed up thing that happed happened to him. Well at least he makes captain eventually... I think? No all of those were alternate timelines or dreams or something... Never mind. 🥺
Ahh, Space Navy. As a Boatswain Mate myself, I was particularly fond of Enterprise, since they made that ship look as much like a submarine in space as they could.
I've often felt Commodore was a perfectly fine, under-used rank in the TNG/DS9 era Trek. Commanding a fleet or task force, but not quite an Admiral. In the novelizations, Sisko talks about being in something of a Commodore position during the war under Admiral Ross, even though his official rank was still Captain. Picard would likewise have been a Commodore during the blockade of Romulan boarder during the Klingon civil war. Technically, Picard should really have been an Admiral, or at least a Commodore for the entire run of the series, since he was in command of the "flag ship", which are typically commanded by flag officers, and he would have been called upon to command full fleets or battle groups when needed.
You might be interested to know that in the USN, a Captain given command of a squadron of ships is often informally referred to as the Commodore, though there is no such official rank in the USN anymore (it being called Rear Admiral (Lower Half).
Except that when they refer to the enterprise as being the “flag ship” they use it the term in a more of a ceremonial manner than as a practical one. It’s just been a tradition that every lead class of ship since the constitution class (one that class has been successfully established) it gets a ship named (or renamed ) Enterprise AFTER the previous incarnation has left service in one way or another.
The refit constitution class enterprise was being used as a training vessel so having multiple captains from each division kirk(command) spock(science) and scotty(operations) to allow for in the field command level reviews without having to dock at appropriately staffed starbases
Not the case, Kirk was an Admiral and Spock was the captain of the Enterprise. When Kirk was busted to Captain, Spock still was a captain as his first officer. Scotty became an Captain when he went to the Excelsior and retained that rank when he came back.
There are often times in the military where a person has to assume the duties of a rank above the one they actually hold. For example, a squad leader is usually a sergeant, but a corporal might often have to fill the role instead. Or a first lieutenant might have to assume command of a company if a captain isn't available
It's based on a naval structure. Officers went to starlets officer training program. Crewmen are those who just enlist and are trained for the specific role they chose.
Crewman which I assume is the lowest non officer rank and Chief Petty officer are the only ones I know of but I assume that means there is at least one Petty officer rank.
I think so many captains aboard a vessel was originally a matter of being a training ship, and then unusual diplomatic duties used as an excuse to keep the popular mutineers contained after that.
It may also have to do with neither Scott nor Spock being interested in taking command of their own ship, but somehow couldn't escape a promotion to captain after serving in the fleet for so many years. Mr. Scott was too much of an engineer and Mr. Spock too much of a scientist to leave their positions.
I haven't watched ST: TNG for three decades now but I do recall an episode wherein Counselor Troi became the top officer of the enterprise after the three highest officials were out of the ship. The funny thing is that she didn't know how high her rank was until someone told her about it. Come to think about it, Troi always sits beside Picard in the show.
I remember the episode where Dr. Crusher actually countermanded Captain Picard - which was her right as the CMO - and held command of the Enterprise until the problem was solved. I think the EMH did that to CPT Janeway once also. I don't think Dr. Bashir was confident enough in his position as CMO of DS9 to dare countermand CPT Sisko if the need arose.
They were all aboard the ship, but cut off from the bridge. It is up for debate as to who was more terrified in response to O'Brien mentioning her rank, Ro or Troi. It was season 5, episode 5. The episode title is Disaster, which describes both the situation that put Troi in command & having Troi in command. "I wore a uniform ONE TIME... FOUR YEARS AGO & someone who isn't even normally on the bridge, but is RIGHT NOW just had to remember from the 1 other time he was on the bridge!!!"
In the United States Navy, which the officer rank structure is based, did, at one time, have the rank of Commodore, and was the entry into the flag ranks. The rank of Commodore was abandoned in favor of the rank of Rear Admiral Lower Half (one star), and Rear Admiral Upper Half (two stars). There has not been a Fleet Admiral appointed in the Navy since World War II. Even the current Chief of Naval Operations is only a full Admiral at four stars.
Exactly but he technically is a Rear Admiral Upper half, two stars. Anything above that is what is called a temporary rank or rank of position. What that means is if the current CNO retires which he will at the end of his current posting, and he does not petition congress to allow him to retire with admiral rank he will automatically retire at rear admiral upper half. Its complicated and all that but when a vice admiral is removed from position due to any number of things he will revert back to 2 star. Pretty much its the posting that holds the rank and the person in that posting is allowed to use that rank while they hold that position.
Same with the Royal Navy as regards Admirals of the Fleet (the equivalent of Fleet Admiral in the USN). Since the end of the cold war, officers haven't been promoted to the rank, and only two officers still remain on the Navy List holding this rank (and one of them is the King). The professional head of the RN-the First Sea Lord; is, like his US equivalent, 'only' an Admiral.
@@henriblakeley5185 Unfortunately I have 'Covid brain' at the moment so can't give precise examples. However In real Star Trek (TOS, TNG, DSN, VOY and to a certain extent Enterprise), you can be a high rank but your rank only works to show you are a specialist, it doesn't mean others of a lower rank have to obey you if they know more than you do about a situation. It's more a 'leadership by expertise' thing. Of course, there are variations depending on the needs of the story
Note about Medical Doctors : Unlike most officer posts that only take 4 years of education to get commissioned, MDs and DOs require a minimum of 8 years plus residency, so it is very common that they don't go through OCS and are promoted immediately to O-3 to have a pay comparable to civilian physicians. Marine Corps band, is another one that works this way. No boot camp and everyone has the rank of E-6 staff sergeant to have a decent pay vs performing at a well known orchestra.
My father's friend was a doctor serving in the Navy Reserves. He said medical personnel had the authority to order higher ranked officers around but under extreme circumstances. The consequences of their actions will be weighed with extreme prejudice. 🤔
@@Star_Jewel_Realm that is very true. It is the CMO's job to determine if an officer is fit to perform their duties. That can mean releaving an officer of their post, including the Captain of the ship.
When mentioning entering the Admiralty to oversee Starfleet Medical at 10:15 that would have been a perfect place to show a picture of Admiral McCoy from the pilot episode of the Next Generation series.
Good thing Voyager kept everything making sense. Ensign Harry Kim giving duty orders to lieutenants. Janeway promoted from Captain to Vice Admiral skipping rear admiral and commodore.
Commodore was not used by her time, and everyone got a two rank promotion. Tuvok would be a captain if he wanted it, Harry would be a Lt.Commander etc. There is no point in making Janeway a rear admiral, she has no need to be the head of a small project or starbase. She gets a desk
To be fair, it's common in the US Navy (probably other navies as well) for someone who is lower rank but more knowledgeable about a given issue to tell someone who is higher rank how to go about finding a solution. As an example, I'm an IT3 in the Navy. If I know more about fixing a computer than an LT, then I can tell the LT how to fix the problem.
@@neopolitangaming1362 not sure if they still use warrant officers, but that basically what they do. still non-commissioned, but far more experienced than the ensign or lieutenant fresh from the academy.
IIRC, Spock was the official Captain of the Enterprise in WOK. Kirk was simply observing the training cruise. When an actual crisis developed, and one which personally involved Kirk, Spock consented to his superior officer assuming command. This would have been assumed to have been temporary. STV kinda messed that plan up I suppose.
Starfleet, as well as the ranking system, is based on the the US Navy. It's actually not unusual for their to be multiple Captains on ships. I served on the Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier with about 5000 sailors. The Commanding Officer was obviously a Captain, but so was the XO. There was a Captain at the head of medical, and a few other departments. As well as the head of the some of the many airwings we had on board. So the Enterprise having multiple Captains serving onboard is well within believability.
@@whirledpeaz5758 bite, like it sucked to be there? Yeah it did lol, but it had its good moments. I was there from 2012-15. Our douchebag CMC secured the E-4 and below smoke pit for 2 weeks mid deployment once. Those were dark times.... 😂😂
A suggestion: It might be interesting to look at the ranking systems for other Trek civilizations (for instance, Gul and Legate for the Cardassians, etc.).
There was a Fleet Captain rank mentioned in Star Trek The Original Series. Episode The Menagerie, Part 1. 1:40 into the episode. Kirk mentions that he met Christopher Pike “when he (Pike) was promoted to fleet captain”. The Star Trek Wikipedia contradicts this slightly and lists this as not a formal rank, just a change of duties for senior captains, but this might still be in alignment with Star Trek: First Contact when Picard takes command of the remaining fleet in the battle with the Borg. Presumably in the event a flag officer was killed or unavailable, the most senior Captain in a multiple ship engagement would take command and some rank type mechanism might be there to pre-designate those captains so the ship captains did not sit there wasting time arguing over seniority dates and who was technically in charge. Star Trek Voyager also hinted that something like this might be in the regulations, in an episode (Equinox) where Voyager runs into another starfleet vessel and it is discussed that regulations give command to “the Captain of the most tactically superior vessel”. The rank of commodore seems to have ended on Star Trek around the time that the US Navy renamed the rank of Commodore into Rear Admiral Lower Half (one star USN equivalent to a brigadier general), back in 1986.
I think the concept of Starfleet, not being a military organization was added post TNG. In the TOS episode Tomorrow Is Yesterday, Captain Christopher asks Kirk how many Enterprise type ships does the navy have. And Kirk responds, we are a combined service.
Would appreciate it if you did a vid on all the non-comissioned ranks and where in the hierarchy they fit; because in DS9 Ensign Nog clearly takes orders from Chief O'Brien on the Defiant which contrasts your statements that Cheif Petty Officers were subordinate... yes he was named as Head of Engineering, but he was not given Lt. Cmdr. Ranks like Geordi, B'Ellana, Scotty, Etc.
That is a matter of position as a department head overriding rank. Nog was astonished when he found out that he would be recognized as Captain if he and enlisted like O'Brien were the only ones left on the Bridge of the Defiant. Senior NCOs make sure that junior officers have the guidance when the manuals are not on point.
@@CaptainFrost32 Except that that would never happen...simply put Chief O'Brien would never be a department head, not as Enlisted anyway and only maybe as a Warrant Officer (There are five Warrant officer ranks in the US military, WO and CW2 - CW5) i.e. Chief Warrant Officer O'Brien. In the UK warrant officers are part of the enlisted ranks but in the US they are their own officer rank between the enlisted ranks and commissioned officer ranks.
Star Trek seems far more merit-based with assignments than modern militaries. So while it's true that Nog would have the authority to give O'Brien orders (O'Brien even makes that remark in the show), it's also true that Nog would be trained to not do that unless some bigger-picture situation demanded it. O'Brien was head of his department, and everyone in that department, including officers, were expected to follow his orders, because his authority came from officers higher up than the ones in that department. However, if something happened and one of O'Brien's officers suddenly had command authority outside that department, then O'Brien would take orders from them. In short, authority derived from whoever put someone in their position. Some admiral put O'Brien there, so ignoring O'Brien's orders is basically ignoring that admiral's intent.
@@Mortlupo and most of the ranks O’Brien is said to have would be medium warrant ranks, evidently Starfleet just called them all noncoms much like how you mentioned the British system regards it
@@PaulGuy Not how it works in any military or para-military. Your authority comes from both your rank and your position in the chain of command. Warrant officers, most likely what Chief O'Brian is instead of a Chief Petty Officer (E-7), neither of which would commissioned officers (Ensign and up) assigned to their "Department", they would be in fact assigned to the Ensign's department.
it matches the US navy pretty closely. role of the fleet is pretty similar as well. EDIT: to put things into perspective there is positional authority, in which a duty requires certain authorities (such as Petty Officer of the Watch in which you may need to order an officer) and you gain those authorities while carrying out those duties. this makes the navy rather flexible in who to put where. during the Vietnam War the army was tasked with handling the rivers, but they were too rigid with how they did things, especially with rank. this meant that they failed pretty hard at doing that. the navy took over and did very well as they had enlisted handling things that officers typically did. experience at running the patrol boats was very eclectic as a little of everything was needed, and the traditional experience of running a ship didn't apply. that being said they needed the same authority that commanding officers needed, and so enlisted with more experience of doing things at a deck plate level did better than officers if they were given the authority of officers. when outside the role of the patrol boats they were just enlisted and thus couldn't mess up the overall operations of the fleet. they didn't need to know the full breadth of the systems such as logistics, as they just needed to know the part that dealt with the boats. this made them unable to transition over to the fleet well enough, but the greater need for knowing more than just one area meant that officers didn't transition to the boats very well either. take the scene in Band of Brothers in which the leader got promoted and was held back from running out and doing the job, this is opposite of what the boats need (as they don't have the manpower to have someone sitting on the side lines). on top of that the 'defense is only part of the job' is pretty much the Navy throughout all of history. they were ones that explored the world, and handled diplomacy (or ferried diplomats if it was important enough). today they are critical to mapping the oceans and keeping water borne commerce going. they also have and still work with scientists in researching things that need to be done in international waters. they handle policing actions in international waters, though carefully as they are not a police force and have a lot of rules to worry about to ensure they don't overstep their jurisdiction. there isn't much that Starfleet does that the US Navy hasn't been responsible for in the past or is currently responsible for (not to say they are or were solely responsible).
First off. Rick: Great video. Really well done. Second: Commodore was used during the TOS era to somewhat reflect real life (at the time) Naval commodore rank equivalent and then was transitioned to Rear Admiral (Lower Half) in TNG to reflect the US Naval transition to discard Commodore to a flag officer of the lowest rank. Third: Kirk demoted himself (via orders of Admiral Nogura) to the rank of Captain, which in turn, demoted Decker to Commander (XO), and was reflected (as far as I remember) in their uniform displayed rank. Fourth: I would absolutely love to see a video made to show what the enlisted ranks (which I was one of) to break down their rights and responsibilities. As always Rick, you make fantastic videos that brighten my day up. Thank you very much, Sir.
Klingon ranking was basically equivalent to the Federation but replaced the Navy rank names with Army ones, with Generals at the top of the command structure.
Basically they are almost all technically Ensigns. They got automatically promoted after surviving their superior officers which happens every three weeks on average. Honor and Death in Battle - you know?
Always thought the Klingon ranks(more like positions) were something like this: Chancellor Vice-Chancellor General Group Commander [acting] Commander 1st Adjutant(1st officer of the ship/2nd in command) 2nd Adjutant(weapons officer) 3rd Adjutant(engineering officer) Master Warrior(acting section leaders) Senior Warrior Warrior
And now in the 25th century of STO, everyone and their brother in both Starfleet and the Romulan Republic is a Fleet Admiral now, and the Klingon Empire is stuffed to bursting with Dahar Masters. :P
I do get the need for levels in game but I don’t think your game level should be tied to your character’s rank in story. Most likely Hale would be a captain for good ten years or more before advancing.
Fleet captain is separate of commodore. It's explained in both TOS and voyager. Fleet captain is only used when the flag officer is killed or absent. The captain of the ship with the most tactical abilities becomes Fleet captain until a new flag officer arrives or they are promoted to commodore.
Yes and no because starfleet did use it as a means of like, your gonna be promoted into the admiralty but because you haven't finished serving your time as captain so we are going to put you here. So pike and Sisco( although you never see Sisco put the fifth pip on his collar).
Picard was a fleet captain several times leading groups of ships. In thinking about the Romulan trying to get the klingons into a civil war. And Technically Jainway was for like a second when the discoverd the Equinox.
@@magickquill6724 I actually think Picard was always a fleet captain. StarfIeet just never had much in the ways of fleet and flotilla movement during the 24th century. It was discussed in "Chain of Command" as his experience, and impressive ship, would have made him in charge of any assaults by Starfleet. It also sounded like Picard, Jellico and Gul Madred all made statements suggesting that Picard was aware of sector movements in case something happened and he needed to respond.
When was a Fleet Captain mentioned in VOY? I racked my brain for awhile trying to figure out what a Fleet Captain's responsibilities are compared to a commodore.
Nice informative video and you even avoided some common mistake. Still, a few nitpicks: 1) Fleet Captain. This was in the sailing days an official rank and Starfleet also on occasion had this rank. In the 2260's Christopher Pike held this rank when he had his accident. We didn't see his rank insignia, but based on the captain's rank it likely would've been three solid braids. Likewise, according to the ST Encyclopedie when designing the ranking insignia for TNG, they planned to use five pips for a Fleet Captain. (And there's the weird ranking bar from Sloan.) 2) Commodore. Again, according to the ST: Encyclopedia, an official, licensed source, in the TNG era the rank of Commodore was changed into a one-pip admiral 3) Blue uniforms (medical, sciences) do have ranks, but they're not part of the command structure -- at least, this is how it is in current day military (my father used to be a chaplain and a Lt.Cmmdr, but in operational situations he had to take commands from an ensign). They are treated with the respect of their rank, but in a day-to-day operations they do not have any authority. The same likely applies to ST, since Crusher is a full commander, but Lt.Cmmdr. Data as second in command outranks her: when Picard is presumed dead and Riker kidnapped, it's Data who's in command of the Enterprise (despite Crusher having a higher rank). 4)In real life, rank indicate how many people you have under your command. Star Trek screws this up, especially in Voyager, since the Chief Engineer on a Galaxy class starship (with 800-1000 Starfleet crew) has about the same number of people under his command as the captain of an Intrepid class ship (crew of 150). Thus technically speaking, the captain of an Interpid class starship should be a Lt.Cmmdr. DS9 did this right: Sisko commanded about the same crew as RIker, but when the Defiant was added and DS9 upgraded, he got a bigger crew and was made Captain.
WRT #4, I think they couldn’t get away from having The Captain, but note her original XO and Chakotay are Lt Cmdr not full Cmdr. I think that was meant to reflect the ship’s size. See also chief engineer at Lt JG instead of Lt Cmdr, and other such positions. But yes, they are too wedded to always having a captain.
@@kaitlyn__L Well, there were ship commanders in Trek who weren't captain's rank: in DS9 Sisko commanded the Defiant for almost an entire year as a commander, while in TNG when Picard was thought to be dead Riker was in command of the Enterprise still as a Commander, while at another occassion Riker and Data each took command of a ship and retained their normal rank. With TNG that could be due to circumstances, but not DS9. I think VGR was already plagued by something that's currently an issue: fear that a female lead character isn't perceived as strong enough and over compensating to prevent this. Janeway was a woman and perhaps they were afraid that if she wasn't a Captain then she would come across as weak or less than Picard or Kirk, the white male captains. They made her a Captain simply so she would come across as equel to them. (Never mind the black dude.) Perhaps they were right, maybe not. Then again, the Equinox is even smaller and that was also commanded by a Captain's rank. Maybe they just didn't realise/remember that you don't have to be a Captain's rank to command a ship, not even in ST.
@@MaxRawhide all of those other ones are side ships, not main character ships, and that’s part of the IRL production decisions. I do agree that if they were to be 100% internally consistent it should’ve been different. But production considerations so often overrule world-building in TV, and consequently Trek. By the time it came to the Equinox, we know Berman didn’t care, Piller et al had left, so it could have been forgetfulness. Or it could have been a dramatic/narrative decision so they can have them fighting over rank, and simply made a necessity by that earlier production decision.
Typically Commanders were assigned the role over over seeing Starbases or outposts, while if they serve on a starship it was under a Captain. It appears that Captain Sisko was unusual in starfleet. As normally once promoted he would of been given a ship command instead of a station command. He might have special circumstances like the fact defiant is stationed there and he is the Emissary making him hard if not impossible to replace as the ranking officer.
He had a very small staff at the beginning of the series, as the station wasn't considered a choice assignment and had limited operational duties. Essentially just to oversee getting Bajor back on its feet and ultimately into Federation membership. But that changed right off the bat with the wormhole discovery and relocation of DS9 to serve as an incoming ship repair facility and trading station for the Gamma quadrant. So right there he doubled his staff. Then the staff ballooned a lot more when the Defiant was stationed as it would require a full time ready crew to be based on the station itself, not to mention far more extra security personnel to aid against a new Dominion threat. Increasing staff would warrant a higher pay grade.
The rank structure closely mirrors modern blue-water navies. Depending on the size of the ship, the CO & XO can vary a fair bit, as can the ranks of department heads.
You missed one. Deputy director was a senior position in Starfleet's Department of Internal Affairs. Luther Sloan (of Section 31) claimed to hold this position while he posed as an agent of Internal Affairs in 2374. Sloan wore a Starfleet uniform with a modified captain's rank insignia during his subterfuge. (DS9: "Inquisition") The insignia consisted of the four pips of a captain centered over a single gold bar.
Amazing how they operated with so few " crewmen ". Seems to be a really top heavy operation. I have never seen any commissioned officer doing manual labor in my 21 years in Marines.
I suspect a long of "grunt work" is accomplished through automation. The closest we get to seeing a ratio that looks more like today's military is in Star Trek VI.
@@mpsmith47304 I feel like with space travel, it would be a lot more important that you could trust your crew as well, and the stricter criteria for any rank would likely try to ensure that. As the shows have explored, even one small error can cause a live threatening disaster, and while that's true with many current operations, I'd imagine the risks are much higher in space.
The informality you described is quite similar to the US military. Within reason, a person can achieve a billet even if their rank and experience doesn't support it, the goal being that the person rises to the challenge and gets promoted. You can also see many Captains working within the same command even though you'll only have one CO. Rank structures don't really have complexity on paper, but the means by which a person is promoted can vary, the fastest being by attending leadership schools and volunteering for special duties. Star Fleet operates in very much the same way I've seen the military operate.
Ranks on actual naval vessels : I'm going to use more internation ranks vs. the ones used in the US. Each rank in most navies have 3 levels of Lieutenant and 3 levels of Captain. So a Frigate Captain is closer to an O-5 vs a Corvette Captain being closer to O-4 Commander. Similarly, since the LT is the XO of each ship, a Frigate LT is closer to an O-3 LT vs the Corvette LT being an O-2 This also goes with section heads. Usually each section has only one officer commanding each section plus their CPO as enlistend liason to the rest of the department. A Corvette will have the equivalent of Ensigns while a Frigate and above will have an LT JG leading it. So if we used proper ranks to the crew of the Enterprise, you would have O-6 Captain plus O-5 First Officer O-4 LTCMDR in key positions such as the section heads that form the bridge crew. These would be different than depicted. Worf wouldn't be the chief of security since he is the weapons officer and chief tactician. Engineering would definitely have an O-4 as its head 3-4 LTs leading certain sections within Engineering. O-3 LT leading most sections outside of engineering, Some O-2s might lead some sections as well. But O-1s, in the Flag ship? Unlikely. Navigation, the helm, most nurses, and pretty much everyone else would be enlisted. In Sickbay you would have the Chief Medical Officer handling the leadership duties plus admin, probably a few O-4 or O-3 as physician's assitants, head nurses, and other medical roles in each of the three sickbays (since they have over 1000 on board, which means pediatricians, psychiatrists, etc). No ship's counselor and if there was one, it would likely be a whole civilian team.
There's nothing all that strange about multiple people of the same rank serving under someone of the same rank. Positional hierarchy always trumps actual rank in matters related to said position. This is why a Lt. Cmdr. CMO aboard a ship can order its captain to stand down and report to the medical facilities for treatment if they judge it necessary. In the same way, even a fleet admiral's authority is not absolute. The ship's designated Captain always holds supreme authority over it in matters of life and death, even if there's a Fleet Admiral aboard.
Yup. The Fleet Admiral directs the action. The Captain is responsible for performing that action and making sure their ship and crew make it through that action as safely as possible.
@@BlueSatoshi modification table of organisation and equipment. It’s a military thing, the short version is they’re assigned there on the org chart, even though the regulations may specify a Commander or Lt. should have that post. For example, a Squadron Commander is expected to be a Colonel, but because of manpower reasons a LtCol is assigned to it.
@@Marin3r101 Agreed. I've never seen two captains serving on the same vessel in the ST universe. The rank allocation on the ships is far different fron real life military org charts.
You did very well. I served 6 years in the Navy, as an enlisted sailor, but am very familiar to the officer side of the ranking system as I had to interact with many. A couple small notes, much like how Lieutenants, it is the same with Read Admirals, which are broken down into Lower and Upper halves, and in this case, the lower is replaced by the Commodore, which is not too inaccurate. However, the rank of Commodore is usually more akin to an appointment, like a department head. For example, I was on a destroyer, so our Commodore was actually a Captain, since destroyers are commanded by Commanders, but Commodores are usually Read Admiral Lower Halfs. It is also no uncommon for multiple officers of command level to be stationed on the same ship. Back to my destroyer for example, we had a Commander for both CO and XO. And I have heard that on larger ships it is not uncommon for there to be a full on Captain for CO, XO and even department heads. You mentioned how some officers train protégés, this is less common these days, but not impossible. There is the position of Adjutant, which is basically the right hand man, or woman, of an officer. All in all, masterfully done. I would love to see a video on Enlisted Ranks in Star Fleet, and maybe if they anything equivalent to Warrant Officers. In the real military they are higher ranked than every enlisted person, yet lower than the newest Ensign.
I was on a Carrier in the 80s. We had 5 Captain's onboard: CO, XO, Chief Engineer, Medical Officer, and Airwing Commander. Plus the rear admiral of the task force when Deployed. That's a lota Brass.
There are provisional ranks too with their own insignia. There is also the Fleet Captain rank with 5 pips that is below Commodore and above Captain. There are also other departments within Starfleet with their own rank structures. Such as Deputy Director Sloan from Internal Affairs who had 4 pips with a bar underneath the pips (though he was really from Section 31).
From what I have been told, the higher ranks in STO are more of an "honorary" rank, that allows you to take charge in situations that require it. Otherwise you're still basically just a Captain.
@@gaboversta2.423 a friend of mine who has been in contact with the devs says that as a Federation character in STO, you're basically Fleet Admiral Quinn's favourite protege, and as such end up with special command privileges.
5:23 Spock was promoted to Captain between The Original Series and The Motion Picture and made to be the Captain of the Enterprise in the original Motion Picture movie, later at the end of Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, then Admiral Kirk was demoted for "insubordination" to the rank of Captain and Spock I guess requested to remain as first officer by special request. Scotty was always a Commander in the movies and did not become a "Captain" till long after the last movie sometime between the end of Undiscovered Country and the events that lead to his transporter loop where he was reintroduced in the TNG episode Relics.
"director" is "commodore" for land/shore operations or operations that span all aspects, "commodore" being a Warrant Captain. The starfleet system is simplified for writing and story purposes with the finer deliniations only being brought out for story purposes.
Two weird things I noticed as a keen viewer of all the different Star Trek series: 1) In TOS Janice Rand 1:08 held the rank of "Yeoman", which is not mentioned in this video or in any later versions of Star Trek. 2) Miles O'Brien 0:28 was the head of the transporter section in TNG, with the rank of lieutenant, but when he transferred to DS9 he was given a non-com rank of "Chief of Operations". The reason for this apparent severe demotion was never explained. Any thoughts?
I don't think "Yeoman" is a rank, just a job position, like the quartermaster. As for O'Brien, he's always been "Chief"...but his uniform rank was never actually changed to reflect this at least until Season 6 of TNG (which DS9 begins in the middle of), where it was shown that even then-Lieutenant Junior Grade Barclay outranks him.
In naval history, there was the rank of Post Captain... to distinguish between a Captain who had a temporary command of a ship and one who was permanently posted to a ship. And Commodore was used to describe a Captain who was, for whatever reason, on another Captain's ship... as there can be only one Captain. I always assumed this is why Decker was referred to as Commodore in "The Doomsday Machine".
A Commodore in the day of sail in the Royal Navy was usually a Captain assigned to command a small group of ships that didn't warrant the higher pay that Admirals got. As such, it was a (usually temporary) rank rather than position, although since 1993 it's been a permanent rank in the Royal Navy. Re. Matt Decker, he did have the sleeve lace of a Starfleet commodore, so we can surmise that he did actually have that as a rank.
@@jonathanwebster7091 Interesting. I don't doubt that that is true... naval traditions and procedures of that time seem wildly intricate and complex to me, and varying a lot from navy to navy.
From TOS and the old Franz Josef Starfleet Technical Manual, the TOS system seemed to have ensigns as crewmen, specialists, and technicians, although graduates of Starfleet Academy, like Ens. Chekov. Then Lieut. Jr. Grade and Lieutenants and up were senior officers, with Fleet Captain or Commodore above Captain. Whether "Specialist 3rd Class," "Crewman 1st Class," "Technician 2nd Class," and so on were rans or a combination of their post / position (such as Transporter Technician, Science Specialist, Ordnance Specialist, and so on, were non-coms or enlisted or officers (actually ensigns) doesn't seem clear in TOS, given what the old tech manual says. I recall something from either the Making of Star Trek or the World of Star Trek (1970's books on TOS) to the effect that Gene R. wanted a very loose, more paramilitary rank structure, that he thought everyone would've graduated the Academy as a very educated, competent, specialized astronaut / space officer, and rank would mean less to people then. Thus the ensigns as the most junior officers, no rank stripe, and so on. However, by TNG and later, we get Miles O'Brien, first as a Jr. Lieutenant or Ensign, then later he becomes a Chief Petty Officer in a retcon, by either Season 2 or 3, when he's a transporter chief, after his brief stints as a relief navigator. Then he stays a CPO for the remainder of his time on TNG and all through DS9. Poor guy couldn't catch a break; he should've been a lieutenant and gotten a promotion by then. (Likewise for Harry Kim.) But, well, Star Trek isn't always perfect or super consistent or real-world sensible, although it usually is more than most TV/movie series science fiction..
I just realized you've been saying "lieutenant" throughout the video, despite the Britishness. I thought you guys pronounced it "leftenant" over there, don't you?
I noticed this too, I think the American pronunciation was deliberately chosen to minimise confusion since it's the pronunciation used in the show. People who aren't familiar with military ranks might have been mistaken that they are two different ranks rather than different ways of pronouncing lieutenant.
Good video. It's shame you never included the non-commissioned ranks in this video as well, as it would only have required a couple more minutes. I have developed a fascination for Starfleet non-com ranks in recent times, as they are not often seen outside a handful of characters, or they were given to disposable/background characters. The TOS movies had enlisted rank insignia; with totally separate uniforms for enlisted crew from TWoK-TUC. It bugs me that no insignia at all was used for the E-1 to E-6 grades in the TNG era, except the generic hollow stripe rank lozenge used for the former Maquis on USS Voyager, which theoretically covered all nine enlisted grades. They finally gave Miles O'Brien the more identifiable chevrons and dots insignia in DS9 S4 (switching from his single hollow pip), but they never created insignia for the other enlisted ranks, nor did they wear any, as seen in episodes like DS9's 'Empok Nor'. As for the ranks: E-1 to E-3: Crewman 3/2/1 Class - Seen on USS Voyager, both with Starfleet and former Maquis. Also Simon Tarses from TNG. E-4 to E-6: Petty Officer 3/2/1 Class - Rarely seen in the TNG era. One of the victims in DS9 'Field of Fire' was this rank. E-7: Chief Petty Officer - Miles O'Brien's rank in TNG (Though he wore officer pips until S6). E-8: Senior Chief Petty Officer - O'Brien's rank in DS9. E-9: Master Chief Petty Officer Though Gene wanted the Enterprise crew to be comprised of officers only, the enlisted ranks slipped in anyway.
What I have an issue with, is that, there are too many commissioned officers, in Starfleet. Commissioned officers are supposed to be in charge of a certain department. They give orders to noncommissioned officers. Noncommissioned officers supervise the crew men, who do the hands-on work. Jobs like Helmsman, communications, etc. should be done by crew men, not officers.
Rather than climbing the ranks, I'll just wait for something like the Dominion War or Time of Month NERO to show up, that way you get promoted a lot just for not being dead.
I once heard this from a friend in the navy... It didn't matter if you were an officer or an enlisted guy... The Chief Petty Officer, or Senior Chief Petty Officer, depending on who was onboard at the time of shove off, was literally the equal to a Commander on a ship, but was career enlisted rather than a collegiate officer. Many were classed as Noncommissioned Officers. Even if you were a lieutenant, if the Chief gave an order, you still followed for good reason. He had more experience in the field than you did, and he by chain of command, still outranked you. Same goes for Sergeant Majors and Master Sergeants. It was also wise to never piss off a top enlisted guy even if you were an officer, because many had direct lines to the top brass and were deeply respected by such, and they could make your life a living hell. In essence, Miles O'Brian was literally under Captain Sisko directly in Chain of Command.
One thing I will point out that may not have been mentioned much after the events of part 2 of The Best of Both Worlds, but although he goes back to being functioning as first officer on the Enterprise, Will Riker never loses his fourth full rank pip which means that by all appearances even though he is only the EX-O while the card is back as the skipper, to use Naval parlance, Will Riker certainly by all appearances still has the rank of Captain even after Picard is rescued
@@RaWeir2On a Galaxy Class ship with 3 sickbays and no EMH, her duties may mostly have been administrative, but would have been the only person to treat the Captain. She likely was chief surgeon and coroner, though there were other doctors on board and she would not need to be present for every surgery. A lot of duties may have been delegated as officers were promoted, so she would be able to juggle her duties as needed in order to fill in a bridge officer shift.
Lower ranking members having authority beyond their ranks is something that happens in the military all the time. It's called "Positional Authority". A servicemember with positional authority holds powers granted based on position or duty. Command, investigating officers, and members of a courts marshal are examples of positional authorities; specific powers vested in you are for a prescribed period of time.
Yeah, linking rank to level was probably not a great idea in hindsight. Although there is one nice touch. Once you're an Admiral in levels, you get the 'Admiralty' system. Ships are given to you (generally ones you've had yourself) to assign to do stuff. Like an admiral would. So you can, say, send your old starships out to investigate anomalies and so forth. The weird part is that you have full access to UFP, KDF, Romulan, and Ferengi assignments ...
yeah it is kinda insane, but ive kinda given up on it, despite the inaccuracy of having thousands of fleet admirals...ya know cause that makes sense, the servers the game runs on is subpar at best, and i can't recall a time when something wasent bugged in the game, maybe the console versions are better, but on PC anymore it is a total waste of time. and many of the newest missions they spit out at you are nothing but massive time gates, you kill a group of 5 ships then drifts around for 2 mins waiting for the next group to kill, it has become a snooze fest
Rick, Star Fleet rank and position assignments (to include having multiple captains on the same vessel) is fairly accurate to most of the US military of today. This is especially true the higher you get into the various echelons of authority. For example, a “3-star command” (Vice Admiral or Lieutenant General) will likely have a dozen or more captains/colonels all serving as department heads in the same HQ building. Further, the rank of commander does not denote that command is held. Commanders can be staff officers, and lieutenants can command.
Because it's supposed to be "your" story, focused on your character...you're not supposed to notice thousands of other FA's flying around in all those other ships.
Excellent job! Look forward to one on the non-commissioned officers. Perhaps touch on foreign military ranks too... Romulan, Klingon, Breen, Vulcan, Ferengi??
One thing, I'm guessing there's 1000s of Star Fleet academies in the Federation right. Cause San Francisco can't be the only one to service the whole earth+ other planets
I would guess they operated mike the US does, you can go to the service academy or you can go to another university's Reserve Officer Training Course (ROTC) program, Officer Candidate School (OCS), or the very rare direct commission option.
@@nemo99nemo83 plus the Trill Science, uh, Institute? Academy? The one Jadzia Dax got all her degrees in. She has some dialogue about some time in the academy but it might just be one year.
Probably a bunch of different tiers involved. I'm sure there's a huge amount of officers required for ground based assignments. They'd never really see any kind of work in space other than being transported around. That's probably not as prestigious as being assigned to an exploratory starship.
Unless you are in a the nuke course those are the ensigns that even chiefs say yah he outranks me reason there are three subsections in the nukelear reactor department officer's have to know all three like its there specialty enlisted dont
8:35 No this is a military ranking it's a near carbon copy of the US Navy. The only difference in the US the Commodore is called a Rear Admiral, lower half and the next step up is a Rear Admiral, upper half.
@@richardm3023 Arguments and statement has its time and place. People tend keep things relevant to the topics at hand to keep the discussion focused on one thing at a time. Yes, Discovery has the worse ranking insignia in Star Trek because its design was too small for other member of Star fleet to see especially those who need glasses, yes, apparently many of starfleet officers prefer to keep their eyes and uses glasses over artificial or bionic or any robotic eye implants but more importantly it is also hard for the audience to see and recognize which is which because we still had to count the dots even if can see it. In a show with ranks and hundreds of supporting cast with minimum screen time, people have to be able see their ranks since they will not remember their names, their face, and their role beyond the main and major supporting characters who appears almost in every episode (But even then people can still forget about their ranks). One of the main reason was in our world, army ranks insignia is big and placed where it is easy to see. On top of that they also had names on their chest along with their rank so soldiers can see who is their superior officer or who is reporting to them right when they meet each other.
@@aldyhabibie9717 wow! You really do have a lot to say. And yet you are just making noise. I don't even bother reading long winded preaching posts like that. You have wasted your time.
I always assumed Starfleet made an exception with the crew of the Enterprise-A, due to the reverence Kirk and co. had. Either that, or it saw the ship as an early retirement home.
Early retirement home more likely. Since the Enterprise was no longer the flagship of the fleet anymore. Kirk got to stay in command mostly because he would have made a terrible desk jocky and because the plot demanded it.
And in the case of the Enterprise, Spock became a Captain when Kirk became an Admiral. When Kirk was give command of the Enterprise 1NCC-1701-A, Spock still retained his rank of Captain as his EX. Scotty became a Captain after taking charges of the Excellor Transwarp Project as a "Captain of Engineering" which would be a "shore" position with Starship Construction. He like Spock retained his rank when he became the Chief Engineer of the ship again.
Rodenberry has said Star Fleet wasn't military but has also said it was like the Coast Guard. I would point out that civilians by law cannot "COURT MARSHAL" anyone...the literal term Court Martial comes from Military Courts.
@@Mortlupo Kirk also tells the Organians he's "a soldier, not a diplomat" and when asked if the Enterprise is part of the Navy says "we're a combined service." in Tomorrow Is Yesterday.
Very true. Harry Kim was ensign, but referred to himself as a senior bridge officer on multiple occasions. Ensigns aren’t senior anything, they are lowest officer and their job is to learn to be an officer. Your not considered a senior officer until O4 at the minimum. That always drived me crazy.
@@curmudgeonextraordinaire1884 It's Voyager. The show that either hands out field promotions like crazy or forgets that those are a thing. Heck, they completely forgot they had a science officer.
It's very close to US Navy ranks. Same rank names, with a few missing, based on you video, like lieutenant Jr grade as the rank between ensine and lieutenant. Also, there is some rigidity in USN structure, but officers in medical ranks, for instance, can achieve command within the medical structure. A captain can be the lead doctor in a department such as ER, and a doctor can reach Admiral to command a medical hospital or facility.
@Glen Young I agree with ya mostly but i do think Harry gets more respect than you're letting on. He's always shown as an integral part of any problem solving the crew has to do, until 7 of 9 was introduced that is.
@Glen Young Yeah i can definitely agree with all that. Personally i think the biggest sin was making him so bad romantically lol. They gave him the Geordie La Forge problem and i always wished they let my man Harry get a little something. I think from a writer's standpoint, Tom was a good pilot and they thought it was just cool to have a cool pilot doing a bunch of cool stuff, and unfortunately Harry got the short end of the stick. Wish it had been different, you know, i got many gripes with Voyager but damn do i love it.
Also, watching the end of the video, why did Commander Sisko end up leading the fleet against the Dominion? Was that just because DS9 was the nearest base? Or just a Plot Promotion because no Admirals were around?
"Ensigns were on the job training for three years"
*Harry Kim intensifies*
It made sense for Janeway not to promote him: there was nowhere to promote him to. Kim should have been promoted very quickly after they got back to Earth, though.
@@valhar2000 Not really. We see that by Picard’s time, Helm was a Lt JG’s billet. He’s far too junior to have that job, so a brevet promotion (which we *did* see Janeway do, btw) or reassignment was in order.
@@valhar2000 What do you mean nowhere? Just give him a higher rank same post lol.
@@purefoldnz3070 And then what? Janeway promotes all her officers to Commander, and promotes herself to Admiral?
@@valhar2000 why does she need to promote all her officers when one gets a promotion? lol
“Commanders were expected to go on to be Captains”
Looking at you, Will Riker.
Will never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
Well he did eventually become a Captain after TNG.
@@jeffumbach yeah, the Titan.
@Vedran Noneofyourbusiness Small hands.
He did end up being a captain. A good captain. A titan of captains one could say.
Job of Ensigns in security: Die to show situation is serious.
LTs were fair game as well in that regard. xD
That must be why they changed the colors around - they're canaries!
“CAPTAIN...LOOK
OUAAAIIIIEEEEEE”
*Harry Kim has entered the chat*
@@tvdinner1986 Lol. He probably died twice on the shuttlecraft ride over.
Starfleet command structure is kind of a weird hybrid between military hierarchy and corporate management ladder.
Add to that the shenanigans of a university/scientific foundation board, and you get: Starfleet. Part science collab, part military, part political power player.
Seems like they used military ranks as the foundation of structure, corporates as the driver of structure and science as the tools of structure. Philosophy morality etc seems to come from post apocalyptic (They did nuke themselves) plus it seems to be part of the human identity in general. I think I get what their trying to make.
@@harrisonfnord5871 ...and part of mad 😁
Sorry, while reading your comment, I've suddenly rememberd Terry Prattchet's description of the fiercy creature that ist the Quetzovercoatl: half man, half chicken, half jaguar, half serpent, half scorpion and half mad.
@@Andreas_42 holy cow! That's six halves combined. Quetzalcoatl is the trinity confirmed!
It's a loosey-goosey adaptation, or rather a riff on American Naval Officer heirarchy; at least as far as commissioned officers are concerned. NCO and Warrant ranks are a different (and frankly butchered) beast altogether; amalgamating chain structures intersectionary to several American military branches.
There is a precedent for multiple officers with the rank of Captain in navies. An aircraft carrier will be commanded by a Captain, the executive officer is often a Captain, the commander of the embarked air wing will be a Captain, the chief engineer may be a Captain, and if serving as a flagship there’s likely to be a Captain or two on the Admiral’s staff.
Those are captains in different divisions, mind, and ultimately subordinate to the ship's commander. The movie-era ship of captains was incredibly silly.
Do any aircraft carriers set to sea anymore without at least one Vice Admiral aboard in charge of the Task Force?
Regarding the commander of the air wing, aren't those air force ranks?
If so, an air force captain is not the same rank as a naval captain. A naval captain = air force colonel, while a air force captain = naval lieutenant
@@MaxRawhide no. the Navy pilots and the US Marine pilots who make up the air wing of a carrier use the same insignia but each branches naming structure. A Marine Captain is the same as a Naval Lieutenant. Insignia is the Double bar.
@@talideon Actually the Captains on the Admiral's staff are not part of the Carrier's crew and not subordinate to the ship's commander, in fact the ship's commander answers to the Admiral aboard. The Air Wing has a somewhat strange relationship to the carrier's captain as they both answer to him and are separate commands.
I really hope you do a video about enlisted personnel because other than Miles O'Brien I know virtually nothing about them.
Agreed!
I only remember Worf's father being referenced as a CPO. Not sure they had much lore exposure at all.
Lore is super sparse when it comes to enlisted ranks. The ranks are probably Crewman, Petty Officer, Chief Petty Officer, Senior Chief Petty Offier, Master Chief Petty Officer.
All that was said was that their academy was 6 months long. Beside that I don't think there were that many discussions. I wouldn't doubt that, like astronauts coming out of the Air Force, the majority of ship crews were required to be made up almost entirely of officers.
While part of the 32nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, the ships we were transported in had tiny amounts of officers. Pretty much you had the Captain, the XO, the head of each department, and that's it. The rest of the positions were from the enlisted ranks. Yeoman, navigation, radar operators, nurses, gun operators, all of them enlisted
As a US Navy vet I find Star Trek's ranks rather top heavy and vague. My ship had 300ish crew and 24 or so officers, and if any of the officers tried to touch machinery more complicated than a coffee maker the nearest Chief Petty Officer would chew their ass all the way out the door. In a respectful manner of course...
@@CheezyDee in large corporations the unions forced sharp separations of duties so that being hands-on for non union people gets you in trouble. Perhaps non union places allowed people to work together and help out when it seemed right.
I had a mental image where soldiers in the field recognized Death does not care about your rank. So soldiers needed to work together.
You could write a book on the title Commodore alone. In the Age of Sail, Commodore was a temporary title granted to the most senior Captain of an ad-hoc flotilla. Sometime in the mid to late 1800s, the British Royal Navy made Commodore the naval equivalent of the One Star Brigadier General.
The US Navy has had a complicated relationship with British naval traditions. They used the term Commodore, with the same British definition during WWII, Then dropped the rank entirely; brought it in the early 80s, changed it from Commodore to Commodore-Admiral, and now Rear Admiral(lower half) ...
During WWII there was also two ranks of Commodore in the Royal Navy with Commodore Second class using the thick Distinction Lace on shoulder strap and a Commodore First Class with an Admiral's shoulder strap showing an anchor and two small stars and no crossed sword and baton
In Bagdad, during OIF, there was a US Navy outfit commanded by a Captain (equivalent to a US Army "full-bird" Colonel) and when he was addressed directly or referred to informally, his title was Commodore. It was explained to me that this was because he didn't command a ship at sea... In true Army tradition, I saluted, called him "Sir!" and kept moving.
@@jacobbaughman748 The USN still uses the title of Commodore but it's no longer a rank, it's a billet. Commodore is the title of an O6 Captain that's in charge of a group ships, typically a squadron but can be just a task force of 2 or more ships.
@@Riceball01 okay, I can see that. The unit this guy commanded was called a Composite Squadron, but I couldn't tell you how many people were in it. Typically, in the Army, an O-6 commands between 3-5 thousand soldiers. Or, as many as 8 thousand.
@@jacobbaughman748 In the Navy, O-6 Captains are typically given command of larger ships, definitely aircraft carriers, possibly amphibious assault ships, cruisers, and I think SSBNs. Of course, they can be in command of a squadron of ships which would equal to several hundred men and women. But I think that overall, a Navy Captain is in command of fewer people, on average, than an Army or Marine Colonel who are usually regimental commanders at that rank.
Please do a follow-up video for the crewmen ranks. It's is sorely needed.
Honestly, almost everything described here matches the real-world Navy nearly 100%.
The ranks are nearly directly lifted, the disposition of duties is almost identical, the progression from operations to administration and political involvement is spot-on.
Yeah, Starfleet isn't a military organization in cannon, but its framing is about 95% identical to the real world military progression.
Source: career Air Force, brother career Navy. The annual football game is hilarious.
While the ranks are near identical I wouldn't say the progressions and duties were.I'm a 11 year veteran of the US Navy. As an example Operations Officers are a bigger deal in the real world than portrayed in Star Trek. There's no way a boot ensign fresh out the academy would report to a ship to be the Operations Officer.
@@roach7000 it honestly depends on the ship and how many officers you have, I'm a submariner and we had an ensign commo for a while
Gene Roddenberry was part of us army Air corps. Star Trek Ranks were designed to imitate military.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_life_and_career_of_Gene_Roddenberry
@@joekerr3638 true but just because he had dirt and air military experience doesn’t mean he fully appreciated how military hierarchy (specifically naval military hierarchy) works
@@MrSheckstr HE took his inspiration from the US Navy and used his imagination.
A lot of people don’t know is that when the Original Series came out in the ‘60s, all astronauts in the US were officers either in the Air Force, Navy, or Marines as they were pilots or aviators. Thus, most of the members on the original Enterprise crew were also officers; the naval ranks were used because it was a star fleet, although Starfleet didn’t show up as an organization until the second season.
Having multiple persons with the rank of Captain serving on the same ship has precedent in real world navies. On US Navy aircraft carriers for example, there are usually several officers with the rank of captain, the Commanding Officer of the ship is always one, the Executive Officer, the Reactor Officer and the Chief Engineer often are, and there may be others aboard as well, not to mention Captains in the Air Wing and on the embarked Admiral's staff. Also, in general, the Starfleet rank structure and chain of command actually is fairly close to that of the real world US Navy. The ranks of Commander & Captain in the US Navy haven't been directly tied to holding a command for well over a century.
When I was on the Kitty Hawk, the Air Boss, CMO, and Chaplain were Captains.
Is there any way of visually differentiating CO and XO in this scenario?
@@MandoMTL in the US Navy? Yes there is. In Starfleet? Not that I have seen.
Carrier's are headed by admirals
@@jasonskeans3327 Carrier groups are headed by an admiral, not the carrier.
“Ensigns were on the job training for three years”
Well... that explains the death rate for Security ensigns under Kirk.
Or, 7 years for Harry Kim.
@@kengaroo67 technically the original Harry Kim died when voyager entered that nebula that “twinned” The ship and was he was sucked out into space, body unrecovered anf Thr copy allowed to assume the originals life.
Same thing with Naomi Wildman.
@@BrokenEyes00 I need to rewatch Voyager.
@@kengaroo67 Harry Kim has a copy of him assume his life in one form or another on 3 separate occasions in voyager if I recall.
Edit: 5 times if you count time travel (episodes specific to him), each one ends up with a dead Harry Kim too.
Also if you count all his near deaths your pushing it into the teens. Come to think of it he is something of a Kenny.
Heck in one episode they straight up kill him.
Poor Harry... I don’t think I’ve pitied a fictional character more. Never appreciated, had a criminal promoted over him, demoted and promoted again. What ever nasty messed up thing that happed happened to him. Well at least he makes captain eventually... I think? No all of those were alternate timelines or dreams or something... Never mind. 🥺
Ahh, Space Navy. As a Boatswain Mate myself, I was particularly fond of Enterprise, since they made that ship look as much like a submarine in space as they could.
Gotta say, much respect for the research time and diagram drawing you put in!
I've often felt Commodore was a perfectly fine, under-used rank in the TNG/DS9 era Trek. Commanding a fleet or task force, but not quite an Admiral. In the novelizations, Sisko talks about being in something of a Commodore position during the war under Admiral Ross, even though his official rank was still Captain. Picard would likewise have been a Commodore during the blockade of Romulan boarder during the Klingon civil war. Technically, Picard should really have been an Admiral, or at least a Commodore for the entire run of the series, since he was in command of the "flag ship", which are typically commanded by flag officers, and he would have been called upon to command full fleets or battle groups when needed.
You might be interested to know that in the USN, a Captain given command of a squadron of ships is often informally referred to as the Commodore, though there is no such official rank in the USN anymore (it being called Rear Admiral (Lower Half).
Except that when they refer to the enterprise as being the “flag ship” they use it the term in a more of a ceremonial manner than as a practical one. It’s just been a tradition that every lead class of ship since the constitution class (one that class has been successfully established) it gets a ship named (or renamed ) Enterprise AFTER the previous incarnation has left service in one way or another.
Would command of a star base, or space station be assigned to a Commodore possibly?
@@michaelbedinger4121 It could, and has. Starbase 11, in The Menagerie was commanded by Commodore José. Mendez
@@Peregrine57 I forgot about that.
Thank you very much for the reminder.
The refit constitution class enterprise was being used as a training vessel so having multiple captains from each division kirk(command) spock(science) and scotty(operations) to allow for in the field command level reviews without having to dock at appropriately staffed starbases
Not the case, Kirk was an Admiral and Spock was the captain of the Enterprise. When Kirk was busted to Captain, Spock still was a captain as his first officer. Scotty became an Captain when he went to the Excelsior and retained that rank when he came back.
@@Mortlupo I could totally see starfleet command deciding to keep Spock around him in case Kirk causes more trouble.
Duty of a Cardassian Glinn - cleaning out a room after 3 men suffered explosive decompression...
I think you just described chilli night on the Enterprise.
😂😂😂😂
@@goldenknight578 or, a bad night of gagh in a Klingon mess hall.
@@travisfoster1071 Knowing the Klingons, I'm sure it'd more likely be a *good* night than a bad one.
Builds character.
There are often times in the military where a person has to assume the duties of a rank above the one they actually hold. For example, a squad leader is usually a sergeant, but a corporal might often have to fill the role instead. Or a first lieutenant might have to assume command of a company if a captain isn't available
And in wars (like the US Civil War) where this became even more common due to causalities occurring faster than promotions and replacements.
"Corporal Hicks is next in chain of command."
Guessing that's a big in when promotion time comes 'round.
@@JonBerry555 ":Congratulations, you are now a Lieutenant. Now, get me some gorram air support!"
Yeah, I served as squad leader as a Lance Corporal and Platoon sergeant as a Corporal on several occasions. "Needs of the Corps" and all that
Love to see the NCO ranks. Never understood that in Star Trek.
Especially with voyager
"Crewman". That's all we ever really got in terms of ranking clarification.
Enterprise had them pretty much fleshed out. Which was fun.
It's based on a naval structure. Officers went to starlets officer training program. Crewmen are those who just enlist and are trained for the specific role they chose.
Crewman which I assume is the lowest non officer rank and Chief Petty officer are the only ones I know of but I assume that means there is at least one Petty officer rank.
I think so many captains aboard a vessel was originally a matter of being a training ship, and then unusual diplomatic duties used as an excuse to keep the popular mutineers contained after that.
It may also have to do with neither Scott nor Spock being interested in taking command of their own ship, but somehow couldn't escape a promotion to captain after serving in the fleet for so many years. Mr. Scott was too much of an engineer and Mr. Spock too much of a scientist to leave their positions.
@@Strash1892 If Starfleet is anything like the USN they have a limited amount of spots of admirals anyway.
I haven't watched ST: TNG for three decades now but I do recall an episode wherein Counselor Troi became the top officer of the enterprise after the three highest officials were out of the ship. The funny thing is that she didn't know how high her rank was until someone told her about it.
Come to think about it, Troi always sits beside Picard in the show.
I remember the episode where Dr. Crusher actually countermanded Captain Picard - which was her right as the CMO - and held command of the Enterprise until the problem was solved. I think the EMH did that to CPT Janeway once also. I don't think Dr. Bashir was confident enough in his position as CMO of DS9 to dare countermand CPT Sisko if the need arose.
They were all aboard the ship, but cut off from the bridge. It is up for debate as to who was more terrified in response to O'Brien mentioning her rank, Ro or Troi. It was season 5, episode 5. The episode title is Disaster, which describes both the situation that put Troi in command & having Troi in command.
"I wore a uniform ONE TIME... FOUR YEARS AGO & someone who isn't even normally on the bridge, but is RIGHT NOW just had to remember from the 1 other time he was on the bridge!!!"
In the United States Navy, which the officer rank structure is based, did, at one time, have the rank of Commodore, and was the entry into the flag ranks. The rank of Commodore was abandoned in favor of the rank of Rear Admiral Lower Half (one star), and Rear Admiral Upper Half (two stars). There has not been a Fleet Admiral appointed in the Navy since World War II. Even the current Chief of Naval Operations is only a full Admiral at four stars.
Exactly but he technically is a Rear Admiral Upper half, two stars. Anything above that is what is called a temporary rank or rank of position. What that means is if the current CNO retires which he will at the end of his current posting, and he does not petition congress to allow him to retire with admiral rank he will automatically retire at rear admiral upper half. Its complicated and all that but when a vice admiral is removed from position due to any number of things he will revert back to 2 star. Pretty much its the posting that holds the rank and the person in that posting is allowed to use that rank while they hold that position.
Same with the Royal Navy as regards Admirals of the Fleet (the equivalent of Fleet Admiral in the USN).
Since the end of the cold war, officers haven't been promoted to the rank, and only two officers still remain on the Navy List holding this rank (and one of them is the King).
The professional head of the RN-the First Sea Lord; is, like his US equivalent, 'only' an Admiral.
Starfleet seems to follow the practice of the assigned job providing authority and the rank being primarily for denoting experience level.
Which makes sense considering the culture of Star Fleet.
@@ptonpc Could you elaborate? An interesting comment :)
@@henriblakeley5185 Unfortunately I have 'Covid brain' at the moment so can't give precise examples. However In real Star Trek (TOS, TNG, DSN, VOY and to a certain extent Enterprise), you can be a high rank but your rank only works to show you are a specialist, it doesn't mean others of a lower rank have to obey you if they know more than you do about a situation. It's more a 'leadership by expertise' thing.
Of course, there are variations depending on the needs of the story
Note about Medical Doctors :
Unlike most officer posts that only take 4 years of education to get commissioned, MDs and DOs require a minimum of 8 years plus residency, so it is very common that they don't go through OCS and are promoted immediately to O-3 to have a pay comparable to civilian physicians.
Marine Corps band, is another one that works this way. No boot camp and everyone has the rank of E-6 staff sergeant to have a decent pay vs performing at a well known orchestra.
My father's friend was a doctor serving in the Navy Reserves. He said medical personnel had the authority to order higher ranked officers around but under extreme circumstances. The consequences of their actions will be weighed with extreme prejudice. 🤔
@@Star_Jewel_Realm that is very true. It is the CMO's job to determine if an officer is fit to perform their duties. That can mean releaving an officer of their post, including the Captain of the ship.
When mentioning entering the Admiralty to oversee Starfleet Medical at 10:15 that would have been a perfect place to show a picture of Admiral McCoy from the pilot episode of the Next Generation series.
Good thing Voyager kept everything making sense. Ensign Harry Kim giving duty orders to lieutenants. Janeway promoted from Captain to Vice Admiral skipping rear admiral and commodore.
Commodore was not used by her time, and everyone got a two rank promotion. Tuvok would be a captain if he wanted it, Harry would be a Lt.Commander etc.
There is no point in making Janeway a rear admiral, she has no need to be the head of a small project or starbase. She gets a desk
@@SantomPh Even when he’s promoted, Harry still isn’t a Lieutenant… He is a Lieutenant Commander, though
In Harry's case it was part of his position, not his rank.
To be fair, it's common in the US Navy (probably other navies as well) for someone who is lower rank but more knowledgeable about a given issue to tell someone who is higher rank how to go about finding a solution. As an example, I'm an IT3 in the Navy. If I know more about fixing a computer than an LT, then I can tell the LT how to fix the problem.
@@neopolitangaming1362 not sure if they still use warrant officers, but that basically what they do. still non-commissioned, but far more experienced than the ensign or lieutenant fresh from the academy.
IIRC, Spock was the official Captain of the Enterprise in WOK. Kirk was simply observing the training cruise. When an actual crisis developed, and one which personally involved Kirk, Spock consented to his superior officer assuming command. This would have been assumed to have been temporary. STV kinda messed that plan up I suppose.
Starfleet, as well as the ranking system, is based on the the US Navy. It's actually not unusual for their to be multiple Captains on ships. I served on the Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier with about 5000 sailors. The Commanding Officer was obviously a Captain, but so was the XO. There was a Captain at the head of medical, and a few other departments. As well as the head of the some of the many airwings we had on board. So the Enterprise having multiple Captains serving onboard is well within believability.
Did Ike still bite? '88 Med Cruise.
@@whirledpeaz5758 bite, like it sucked to be there? Yeah it did lol, but it had its good moments. I was there from 2012-15. Our douchebag CMC secured the E-4 and below smoke pit for 2 weeks mid deployment once. Those were dark times.... 😂😂
Certifiably Ingame content == lore videos I never knew I would consider essential
The difference between rank and title of captain allows for lower ranks to be assigned as “captain” of a smaller or less important ship or command.
A suggestion:
It might be interesting to look at the ranking systems for other Trek civilizations (for instance, Gul and Legate for the Cardassians, etc.).
There was a Fleet Captain rank mentioned in Star Trek The Original Series. Episode The Menagerie, Part 1. 1:40 into the episode. Kirk mentions that he met Christopher Pike “when he (Pike) was promoted to fleet captain”. The Star Trek Wikipedia contradicts this slightly and lists this as not a formal rank, just a change of duties for senior captains, but this might still be in alignment with Star Trek: First Contact when Picard takes command of the remaining fleet in the battle with the Borg. Presumably in the event a flag officer was killed or unavailable, the most senior Captain in a multiple ship engagement would take command and some rank type mechanism might be there to pre-designate those captains so the ship captains did not sit there wasting time arguing over seniority dates and who was technically in charge. Star Trek Voyager also hinted that something like this might be in the regulations, in an episode (Equinox) where Voyager runs into another starfleet vessel and it is discussed that regulations give command to “the Captain of the most tactically superior vessel”. The rank of commodore seems to have ended on Star Trek around the time that the US Navy renamed the rank of Commodore into Rear Admiral Lower Half (one star USN equivalent to a brigadier general), back in 1986.
I think the concept of Starfleet, not being a military organization was added post TNG. In the TOS episode Tomorrow Is Yesterday, Captain Christopher asks Kirk how many Enterprise type ships does the navy have. And Kirk responds, we are a combined service.
It is a mixture of everything from exploration, peace keeping, security, diplomacy, research and casual military power.
Would appreciate it if you did a vid on all the non-comissioned ranks and where in the hierarchy they fit; because in DS9 Ensign Nog clearly takes orders from Chief O'Brien on the Defiant which contrasts your statements that Cheif Petty Officers were subordinate... yes he was named as Head of Engineering, but he was not given Lt. Cmdr. Ranks like Geordi, B'Ellana, Scotty, Etc.
That is a matter of position as a department head overriding rank. Nog was astonished when he found out that he would be recognized as Captain if he and enlisted like O'Brien were the only ones left on the Bridge of the Defiant. Senior NCOs make sure that junior officers have the guidance when the manuals are not on point.
@@CaptainFrost32 Except that that would never happen...simply put Chief O'Brien would never be a department head, not as Enlisted anyway and only maybe as a Warrant Officer (There are five Warrant officer ranks in the US military, WO and CW2 - CW5) i.e. Chief Warrant Officer O'Brien. In the UK warrant officers are part of the enlisted ranks but in the US they are their own officer rank between the enlisted ranks and commissioned officer ranks.
Star Trek seems far more merit-based with assignments than modern militaries. So while it's true that Nog would have the authority to give O'Brien orders (O'Brien even makes that remark in the show), it's also true that Nog would be trained to not do that unless some bigger-picture situation demanded it. O'Brien was head of his department, and everyone in that department, including officers, were expected to follow his orders, because his authority came from officers higher up than the ones in that department.
However, if something happened and one of O'Brien's officers suddenly had command authority outside that department, then O'Brien would take orders from them.
In short, authority derived from whoever put someone in their position. Some admiral put O'Brien there, so ignoring O'Brien's orders is basically ignoring that admiral's intent.
@@Mortlupo and most of the ranks O’Brien is said to have would be medium warrant ranks, evidently Starfleet just called them all noncoms much like how you mentioned the British system regards it
@@PaulGuy Not how it works in any military or para-military. Your authority comes from both your rank and your position in the chain of command. Warrant officers, most likely what Chief O'Brian is instead of a Chief Petty Officer (E-7), neither of which would commissioned officers (Ensign and up) assigned to their "Department", they would be in fact assigned to the Ensign's department.
it matches the US navy pretty closely. role of the fleet is pretty similar as well.
EDIT: to put things into perspective there is positional authority, in which a duty requires certain authorities (such as Petty Officer of the Watch in which you may need to order an officer) and you gain those authorities while carrying out those duties. this makes the navy rather flexible in who to put where. during the Vietnam War the army was tasked with handling the rivers, but they were too rigid with how they did things, especially with rank. this meant that they failed pretty hard at doing that. the navy took over and did very well as they had enlisted handling things that officers typically did. experience at running the patrol boats was very eclectic as a little of everything was needed, and the traditional experience of running a ship didn't apply. that being said they needed the same authority that commanding officers needed, and so enlisted with more experience of doing things at a deck plate level did better than officers if they were given the authority of officers. when outside the role of the patrol boats they were just enlisted and thus couldn't mess up the overall operations of the fleet. they didn't need to know the full breadth of the systems such as logistics, as they just needed to know the part that dealt with the boats. this made them unable to transition over to the fleet well enough, but the greater need for knowing more than just one area meant that officers didn't transition to the boats very well either. take the scene in Band of Brothers in which the leader got promoted and was held back from running out and doing the job, this is opposite of what the boats need (as they don't have the manpower to have someone sitting on the side lines).
on top of that the 'defense is only part of the job' is pretty much the Navy throughout all of history. they were ones that explored the world, and handled diplomacy (or ferried diplomats if it was important enough). today they are critical to mapping the oceans and keeping water borne commerce going. they also have and still work with scientists in researching things that need to be done in international waters. they handle policing actions in international waters, though carefully as they are not a police force and have a lot of rules to worry about to ensure they don't overstep their jurisdiction. there isn't much that Starfleet does that the US Navy hasn't been responsible for in the past or is currently responsible for (not to say they are or were solely responsible).
First off. Rick: Great video. Really well done.
Second: Commodore was used during the TOS era to somewhat reflect real life (at the time) Naval commodore rank equivalent and then was transitioned to Rear Admiral (Lower Half) in TNG to reflect the US Naval transition to discard Commodore to a flag officer of the lowest rank.
Third: Kirk demoted himself (via orders of Admiral Nogura) to the rank of Captain, which in turn, demoted Decker to Commander (XO), and was reflected (as far as I remember) in their uniform displayed rank.
Fourth: I would absolutely love to see a video made to show what the enlisted ranks (which I was one of) to break down their rights and responsibilities.
As always Rick, you make fantastic videos that brighten my day up. Thank you very much, Sir.
Would love to see more about the Non-commissioned staff of starfleet. Always found them more interesting.
I'd like to see the equivalent of Warrant Officer, or 'Chief of the Boat'. Commander of an assault wing of fighters would be interesting, too
i think ranking in the kilngon empire would be interesting
Job security there was not.
Klingon ranking was basically equivalent to the Federation but replaced the Navy rank names with Army ones, with Generals at the top of the command structure.
Basically they are almost all technically Ensigns. They got automatically promoted after surviving their superior officers which happens every three weeks on average. Honor and Death in Battle - you know?
Four ranks on the Klingon ship: Captain, First Officer, Warrior and Corpse.
Always thought the Klingon ranks(more like positions) were something like this:
Chancellor
Vice-Chancellor
General
Group Commander [acting]
Commander
1st Adjutant(1st officer of the ship/2nd in command)
2nd Adjutant(weapons officer)
3rd Adjutant(engineering officer)
Master Warrior(acting section leaders)
Senior Warrior
Warrior
And now in the 25th century of STO, everyone and their brother in both Starfleet and the Romulan Republic is a Fleet Admiral now, and the Klingon Empire is stuffed to bursting with Dahar Masters. :P
I do get the need for levels in game but I don’t think your game level should be tied to your character’s rank in story. Most likely Hale would be a captain for good ten years or more before advancing.
Once again, great explanation , I love the para military ranks in Star Trek
Fleet captain is separate of commodore. It's explained in both TOS and voyager. Fleet captain is only used when the flag officer is killed or absent. The captain of the ship with the most tactical abilities becomes Fleet captain until a new flag officer arrives or they are promoted to commodore.
That would, of course, make it a brevet rank, and not an official one.
Yes and no because starfleet did use it as a means of like, your gonna be promoted into the admiralty but because you haven't finished serving your time as captain so we are going to put you here. So pike and Sisco( although you never see Sisco put the fifth pip on his collar).
Picard was a fleet captain several times leading groups of ships. In thinking about the Romulan trying to get the klingons into a civil war. And Technically Jainway was for like a second when the discoverd the Equinox.
@@magickquill6724 I actually think Picard was always a fleet captain. StarfIeet just never had much in the ways of fleet and flotilla movement during the 24th century. It was discussed in "Chain of Command" as his experience, and impressive ship, would have made him in charge of any assaults by Starfleet. It also sounded like Picard, Jellico and Gul Madred all made statements suggesting that Picard was aware of sector movements in case something happened and he needed to respond.
When was a Fleet Captain mentioned in VOY? I racked my brain for awhile trying to figure out what a Fleet Captain's responsibilities are compared to a commodore.
Nice informative video and you even avoided some common mistake. Still, a few nitpicks:
1) Fleet Captain. This was in the sailing days an official rank and Starfleet also on occasion had this rank. In the 2260's Christopher Pike held this rank when he had his accident. We didn't see his rank insignia, but based on the captain's rank it likely would've been three solid braids. Likewise, according to the ST Encyclopedie when designing the ranking insignia for TNG, they planned to use five pips for a Fleet Captain. (And there's the weird ranking bar from Sloan.)
2) Commodore. Again, according to the ST: Encyclopedia, an official, licensed source, in the TNG era the rank of Commodore was changed into a one-pip admiral
3) Blue uniforms (medical, sciences) do have ranks, but they're not part of the command structure -- at least, this is how it is in current day military (my father used to be a chaplain and a Lt.Cmmdr, but in operational situations he had to take commands from an ensign). They are treated with the respect of their rank, but in a day-to-day operations they do not have any authority. The same likely applies to ST, since Crusher is a full commander, but Lt.Cmmdr. Data as second in command outranks her: when Picard is presumed dead and Riker kidnapped, it's Data who's in command of the Enterprise (despite Crusher having a higher rank).
4)In real life, rank indicate how many people you have under your command. Star Trek screws this up, especially in Voyager, since the Chief Engineer on a Galaxy class starship (with 800-1000 Starfleet crew) has about the same number of people under his command as the captain of an Intrepid class ship (crew of 150). Thus technically speaking, the captain of an Interpid class starship should be a Lt.Cmmdr. DS9 did this right: Sisko commanded about the same crew as RIker, but when the Defiant was added and DS9 upgraded, he got a bigger crew and was made Captain.
WRT #4, I think they couldn’t get away from having The Captain, but note her original XO and Chakotay are Lt Cmdr not full Cmdr. I think that was meant to reflect the ship’s size. See also chief engineer at Lt JG instead of Lt Cmdr, and other such positions. But yes, they are too wedded to always having a captain.
@@kaitlyn__L Well, there were ship commanders in Trek who weren't captain's rank: in DS9 Sisko commanded the Defiant for almost an entire year as a commander, while in TNG when Picard was thought to be dead Riker was in command of the Enterprise still as a Commander, while at another occassion Riker and Data each took command of a ship and retained their normal rank. With TNG that could be due to circumstances, but not DS9.
I think VGR was already plagued by something that's currently an issue: fear that a female lead character isn't perceived as strong enough and over compensating to prevent this. Janeway was a woman and perhaps they were afraid that if she wasn't a Captain then she would come across as weak or less than Picard or Kirk, the white male captains. They made her a Captain simply so she would come across as equel to them. (Never mind the black dude.) Perhaps they were right, maybe not.
Then again, the Equinox is even smaller and that was also commanded by a Captain's rank. Maybe they just didn't realise/remember that you don't have to be a Captain's rank to command a ship, not even in ST.
@@MaxRawhide all of those other ones are side ships, not main character ships, and that’s part of the IRL production decisions. I do agree that if they were to be 100% internally consistent it should’ve been different. But production considerations so often overrule world-building in TV, and consequently Trek.
By the time it came to the Equinox, we know Berman didn’t care, Piller et al had left, so it could have been forgetfulness. Or it could have been a dramatic/narrative decision so they can have them fighting over rank, and simply made a necessity by that earlier production decision.
I was expecting the ending 'goodbye' to be replaced with a 'dismissed' or 'as you were' :)
Commodore , insane rank between Captain and Admiral.. Why Star Fleet dropped it.
I couldn't see any ensign with enough nerve to boss Chief O'Brien around. He may not have been commissioned but he was definitely a top honcho on DS9.
Typically Commanders were assigned the role over over seeing Starbases or outposts, while if they serve on a starship it was under a Captain. It appears that Captain Sisko was unusual in starfleet. As normally once promoted he would of been given a ship command instead of a station command. He might have special circumstances like the fact defiant is stationed there and he is the Emissary making him hard if not impossible to replace as the ranking officer.
True, and he wasn't promoted to Captain until he had the Defiant for an entire season.
He had a very small staff at the beginning of the series, as the station wasn't considered a choice assignment and had limited operational duties. Essentially just to oversee getting Bajor back on its feet and ultimately into Federation membership. But that changed right off the bat with the wormhole discovery and relocation of DS9 to serve as an incoming ship repair facility and trading station for the Gamma quadrant. So right there he doubled his staff. Then the staff ballooned a lot more when the Defiant was stationed as it would require a full time ready crew to be based on the station itself, not to mention far more extra security personnel to aid against a new Dominion threat. Increasing staff would warrant a higher pay grade.
Thanks for the breakdown of Starfleet ranks and responsibilities.
The rank structure closely mirrors modern blue-water navies. Depending on the size of the ship, the CO & XO can vary a fair bit, as can the ranks of department heads.
Hey, I really enjoyed this video. Any chance you'll do the enlisted ranks soon? I'd really like to see that.
You missed one.
Deputy director was a senior position in Starfleet's Department of Internal Affairs.
Luther Sloan (of Section 31) claimed to hold this position while he posed as an agent of Internal Affairs in 2374. Sloan wore a Starfleet uniform with a modified captain's rank insignia during his subterfuge. (DS9: "Inquisition")
The insignia consisted of the four pips of a captain centered over a single gold bar.
Sisko's dad was a chef AND a Fleet admiral. Impressive!
Amazing how they operated with so few " crewmen ". Seems to be a really top heavy operation. I have never seen any commissioned officer doing manual labor in my 21 years in Marines.
I suspect a long of "grunt work" is accomplished through automation. The closest we get to seeing a ratio that looks more like today's military is in Star Trek VI.
@@mpsmith47304 I feel like with space travel, it would be a lot more important that you could trust your crew as well, and the stricter criteria for any rank would likely try to ensure that. As the shows have explored, even one small error can cause a live threatening disaster, and while that's true with many current operations, I'd imagine the risks are much higher in space.
The informality you described is quite similar to the US military. Within reason, a person can achieve a billet even if their rank and experience doesn't support it, the goal being that the person rises to the challenge and gets promoted. You can also see many Captains working within the same command even though you'll only have one CO. Rank structures don't really have complexity on paper, but the means by which a person is promoted can vary, the fastest being by attending leadership schools and volunteering for special duties. Star Fleet operates in very much the same way I've seen the military operate.
Ranks on actual naval vessels :
I'm going to use more internation ranks vs. the ones used in the US.
Each rank in most navies have 3 levels of Lieutenant and 3 levels of Captain.
So a Frigate Captain is closer to an O-5 vs a Corvette Captain being closer to O-4 Commander.
Similarly, since the LT is the XO of each ship, a Frigate LT is closer to an O-3 LT vs the Corvette LT being an O-2
This also goes with section heads. Usually each section has only one officer commanding each section plus their CPO as enlistend liason to the rest of the department.
A Corvette will have the equivalent of Ensigns while a Frigate and above will have an LT JG leading it.
So if we used proper ranks to the crew of the Enterprise, you would have
O-6 Captain plus O-5 First Officer
O-4 LTCMDR in key positions such as the section heads that form the bridge crew. These would be different than depicted. Worf wouldn't be the chief of security since he is the weapons officer and chief tactician. Engineering would definitely have an O-4 as its head 3-4 LTs leading certain sections within Engineering.
O-3 LT leading most sections outside of engineering,
Some O-2s might lead some sections as well.
But O-1s, in the Flag ship? Unlikely.
Navigation, the helm, most nurses, and pretty much everyone else would be enlisted.
In Sickbay you would have the Chief Medical Officer handling the leadership duties plus admin, probably a few O-4 or O-3 as physician's assitants, head nurses, and other medical roles in each of the three sickbays (since they have over 1000 on board, which means pediatricians, psychiatrists, etc).
No ship's counselor and if there was one, it would likely be a whole civilian team.
Great video! Loved the way you laid out the graphics to compare eras. Looking forward to the next video on NCO ranks!
There's nothing all that strange about multiple people of the same rank serving under someone of the same rank. Positional hierarchy always trumps actual rank in matters related to said position. This is why a Lt. Cmdr. CMO aboard a ship can order its captain to stand down and report to the medical facilities for treatment if they judge it necessary. In the same way, even a fleet admiral's authority is not absolute. The ship's designated Captain always holds supreme authority over it in matters of life and death, even if there's a Fleet Admiral aboard.
Yup. The Fleet Admiral directs the action. The Captain is responsible for performing that action and making sure their ship and crew make it through that action as safely as possible.
Truly amazing work. I am impressed beyond words. Thank you so much for doing this commodore McLeod :-)
You can have more than one Captain on a vessels they're all MTOE'd to their position and are subservient to the captain of ship.
MTOE?
@@BlueSatoshi modification table of organisation and equipment.
It’s a military thing, the short version is they’re assigned there on the org chart, even though the regulations may specify a Commander or Lt. should have that post. For example, a Squadron Commander is expected to be a Colonel, but because of manpower reasons a LtCol is assigned to it.
@@CAP198462 I see. Thanks for the explanation.
I dont think this applies to ST universe.
@@Marin3r101 Agreed. I've never seen two captains serving on the same vessel in the ST universe. The rank allocation on the ships is far different fron real life military org charts.
You did very well. I served 6 years in the Navy, as an enlisted sailor, but am very familiar to the officer side of the ranking system as I had to interact with many. A couple small notes, much like how Lieutenants, it is the same with Read Admirals, which are broken down into Lower and Upper halves, and in this case, the lower is replaced by the Commodore, which is not too inaccurate. However, the rank of Commodore is usually more akin to an appointment, like a department head. For example, I was on a destroyer, so our Commodore was actually a Captain, since destroyers are commanded by Commanders, but Commodores are usually Read Admiral Lower Halfs.
It is also no uncommon for multiple officers of command level to be stationed on the same ship. Back to my destroyer for example, we had a Commander for both CO and XO. And I have heard that on larger ships it is not uncommon for there to be a full on Captain for CO, XO and even department heads.
You mentioned how some officers train protégés, this is less common these days, but not impossible. There is the position of Adjutant, which is basically the right hand man, or woman, of an officer.
All in all, masterfully done. I would love to see a video on Enlisted Ranks in Star Fleet, and maybe if they anything equivalent to Warrant Officers. In the real military they are higher ranked than every enlisted person, yet lower than the newest Ensign.
I was on a Carrier in the 80s. We had 5 Captain's onboard: CO, XO, Chief Engineer, Medical Officer, and Airwing Commander. Plus the rear admiral of the task force when Deployed. That's a lota Brass.
@@whirledpeaz5758 That sounds about right for 21st century too.
You forgot the "Bull Ensign", the most senior ensign for that command, not that it really means much.
@@CheezyDee You are quite right, but they are still just an Ensign who has no actual rank authority over other Ensigns.
At least the TOS Movies had distinct uniforms between Officers and Enlisted.
the TOS Movie era uniforms are the best i think. they looked good on any one
There are provisional ranks too with their own insignia. There is also the Fleet Captain rank with 5 pips that is below Commodore and above Captain. There are also other departments within Starfleet with their own rank structures. Such as Deputy Director Sloan from Internal Affairs who had 4 pips with a bar underneath the pips (though he was really from Section 31).
Fleet Captain is historically an appointment in the real life Royal Navy and US Navy-its the officer in command of an Admiral's flagship.
There’s very few fleet admirals
STO: ummmm well
Space... is big.
From what I have been told, the higher ranks in STO are more of an "honorary" rank, that allows you to take charge in situations that require it. Otherwise you're still basically just a Captain.
@@Panzercommander121 A perfect example of rank not playing a role in what you end up doing.
@@gaboversta2.423 a friend of mine who has been in contact with the devs says that as a Federation character in STO, you're basically Fleet Admiral Quinn's favourite protege, and as such end up with special command privileges.
STO isn’t canon.
5:23 Spock was promoted to Captain between The Original Series and The Motion Picture and made to be the Captain of the Enterprise in the original Motion Picture movie, later at the end of Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, then Admiral Kirk was demoted for "insubordination" to the rank of Captain and Spock I guess requested to remain as first officer by special request. Scotty was always a Commander in the movies and did not become a "Captain" till long after the last movie sometime between the end of Undiscovered Country and the events that lead to his transporter loop where he was reintroduced in the TNG episode Relics.
memory beta said spock wasn't promotd to captain until 2280
"director" is "commodore" for land/shore operations or operations that span all aspects, "commodore" being a Warrant Captain. The starfleet system is simplified for writing and story purposes with the finer deliniations only being brought out for story purposes.
Two weird things I noticed as a keen viewer of all the different Star Trek series:
1) In TOS Janice Rand 1:08 held the rank of "Yeoman", which is not mentioned in this video or in any later versions of Star Trek.
2) Miles O'Brien 0:28 was the head of the transporter section in TNG, with the rank of lieutenant, but when he transferred to DS9 he was given a non-com rank of "Chief of Operations". The reason for this apparent severe demotion was never explained. Any thoughts?
I don't think "Yeoman" is a rank, just a job position, like the quartermaster. As for O'Brien, he's always been "Chief"...but his uniform rank was never actually changed to reflect this at least until Season 6 of TNG (which DS9 begins in the middle of), where it was shown that even then-Lieutenant Junior Grade Barclay outranks him.
In naval history, there was the rank of Post Captain... to distinguish between a Captain who had a temporary command of a ship and one who was permanently posted to a ship. And Commodore was used to describe a Captain who was, for whatever reason, on another Captain's ship... as there can be only one Captain. I always assumed this is why Decker was referred to as Commodore in "The Doomsday Machine".
A Commodore in the day of sail in the Royal Navy was usually a Captain assigned to command a small group of ships that didn't warrant the higher pay that Admirals got. As such, it was a (usually temporary) rank rather than position, although since 1993 it's been a permanent rank in the Royal Navy.
Re. Matt Decker, he did have the sleeve lace of a Starfleet commodore, so we can surmise that he did actually have that as a rank.
@@jonathanwebster7091 Interesting. I don't doubt that that is true... naval traditions and procedures of that time seem wildly intricate and complex to me, and varying a lot from navy to navy.
From TOS and the old Franz Josef Starfleet Technical Manual, the TOS system seemed to have ensigns as crewmen, specialists, and technicians, although graduates of Starfleet Academy, like Ens. Chekov. Then Lieut. Jr. Grade and Lieutenants and up were senior officers, with Fleet Captain or Commodore above Captain. Whether "Specialist 3rd Class," "Crewman 1st Class," "Technician 2nd Class," and so on were rans or a combination of their post / position (such as Transporter Technician, Science Specialist, Ordnance Specialist, and so on, were non-coms or enlisted or officers (actually ensigns) doesn't seem clear in TOS, given what the old tech manual says. I recall something from either the Making of Star Trek or the World of Star Trek (1970's books on TOS) to the effect that Gene R. wanted a very loose, more paramilitary rank structure, that he thought everyone would've graduated the Academy as a very educated, competent, specialized astronaut / space officer, and rank would mean less to people then. Thus the ensigns as the most junior officers, no rank stripe, and so on. However, by TNG and later, we get Miles O'Brien, first as a Jr. Lieutenant or Ensign, then later he becomes a Chief Petty Officer in a retcon, by either Season 2 or 3, when he's a transporter chief, after his brief stints as a relief navigator. Then he stays a CPO for the remainder of his time on TNG and all through DS9. Poor guy couldn't catch a break; he should've been a lieutenant and gotten a promotion by then. (Likewise for Harry Kim.) But, well, Star Trek isn't always perfect or super consistent or real-world sensible, although it usually is more than most TV/movie series science fiction..
I just realized you've been saying "lieutenant" throughout the video, despite the Britishness. I thought you guys pronounced it "leftenant" over there, don't you?
I noticed this too, I think the American pronunciation was deliberately chosen to minimise confusion since it's the pronunciation used in the show. People who aren't familiar with military ranks might have been mistaken that they are two different ranks rather than different ways of pronouncing lieutenant.
@@SineN0mine3 except by a certain leftenant on Enterprise....
It IS the proper pronunciation for real Anglophones like ourselves! (The rest are Americans!)
@@SineN0mine3 ARE they? I'd never heard of this!
Good video. It's shame you never included the non-commissioned ranks in this video as well, as it would only have required a couple more minutes. I have developed a fascination for Starfleet non-com ranks in recent times, as they are not often seen outside a handful of characters, or they were given to disposable/background characters.
The TOS movies had enlisted rank insignia; with totally separate uniforms for enlisted crew from TWoK-TUC.
It bugs me that no insignia at all was used for the E-1 to E-6 grades in the TNG era, except the generic hollow stripe rank lozenge used for the former Maquis on USS Voyager, which theoretically covered all nine enlisted grades.
They finally gave Miles O'Brien the more identifiable chevrons and dots insignia in DS9 S4 (switching from his single hollow pip), but they never created insignia for the other enlisted ranks, nor did they wear any, as seen in episodes like DS9's 'Empok Nor'.
As for the ranks:
E-1 to E-3: Crewman 3/2/1 Class - Seen on USS Voyager, both with Starfleet and former Maquis. Also Simon Tarses from TNG.
E-4 to E-6: Petty Officer 3/2/1 Class - Rarely seen in the TNG era. One of the victims in DS9 'Field of Fire' was this rank.
E-7: Chief Petty Officer - Miles O'Brien's rank in TNG (Though he wore officer pips until S6).
E-8: Senior Chief Petty Officer - O'Brien's rank in DS9.
E-9: Master Chief Petty Officer
Though Gene wanted the Enterprise crew to be comprised of officers only, the enlisted ranks slipped in anyway.
What I have an issue with, is that, there are too many commissioned officers, in Starfleet.
Commissioned officers are supposed to be in charge of a certain department. They give orders to noncommissioned officers. Noncommissioned officers supervise the crew men, who do the hands-on work.
Jobs like Helmsman, communications, etc. should be done by crew men, not officers.
Rather than climbing the ranks, I'll just wait for something like the Dominion War or Time of Month NERO to show up, that way you get promoted a lot just for not being dead.
Yeah but earning "blood rank" can be bittersweet. I got frocked as a SGT when my team leader died and I was next in the chain. Real sad.
Well, I'm ready for my job. */rises from casket/* Speaking of which there's the death and rise of Spock.
@@camerongunn7906 Very true. I knew a number of corporals who became squad leaders in combat who had no business leading anybody.
@@waynemarvin5661
Damn straight.
I once heard this from a friend in the navy...
It didn't matter if you were an officer or an enlisted guy... The Chief Petty Officer, or Senior Chief Petty Officer, depending on who was onboard at the time of shove off, was literally the equal to a Commander on a ship, but was career enlisted rather than a collegiate officer. Many were classed as Noncommissioned Officers. Even if you were a lieutenant, if the Chief gave an order, you still followed for good reason. He had more experience in the field than you did, and he by chain of command, still outranked you. Same goes for Sergeant Majors and Master Sergeants. It was also wise to never piss off a top enlisted guy even if you were an officer, because many had direct lines to the top brass and were deeply respected by such, and they could make your life a living hell.
In essence, Miles O'Brian was literally under Captain Sisko directly in Chain of Command.
I just realized Sisko’s dad played by Brock Peters also played the Admiral in Star Trek 4
And 6 (Admiral Cartwright)
One thing I will point out that may not have been mentioned much after the events of part 2 of The Best of Both Worlds, but although he goes back to being functioning as first officer on the Enterprise, Will Riker never loses his fourth full rank pip which means that by all appearances even though he is only the EX-O while the card is back as the skipper, to use Naval parlance, Will Riker certainly by all appearances still has the rank of Captain even after Picard is rescued
Well this sent me down a rabbit hole when I wondered what Beverleys rank was
She's a commander.
Commander. Later she would also be put in charge of a bridge duty shift (where did she get the energy?)
@@RaWeir2 Yep. She passed the Starfleet Bridge Officer's Course .
@@RaWeir2On a Galaxy Class ship with 3 sickbays and no EMH, her duties may mostly have been administrative, but would have been the only person to treat the Captain. She likely was chief surgeon and coroner, though there were other doctors on board and she would not need to be present for every surgery. A lot of duties may have been delegated as officers were promoted, so she would be able to juggle her duties as needed in order to fill in a bridge officer shift.
@@richardlahan7068 That was a BS story, medical officers are not line officers.
Thank you for explaining I’m new to Star Trek.
Bracing for a joke about how its an Admiral’s duty to be pure evil.
Admirals Ross and Paris weren't evil.
Though there is that one episode with Ross.
And wasn't Kirk an admiral for a few movies?
@@pauljackson3491 all fair points, though on a sidenote I never thought Paris exuded admiral-ness so maybe thats why.
Admiral Nakamura seemed like an okay guy
@@pauljackson3491 Yes, Kirk as an Admiral in the first four movies and was "busted" to Captain at the end of the forth one.
Kirk was a dick to Decker, though.
Lower ranking members having authority beyond their ranks is something that happens in the military all the time. It's called "Positional Authority". A servicemember with positional authority holds powers granted based on position or duty. Command, investigating officers, and members of a courts marshal are examples of positional authorities; specific powers vested in you are for a prescribed period of time.
STO: Everyone is a Fleet Admiral, or equivalent.
Yeah, linking rank to level was probably not a great idea in hindsight. Although there is one nice touch. Once you're an Admiral in levels, you get the 'Admiralty' system. Ships are given to you (generally ones you've had yourself) to assign to do stuff. Like an admiral would. So you can, say, send your old starships out to investigate anomalies and so forth.
The weird part is that you have full access to UFP, KDF, Romulan, and Ferengi assignments ...
yeah it is kinda insane, but ive kinda given up on it, despite the inaccuracy of having thousands of fleet admirals...ya know cause that makes sense, the servers the game runs on is subpar at best, and i can't recall a time when something wasent bugged in the game, maybe the console versions are better, but on PC anymore it is a total waste of time. and many of the newest missions they spit out at you are nothing but massive time gates, you kill a group of 5 ships then drifts around for 2 mins waiting for the next group to kill, it has become a snooze fest
@@davidlawrence819 or you kill hordes of enemies like they are being replicated
STD: Everyone refuses orders from Fleet Admiral, or equivalent.
Rick, Star Fleet rank and position assignments (to include having multiple captains on the same vessel) is fairly accurate to most of the US military of today. This is especially true the higher you get into the various echelons of authority. For example, a “3-star command” (Vice Admiral or Lieutenant General) will likely have a dozen or more captains/colonels all serving as department heads in the same HQ building. Further, the rank of commander does not denote that command is held. Commanders can be staff officers, and lieutenants can command.
Your initial proper pronunciation of “lieutenant” was refreshing. Too bad you didn’t keep it up. 😀😛
@Christopher Williams - pretty sure the Welsh pronounce it “leftenent” too 😀🏴
Canadians also pronounce it as Leftenant.
In rank, we have the leftenant followed by the rightenant.
Rick that video is excellent and makes so much sense. I vote Rick for Lore Fleet Admiral
STO has so many "admirals" that I would like to know how you explain it.
That would be the, "make 'em feel special so they don't leave" position. Corporations do that.
@@brodriguez11000 playing through the story of STO I would be more scared if I wasn't in the captain's seat of my ship. Shit goes down in STO.
Because it's supposed to be "your" story, focused on your character...you're not supposed to notice thousands of other FA's flying around in all those other ships.
Excellent job! Look forward to one on the non-commissioned officers. Perhaps touch on foreign military ranks too... Romulan, Klingon, Breen, Vulcan, Ferengi??
One thing, I'm guessing there's 1000s of Star Fleet academies in the Federation right. Cause San Francisco can't be the only one to service the whole earth+ other planets
I would guess they operated mike the US does, you can go to the service academy or you can go to another university's Reserve Officer Training Course (ROTC) program, Officer Candidate School (OCS), or the very rare direct commission option.
We know atleast of the vulcan academy of science from where you can also join the fleet work on a star fleet vessel iirc
There are probably multiple academies throughout Federation space, but only the best and brightest go to Earth. So, not the crew of the Lower Decks.
@@nemo99nemo83 plus the Trill Science, uh, Institute? Academy? The one Jadzia Dax got all her degrees in. She has some dialogue about some time in the academy but it might just be one year.
Probably a bunch of different tiers involved. I'm sure there's a huge amount of officers required for ground based assignments. They'd never really see any kind of work in space other than being transported around. That's probably not as prestigious as being assigned to an exploratory starship.
Would love to see a video about the non-commisioned ranks. Or maybe about the officer ranks of the klingons or the romulans.
If you could rank the ranks, what would your top ten ranks be?
Thank you for the fascinating explanation of Starfleet ranks... 👍
Tell a Senior Chief an Ensign outranks him and you will get a chuckle.
Tell an Ensign he outranks a Senior Chief and you will hear a nervous laugh
Unless you are in a the nuke course those are the ensigns that even chiefs say yah he outranks me reason there are three subsections in the nukelear reactor department officer's have to know all three like its there specialty enlisted dont
No they wouldn't, they know an Ensign does.
@@Mortlupo I know exactly what happens.
8:35 No this is a military ranking it's a near carbon copy of the US Navy. The only difference in the US the Commodore is called a Rear Admiral, lower half and the next step up is a Rear Admiral, upper half.
The discovery rank insignias are so tiny, don't like them at all
THAT is your complaint about STD?!? That's it? Nothing else?
@@richardm3023 naw man that's *one* of my several complains about it, the rest are not relevant here
@@richardm3023 Arguments and statement has its time and place. People tend keep things relevant to the topics at hand to keep the discussion focused on one thing at a time.
Yes, Discovery has the worse ranking insignia in Star Trek because its design was too small for other member of Star fleet to see especially those who need glasses, yes, apparently many of starfleet officers prefer to keep their eyes and uses glasses over artificial or bionic or any robotic eye implants but more importantly it is also hard for the audience to see and recognize which is which because we still had to count the dots even if can see it.
In a show with ranks and hundreds of supporting cast with minimum screen time, people have to be able see their ranks since they will not remember their names, their face, and their role beyond the main and major supporting characters who appears almost in every episode (But even then people can still forget about their ranks).
One of the main reason was in our world, army ranks insignia is big and placed where it is easy to see. On top of that they also had names on their chest along with their rank so soldiers can see who is their superior officer or who is reporting to them right when they meet each other.
@@aldyhabibie9717 wow! You really do have a lot to say. And yet you are just making noise. I don't even bother reading long winded preaching posts like that. You have wasted your time.
Great job as usual brother.
I always assumed Starfleet made an exception with the crew of the Enterprise-A, due to the reverence Kirk and co. had. Either that, or it saw the ship as an early retirement home.
Early retirement home more likely. Since the Enterprise was no longer the flagship of the fleet anymore. Kirk got to stay in command mostly because he would have made a terrible desk jocky and because the plot demanded it.
And in the case of the Enterprise, Spock became a Captain when Kirk became an Admiral. When Kirk was give command of the Enterprise 1NCC-1701-A, Spock still retained his rank of Captain as his EX. Scotty became a Captain after taking charges of the Excellor Transwarp Project as a "Captain of Engineering" which would be a "shore" position with Starship Construction. He like Spock retained his rank when he became the Chief Engineer of the ship again.
The rank of Commodore (AKA Director) did appear once in DS9. It is a Captain's emblem with a line under the pips.
Wouldn’t it be 5 pips for director? Sloan was deputy director, so equivalent to captain instead of above it
Almost like the writers didn't care about rank, and just winged it for most of the history of Star Trek.
Rodenberry has said Star Fleet wasn't military but has also said it was like the Coast Guard. I would point out that civilians by law cannot "COURT MARSHAL" anyone...the literal term Court Martial comes from Military Courts.
@@Mortlupo Kirk also tells the Organians he's "a soldier, not a diplomat" and when asked if the Enterprise is part of the Navy says "we're a combined service." in Tomorrow Is Yesterday.
Very true. Harry Kim was ensign, but referred to himself as a senior bridge officer on multiple occasions. Ensigns aren’t senior anything, they are lowest officer and their job is to learn to be an officer. Your not considered a senior officer until O4 at the minimum. That always drived me crazy.
@@curmudgeonextraordinaire1884 It's Voyager. The show that either hands out field promotions like crazy or forgets that those are a thing. Heck, they completely forgot they had a science officer.
It's very close to US Navy ranks. Same rank names, with a few missing, based on you video, like lieutenant Jr grade as the rank between ensine and lieutenant. Also, there is some rigidity in USN structure, but officers in medical ranks, for instance, can achieve command within the medical structure. A captain can be the lead doctor in a department such as ER, and a doctor can reach Admiral to command a medical hospital or facility.
5k views in 4 hours.. We are some NERDS!. AND I LOVE IT!
Like your chart display on the 3189 rank system. Did all of these ranks show up in Season 3, don't remember noticing seeing all of them mentioned?
And yet Harry Kim stayed as an Ensign for all of Voyager’s time in the Delta Quadrant
I was expecting a picture of Harry and a line like "and sometimes 7" after the note about being an Ensign for 3 years.
@Glen Young I think it would have been fun for Harry to outrank Tom given their friendship.
@Glen Young Yeah sadly that was almost entirely Rick Berman's racism.
@Glen Young I agree with ya mostly but i do think Harry gets more respect than you're letting on. He's always shown as an integral part of any problem solving the crew has to do, until 7 of 9 was introduced that is.
@Glen Young Yeah i can definitely agree with all that. Personally i think the biggest sin was making him so bad romantically lol. They gave him the Geordie La Forge problem and i always wished they let my man Harry get a little something. I think from a writer's standpoint, Tom was a good pilot and they thought it was just cool to have a cool pilot doing a bunch of cool stuff, and unfortunately Harry got the short end of the stick. Wish it had been different, you know, i got many gripes with Voyager but damn do i love it.
Also, watching the end of the video, why did Commander Sisko end up leading the fleet against the Dominion? Was that just because DS9 was the nearest base? Or just a Plot Promotion because no Admirals were around?
You think Admiral Ross would go out and fight? He's got a desk to fly.
Pretty sure Sisko was acting as fleet commander for Admiral Ross, since he was his adjunct for the whole duration of the Dominion war.
I was literally thinking about this
Never doubt the almighty algorithm.
Great video as always.