From: davidm@consilium.com (David S. Masterson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Re: O'Brien's Rank [THE FINAL ANSWER]
Date: 8 Oct 92 17:55:19 GMT
	<DAVIDM.92Oct7193638@consilium.com>
	<1992Oct8.093639.2890@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
Organization: Consilium Inc., Mountain View, California
In-reply-to: dnadams@nyx.cs.du.edu's message of 8 Oct 92 09:36:39 GMT
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>>>>> On 8 Oct 92 09:36:39 GMT, dnadams@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dean Adams) said:

> davidm@consilium.com (David S. Masterson) writes:

> >For instance, I haven't seen good explanations of:

> Before the specifics, most of those examples don't even 
> NEED "explanations" as such, but here we go anyway. :->

Sorry -- I haven't paid complete attention and haven't always believed or
understood what I did hear.

> >1. Troi's rank (the one un'pip'ped officer!).

> Oh, i'm sure she has been "pipped"! :-> BUT, there is no question about her
> rank or pips.  Troi has always been a LCDR, and when she was in a regular
> uniform the pips were correct...

Wasn't she a Lt. at Far Point?  As in "you have your orders, Lt.!"?  Normally,
I thought an LCDR would be referred to informally as "Commander".

> >2. Lt. J.G. Worf's promotion to Lt.

> What is there to explain?  He became Chief of Security and was promoted to
> full LT.  Nothing strange about that.

Well, it would have been nice to give it a mention...

> >3. Lt. J.G. La Forge's promotion to Lt. Cmdr.

> Ditto!  He was promoted to Chief of Engineering.  LCDR made perfect sense.

But that was the equivalent of two promotions!  Was he THAT GOOD?  And this
promotion (as in "you've been promoted to LCDR") wasn't mentioned either...

BTW, wasn't the first Chief of Engineering referred to as "Chief"?  Does that
mean she was an NCO like Chief O'Brien?

> >6. Distinguishing non-coms from officers or non-com ranks.

> From what we have seen on the show, enlisted people wear NO pips.  That
> makes telling them from officers pretty easy.

But how do you tell them apart?  This, I think, is the main confusion about
Chief O'Brien and his rank.

> >1. Riker's demotion back to Cmdr. (why he took it, though...).

> It's either that or leave the show.  Picard/Stewart belongs in the "chair".

They could have made Picard a Commodore/Admiral and given him a few ships to
command.  Give Riker the Enterprise, Data another ship, and some new people on
the other ships and send them all out on an extended mission to deep space to
fend for themselves (and find that race that infiltrated Starfleet?).  It
might have made for more interesting character development because then some
of these people could be promoted and moved around from ship to ship rather
than giving us the impression that they're frozen in time aboard the Big E.
They've certainly got the sets for this approach...

> >2. Lt. Cmdr Crusher's promotion to Cmdr. after Starfleet tour.

> I'm pretty sure that Bev was a *full* CDR from the very beginning.

I could have swore I saw LCDR pips at Far Point.  It made sense that she got
promoted for the tour through Starfleet.
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