From: dnadams@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dean Adams)
Subject: Re: O'Brien's Rank [THE FINAL ANSWER]
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 92 06:53:12 GMT

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

>>>>> On 8 Oct 92 09:36:39 GMT, dnadams@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dean Adams) said:
 >>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?  

Nope.  The pips and all the first season press releases showed her as LCDR.

 >As in "you have your orders, Lt.!"?  Normally, I thought an LCDR 
 >would be referred to informally as "Commander".

Right.  Just add that to the list of early screw-ups.  Obviously the writer
didn't know that you abbreviate the rank of Lt. Commander by saying COMMANDER
and *not* "Lieutenant"...  

 >> >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...

They certainly mentioned the *promotion*.  Actually spelling out the specific
rank involved would not have made for especially interesting dialog though.

 >> >3. Lt. J.G. La Forge's promotion to Lt. Cmdr.
 >> He was promoted to Chief of Engineering.  LCDR made perfect sense.
 >But that was the equivalent of two promotions!  Was he THAT GOOD?  

The Chief Engineer should be an LCDR.  As for Geordi, in the first season
he was listed as Lt. j.g., in the second as a full LT, and the third LCDR.

 >And this promotion (as in "you've been promoted to LCDR") wasn't 
 >mentioned either...

They have a lot to squeeze into that 45:30 of running time.  Throwaway lines
like "you are now an LCDR" would be about the first thing to hit the cutting
room floor, if it was even filmed in the first place...

 >BTW, wasn't the first Chief of Engineering referred to as "Chief"? 
Yes, that would be "Chief Argyle".

 >Does that mean she was an NCO.
No, of course not.  He was a Lt. Commander.

 >like Chief O'Brien?
Heh.  You mean LT O'Brien? :->   (now known as "?" 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?  
Easy.  Officers wear pips, enlisteds DON'T.

 >This, I think, is the main confusion about Chief O'Brien and his rank.

He always (previously) displayed the rank of Lieutenant, so there was
nothing confusing about that.  BUT, the writers did introduce some
confusion along the way...

 >> 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 

Huh??  How is all that supposed to be squezed into a 45 minute weekly show?
Jumping around from "here is what Picard is doing" and "here is what Data
is doing" and "here is what Riker is doing", etc. would be a total mess.
Besides, some of the best parts of the show is watching how all those 
characters *INTERACT* with each other.  

 >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 

I doubt there would be much TIME for character development with 
all that "moving from ship to ship" like that.  :->

 >rather than giving us the impression that they're frozen in 
 >time aboard the Big E.

I'm afraid that is just how the show works.

 >> >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.  

Nope...  All the press releases listed her as Commander.

 >It made sense that she got promoted for the tour through Starfleet.

I suppose that was a "promotion", but we didn't see it reflected in pips.

-{ Dean Adams }-

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