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Did the writers care about the ranks of their characters? (startrek.website)

submitted 1 year ago by Equals@startrek.website to c/daystrominstitute@startrek.website

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I’m not talking about stuff like O’Brien’s hollow rank pip, I’m talking about stuff like “Why make Chakotay a lt. commander rather than a full commander?”

It seems like there was at least some forethought put into who has what rank, but it’s not clear to me how much thought, nor how much meaning was supposed to be baked in to those decisions.

For example, Dr Crusher was a full commander from Day 1, matched only by Riker on the main cast. Was that supposed to signify the authority afforded to the CMO? Was it supposed to be blatant enough for the audience to “get” it?

One of the most prominent examples is Sisko starting his series as a commander. Again — was that supposed to signify that he was more junior, a younger officer?

Behind the scenes, I wonder if we can trace a waxing and waning military influence in the writers room over the years. I know Roddenberry served, and I think some of the early TNG writers did as well. But I feel like that became less common in later series? (But I don’t know for sure.)

I think it’s striking that rank is significantly downplayed on DSC, except for Burnham and potentially Saru.

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[–] charonn0@startrek.website 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

What bothers me the most is that Data was still a Lt. Cmdr after 25+ years of exemplary Starfleet service. It's not like he'd fail the bridge officer's test.

[–] gerusz@startrek.website 3 points 1 year ago

It’s not like he’d fail the bridge officer’s test.

He was clearly a qualified bridge officer. As a member of the regular chain of command (and being the one regularly in charge of the night shift due to not needing to sleep), he had to be. (In fact, he was put in command of another ship once which would have been impossible if he didn't have the qualifications.) In his case it's probably a lack of ambition that led to him being stuck in that rank; he had no real desire to be promoted to another ship when his friends were on the Enterprise and he had every opportunity to learn about meatbags there.

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