Starfleet Ranks & Promotions Explained. 

*harry Kim watches intently*

One thing about this: Almost all this discussion revolves around the Command/Tactical promotion track. Science/Medical and Engineering/Ops have different needs, criteria, and promotion tracks. A real-world example is how medical officers in navies may be captains, and even admirals, but they are not commanding ships. They are in charge of base hospitals, large organizations, etc.

'After 2 years you'll be automatically promoted' Cries in Harry Kim.

Enterprise-A had three captains: Kirk, Spock and also Scotty, he held his promotion to Captain from being temporarily assigned to the Excelsior.

US military, except for battlefield commissions, requires a 4 year college degree to become an officer. Fewer than 20% are ring knockers (academy graduates). Most officers are college graduates who enlisted and went to Officer Candidate School (OCS). There are also prior enlisted who used their GI Bill to go to college while serving and then attended OCS. They are called "mustang" Officers. Battlefield commissions will generally only be seen during war time. Then there are enlisted who don't attend OCS, but are Officer material, and they can go to Warrant Officer School.

I would love to see a video on the enlisted ranks as well as the Starfleet Marines.

That was indeed a fascinating watch on late 23rd century ranking in Starfleet. A part 2, expanding onto the Admiralty and/or the ranking structure in the ENT &/or DS9 eras would be interesting. Also, that opening was indeed... something.

Geordi moved the fastest.He was LT JG (Ensign and a half) just like Worf in season 1. In season 2, he became chief engineer and was promoted to LT. Then next season, he was promoted to LT CMDR. Sadly, Mr Worf would not make LT CMDR until the movie generations.(Cue the piano and violins)

Many nations rigidly bureacratize their military promotion structure. In the US, exceptional officers may get Below Zone promotions after O-3, but that may mean only a one or two year lead over the others. The exception to this is the General Officer or Flag Ranks. Once someone pins a star on, they are not really subject to a rigid schedule, but promoted based on what position they hold. It took David Patreus 21 years to make full Colonel O-6. It only took him seven years to go from Brigadier General to Full General. However, in the past, like during WWII and WWI, due to losses and shaking out incompetent officers, rapid promotions could happen regularly in many armies including the US, UK and German. The famous Panzer Graf, Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz, went from Reserve Captain (O-3) in 1939, to Generaleutnant (O-8) in 1944. James Gavin of the US Army, went from Captain to Major General in 4.5 years. But, stuff like that hasn't occurred in NATO militaries since WWII.

"Why are they all on one ship?" Chekov: Tried that vonce... Got vorm in my ear. Not leaving my Wessel again!

i actually looked this up this morning.

Not only did the Kirk era Enterprise have an over-abundance of high ranking officers on one ship, but also within the same duty shift ( a ship is on a 24 hour clock, yet anything important seems to take place only when all department chiefs are all on duty simultaneously 🤔

At the beginning of ST:VI, Uhura said she had an Academy lecture to give. This and maybe a few other lines here and there could suggest that in the 23rd century no ship was a “mobile star base” like the Galaxy class and Kirk’s crew in the movies had more than one regular duty to perform. By the time of TWOK, they were part-time on the Enterprise, part-time other assignments because they were older and more experienced. Second, the five year mission was the exception not the rule, most officers were out for 2-3 years or less and then had time back home to rest and perform other duties. Likewise, in the Kelvin timeline Spock was an Academy instructor and first officer of Pike’s new Enterprise at the same time.

I always wanted this video! Just waiting on the cartography of the gamma, beta and delta quadrant! This ties in beautifully with my request months ago about not needing the rank of Captain to command a ship.😀😎👍

Always a pleasure to see a new Video from you!

The Enterprise-A had three captains during its entire life. All at the same time. (Per the novels and original scripts, 4 in ST5). Kirk, Spock, and Scotty (and Sulu). With McCcoy, Uhura, and Chekov all full Commanders. Academy Graduates might achieve a lieutenant grade. Saavik demonstrates this, though I would argue Kirk and Sulu also did so. TNG era, top of the class graduated as an Ensign, with no promotion for seven years - barring a war. I just noticed "Lieutenant" Valeris was a lieutenant commander. Also in the TOS era there is "Fleet Captain" an intermediate position between a Captain and Commodore. I would argue that in First Contact, and the Dominion War, Picard was a Fleet Captain - senior captain in any group situation, with authority to assume command of forces.

This will blow your mind. But in the US Navy you have a lot of all enlisted crews on Gunboats. With the highest ranking crewman is a CPO.

I always thought it unrealistic that almost every original TOS officer ends up a captain. I get that people want their favorite characters to advance, but not every character would want command or be suited for it.

That opening was beautiful.

I'd say by the 24th century the automatic promotion aspect was done away with. Based on what we see a more purely meritorious approach is adopted and the "Up or Out" stigma was largely done away with. We see a number of times where an Enlisted man like O'brien is given jobs and positions in charge of officers because of his skill and experience, which is valued over rank. No more free rides up the chain because we're pressured to move people up. Much "you have to earn it and prove yourself" approach. It's also worth considering that different professions and specializations may simple be less inclined for promotion up the ranks. On the Subject of Riker/Shelby I wouldn't call Riker not taking a promotion "Blocking up the chain". That's just Shelby being sour that she isn't getting the position she feels is owed to her. Refusing a promotion was nothing, They would have just given the job to someone else just as deserving. There are plenty of other good officers around. Diving into Beta canon, the reason why Riker stay's on Enterprise AFTER Best of both worlds is to keep an eye on Picard who was thought by some to be unfit for duty after his assimilation. But that's Beta canon, your mileage may vary there There are hundreds or thousands of other ships and candidates for any job that comes up. Starfleet doesn't revolve around Riker, or anyone else and if it did and Riker refusing a promotion really was such a big deal then the organization must either be tiny, extremely poorly designed, or corrupt. Shelby was arrogant and needed to learn that she isn't owed the Enterprise posting. If she was as good as she thinks she is, she could get a posting on any available ship she wanted and there were plenty around. Starfleet doesn't revolve around her and it doesn't owe her the Enterprise. If I were an admiral I would give Shelby another XO posting half because she's earned it and is good for it. The other half because she needs a humbling.

*shifts eyes at the first minute of the video* ...wait what...on one hand congratz on the other hand that was pretty funny

Poor Barclay. On the one hand, he was clearly a brilliant engineer, especially while directly supporting the efforts of a team. Eventually landing a nice job at Starfleet Academy can attest to that. On the other hand, it's very clear that military life was not his best option for several reasons. I'm still shocked that he didn't at least receive some sort of demerit for that infamous holodeck program, considering that both the ship XO and his immediate superior officer had a full view of it. And he earned promotions very slowly.

I always assumed on the original Enterprise when we had Scotty Spock Kirk McCoy they had been off of the ship and for this particular Mission or a special Mission were reassigned to the Enterprise at the behest of its Captain meeting Captain Kirk who by this time would be a senior captain and through his exploits had great pull within Starfleet

Star trek:Lower Decks does a really great job of showing the Lower levels of the command structure

So knowing all this wonderful new knowledge, along with your absolutely brilliant summary on the differences between a leader and a commander, and I hope you'll excuse my Quebecois: Who, THE FUCK, did Grand Ensign of the Fleet Harry Kim piss off that he was stuck with one pip for 7 years?! Lovely little video. The mineuta of Starfleet Professional Development is a great interest to nerds like me, and your usual talents shine brightly Venom-Senpai. Ps. That intro got me acting less than honourable ;)

This is generally pretty clear. Seeing the lower ranked officers staying there is typically going to be highly specialized such as doctor or scientist ect. They have a rank to command their job but are unlikely to be promoted since they are the top of there work path.

Technically- Kirk's Enterprise during the latter end of the TOS movies - Scotty also held the rank of Captain. So Kirk, Spock, and Montgomery Scott all held the rank of captain. 😊

It's not just with Starfleet. Older Star Trek did a really good job at showing professionalism even in the other races. I think you need to show that and what newer Trek has always got wrong. You need a command tree in any type of armed forces. It makes the universe believable.

I always wondered why Star Trek rarely seemed to use Commander’s as ship captains. From what I know of both the Royal Navy and the US Navy a ship like Voyager would be commanded by a Commander. Even a tiny ship like USS Brattain had a fully captain with a crew of 35

In a way, the Enterprise-A was the start of Starfleet accepting the idea of some crews putting comradeship ahead of their own careers. Kirk's crew was clearly perfectly willing to forego any further progress if they got to stay together (though obviously Sulu eventually flew the nest). It seemed in _VI_ all were preparing for retirement _at the same time_ , rather than being reassigned to other posts. If anything, the second (third) Enterprise was treated by Starfleet more like an early retirement home for Kirk and co: "Those seven old farts refuse to leave eachother? Fine, stick them on an antique ship and leave them to it."

This was a very well put together and insightful video. One thing to consider is the difference between a regular line office and a restricted officer. Take for example an officer who is a doctor or lawyer etc. Rank progress for them could require different qualities that say someone running the ship. Also you could have some one who has a real talent for say warp theory or ship design or just logistics. They might not be great at running a ship and would never break past LT junior grave you mentioned but would be a real prize for starship design bureau or even the logistic core. They will likely never command even a small ship but would it be realistic to expect them to stay sub lieutenants for the rest of their careers? Likewise do you need to waste a top notch ship captain like say Kirk to hold a senior position in say Starfleet security which would have a much narrower focus. But again they need rank when interacting with “regular officers “. Otherwise would a traditional say commander or captain take seriously a very skilled security officer who’s only a Lt jnr?

15:50 Okay. We are talking about a group whose practice is to send the entire command echelon of a starship down to the surface of an unexplored planet to make first contact with a possibly hostile race with only a couple of redshirts to use as human shields. So having a ship stuffed full of flag officers without any thought of the loss of experienced leaders should the ship be destroyed is probably common practice in Starfleet.

One of your better presentations. Thank you.

congrats on 25thousand my friend😊

"Piss and vinegar" 😂 get a patent on that before the folks at Heinz get any ideas. Thanks Venom, enjoyed this installment more than I thought I would 👍

As a military veteran, the crew of the Enterprise wouldn't exist. Stagnation of promotions would be detrimental to crew moral and personal service ambition. I've seen the effects of promotions and demotions in the military. Most officers are very ambitious with dreams of command time before reaching field grade ranks.

It is criminal that you don't have more subscribers! Keep up the great work!

Scotty was promoted to digital data for about 75 years after an incident with a dyson sphere. However, as an engineer it must have been his dream to skip time and witness the technological progress. RIP Scotty, best man. 😇

As a funny coincidence, we get this video right as the Lower Decks crew gets promoted to Lt. JG Also, congratulations on 25k!

16:00 Reminds me of a story from WW2 (I think it was in North Africa prior to Montgomery taking command?) where lead tanks for various small units were knocked out in a battle, but rather than trudge back home with the rest of the surviving crews, the commanders just went to another tank and got back into the fighting (sending someone else to the back in the process). If I recall correctly, by the end of the battle there was at least one tank being commanded by a major with a sergeant, two lieutenants and a captain crewing the thing.

There are actually 3 captains on the Enterprise for the last few movies. Scotty is promoted to Captain of Engineering in the third movie, and is wearing a Captain’s insignia during the briefing scene in the sixth movie. CO and XO as captain mirrors current USN policy for carriers. All the department heads on Enterprise are senior commanders.

I don't think Riker is blocking anything, we see that there are a number of commander ranked officers on the Enterprise D. Troi is a commander, and I thing La Forge becomes a commander. Dr. Crusher is even the rank of captain! It's just that they're never 2nd in command, because that's the only job Riker is occupying/blocking. Riker is not blocking advancement in promotion, just advancement in the chain of command aboard the Enterprise.

Roddenberry never really considered Starfleet a "military organization, " but we're all aware that it functions as the military for the United Federation of Planets. Venomgeek is extrapolating a fair bit where a precedent does exist. I'm guessing he's English where in the Royal Navy and Sublieutenant rank does indeed a exist(it doesn't in Starfleet but is does in Romulan rank structure), and I have heard of a Lieutenant exam in the Royal Navy, but it was for Midshipmen that had been promoted to Acting Lieutenant and was phased in the early 20th century around the same time the rank of Lieutenant Commander and Lieutenant junior grade comes into existence. The analog of the "Lieutenants exam" just doesn't really exist in the Modern Navy nor has it been referred to in canon sources associated with Star Trek. A Bridge Officers Exam has been seen in the 6th Season of TNG when Deanna is promoted to commander. The confusion over who would be in command on the bridge in the case of the 5th season episode "Disaster" wouldn't exist as there are differences between "line" and "staff" officer. And the distinction of an "operations officer" as not being a line officer is a little peculiar. The Ops officer on Navy ships and in Starfleet is the 3rd in Command of the ship after the Captain, Executive Officer(XO), and then Ops generally. The excess amount of Captains on the Enterprise does seem a bit peculiar. But I will point out on modern US carriers there are often as many as 5 or 6 and many times up to 7 or 8 Naval Officers with the Rank of Captain (O-6) at any given time. The Commanding Officer is a Captain, but now the XO is also a Captain (O-6). The Commander of thr Air Wing(CAG, which is "Commander, Air Group," a holdover from when the aircraft were called a "Group" as opposed to a "Wing." The Deputy Wing Commander (DCAG) is also a Captain. If the Strike Group Commander(geberallu a one-star Admiral) is embarked, his Chief of Staff is also a Captain. A number of officers in the Ship's company can also be a Captain, such as the Chaplain(although generally a Commander), the Ship's senior Medical Officer. The ChEng(Chief Engineer) possibly could have been frocked which raises the number of Captains to 7 or 8. By the end of the Iowa-class Battleships time in service, their XOs were all Captains, too and they had at least 4 or 5 Commanders(O-5s) aboard. I'm honestly a bit surprised that the Galaxy Class Enterprise didn't have more higher ranking officers aboard more often, except for of course confusion for those watching who would probably be as confused as any civilian aboard a modern Naval Ship. I don't think it was a matter of malicious corruption for Riker to be in the way of any promotions(except, of course aboard the Enterprise herself, Data or Worf or LaForge would all have been fine First Officers). The bureaucracy of Starfleet doesn't seem to force an "up or out" mentality. And considering how long lived many races are in Star Trek, it's probably a very good thing.

A gunboat is a pissant ship. President John F Kennedy was a Lt.J.G. while commanding a PT Boat in WW2 and similarly on those vessels and Ensign is a First Officer. Destroyers are commanded by either Lieutenants or Lieutenant Commanders. Cruisers will get full Commanders. Only the larger vessels will actually get Captains. As only 8% of Naval Academy graduates ever reach the actual rank of Captain, this makes Captains very rare.

I would definitely be okay with a Miranda as a first command. But if I reach the rank of Commodore in Starfleet, I would stay that rank and refuse the rank of Admiral. And I would settle for a Promixa class Battleship and get the reject known as the Atlas out of mothballs.

Very well done!

truth the tng is probably a bit closer to reality in some ways with limited billet's available for certain ranks and limited chances of promotion and just waiting for someone to retire or get promoted or die on the job in order to receive your next billet and promotion.

So you are saying a good place for Kirk would be as a Commodore. He still commands which is his strength but put in him charge of multiple ships. Commodore vs Fleet Captain?

What's your opinion of star trek online's lore of making lieutenants acting Captains of frigates or small ships. Gameplay aside, if there is a lack of experienced personnel especially Captains, it might make sense to give command of smaller ships to Lieutenant ranked officers for them to gain appropriate experience.

We need a reference guide to the confusing ranking in the movies. In Star Trek 2009, Kirk jumped ranks from cadet directly to captain. What is Left-tenant? 🤔 In TOS the rank of commodore seemed to be interchangeable with fleet captain. We noticed Stocker being pushed around by Kirk in Deadly Years. Picard seemed to be a fleet captain. We saw him taking command and assigning command to Rike, LaForge and Data. Vice Admiral and full Admiral are the top ranks they seemed to try and accomplished. The ranks in Star Trek follow the traditional ranking of the navy. It was based on Gene Roddenberry's service. Case closed. 🙂🙂

To be fair, on larger US navy ships like Nimitz or Ford class carriers, you will typically see more than one O-6 per ship. The Chief engineer, chief medical officer, the wing commander, the supply officer, chief of staff, the XO of the ship etc etc are all usually captains in rank as well. So for a crew of 3500 + 2000 aviation staff there might be up to 10 captains on board. Now I understand crews on Connies are not that large, but there is precedent for more than one captain serving on board a single ship. So a rank, especially in naval terms, tends to have more to do with how many personnel one holds responsibility for rather than what grade of ship is being commanded.

"You don't have the right stuff, and maybe need to make room for people who do" Sounds like most of my working life 😂

I... i... wut. 😂 Nicely done

Very informative, thank you

Is it possible exceptional cadets graduate from the Academy and are immediately made a Lieutenant J.G, something like the top 1% of the graduating class each year? I always wondered if that's what happened with Savik.

congratulations on 25,000 subscribers

Thank you for this video.

Great video love the 23rd century Star Fleet a nice mix of military and exploring agency

The commanding officer of the USS Grisom was a Captain?. This feels like your putting current naval standards against what you feel Starfleet would do.

🖖😎👍Very cool and very nicely well done and very well executed and informatively explained in every way shape and form and detail provided to you on this subject matter indeed!, And I really like that you brought up the Commodore rank because in the 24th century it's pretty much non existent every one just jumps from Captain to Admiral how does that work in the real world 🤔?.

TNG reminds me of the later Honor Harrington books with the Solarian Navy introduced... with four-star admirals as staff officers to five-star admirals because, well, no one retires and they just accrue seniority promotions. And the top slots never refresh because, again, no one retires. And the Navy doesn't actually do anything so there's no, shall we say, operational attrition.

At 15:54 Technically, The Enterprise has three Captains: Kirk, Spock and Scotty as he was promoted to Captain in Star Trek III; granted he was made Captain of Engineering on the Excelsior, but he was never reduced in rank following the events of that film and what occurred in Star Trek IV, in fact he keeps that rank for the remainder of his Starfleet career on the Enterprise-A, the Launching of the Enterprise-B, and when he rematerializes into the Next Generation series.

I know in the US, a lieutenant commander or major is where a lot of people retire after a long career. Mainly because the armed forces politely let you know that you aren’t getting the hire ranks. Basically only the best are promoted based on what they can offer in needs of the organization or retaining experience, special skills, etc. I’m sure others can speak to this better than me though.

I feel the 24th and early 25th century Federation officer system is not stagnant as such... it is simply something more informal, due to the unofficial rankings of ships serving rather different roles.. for a very senior officer on a capital vessel (aka Riker)... transfer to the captaincy position on a smaller ship, is effectively a demotion in terms of career prospects, whilst his/her career would be usually growth within their own ship... smaller, more near earth, vessels, do already have a hierarchy, but, that's different from galaxy traveling kingdoms of ships.... also, I feel the system is somewhat more like that of the USSR, where, the academy is somewhere you go after you have already completed a certain period serving in the fleet as a non-commissioned able-seaman, or the equivalent thereof. most of the crew of the enterprise, I believe, never went to Starfleet academy, you only needed it to move to the command trek or something equally major.

Well, it's an interesting take from a UK perspective. At least I'd know how I'd far as a British Officer. Data went into it briefly with Lore. 3 yrs as an Ensign and 10 years in the Lt. ranks. I can't say I've heard the terms you're describing on any of the shows.

Are there not any "ship hands" or "able seamen" on a starfleet ship? Are they all officers and commanders in Training?

1st video I decided to show my friend of yours and within the first 60 seconds you had the man subscribing lol jk

Haha I did not expect that intro 😂

riker's refusal isn't really an example of corruption. you can refuse promotion in the military, (IRL) your seat just gets handed to the next in line. CMDR. shelby's gripe was that she seen him an stagnamt and kinda of a wuss, hiding behind Picard. also riker held a coveted position os Enterprise's XO, something Selby wanted. in her eyes he was in her way.

I've always wondered why Picard wasn't commodore or rear Admiral, since he was in command of the Flagship in TNG.

Ensigns also clean out the holodeck filters.

Name the third british officer semester "command and responsibility"

Will you cover the enlisted ranks???

16:00 Depending on the cannonicity of movie novelizations the Enterprise in "The Wrath of Kahn" set out with a rear admiral, three captains and two commanders (although one of those commanders was the CMO/ship's surgeon).

You also didn't speak about the enlisted ranks. Will that be another video ?

I never understood how Riker not taking a promotion could hold up the whole promotion system. He would open ONE SPOT, that would be filled by ONE PERSON. further by not taking a captain chair, someone else got promoted which opened up their spot and so on....

Of course I think James T Kirk skipped almost all of this time but then again its James T Kirk and Pike knowing its him assuming the new timeline probably helps. I guess Picard is also an exception but I have always thought that Picard was given command of the Constellation and the official title of Captain but might not have the rank (yet) and might have been given a Commander rank or something.

If there’s one thing you can say about starfleet it’s that all problems stem from the the admirals.

Great video! However I will say definately depends not just on your ability but specialist track and overall posting and role. For example if an officer decided to go into the medical track and be a fully qualified doctor at lt junior grade as we see Julian Bashir is in DS9 then later a LT, I could totally see a Doctor holding that rank for a very long time possibly longer than 10 years simply because 1. In the real world it takes from 4 to 6 years to become a fully qualified doctor and even AFTER that, you have to specialise in a specific field working with specialists and learning under them in specialities such as infectious disease, neuro surgery etc which is at least another 4-6 years. I imagine in starfleet that's the same so you would likely be holding the lower officer ranks for quite some time 2. They like the role they are in and its much more hands on and direct as with the medical field as the higher up you go the more administrative it becomes and many people simply dont want that or id imagine many dont want to do command training to become a captain of a ship 3. Depending on their post and station perhaps having a medical officer higher than say a LT or LT commander just isn't needed so and has nothing to do with ability and talent and i think only a fool would dismiss a Lt Junior grade doctor or LT grade Doctor.

Nice one, but what about the non-commissioned ranks? Hopefully when Star Trek Online 2 will ever be made this will be the same thing, not the amount of missions and xp you cram in but also the length that you have been playing you will get to go up a rank. So many week of play Fleet Admirals it's hilarious also a little too much "pew-pew"....

I think you are being too hard on how "The Next Generation" portrayed this while being too soft on how TOS did. After all Kirk was said to be the youngest person to have attained the rank of "captain" by that time, and he couldn't have been more than a 13 or 14 year veteran when he did so, meanwhile Spock and Scotty had been in Starfleet longer and were only still Lieutenant Commander's.

There are also post-graduate schools such as Command School, Starfleet War College and Advanced Tactical training. These courses take around 18 months to 2 years and give their graduates a promotion of one rank but sometimes even two ranks such as with Ro Laren. Also, doctors, not nurses, graduate Starfleet Academy with the rank of Lt. Junior Grade not Ensign. There is also the issue of non-Commissioned ranks above Chief Petty Officer. We know they exist. For example, O'Brien was Senior Chief Petty Officer but only after he transferred to a space station. Janice Rand was a Master Chief Petty Officer during Star Trek IV at Starfleet HQ. We also have Specialist Kosinski and his equations. My theory is that once a Senior Enlisted person is above Chief Petty Officer Starfleet considers you too valuable to be aboard a starship. A Senior Chief Petty Officer is the highest for a Starbase. However, Master Chiefs are all basically confined to Starfleet HQ. Warrant Officers are, with some exceptions, at HQ or some important installation. The only way for Rand to get back aboard a starship was to be promoted to Officer rank. I know it doesn't logical sense that being promoted makes you less valuable, but that's apparently the way its and is based on attitudes in the US military where junior officers receive less respect than senior enlisted or warrant officers. Also, Venom Geek Media should at least try to tackle the rank of Fleet Captain.

If there are two in a rowing boat, then one is the captain - an old sailor saying.

The biggest problem in the movie era was Kirk. He should have been promoted to Commodore, not Admiral. Then when demoted, he should have been dropped down to a Commodore, not Captain. It would have been great to have Kirk as Commodore of a Battleship in the field, with Spock as the ship's CO, Chekov as the XO (since he has experience) and the others as the Department Heads. Alternatively, they could have made Sulu and Checkov as ship CO's in Kirk's squadron and Uhura as XO.

What I find totaly absurd however was in DS9 having dr. Bashir serving as one of the bridge crew on the Defiant (definitely not as a doctor)...

This greatly reminds me of neural networks. Each individual has a pattern of interconnects to those above and below them within the hierarchy. The pattern is relatively the same throughout: taking orders from set few above and giving orders larger set below. In this way, the hierarchy structure is a fractal. Interestingly, promotion is what allows for this 'Starfleet' neural network to evolve. And I do mean evolve in the Darwinian sense. The evolutionary pressure for the individual is "doing well", which is defined differently as the whole evolves. "Doing well" for Starfleet itself is defined by the Federation as a whole. But, within the framework of game theory, etc, "doing well" for both the Federation and Starfleet is probably expansion. So "doing well" for an individual will be related to the interaction with the borders. Even if that interaction is in a support role. The correlation between such a structure and biology seems very strong. I wonder if there's a biological equivalent to promotion or if a neuron in the brain will always have the same position and responsibilities throughout its life. .... Fascinating. (Edit for clarity. And spelling. )

More Drac please

are there any enlisted ranks for starfleet? ive only ever seen officers. no privates, corporals, or sargents? in Enterprise, there were a few in MACO but thats not Starfleet.

I don't mind the 23rd century Starfleet being more irl military inspired. However, I don't think officers maintaining their posts is a sign of stagnation and corruption in the 24th century. Firstly, it's not like Starfleet has a shortage of vessels where officers that keep their ranks risk curtailing the carreer of others. Secondly, we see how society in the 24th century is very satisfaction-driven and it's up to you whether you want to climb the ladder or you are content where you are and Starfleet. This feeds into the idea of (say it with me, kids) Starfleet not being a military and not having the same rigid and regimented structure as one and I like this aspect as it makes Starfleet feel more like a positive workplace rather than a rigid organisation

I just want to talk about American miliary officers, which is fitting since Star Trek is an American TV and movie franchise. But to be fair, Hollywood has a knack for butchering everything. LOL It has been said that Good Leaders make good decision, Bad Leaders make bad decisions, but one who makes no decisions are no Leaders. All US officers are Leaders, although the standard for that are weakened for some specialties, like doctors, nurses, and lawyers. However, all US officers may not be on a combat command track. In the US Navy, you have Unrestricted Line Officers, on a combat command track. Restricted Line Officers are in a non-combat specialty. Staff Corps Officers may be in Doctors, Nurses, Lawyers, Chaplains, or in civil engineering. US Military academies combine a 4-year college degree with officer training. Many US colleges have a Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC), which augments a 4-year degree in a civilian college with officer training. These tracks obviously take four years. Another track is open to anyone with a Bachelors Degree, Officers Candidate School (OCS). This is only a 12-week course. A civilian will also have to first go through a 10-week Basic training. However, when I went through OCS as part of the National Guard, it took over a year and a half. Why? Because in the National Guard or Reserves, I would attend for two-weeks in the first month, one weekend a month for the next 14 months, and then a final 2 weeks in the last month. Of course, if you are in the National Guard or Reserves you would have already gone through Basic Training as well as Advanced Individual Training. This may be closer to what you referred to in the UK. Also, once commissioned, an officer would have to attend an Officer's Basic Course and then an Officer's Advanced Course, which are specialty dependent. In the US military, one must always serve as an Executive officer to a Commander before being given a command. That position is effectively an apprenticeship for command. One of a Commander's duties is to train his Executive Officer for command. In the US Navy, the rank of Commodore was eliminated in 1985. It is now known as Rear Admiral (lower half).

I understand we you skipped TNG and focused on the TOS movies but can we get a more detailed DS9 addendum. Focused on the same peace time/cold war with a note that "hey, once war started battlefield promotions were a thing". Also it'd be great to better understand the non commissioned ranks if there's actually enough material to do anything with it

While i understand why they don't t I would like to see a Star Trek game simulate your character's journey via promotion. You start as an ensign and the campaign takes several years until you reach Admiral.

I know exactly what you meant and why you pronounce it that way... but I just wanted to point out that the Trek shows & movies almost exclusively refer to the Starfleet rank as "Lieu-tenant", not "Left-tenant". It's an American-produced TV show, and the Federation is strongly suggested to be an idealized fantasy utopian echo of American culture, so they use the American pronunciation, not the British one. Since you're discussing in-universe ranks, you probably should have taken the effort to stick to the in-universe pronunciation for this particular case. There may be a hint in Enterprise that Earth's blue-water navy (which still existed in the 2150s) may be using the old British ranking system, at least in part. Perhaps this is just on ships operated by the Royal Navy, or perhaps they are deliberately differentiating to point out they are different services. Malcolm Reed's backstory is not exactly crystal clear. It also appears that "Sub-Commander" or "Sub-Lieutenant" are Vulcan ranks from the Enterprise NX-01 era. Starfleet always called their equivalents a "Lieutenant Commander" or a "Lieutenant Junior-Grade"... again reflecting a simplified version of the U.S. Navy ranks.

Didnt Shelby take command of the Enterprise F as an Admiral ever so briefly before getting the yet?

My guess is that normal career duty was probably four year study as Starfleet officer. But we can assume that if someone already has valid high education, then he probably could be assigned to speed up course instead. We do not exactly know how Ferengi education work. But apparently Nog could have proper education. After all his father Rom was actually a genius.

A ship might suffer over officering due to a shortage of ships to be assigned to or because of a particular situation. A particular problem might need a particular group to solve.

Yeah enterprise a had Captain kirk, captain spock captain Scott commander sulu commander checkov commander uhura, commander McCoy and ensign red shirt

Can you do a video on gunboats and other small starships in Trek?

Is there a website I can visit to see pictures of the ships seen in this video? All this cool beta cannon stuff is badass.

Are there any ranks at the admiral group? Like fleet admiral, etc?