Star Trek (TOS): Court Martial

[CharlesPhipps]

At that point he has had his life crushed look at what his job is, Records officer. If you work hard your entire life and your constantly given crap jobs or looked down on by others its going to stress you out. Im not saying hes right but im also not say hes wrong. I think there is something more here that should be looked at.

He's also a Lieutenant Commander. Which is not the life he envisioned for himself but hardly ruined either.

[chaos42]

At that point he has had his life crushed look at what his job is, Records officer. If you work hard your entire life and your constantly given crap jobs or looked down on by others its going to stress you out. Im not saying hes right but im also not say hes wrong. I think there is something more here that should be looked at.

He's also a Lieutenant Commander. Which is not the life he envisioned for himself but hardly ruined either.

ranks other than captain or admiral are always kinda odd. Troi took a test to get here 1/2 pipe. and data is a far better officer than her by a long shot as she is useless, (she is written badly) data would be a commander before her in any sane world. So im not sure rank means much when a therapist that can't fly the ship and screws up a lot out ranks the second officer (data) crusher is fine she is the doctor it makes sense but the ranks over all don't always make sense in these series like perpetually stuck at the bottom harry kim.

look im just saying im not sure he wasn't getting screwed over

[CharlesPhipps]

Eh, Data is a droid in a bio-organic man's world.

[CrypticMirror]

Maybe Data just didn't feel ready to take the test himself yet. I mean he certainly would not get the benefit of Riker kinda hinting how to beat it, that is fer shure. Data does have self-esteem issues in trying to work out how ready he is for things, or how well he understands situations, so I believe that he was putting it off. Bev and Troi wanted to move on, Data just didn't. I feel Data is much harder on himself than he deserves, but that is characterisation. Plus as far as he knows he is functionally immortal so he doesn't have to rush his career. Star Fleet doesn't have an up or out policy, so you get to spend as much time in role as you feel you need or want (most of the time, assuming no wars with shapeshifters interrupting your botany work).

[TrueMetis]

Hey, does this mean that in an emergency the doctor or counselor would be put in command before the super advanced android?

[Madner Kami]

Hey, does this mean that in an emergency the doctor or counselor would be put in command before the super advanced android?

Depends on the exact rules of the organization, but based purely off rank? Yes. Most military organizations however, do place function over rank at times though. In the US' military this is called "Tactical Seniority" and there's actually an example of that within Voyager (though it's certainly more of a mistake than intentional). There exists that scene where a Lieutenant asks Harry, an ensign, for orders that Chuck (rightfully) made fun of. Since Harry is part of the command staff of the ship and the lieutenant in question is either an engineer or a security officer, it can be argued that Harry has tactical seniority in the given situation, even though the lieutenant is his senior, both by rank and date of comission.

[Eishtmo]

"A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn't know what's going on."

Also.

"An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody."

[TrueMetis]

I suspected as much, and that lines up with my understanding of how the CAF works. "Tactical Seniority" and all, my old WO told us about a time in Afghanistan where the convoy she was part of was nominally under the command of a Captain, but practically was under the control of a Corporal. One of several "when you get your commission you'll know jack shit so listen to you're more experienced NCM's" stories our staff gave us.

... Though that is kind of odd still, because Data will still be 3rd in command, and Harry Kim will still be a senior staff member, and neither of those are temporary and both really should see promotions to unfuck the chain of command.

[CharlesPhipps]

Generally, my view on the guy is that he's simply consumed with jealousy. He's not going to be able to be a Constitution-class commander if the way Kirk is treated over "his" mistake is an any indication.

[chaos42]

Generally, my view on the guy is that he's simply consumed with jealousy. He's not going to be able to be a Constitution-class commander if the way Kirk is treated over "his" mistake is an any indication.

im just saying that there could be something more to this. some story that we haven't really seen that could be done, with discovery currently out and a much less idealistic story being created this kind of thing a man driven to madness by other factors could be interesting