ST(Films): Nemesis

[Robovski]

It's a Star Empire, each Senator may represent a sector or an important system. This doesn't have to be a representative house.

[Beastro]

The Romulan government is likely more based on the Roman government, which was never really representative of the empire as a whole, only of Rome itself. Likely the Romulan government were representatives of Romulus only, the rest of the empire just did as they were told.

Various fluff goes into expanding the ideas of what the Star Empire was like.

Starfleet Battles had the most in-depth it seems, but also one that toed the line: The Senate ruled the Empire, the Emperor was a figurehead, just like the Klingons and their emp. /yawn

That's where I always went from thinking about the TV series and the movies. It gave rise to the idea that after the decapitation of the Senate and then the destruction of the Romulus and their brief flirt with a more Federation friendly government the Emperor pulled a Meiji and now rules with the massive support of powerful, but once sidelined houses that had been kept away from power by the Senate and eager to wipe out what remains of the what's left of their old enemy houses that made up it.

Yes well Kirk seems to forget that nothing actually stops Admirals and Commodores from commanding starships.
I get the intent, but it was a poorly written line... much like all of Generations.

Execpt that they don't, at least in the military framework Starfleet is built from. They're flag officers and would command various sized groups of starships issuing them orders while the old, direct commands to the flagship would be done through its CO.

Star Trek has never liked Flag Officers because of that remote use of power, which is why the series has batshit insane abuse of the military command structure, above all else the idea that a captain could refuse promotion and stay a commanding officer for God knows how long. Sorry, there's other fellows working up the pipeline an there's room for a Kirk to say he gets to stay in his seat forever if he refuses flag rank.

He'd be shunted off to some desk job or commanding a space station of low importance. Just like any poor sod in the RN who passed his officer test at too late an age and so was too old to be any worth. Such captains got stuck commanding ships guarding harbours, what many did in the last years of their service life being too old for any further use but still not old enough to scrap or reduce to a hulk; while admirals got put in place commanding harbours or stone frigates of little to no importance that were effectively sinecures since the Board couldn't discharge anyone without cause against their will.

[TGLS]

above all else the idea that a captain could refuse promotion and stay a commanding officer for God knows how long. Sorry, there's other fellows working up the pipeline an there's room for a Kirk to say he gets to stay in his seat forever if he refuses flag rank.

Combine lack of an up or out system with a steadily expanding navy (given the rate the Federation expands and the number of old ships still in use), keeping enthusiastic and experienced officers probably makes sense in the eyes of Starfleet planners.

[Beastro]

above all else the idea that a captain could refuse promotion and stay a commanding officer for God knows how long. Sorry, there's other fellows working up the pipeline an there's room for a Kirk to say he gets to stay in his seat forever if he refuses flag rank.

Combine lack of an up or out system with a steadily expanding navy (given the rate the Federation expands and the number of old ships still in use), keeping enthusiastic and experienced officers probably makes sense in the eyes of Starfleet planners.

I'd rather say thought given to the fleet structure and ship numbers of Starfleet has never been given any real thought.

I'd rather say Starfleet was lazy and complacent even during their Cold War with the Klingons. It left them catering to the desires of their personnel as they drank the "we're not a military" Kool Aid too much until Wolf 359 stirred things up. Up to the end of the Dominion War Starfleet operated much like the RN did in the 19th Century being a large collection of many different, often old designs that catered to their needs of empire policing that were suddenly a pile of garbage once the threat of a major war really reared its ugly head.

The legacy Fisher had on the RN beyond Dreadnought was retiring and scrapping all of those old warships after the turn of the century to free up crews and allow for the more cohesive and coherant navy that fought in the Great War. As it stood sending out Mirandas and Excelsiors during the Dominion War would have been like sending HMS Alexandra and masted warships out to fight Jutland.

[clearspira]

above all else the idea that a captain could refuse promotion and stay a commanding officer for God knows how long. Sorry, there's other fellows working up the pipeline an there's room for a Kirk to say he gets to stay in his seat forever if he refuses flag rank.

Combine lack of an up or out system with a steadily expanding navy (given the rate the Federation expands and the number of old ships still in use), keeping enthusiastic and experienced officers probably makes sense in the eyes of Starfleet planners.

I'd rather say thought given to the fleet structure and ship numbers of Starfleet has never been given any real thought.

I'd rather say Starfleet was lazy and complacent even during their Cold War with the Klingons. It left them catering to the desires of their personnel as they drank the "we're not a military" Kool Aid too much until Wolf 359 stirred things up. Up to the end of the Dominion War Starfleet operated much like the RN did in the 19th Century being a large collection of many different, often old designs that catered to their needs of empire policing that were suddenly a pile of garbage once the threat of a major war really reared its ugly head.

The legacy Fisher had on the RN beyond Dreadnought was retiring and scrapping all of those old warships after the turn of the century to free up crews and allow for the more cohesive and coherant navy that fought in the Great War. As it stood sending out Mirandas and Excelsiors during the Dominion War would have been like sending HMS Alexandra and masted warships out to fight Jutland.

19th century RN is a fantastic description of Starfleet, kudos.