Was the Kobihashi Maru test (sp?) ever mentioned in the original series? Also, what rank does one achieve by passing this test? For, wasn’t Sarrik already a Captain? After the “firey” beginning, wasn’t she the captain of a crew of plebes going on a training mission under the scrutiny of Admiral Kirk? Or, was that all part of the same “climax” to her Starfleet Academy training?
Yo have the Con,
**Otto **pretty much nailed it except I believe Saavik was still in the Academy as she’s often addressed as cadet. I have no idea how realistic it is to graduate as a Lieutenant from a military academy, though.
Also, this memory-alpha page will give you a little more information on the scenario and its history in the Trek universe.
Not at all. I was under the impression (perhaps incorrect) that Saavik was an already commissioned offiucer being groomed for a command position–perhaps Captain Spock’s “Number One” (first officer), hence working with a crew of largely cadets and early promotion to a command position over a training crew despite her low rank. Her insignia indicates that she’s a lieutenant j.g. (junior grade, the equivilent of a first lieutenant in the ground pounder forces).
In the British naval tradition, any officer holding the position of command on board a commissioned vessel is referred to as “Captain”, even if they are only a senior lieutenant. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to temporary command while the command officer is away, or the noncommissioned vessels like gigs and cutters. I belive this is the convention on board US Navy vessels as well, although I’ve never been on one that didn’t have a Captain as the skipper. (Interestingly, at least in formal situation where services are mixed, a Army/Marine captain will be referred to as “major” in order that the ranks not be confused. You’d think that by the time of Star Trek they would have eschewed the use of historical ranks for something a little clearer, but I guess not.)
Stranger
Saavik was a Lieutenant, judging from the rank pins she displayed (two small triangles) and was the senior-most of the trainees on the Enterprise, though her official mini-biography at Startrek.com rather bizarrely says her joining Starfleet Academy and the events in Star Trek II all took place in the same year: 2285. Even though it’s the most militaristic of the films (and arguably of all of Trek, even to the point where Roddenberry expressed dismay), this aspect is problematic. It might make sense if she already had a university degree in something and got her rank under some kind of direct-entry officer plan. Then she could be what was derisively described during WW2 as a “ninety-day wonder”, i.e. a young college-educated officer given a crash course in Navy/Starfleet procedures. This assumes, of course, that the fictional Starfleet Academy works in a manner even slightly analogous to real-world officer-training programs, which was made increasingly doubtful during the TNG+ period, where “life or death” simulations became increasingly common, with Wesley subjected to one while trying out for the Academy and Troi made to run through one before she could advance to the rank of Commander. Compared to the relatively mundane “study, sit for tests, go on exercises, get evaluated” routine of real-world military academies, Starfleet is positively theatrical. Might have something to do with being based in San Francisco.
Saavik is addressed as “Captain” during the simulation because of a Navy convention that the commanding officer of a ship is always called Captain, regardless of actual rank. I don’t believe she’s ever addressed directly as “cadet” but rather consistently as “Lieutenant”. The group she is part of is referred to as “trainees”.
It was suggested in a later TNG episode that it’s possible to join Star Fleet without enrolling in the Academy or studying to become an officer. It’s possible that Saavik racked up several years of exemplary non-commissioned service, then was given a sort of “advanced promotion” when she finally went to the Academy and earned her commission.
Hm. My impression was that graduates from (US at least) military academies always graduated as officers.
And checking Wikipedia on [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Military_Academy]West Point] apparently “most” do.
Suggested nothing. Wesley Crusher was given a field commission of Ensign without going to the Academy. He was expected to still attend the Academy but his commission wasn’t contingent upon it.
“Acting Ensign”. I believe this was something akin to a brevet rank, where the person holds the rank for the purposes of being located in the chain of command, but does not receive pay or benefits in accordance with that rank. It’s unclear how a mere starship captain could have authority to commission a civilian with no training as an officer under normal conditions (much less a bridge officer in charge of the helm and/or navigation) but the Starfleet seems to be pretty goofy about a lot of things, including the oversight of not including seat belts on their bridge stations even though the crew gets tossed about like rag dolls every other episode.
Didn’t Wesley end up going to Academy and getting thrown out? I only watched the show consistantly for a couple of seasons; I recall it having great production values (especially for television) but pretty uneven scripts. Dr. Crusher, though…woah! What a babe!
Stranger
Oddly, Starfleet Academy is consistently hailed as the way to become a Starfleet officer, which always struck me as odd because everybody’s an officer, apparently, except for Chief O’Brien. To fill the ranks with the thousands upon thousands of bodies (The Enterprise-D alone had a crew of over 800, and it was one ship among, I dunno, a hundred, in the main fleet?) Starfleet Academy must be about the size of NYU just to keep up. I don’t buy the loopy entrance exams, either. Wunderkind Wesley had to fight for a spot, but semi-literate Nog breezed in? What’s the deal with that? 24th-century Affirmative Action?
I was always hoping for some insidious plan where Earth demanded all officers go to their Academy so they could indoctrinate the heck outta them. Either that or some direct-entry officer who said “Hey, don’t give me any of that Academy rah-rah-rah crap. I have a Master’s from Princeton and I’m a damn good officer so why don’t you shove your Academy ring up your ass and let me do my job?”
He resigned, under circumstances that were, to be charitable, nuttier than a squirrel’s storage locker.
Oddly, in his last canon appearance, at the wedding of Riker and Troi in Star Trek: Nemesis he’s wearing a dress Starfleet uniform, which suggests he got back in somehow.
Initially Wesley was given the rank of “Acting Ensign” and he wore that grey one-piece with the cunning rainbow stripe across the nipplage region. At the end of the ep “Menage a Troi” he was commissioned to be an actual Ensign, wearing the standard Starfleet uniform.
He later went to the Academy anyway and following the death of a fellow cadet during a banned flying maneuver he lost all of his credits for a full adademic year and was required to repeat it. Later, he dropped out of the Academy and went off through time and relative dimensions in space (without his warm sweater) accompanying the Traveller, who had disguised himself as an Indian.
Aren’t you glad you asked?
Very rarely a non-officer other than O’Brien will appear, for instance Crewman Simon Tarses from the episode “The Drumhead.” There’s dialogue in that ep about the crewman’s not going to the Academy but I’m not enough of a geek to remember it.
I have a couple of other Q’s on STII:
At the end, why not beam aboard Reliant and phaser disintigrate the Genesis device?
As an alternative, why not phaser and torpedo Reliant into oblivion instead of trying to warp away or at least try it while attempting to warp away?
Didn’t Starfleet Academy have “branch campuses” thoughout the Federation?
Nah, occasionally you see an enlisted personnel. There was an episode–I think it was called “The Drumhead” but I’m too lazy to look it up–where a senior officer from the Judge Advocate General comes aboard to look for traitors and initially focuses her attentions upon an enlisted person who is innocent but kills himself anyway. I believe the distinction (on TNG, anyway) was that the enlisted personnel have a angled colored stripe on each shoulder, and the officers have none. Since all the use for insignia are the pips, it must be seriously confusion; “Yes sir, Lieutenant Comm…er, Petty Officer. Hey, why am I taking orders from you, swabbie?” No wonder they don’t salute. Anyway, judging by appearances, there are, like, twenty officers to every enlisted person, so those guys must be really busy doing all the actual work on the ship.
I have yet to work with an active Air Force or Navy officer who did graduate from their respective service academies (though I did work with an engineer who was a former Navy officer and Academy graduate who mustered out after his six). I don’t know the numbers, but at least with respect to US forces it seems only a small miniority of officers are graduates of their service schools, with most coming from ROTC/AFROTC/NROTC. I get the impression that field promotions from enlisted to officer ranks are extremely rare outside of battlefield scenerios, and while the military would nominally like to encourage promotion from the ranks, it’s not a terribly frequent occurance, save from enlisted to warrant officer.
Stranger
Inside the nebula sensors were impaired to the point of near-non-functionality. Trying to beam someone over without sensors would have been impossible.
IIRC phasers were tied into the warp engines (according to ST:TMP) so if the warp engines were offline the phasers were too. Photon torpedoes were unrelaible for the same reason transporting would be. No navigational or targeting sensors. Given the amount of damage the Reliant had sustained without blowing up already, a few more torpedoes may not have been enough to vaporize the ship and destroy the device. Not like today’s ships, that get warp core breaches every time someone in Engineering sneezes.
Or read three more posts…
You mean the guy who turned out to be one-quarter Romulan? He didn’t kill himself, though his Starfleet career was apparantly over. When he and Picard were having their little dinner chat, I’m pretty sure Picard asked something along the lines of “Have you thought about going to Starfleet Academy, becoming an officer?” And then the formerly-dormant Romulan bloodspell took over and he twisted Picard’s head off. Or said he’d thought about; I forget.
Semi-related, there was an episode titled “Below Decks” which had me going “Oh Boy, we get to see some enlisted personnel.” No such luck, we were treated to four snot-nosed punk Ensigns.