Limited Advancement Opportunities: Difference between revisions

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*** It is even worse, in "Best of Both Worlds" Riker was promoted Captain. Count the pips on his collar, he's got four. Then in "Family", he's back to Commander again. [[Fridge Logic|The only explanation]] is that he's somehow engineered a demotion for himself. Maybe he got Troi to say he was psychologically incapable of command or something. It'd explain why it took so long for him to get back to captain again.
*** It is even worse, in "Best of Both Worlds" Riker was promoted Captain. Count the pips on his collar, he's got four. Then in "Family", he's back to Commander again. [[Fridge Logic|The only explanation]] is that he's somehow engineered a demotion for himself. Maybe he got Troi to say he was psychologically incapable of command or something. It'd explain why it took so long for him to get back to captain again.
** Jean-Luc Picard, as well. He spent 22 years as commander of the ''Stargazer'', followed by 7 years on the ''Enterprise''-D, with 9 years in between. One can see how the production staff would be unwilling to promote characters past their beloved Captain. Picard did however take over the ''Stargazer'' at the rank of Lieutenant Commander. It being a smaller ship he may have been able to command it at a lower rank, getting promoted to Commander and later Captain during those long years. It's also clear that when he lost his ship the resulting inquiry took more than a few years to clear him of wrongdoing.
** Jean-Luc Picard, as well. He spent 22 years as commander of the ''Stargazer'', followed by 7 years on the ''Enterprise''-D, with 9 years in between. One can see how the production staff would be unwilling to promote characters past their beloved Captain. Picard did however take over the ''Stargazer'' at the rank of Lieutenant Commander. It being a smaller ship he may have been able to command it at a lower rank, getting promoted to Commander and later Captain during those long years. It's also clear that when he lost his ship the resulting inquiry took more than a few years to clear him of wrongdoing.
*** Those who like to [[Fan Wank|spend more time thinking about this than is generally considered healthy]] might notice that the period between the [[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country|Khitomer Conference]] and [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Picard taking command of the Enterprise]] was by all evidence a rather stagnant one. There were, for the most part, evidently few major conflicts (the only one we hear about, aside from a few Romulan incursions against the Klingons, was a war between the Federation and the Cardassians that [[Expansion Pack Past|didn't bear mentioning until the sixth season]]), and we see quite a few ship designs from Kirk's era still in service (the ''Excelsior''- and ''Miranda''-class being some impressively long-lived ship designs, still in front-line service late in ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'''s run). It's entirely possible that there literally have been few advancement opportunities in Starfleet, especially with the highly advanced state of medicine meaning that if a [[Negative Space Wedgie]] doesn't get you, heart disease probably won't either. In fact, ''Admiral'' Leonard [[Mc Coy]] was still performing Starfleet duties at the age of 137.
*** Those who like to [[Fan Wank|spend more time thinking about this than is generally considered healthy]] might notice that the period between the [[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country|Khitomer Conference]] and [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Picard taking command of the Enterprise]] was by all evidence a rather stagnant one. There were, for the most part, evidently few major conflicts (the only one we hear about, aside from a few Romulan incursions against the Klingons, was a war between the Federation and the Cardassians that [[Expansion Pack Past|didn't bear mentioning until the sixth season]]), and we see quite a few ship designs from Kirk's era still in service (the ''Excelsior''- and ''Miranda''-class being some impressively long-lived ship designs, still in front-line service late in ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'''s run). It's entirely possible that there literally have been few advancement opportunities in Starfleet, especially with the highly advanced state of medicine meaning that if a [[Negative Space Wedgie]] doesn't get you, heart disease probably won't either. In fact, ''Admiral'' Leonard [[McCoy]] was still performing Starfleet duties at the age of 137.
** Ditto for Data, who remained a Lieutenant Commander during the whole run of the series ''and'' the spin-off movies. Arguably, Data's career stalled out because he's an android, and the brass are unsure how he'd perform in a command role. Indeed, the few times he does, he does some pretty unorthodox things. In all seriousness, though, it's implied (sometimes even more than implied) that there's an [[Fantastic Racism|element of racism]] involved in Data's current rank. It was said prior to his posting on the Enterprise he spent years on a starbase being treated as a computer. This is most blatantly seen in the second half of the "Redemption" 2-parter where A) Data had to directly confront Picard in a rare display of ambition/pride in order to get a temporary command and B) Upon receiving said command, encountered severe resistance on the part of his temporary XO, well beyond the point of insubordination into outright insolence. Thankfully, it would appear that Data learned from that experience and, upon temporarily commanding the Enterprise a few seasons later, tore his temporary First Officer ([[The Worf Effect|Worf]] in this case) a new one for similar actions. For a being with no emotions, he sure knows how to deliver an ass-chewing when it's justified.
** Ditto for Data, who remained a Lieutenant Commander during the whole run of the series ''and'' the spin-off movies. Arguably, Data's career stalled out because he's an android, and the brass are unsure how he'd perform in a command role. Indeed, the few times he does, he does some pretty unorthodox things. In all seriousness, though, it's implied (sometimes even more than implied) that there's an [[Fantastic Racism|element of racism]] involved in Data's current rank. It was said prior to his posting on the Enterprise he spent years on a starbase being treated as a computer. This is most blatantly seen in the second half of the "Redemption" 2-parter where A) Data had to directly confront Picard in a rare display of ambition/pride in order to get a temporary command and B) Upon receiving said command, encountered severe resistance on the part of his temporary XO, well beyond the point of insubordination into outright insolence. Thankfully, it would appear that Data learned from that experience and, upon temporarily commanding the Enterprise a few seasons later, tore his temporary First Officer ([[The Worf Effect|Worf]] in this case) a new one for similar actions. For a being with no emotions, he sure knows how to deliver an ass-chewing when it's justified.
** In the prequel comic to [[Star Trek (film)|the 11th movie]], Picard has become Ambassador to Romulus, Riker commands the ''Titan'', and Data is now captain of the ''Enterprise'' itself. It means that Data's gotten further ahead than Riker, as he's now captain of the flagship.
** In the prequel comic to [[Star Trek (film)|the 11th movie]], Picard has become Ambassador to Romulus, Riker commands the ''Titan'', and Data is now captain of the ''Enterprise'' itself. It means that Data's gotten further ahead than Riker, as he's now captain of the flagship.
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