everyone* knows that in "The Cage," there really didnt seem to much of a rank system.. Captain Pike wore one stripe, Lt. Cmdr. Number One wore one stripe, Lt. Tyler and Lt. Spock wore one stripe. the only variations were CPO Garrison with a hollow braided stripe, and Yeoman Colt with no stripe.
The only improvement made by the time of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was that Captain Kirk had two stripes, all other officers only had one.
*"everyone" does not include many people...
Posted by Captain Boh (Member # 1282) on :
Interesting. I suppose it was quickly replaced because no one could tell what was what at a glance Posted by Kobi (Member # 1360) on :
I think they thought the same, so they introduced the double bar for the captain.
with the second bar the possibilities are greater to create a plausible rank system...
that is why I prefer to ignore the lack of the bar on Captain Pike...
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
Who says Captain Pike had to hold the same rank as Captain Kirk, though?
For all we know, Pike was a Lieutenant Commander in "The Cage", and the two pilot systems were quite identical. This interpretation would require no contradicting of dialogue.
It takes little effort to go the next step and claim that the pilot and TOS schemes were actually (almost) identical as well. The only real difference would be in the rank of Lieutenant Commander, which would be missing the customary TOS "broken" braid. Most of the characters in the pilots would be holding the rank of Lieutenant (senior grade) with the appropriate TOS marking of one "solid" braid. Pike, Mitchell and perhaps a few others would be Lieutenant Commanders despite their braid. And Kirk of course would be a full Commander in "Where No Man..".
With one final step, we can create a GUT of all three schemes: perhaps the "broken" braid in the pilots really was "broken", and had difficulty staying on the sleeves?
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by UFPSFMC-Colonel Mike Captain (Member # 709) on :
strikes me as somewhat troublesome in a canon sense to try and assume that Pike could be an LCDR...
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Well, if he was in command of the ship, he'd still be referred to as Captain. The only thing I can think of that would preclude his being of a lower rank is the fact that was, what? a Fleet Captain in the episode where Spock was on trial?
How many years had passed between The Cage and that episode?
Posted by machf (Member # 1233) on :
Either 11 or 13, I can't remember... in any case, it would be enough, especially if the last promotion was on behalf of his heroic rescue.
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