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Is the only known/canon way for someone to become an officer in Starfleet is by way of the Starfleet Acadamy campus in the former Presideo in San Francisco, California, United States, North America, Earth (Terrra), Sol System?
If not, why haven't others been shown onscreen?
If so, how does Starfleet keep up with manpower requirements? How many officers would need to be commissioned per class to meet manpower requirements?
Cannon yes, SFA is the only thing they've shown.
IMHO SFA is like West Point is for modern day, the reputed "best of the best" come out of it. There are other places that you can go, although it's not as prestigious as coming out of the Academy and you may not quite make command that way (at least not Captain/First Office, though Branch command, yes).
You also have the slow wat at it, by becoming enlisted and working your way up, cannon or not I belive this is why Rand was an Officer later on in the movies, plus you figure that not only did she survive being on the Enterprise, she probably had some pretty good recomendations from the command positions (Kirk, Uhura, etc).
Given the personnel requirements of Starfleet, it is a virtual certainty that there are other Starfleet Academy campuses, but only the San Fransisco campus has ever been shown. Additionally, lines in the TOS episode Court Martial could be interpreted to indicate that there are other methods to become a Starfleet officer than SF Academy (or not - the dialogue is ambiguous).
well if you listen to Kirk talk a few times he mentions "the Adademy" but I honestly don't believe they specify what one or if it IS Star Fleet Academy. I'm probably wrong though :)
It's never really mentioned what the ratio between 'crew' and 'enlisted' is to actual officers, but I have to agree that there is no way that Starfleet academy could practically provide enough cadets to fill all the crews on all the ships. The episode where Wesley tries for the academy was really rather stupid.. 4 people for a whole sector of space.. so like 30 people a year in the whole UFP can get in: Hmm I think not :) What also made it rather stupid was the fact that all of those cadets were exceptional: Yes perhaps the crew of the enterprise were 'the best of the best', but then how did lesser crew members ever become officers?; When you have to compete with 4 people from a population of several billion? Hmm :)
One possible answer is that you can sometimes get made Ensign from crewman status, which Janice Rand apparently did (in the episode where Tuvok goes back in time to the Excelsior).
My personal favourite theory is that there are a couple of more academies, on the far flung sectors of the Federation (it's supposed to e 8-10,000 lightyears accross) Who don't often get seen because they are simply too far away for most screen time. But that's pure speculation.
Well about the wesley weird exam thing, imo they selected only a bunch because they were real young (maybe too young) so only the real gifted would have a chance to enter the academy at that point.
For people that attained the required age there would be seperate exams and with a hell of a lot more candidates and ofc a lot more room for people.
As for the other ways to become a starfleet officer, its my understanding that when a planet/species join the federation they already have a organisation similar to starfleet: spacenavy/defense forces/whatever they call them. So imo some of those people would remain maybe as a personnal defense for the planet but over the years some of those people would be absorbed into starfleet (Maybe with a bunch of exams and/or a few weeks/months at the academy to bring them up to Starfleet Standards)
My personal view is that there is only one Starfleet Academy.
There are other military academies that Starfleet selects new officers from (like the home academies of member planets), and there are ROTC units in a number of universities.
Also, persons with very specific skills (M.D.s and science officers) may gain a commission after completing their academic courses (McCoy had gone to medical school before getting his OTC-style orientation at SFA). The Vulcan Science Academy probably has a number of science officers among its ranks of alumni.
And, of course, you have the few mavericks coming out of the enlisted ranks (of course, I think mavericks are extremely rare, given the nature of enlisted personnel in the Star Trek universe).
So, there are a number of ways to get a commission in Starfleet, but the Academy is the most prestigious of the group. SFA graduate are often the best-of-the-best.
The way I would look at the whole 'Crusher Trying For The Academy' is that these are the exceptional talents trying for SFA, with it being the top of the tree for the best-of-the-best to go into. Yeah, I know that's not canon, sue me. That's the way I would look at things.
I think you would have each major system having an academy. Earth's academy is more prestigious, as Star Fleets HQ, and The Federation Council are located on Earth etc etc etc.
At the very least, the founder members (Earth, Andor, Vulcan and Tellar) should have academies IMNSHO :-)
That aside, I think specialists that want to get into Starfleet (MDs and so on) would probably have a year or two orientation and then get into Star Fleet.
I seem to remember my ICON vulcan and andor stuff mentioning characters can get into the fleet having served in the home system fleets and organisations (but I could be wrong. It does happen every so often). That being the case, that would seem to set a precedent. I think that Star Fleet would recognise excellence from wherever it came from.
Cheers
Tas
I agree that the Academy on earth couldn't possibly recruit, train and place all the officers for all the ships starbases and other instilations in the Federation.
Kirk specificly mentioned "the Academy"; but what if that is the one on Earth? What if there is the "Really-long-Vulcan-Word-for-Academy" on vulcan, and on Tellar the "House-of-Knowledge-and-Debates", and on Andor the "Place-of-Training-and-Antenne-measuring"?
Basicly, WE call OURS, 'The Academy', but some, or at least the founding members, have similar instutions on thier worlds. Just snowballing here!
I agree, there has to be more than just one Academy. Even during the DS9 period there was at least one all-Vulcan ship. It seems very unlikely to me that the Vulcans would first send their elite thoroughbred Vulcans to Starfleet Academy in San Francisco ( letting them see that the IDIC principles also apply to crew composition), and then calling them back to serve on one of their Vulcans only vessels.
The DS9 relaunch also offers another route that has been speculated on over the years too.
In Unity as Bajor becomes a member of the Federation, there are numerous references to the process of assimilation of the Bajoran Militia into Starfleet. Enough to guage the process.
Individual planets maintain their own defence force, in addition to Starfleet, but when a planet becomes a UFP member the doors are opened to serving officers/crew to transfer into Starfleet at an equal rank with only refresher/technical training to qualify for.
This also matches TNG too, with the details of the Officer Exchange Program, sure Riker joined a Klingon ship, but the Benzite Ensign came in from a Benzite only ship, even though they were UFP members.
So there is another route for your officers to join Starfleet.
If there is only one Academy, then why call it presidio San Francisco? If only SF had an Academy there would be no need to especially point that out, so I guess that there are other presidios as well, probably on important sector planets and probably smaller.
Because it's on the site of the Presidio (actual landmark, currently a Marine (?) base, originally a Spanish fort) in San Francisco.Quote:
Originally Posted by Evan van Eyk
LOL, I always thought that "presidio" meant something like "location" or what do I know, describing it being in San Francicso. It never occured to me that it was an actual place.
But anyway if it has an explicit location depicted on its logo is it not likely that there are other Academies as well? If there is only one, then everybody would know it is in San Francisco, wouldn't they?
There are two Presidios that the United States inherited from the Mexicans when they took over California. The Presidio of San Francisco and the Presidio of Monterey. Both locations became U.S. Army bases.
The Presidio of San Francisco closed in the 90s and is no longer active (reserve and guard units may still use parts of the base). The Presidio of Monterey is the home of the Department of Defense's Defense Language Institute and Foreign Language Center.