The Star Trek TV shows have had a tendency to almost always have the commanding officer of a ship, no matter how small, have the rank of Captain (as an example, it seems rather odd to me that the Equinox seen in Voyager would be commanded by a Captain.) I imagine this is to not confuse viewers unable to distinguish between rank and position.
I am curious if someone with some real world naval knowledge could give me some ideas as to what rank one needs to be to command a certain type of ship. As an example, I know many U.S. nuclear submarines are commanded by a commander.
As an example, the Miranda of the TOS period is a fairly major ship so it would make sense (to me at least) for it to be commanded by a captain. Yet by the TNG period, I could see command of it falling to a commander, but I am not basing that on any naval knowledge, more a "gut feeling". Similarly, I could see a Defiant or an Oberth being commanded by a Lt. Commander or maybe a Commander, but they seem odd ships for a captain.
It would not be unusual to have a Commander or Lt. Commander in charge of a support ship or some of the smaller combat vessels. Capital vessels would require a full bird Captain, as a commanding officer. Of coarse during the Dominion War this might change with personnel losses as high as they were.
Just for fun I went to www.navy.mil (a great website for figuring out "real-life" analogies...
Visiting webpages for many destroyers, with crews above 300, I see they tend to have CO's witht he rank of commander. Indeed, a lot of the cruisers do as well.
Moving to Starfleet. I would suggest any ship size 6 and above must have a captain as her CO. For size 5 I would probably play it by ear - from the show they all seem to have held the rank of captain, as narrator, I'd probably allow a commander CO of some of the older size 5 ships with smaller crews. For example, the Constellation, with a crew of 350 (which is fairly large for Starfleet) I'd probably require a Captain but for a Miranda with a crew of 220 I might allow the occasional commander. (Crew sizes from the Price of Freedom).
For size 4 I'd imagine you'd usually see a commander of lt. commander as CO. For support, specialized, and auxiliary ships (like the Nova, Oberth, etc.) I'd see the possibility of even lower ranked characters.
Of course one episode of DS9 had a Lt. in command of the Nebula-class Prometheus. Go figure...
On the TV shows were the ships' COs actually Captains in rank as well as status? In modern Navies the CO of any ship is refered to as the Captain no matter his/her actual rank. This is in reference to his/her status rather than actual rank.
Linked to this, since there can only ever be one Captain on a vessel, anybody else on board with the rank of Captain gets a temporary promotion of one rank eg. an Army Captain would be refered to as Major whilst on board & a Navy Captain as Commodore.
To the best of my knowledge, almost every CO in Star Trek, regardless of the size of his or her ship, held both the rank and position of captain.
Some interesting examples:
J.T. Esteban, CO of the Grissom (Star Trek III) - wore captain's rank insignia
Acting Captain Tim Watters (acting captain of the Valiant in "Valiant") - had 4 pips. Valiant's former CO promoted Watters from Midshipman to Captain upon his death. Why the need for such a high rank when earlier in the season Jadiza Dax was made CO of the Defiant. She stayed a Lt. Commander and O'Brien even went on to explain the difference between the rank and position of captain.
Captain Ransom of the Equinox on Voyager. Four pips, crew of under 100.
Keeping it in-game, I believe that reality will stay intact by allowing PC COs to hold lower ranks. However, it would be important to keep this balanced by NPC COs also possessing lower ranks. My main objective in this thread is not so much to determine if that is in keeping with naval tradition but more to determine what ranks can command what type of starship. In a previous post I gave some rough thoughts on that, feedback is appreciated.
This is another question concerning rank of CO's. In TOS, a few CO's were commodores. I have never seen a commodore in TNG or after. Was that rank retired at sometime or does my memory play tricks on me? It seems to me that people like Picard should be promoted at some point, but are too valuable to ride a desk. How does Commodore Picard sound?
All though against naval tradition I usually put a lower rank CO as acting Captain all though still commander etc.
In my 'PCs:2 Narrator:5' topic, Cpt Bill Stryker was a commander on the Oberth Bonestell. It was his ship but I made him 'acting cpt'. All the rights of a captain excluding the 4 pip rank until his promotion came through.
But still small ships shouln't be required to have cpt rank CO's.
For my own series Explorers and Cruisers COs are Captains; Frigates and Escorts I have Commanders as COs and for scouts and other vessels I use Lieutenant Commanders for COs. Of course all are referred to as Captain.
I also allow characters who reach the rank of captain and if they are eligible for command to be able to choose the type of ship they wish to command providing Starfleet Command permits it and if they have served on that type of vessel on a previous tour.
In Unifaication Data and Riker got their own ship. I think under special circumstances the captain could be a Lt. Com or Com.. During the Dominian War, Wolf 359 and so on
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Personally, we base the rank of the CO on the importance of the ship, and its missions. I guess a Defiant-class is basically a pocket battleship, so merits a captain, as they are tough combat vessels, and sent on the worst missions.
Sisko, a commander, gets a fairly minor outpost on DS9, and when the importance of the area, and the Dominion threat, he earns a promotion to Captain. That's how I see it, anyway
As posted above in the US Navy destroyers and some cruisers get Commander CO's (called Captain), submarines have LCDR, some smaller ships such as patrol ships can have LT's.
In my game Excelsior’s, Akira's and other "cruisers" now often have Commanders as CO's due to manpower shortages after the war (I'm having the Akira largely replace the Excelsior btw)
I gave one of my players command of a Defiant-Class ship when he reached Commander. Because the Defiant-Class isn't intended for long-term operation away from a base I attached it to Deep Space 6 and made him Adjutant (and First Officer) to the Admiral commanding the station. As Starfleet doesn't like Admirals gallivanting around in starships all the time the PC was effectively in command of the ship.
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"Captain? Is something wrong?"
"I just had the most terrible news. I have to attend the Annual Admirals' Dinner.
I've faced Borg, Romulans and battle-crazed Jem'Hadar, but nothing compares to this."
The Nebula class Prometheus was captained by a LtCmdr perhaps becuase it was "loaned" out to the command of the Scientist in charge of the mission. I believe the LTC was effectively commanding the ship while the Professor ran the mission and all scientific duties. Maybe this was a way for Starfleet to "groom" a potential Captain.
Regardless of the persons normal rank, s/he is always referred to as Captain. Off ship s/he goes back to his her normal rank. If the ship was to be his/her permanent command, i dont see why Starfleet can't hand out the four pips and send the new Captain to Command school etc to bring hm/her up to speed.
Game wise, in the players handbook, they have provisions for brevet ranks, as long as the Character makes a concerted effort to acquire the skills and training to meet the minimum standards. Stafleet was always more concerned with skill and ability over pips and years, but always made sure the person earned the rank.
The sutherland, when Data took ove for the Klingon Civil War, appeared to be commanded by LTC Christian Hobbes(?). Perhaps after Data left, they gave Hobbes the ship so long as he went to the proper schools to be made a substantive captain from an acting captain.
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"Mission? what mission?"
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"AGAIN?!?!?!?!"
What Ship Could a Commander Command?
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