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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pbartender" data-source="post: 4785769" data-attributes="member: 7533">That may be going back to the idea of Star Trek being Horatio Hornblower in space.Back then, as far as naval officers were concerned, you had...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Midshipmen, which were the equivalent of a combination of Ensigns and Cadets.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lieutenants, which were fully-fledged officers. Relative seniority determined your rank within lieutenants.  If there were 4 LTs on a ship, then you'd have a first, second, third and fourth lieutenant.  If a more senior lieutenant joined the crew, you'd get bumped down.  If a more senior liuetenant left the crew, you get bumped up.  First lieutenants were automatically the "first mate", and would take command in the absence of the captain...  Captains couldn't technically choose their first mates, except by ensuring that one particular lieutenant was the most senior lieutenant on the ship.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Commanders, which were lieutenants half-way promoted to captain.  Usually given to lieutenants who have been commissioned command of a ship by the Admiralty (as opposed to liuetenants would have assumed command of a ship, because their captain is otherwise indesposed).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">(Post) Captains, which was like gaining tenure.  Captains are commissioned to command rated ships of the line...  Like the Enterprise.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Commodores, which are simply captains who are in command of more than one ship.  Much like Commander, it was a rather temporary title.  Once you went back to commanding one ship, you were a captain again.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Admirals, who permanently commended multiple ships. If you survived long enough to gain enough seniority as a Captain, you automatically become an Admiral, even if you had no ships to command.</li> </ul>Of course, the movie doesn't precisely follow that, either.Also note that anyone who commands a ship, regardless of rank, is called "captain" as a courtesy.As noted elsewhere, at the time there was also the tradition of the Admiralty granting one special request to a newly promoted Admiral or to a retiring Admiral...  Pike, in gratitude, could very well have made a special request to have Kirk promoted and posted to the Enterprise when he made Admiral.</blockquote>

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