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Old September 2 2009, 09:07 PM   #30
Re: Why no half ranks?

But the fact is that they don't use that term ("Field Colonel"). It's not part of the Star Trek universe. So why the hell does MA insist on listing it?

We know Bajorans have a few varieties of Colonel, because two or three different pins have been worn by people addressed as Colonel. The pins worn by Kira and Colonel Lenaris of "Shakaar" fame are almost identical to the Major pin (indeed, Lenaris seems to wear the basic Major pin by wardrobe mistake, which may be why Kira's later pin was designed to look almost like a Major's so that we could pretend "Shakaar" didn't feature a wardrobe mistake). So we could reduce the number of Bajoran pins to two, just like in the real world where there are two Colonel ranks.

Okay, that's an oversimplification - some nations have had different real world systems featuring for example the rank of Colonel General. But those systems have been distinct from the classic US Army one in other respects as well, whereas the Bajoran system seems to remain smack on.

Plus which, we know the Romulans have the ranks of subcommander and commander. It always seemed to me that the Vulcans having the subcommander rank was kind of a nice touch, drawing a nice little parallel between the two divergent branches of the same culture. You'd want to think that the similar rank structures grew out of the same military traditions of Vulcan antiquity.
Agreed. I wouldn't wonder a bit if the Vulcan military also referred to its vessels as Warbirds, Birds of Prey, Raptors, Vultures and so forth... Perhaps it's the Vulcan intelligence on Klingon culture that colored the Earthling views of that culture, too? For example, we know that it was T'Pol who taught to Archer that the torpedo-toting vessel in "Sleeping Dogs" was designated Raptor. That could have been its Vulcan rather than Klingon name...

Timo Saloniemi
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