Why Didn't Nog Assume Command Of The Valient?

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:52 am

In the episode Valient (I beleive) Nog and Jake run across the Valient crewed by a bunch of cadets, why as senior officer did Nog simply not just assume command and order them home rather than futzing around with his hero worship?

Post by **Mikey** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 4:29 am

I haven't seen the ep recently, but IIRC, Nog was still technically a cadet and may not have been the most senior a/o ranking member of the crew.

Blackstar the Chakat · Tue Sep 25, 2007 4:30 am

The cadet had a field promotion. Like in Voyager when Tom was field promoted to Lt. I belive field promotions are still the same as normal rank in terms of power. However I doubt that regulation had the cadet's situation in mind.

Blackstar the Chakat · Tue Sep 25, 2007 4:32 am

Mikey wrote:I haven't seen the ep recently, but IIRC, Nog was still technically a cadet and may not have been the most senior a/o ranking member of the crew.

Actually Nog was an official ensign by then(the war was that bad) and should normally have power over the Cadets.

Post by **Teaos** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:39 am

Yes I believe several members of the crew had been field promoted. Even if they hadn't it might not have been wise to assume command. They probably would not of accepted him.

Post by **Mikey** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:45 am

The people who were alreafy aboard, cadets though they might be, were obviously far more familiar with their personnel, engineering mods to the ship, etc.

Thorin · Post by **Thorin** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:28 pm

The field promotion was void. Captains cannot promote to captain. So the original captain of the Valiant, before he died, shouldn't have been able to promote that cadet to Captain. So whoever the commander was actually was in charge

Post by **Teaos** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:38 pm

They might not be able to promote to Captain but they can promote to something higher than Nog at a Ensign was.

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:02 pm

Even if the previous CO had only promoted the cadet in question to Ensign, he would still have outranked Nog based on seniority, since Nog wasn't promoted until shortly before OP RETURN, while the Valiant was lost on the first day.

Blackstar the Chakat · Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:05 pm

Thorin wrote:The field promotion was void. Captains cannot promote to captain. So the original captain of the Valiant, before he died, shouldn't have been able to promote that cadet to Captain. So whoever the commander was actually was in charge

A captain who holds the rank of a captain, but previous mentions of Red Squad suggested that it was relatively new. I suspect that Red Squad was a flag officer's pet project and that officer may have been in charge of the training cruise. And though he was a flag officer, tradition says he should still be called a captain. It could be a personal preference of the Flag officer.

Thorin · Post by **Thorin** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:42 pm

ChakatBlackstar wrote:
Thorin wrote:The field promotion was void. Captains cannot promote to captain. So the original captain of the Valiant, before he died, shouldn't have been able to promote that cadet to Captain. So whoever the commander was actually was in charge
A captain who holds the rank of a captain, but previous mentions of Red Squad suggested that it was relatively new. I suspect that Red Squad was a flag officer's pet project and that officer may have been in charge of the training cruise. And though he was a flag officer, tradition says he should still be called a captain. It could be a personal preference of the Flag officer.

He was a captain in rank, not just in title. He had 4 pips. An admiral would also not be allowed to go into the Gamma quadrant in such circumstances of war. Even when we have seen admirals in command of ships, they are still called admiral, not captain.

Post by **Teaos** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:58 pm

He could have just added the pips himself. Picked some off one of the dead crew men.

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:01 pm

The Valiant's cruise wasn't in the GQ - it was within Federation space until the war broke out, and was then overrun by theDominion on the first day. What a bunch of cadets were doing so close to the border of a hostile power is anyones guess, but they were definately within Fed space.

Post by **Teaos** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:16 pm

What better way to train the best than to subject them to real life missions?

These guys are the best. It would be pointless to send them patrolling alpha centuri.

Blackstar the Chakat · Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:19 pm

Thorin, there are like five things wrong in your statement. First of all we never saw the original captain so how could you possibly know how many pips he has? The war started after the ship left and it was never in the Gamma quadrent. And the Admiral may have prefered being called captain. Admirals can get away with minor rule bending(if it is a rule) because they have the rank to do it.

Okay that was only 3, but still, its a lot for this kind of situation.