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Post by Captain Anja Malitzka on Feb 21, 2013 9:59:12 GMT -5
My point is that if their education system is so good that they can churn out doctors in half the time then why on earth would they need to keep security people in school for four years? Because normal security people get trained in around six months as enlisted personnel and anyone who goes through the Academy is learning how to become an officer. Any security officer is going to be essentially in charge of a unit of enlisted people most likely. And not only that, they also need to be at least partially crosstrained to handle the position of tactical officer. Starship security is a serious thing, especially when the Federation is constantly getting into new conflicts, and any Security/Tactical officer is more or less responsible for knowing how to organize security, what sorts of threats to look out for, how to handle personal and ranged combat, and how to utilize Starship weaponry. This is a lot more than learning how to be a security guard at Walmart.
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Post by Captain Erys Murai on Feb 21, 2013 10:32:33 GMT -5
Another thing to consider too: Junior Officers were often able to work a variety of tasks as needed, without any extra training. Worf went from Helm to Security, Geordi went from Helm to Engineering, Wesley went from Engineering to Security to Science and back to Engineering. Honestly, I would expect that Starfleet Academy would give a minimum of 10 to 20 in several fields. If nothing else, they'd be able to operate an LCARS-style control panel and look up how to do something if they don't know. That's what real people do in a situation where they don't know something... they either ask or look it up. And T'pang, I've never said that Doctors should be "ready" after only 4 years in the Academy. As I pointed out in my first post, Crusher apparently took 8 years in her training. Bashir, for example, is stated as going to "Starfleet Medical Academy" and graduating in 2368. He took his first assignment in 2369, at age 27. So either Bashir took a long time in the academy (an extra 4 years, apparently), or he applied later. Unfortunately, there's no entrance date to confirm either way. It's also stated that "While at Starfleet Medical Academy, Bashir took engineering extension classes that focused mainly on starship operations. (DS9: "Distant Voices")" Apparently SMA had electives during branch school, so even medical officers could get cross-trained.
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Post by Captain T'Pang on Feb 21, 2013 12:02:59 GMT -5
Another thing to consider too: Junior Officers were often able to work a variety of tasks as needed, without any extra training. Worf went from Helm to Security, Geordi went from Helm to Engineering, Wesley went from Engineering to Security to Science and back to Engineering. Honestly, I would expect that Starfleet Academy would give a minimum of 10 to 20 in several fields. If nothing else, they'd be able to operate an LCARS-style control panel and look up how to do something if they don't know. That's what real people do in a situation where they don't know something... they either ask or look it up. And T'pang, I've never said that Doctors should be "ready" after only 4 years in the Academy. As I pointed out in my first post, Crusher apparently took 8 years in her training. Bashir, for example, is stated as going to "Starfleet Medical Academy" and graduating in 2368. He took his first assignment in 2369, at age 27. So either Bashir took a long time in the academy (an extra 4 years, apparently), or he applied later. Unfortunately, there's no entrance date to confirm either way. It's also stated that "While at Starfleet Medical Academy, Bashir took engineering extension classes that focused mainly on starship operations. (DS9: "Distant Voices")" Apparently SMA had electives during branch school, so even medical officers could get cross-trained. Personally my method for working out my character's time line for character develpoment is and always has been I assume four years for Starfleet Academy, then based on my character story I work out what type o training and experience a person going into such a job might realistically have. Example for Billie Jo, I wanted her to be a doctor and I know doctors go to school for eight years then typically have some residency period. So I filled out her history accordingly. Technically I could have gone with a nurse as a CMO for a vessel the size of the Sentinel and only had her go to school for four years....but the heart wants what it wants. With T'Pang I wanted the character to be an actual scientist and for that your looking at eight years of school as well typically. AS for the time line of skills I do it this way, when all is said and done your character winds up with x number of skills with y value for each. Example Billie Jo is 26, my story is that over the 26 years of her life she acquired all these skills, I leave it vague as we when and where she got them, irregardless of what the time line on the character creation page says. Obviously some skills make sense to have come from certain points on her timeline, like General Medicine from SF Medical, but over all I like to leave it vague. Time line wise the only thing that is set is that Starfleet Academy is a four year school. I think for many chaaracters it would make sense to have most of thier skills developed during this period, rather than at some branch school after graduation. But untimately I think that unless we want to go the route of establishing some elaborate training timeline for each career field, then we should be much more loose with the whole time line.
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Post by Captain Erys Murai on Feb 21, 2013 13:13:28 GMT -5
For Vulcans at least, it would make sense for them to go to the Vulcan Science Academy first, and then move to SFA later. That appears to be what Spock did, and possibly Tuvok as well (remember that Tuvok was originally a science officer, and moved to tactical later).
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Post by Captain T'Pang on Feb 21, 2013 13:21:26 GMT -5
For Vulcans at least, it would make sense for them to go to the Vulcan Science Academy first, and then move to SFA later. That appears to be what Spock did, and possibly Tuvok as well (remember that Tuvok was originally a science officer, and moved to tactical later). Actually Spock never went to the VSA, he decided to go to Starfleet instead. This is the reason him and his father didn't speak for so long. I can't speak about Tuvok. Either way this would seem like a logical career path for a Vulcan science officer.
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Post by Captain Erys Murai on Feb 21, 2013 13:35:08 GMT -5
Oh wait, you're right. I remember that now... they offered him entrance, and he turned it down.
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Post by Captain T'Pang on Feb 21, 2013 17:07:26 GMT -5
Oh wait, you're right. I remember that now... they offered him entrance, and he turned it down. I am uncertain if they ever went into a lot of detail about it in any of the shows or movies (other than the JJ Abrams movie.) The only reference to it was the TOS episode "Journey to Babel" Sarek says: "I gave Spock his first instruction in computers, Captain. He chose to devote his knowledge to Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy. " But that scene from the 2009 movie was pretty cool.
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