Married by the Captain

[Kotik]

One of the most over-used elements in TnT fiction is probably the fact that they get married by Archer, since Captains can. Well, the funny thing is - the can't

I've dug up material about the Laws in Germany, Britain, US Of Americaland and Mother Russia - all state that marriages solemnized by Captains at see are NOT legally valid. In fact Britain and Germany actually disallow this practice.

So has anyone an idea, where this myth comes from?

On the other hand I remember that Kirk was about to perform a marriage ceremony in "Balance Of Terror".

[putaro]

People probably did it before things were so formalized. After all, before there were all these records and paperwork all you really needed to do was say you were married. If you're on a ship in the middle of the ocean, the captain is usually the highest authority.

In California, marriages are conducted by a "celebrant" - you can get a one day authorization to do it, I believe. My wife and I got "married" on a boat in SF harbor by the captain, though we'd actually had a civil ceremony before.

Here, I found this - http://marriage.about.com/cs/marriageli ... datsea.htm

I did not know that under Japanese law ship captains are allowed to perform marriages. Bermuda apparently allows it to (so all those Love Boat marriages were valid, I guess )

[Cogito]

So has anyone an idea, where this myth comes from?

Google says that for many countries captains are required to maintain a register of births, deaths and marriages that occur onboard ship. I think there is a widespread perception that they are acting as a registrar, although (as you point out) most countries don't authorise captains to perform marriages. (Google says that Japan is the exception.) Probably this is where the idea came from that ships' captains are authorised to perform marriages.

Anybody can 'perform' a common law marriage though, and if the ship was isolated and nobody was available who was legally authorised to perform a marriage it's easy to imagine that the captain would be asked to perform the ceremony.

[Silverbullet]

Probably goes back to the days of Sail. Once a ship got out of sight of land the Catain was law on board. A ship that was at sea in those day stook weeks to get to its destination if there was an occasion that someone wanted to get married the captain probably had been granted that authority . Once there was the law of the sea and the ability of a Ca[tain to perfrom marrieages may have been in that. who knows.

In space a hell of a long way from home who else? Supose two crew members forgot to use the birth control issued by phlox and she came up very pregnant. they wanted the child to have a name and not be a little bastard. so, ARcher probably was uthoritzed to erform a marriage in that case. Trip and t'Pol goes to the catain and asks him to perform a wedding for them. gives the crew a excuse to party.

What in Hell am I talking about?

SB

[WarpGirl]

Well you could always say that Starfleet is a fictional organization and can make up their own rules. Besides these ships are away for months sometimes years at a time. There are no deployments at six months at a time. Starfleet is fiction they don't do things the way a real military things do.

[Kotik]

By german law a Captain would actually be authorized to marry people, but only if he was Captain and Standesbeamter (officer in the civil registry office), but there's no way to acquire both qualifications simultaneously. Even marriages in church are not legally valid in Germany, you'll have to have a second ceremony witnessed by a civil registry officer.

I think SB's explanation makes most sense. My theory is that in the days of sail it was indeed legal to be married by a Captain, as there were no civil registries in those times. One could theorize that the 'right to marry' would be re-introduced in the future once interstellar vessels were built that were away from Earth for years (space boomers and later long range exploration vessels). Does that sound like a viable theory?

[WarpGirl]

You can do whatever you want. It's fiction. My theory is that since Earth is under one government and the structure of society is fundementally different then ours, then rules for organizations like Starfleet and the MACO's would change with changing values. It does happen look at what the US just did in it's military.

[Silverbullet]

Kotik, it does make sense that when a ship in the future like the Dederation enterprise that was on a five year mission would have provision for the Captain to perform certain ceremonies. Marriages, court Martials, diplomatic agreements with other species. Once Starfleet establishes bases further out and diplomatic relations and exchagnes embassies occur then things could revert to Civil control.

I still wonder why the enterprise never had a chaplain on board. One would belive that some people still beieved in religion and would want spiritual guidance from a chaplain. The chaplain, of course could perform the marriage ceremonies.

SB

[WarpGirl]

We've discussed reasons why they don't have a chaplain on board. Because of the muliticulturalism and alien religous beliefs of the crews one chaplain could not reasonably meet all of the needs. It would be blatant favortism and that goes against ST themes.

[Distracted]

The "counselor" role in TNG was an obvious attempt to introduce a chaplain-like character. Didn't work too well since they put her in a cat-suit, but still...

[Kotik]

Well, I think religion will not have the same importance in a distant future than it has now. The reality of different worlds and sentient species, who obviously are not created after 'His Likeliness' will neccessarily make some teachings of existing religions hard to uphold. NX-01 had no official councellor, but the role inofficially fell to Phlox.

[Cogito]

The "counselor" role in TNG was an obvious attempt to introduce a chaplain-like character. Didn't work too well since they put her in a cat-suit, but still...

Yes, it makes me chuckle that the only person who was in a position to know exactly what people were thinking about her thought it was a good idea to wear a figure-hugging cat suit that exposed large amounts of cleavage. I suspect a psychologist would have a field day analysing what that said about her character. The fact that she was responsible for counseling crewmembers makes it doubly ironic.

Still, the powers that be have never been afraid to be shallow and obvious in the drive for improve their ratings.

[WarpGirl]

There have been characters in ST who have been religious, both human and alien. So it's obvious that faith has not died out. But the point of ST has always been to bring cultures together not separate them. Having a Chaplain would create divisions. For example, where would Phlox go to have his needs met? If we had gotten a season 5 Shran would have joined the crew, how would he get spiritual guidence if he were so inclined?

There is no "one size fits all" Chaplain. So it makes no sense to write a character for a show where it won't fit.

Mirina Sirtis wore many different outfits not all of them were catsuits. Now she wears a regular uniform.

[Kotik]

Mirina Sirtis wore many different outfits not all of them were catsuits. Now she wears a regular uniform.

The reason for Dis' eye-roll was that of all people, the emphatic counselor was used as the cheap tittilation plot-bunny.

[Distracted]

Babylon 5 dealt with spirituality so much more realistically than ST. In Gene Roddenberry's universe the human race has "grown beyond" petty things like organized religion (and money), but I think that's malarky. In B5 when an alien race wanted to know more about human spirituality the representative of that race got escorted to an enormous room with a line of about fifty people in it. Then a reception took place where he was introduced to representatives of every major religion and philosophy of life on the station, one right after the other, each in the traditional clothing of their faith, if applicable. It was a very touching and emotional scene, with an orthodox rabbi, several different sorts of priests, a buddist monk, an imam, a robed Hindu, and a sikh easily identifiable in the line interspersed among others who weren't so identifiably dressed. In one episode one of the officers sat shiva for her father. In another one a group of monks took a brain-wiped murderer into their order. These were meaningful and exciting episodes, not just space opera and blowing things up.

That's the way religion will be in the future, IMO. Different, maybe, but certainly not absent. People need faith in something. It's an integral part of the human psyche. Eliminating it leaves an empty hole that people try to fill with drugs, sex, or material possessions, but nothing tangible will fill that hole.

I'm off topic here. Returning to the subject at hand, I agree that choosing to have the captain marry them makes sense. Phlox could also do it so that the captain could be Trip's best man, Malcolm a bridegroom, and Hoshi and Cole the maids of honor.