Elessar wrote:I honestly think you're kind of overstating any issues that would exist with T'Pol being a Captain.
I don't. I think his points are all entirely valid. Look at the early episodes of season 1 and how the
human crew dealt (or rather, didn't deal) with a Vulcan XO (ignoring the absurdity of that whole scenario.) Now ramp that up into a full blown combat situation with a crew that hasn't spent 4 years learning to accept and trust her. There is nothing more important in a combat unit than trust, and as we've seen in
Demons and
Terra Prime, there is still a xenophobic section of humanity that hates and fears aliens. Logic dictates that there is going to be some people in the service who feel the same way.
Plus, that concern really is already a reality once she's a 2ic.
Don't get me started on that nonsense.
To be frank, I don't think anybody on Earth would know. Who sits around today, even while we're at war, and waits for the latest MARADMIN report to find out who the new Commandant of the Marine Corps is? Can you name any of the admirals or ship's captains out at sea right now? I mean it's ridiculous to think we'd know that isn't it? The same is true of the average person, civilians wouldn't be paying attention to that mess.
With all due respect, she's not human so, as
CX correctly pointed out, the news media is going to have a field day with her species. Based on how journalists seem to operate for the most part, her image as the first Vulcan Starfleet captain is going to be everywhere and they'll go out of their way to interview people who don't think she's capable. Factor in the politicians back home who are anti-war and you've got even more issues.
Another thing to consider is thus: what about the other officers who have more time in grade and time in service? It's not likely that they're just going to shrug it off when an alien who has been in Starfleet for what? A year? Is suddenly promoted ahead of them. That's going to lead to discontent in the ranks, and, as we've seen in real life, the officers who aren't happy are going to go to the media and complain under conditions of anonymity. It's already hard enough to swallow the nonsense about her outranking Trip (in season 3, especially, but also in season 4 since he's got time in service and time in grade on her).
And actually, in my universe, whether or not other admirals want T'Pol is irrelevant though, because Archer's the one who promotes her.
Okay, I simply cannot allow that pass. You're joining the Marines, right? You
know that it doesn't work like that. Did Archer suddenly seize power in a coup? He can't make an arbitrary promotion like that without support from Starfleet Command, and based on the above-mentioned issues with other Starfleet officers, I can't see them just backing her promotion like that. Realistically, I can't see SFC promoting her to captain for quite a while, if at all.
The only way I really
can see something like that is if its a joint-service ship with a crew made up of half Vulcans and half humans. In that case, she'd be ideal to serve as the commanding officer.