Starfleet ranks and insignia
Starfleet ranks and insignia are hierarchical titles and badges of office which appear in the science fiction universe of Star Trek. Such ranks and insignia form the hierarchy of Starfleet, the defensive and scientific exploration arm of the United Federation of Planets. The ranks and insignia of Starfleet are based on the historic titles used by the United States Navy of Earth.
Starfleet ranks and titles have evolved through both live action productions, official publications, and the fanon of the Star Trek Expanded Universe. The most official ranks established are those which appear in Star Trek films and television productions, with ranks appearing in publications from Star Trek producers considered "secondary", but nevertheless still officially established Starfleet titles. The least official of all ranks are those which appear in Star Trek fan literature, such as magazines and websites published by private persons with little or no affiliation with the Star Trek series. Such ranks are considered conjecture, yet occasionally may find their way into semi-official Star Trek sources (an example being the rank of Branch Admiral).
The following is a compilation of the ranks and insignia of Starfleet to include official ranks from series productions, semi-official titles from Star Trek publications, and conjectured ranks from Star Trek fan publications.
Commisioned officers
Other ranks
| Cadet ranks | ||||
| Cadet 1st Class | Cadet 2nd Class | Cadet 3rd Class | Cadet 4th Class | |
| File:St-tng cadet1c.png | File:St-tng cadet2c.png | File:St-tng cadet3c.png | File:St-tng cadet4c.png | |
Alternate reality ranks
Conjectural ranks
Star Trek publications and fan literature sometime offer additional ranks which have not been mentioned in official publications or spoken of in live action productions. In addition, a number of unofficial sources have offered alternative insignia for several Starfleet ranks. This tendency is compounded by officially licensed products which sometimes explicitly state the existence of ranks and insignia which are never shown in the actual productions, or even sometimes contradict what is shown onscreen. In other cases costuming errors cause characters to wear unusual insignia and fans try to interpret some actual meaning into the error.
Because the rank insignia of Starfleet usually follow a simple geometric progression of circles, stripes, blocks, triangles or other symbols, many fans often speculate what unusual combinations or very large numbers of these symbols would designate in terms of rank, or what the insignia of modern or historic ranks not depicted in the show would be.
Conjectural and alternate ranks are not considered official by the producers of Star Trek; however several such ranks have found their way into mention by canon Star Trek sources. One of the most significant such ranks was that of Branch Admiral, which was mentioned briefly in a Star Trek roleplaying manual and later speculated to have actually appeared in the Next Generation pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint".
References
Live action sources
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Publications
- Joseph, Franz (1975). Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-34074-4.
- Johnson, Shane (1987). Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-63576-X.
- Stuart, Rick & Terra, John (1988). Star Trek The Next Generation Officer's Manual. Chicago: FASA Corporation. ISBN 1-55560-079-4.
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- Christensen, David & Doser, Cathy (1989). Klingon Covert Operations Manual. Sue Burchfield: Private Publisher. ISBN Unregistered.
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- Schmidt, David (1991). Starfleet Dynamics. Canada:Strategic Design Publications. ISBN Unregistered.
- David Hutchison (1992). "Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Journal". Starlog Magazine: 29–41.
- Okuda, Michael & Denise (1994,1997,1999). Star Trek Encyclopedia. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-03475-8.
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- Okuda, Michael & Denise (1996). Star Trek Chronology. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-53610-9.
Internet sources
- "Rank Comparison Chart". Spike's Star Trek Page Rank Comparison Chart. Retrieved August 16.
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- "Starfleet Rank Chart". The Trekker's Galactopedia Insignia Section. Retrieved May 9.
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See also
- Comparative ranks and insignia of Star Trek
- List of Starfleet officers
- Rank insignia of the Galactic Empire
- Hollywood Pins
- military rank
- naval officer ranks
- ranks and insignia of NATO