Question about rank in the new Star Trek movie

[jessikast]

Okay, so I was assuming that while Spock has the rank of Commander, the other characters (Kirk, McCoy, Uhura etc) were co-opted from essentially undergraduate studies, and have the rank of Cadet - not even Ensign yet.

However, I have just noticed (while not at all watching a downloaded cam version of the movie) that when Uhura confronts Spock regarding her ship assignment, he refers to her as Lieutenant.

Even assuming that she holds the rank of Lieutenant J.G. rather than Lieutenant, that is still a step above Ensign.

So:

1) Do the other characters also hold a rank?
2) Could it be that they have enlisted, achieved a rank, and are now studying further? (Uhura presumably for Communications, Kirk in command track etc...but what would Bones be studying? He is already a qualified doctor, which I vaguely remember means that once he is CMO, at least, he automatically achieves the rank of Lieutenant Commander.)
3) Why does Uhura wear the red cadet uniform rather than the dark post-grad(?) uniform worn by Spock at the academy, and why does she wear the cadet uniform when serving on the Enterprise? Unless her red uniform is just that she's in operations colours?
4) WHERE THE FUCK DO WOMEN PUT THEIR RANK INSIGNIA ON THOSE STUPID LITTLE DRESSES, FFS?
5) Does this make the teacher/student Spock/Uhura relationship less squicky? Yes, yes it does.

ETA: The red/dark grey uniforms aren't the dress uniforms, are they?

Comments

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Actually, good point, and good rationalisation!

And I think they have hair decorations with the insigniae (ducks)

[jessikast]

And I think they have hair decorations with the insigniae (ducks)

Bwahahaha!

And, oh god, that's not funny because I can so see them doing that. Like, headbands with the rank stripes on them! It would be so cuuuute!

(Bonus mental image: the male crew members wearing such headbands.)

[jessikast]

Daph just made me choke laughing when she explained that the reason their skirts are so short is because the rank insignia is on their knickers.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

- I think her red uniform is operations colours - I don't know if that was the colour original Uhura wore, but that seems likely to me.
- it makes sense to me that Uhura hold a higher rank than Kirk because she was already enlisted and studying when he got into that barfight, right?

[jessikast]

I think you're right about the uniform - I was writing my post before they actually got onto the Enterprise, at which point everyone but stowaway, sedated Kirk dons proper uniforms.

And yes, she was enlisted...but so where the other dudes beating Kirk up. And the shuttle they were all on was called by Pike a shuttle for "new recruits", right? Like...she obviously is some way along in her xenolinguistics studies, but I thought that all the cadets were new recruits, and they'd just signed up and got their shiny new uniforms, but hadn't actually gotten as far as the academy yet.