Starfleet ranks and insignia

File:STARFLEETEMBLEM.jpg

The insignia of Starfleet in the late 23rd century

File:Starfleet command emblem.png

The insignia of Starfleet in the 24th century

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

Flag Officer ranks
Rank	Fleet Admiral	Admiral	Vice Admiral	Rear Admiral	Rear Admiral (Lower Half)	Commodore
Enterprise	File:Star Trek Enterprise OF10.png	File:Star Trek Enterprise OF9.png	File:Star Trek Enterprise OF8.png	File:Star Trek Enterprise OF7.png	N/A	File:Star Trek Enterprise OF6.png
Original Series	Conjectured	Conjectured	File:Star Trek Tos OF8.png	File:Star Trek Tos OF7.png	N/A	File:Star Trek Tos OF6.png
The Motion Picture	Conjectured	Conjectured	Conjectured	File:Star Trek TMP OF7.png	N/A	File:Star Trek TMP OF6.png
Feature Films	File:Star Trek Film OF10.png	File:Star Trek Film OF9.png	File:Star Trek Film OF8.png	File:Star Trek Film OF7.png	N/A	File:Star Trek Film OF6.png
TNG 1st season	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF10.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF9.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF8.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF7.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF6a.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF6b.png
TNG, DS9, VOY	File:Star Trek TNG OF10.png	File:Star Trek TNG OF9.png	File:Star Trek TNG OF8.png	File:Star Trek TNG OF7.png	File:Star Trek TNG OF6.png	N/A

Officer ranks
Rank	Fleet Captain	Captain	Commander	Lieutenant Commander	Lieutenant	Lieutenant Junior Grade	Ensign
Enterprise	N/A	File:Star Trek Enterprise OF5.png	File:Star Trek Enterprise OF4.png	N/A	File:Star Trek Enterprise OF2.png	N/A	File:Star Trek Enterprise OF1b.png
Star Trek Pilots	File:Star Trek Pilot Officer.png File:Star Trek Pilot Officer.png File:Star Trek Pilot Officer.png	File:Star Trek Pilot Officer.png File:Star Trek Pilot Officer.png	File:Star Trek Pilot Officer.png	File:Star Trek Pilot Officer.png	File:Star Trek Pilot Officer.png	No insignia	No insignia
Original Series	File:Star Trek Tos OF5a.png	File:Star Trek Tos OF5b.png	File:Star Trek Tos OF4.png	File:Star Trek Tos OF3.png	File:Star Trek Tos OF2.png	File:Star Trek Tos OF1a.png	No insignia
The Motion Picture	N/A	File:Star Trek TMP OF5.png	File:Star Trek TMP OF4.png	File:Star Trek TMP OF3.png	File:Star Trek TMP OF2.png	N/A	File:Star Trek TMP OF1b.png
Feature Films	File:Star Trek Film OF5a.png	File:Star Trek Film OF5b.png	File:Star Trek Film OF4.png	File:Star Trek Film OF3.png	File:Star Trek Film OF2.png	File:Star Trek Film OF1a.png	File:Star Trek Film OF1b.png
TNG 1st season	N/A	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF5.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF4.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF3.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF2.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF1a.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 OF1b.png
TNG, DS9, VOY	File:Star Trek TNG OF5a.png		File:Star Trek TNG OF4.png	File:Star Trek TNG OF3.png	File:Star Trek TNG OF2.png	File:Star Trek TNG OF1a.png	File:Star Trek TNG OF1b.png
VOY (provisional ranks)	N/A		File:Voyager OF4.png	File:Voyager OF3.png	File:Voyager OF2.png	File:Voyager OF1a.png	File:Voyager OF1b.png
29th century VOY	N/A	File:29th century star trek Of 5.jpg	File:29th century star trek Of 4.jpg	File:29th century star trek Of 3.jpg	File:29th century star trek Of 2.jpg	File:29th century star trek Of 1a.jpg	File:29th century star trek Of 1b.jpg

Other ranks

Warrant Officer ranks
Rank	Chief Warrant Officer 1st Class	Chief Warrant Officer 2nd Class	Chief Warrant Officer 3rd Class	Chief Warrant Officer 4th Class	Warrant Officer
TNG 1st season	File:Star Trek TNG S1 WO5.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 WO4.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 WO3.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 WO2.png	File:Star Trek TNG S1 WO1.png
TNG, DS9, VOY	File:Star Trek TNG WO5.png	File:Star Trek TNG WO4.png	File:Star Trek TNG WO3.png	File:Star Trek TNG WO2.png	File:Star Trek TNG WO1.png

Enlisted ranks
Rank	Master Chief Petty Officer	Senior Chief Petty Officer	Chief Petty Officer	Petty Officer 1st Class	Petty Officer 2nd Class	Petty Officer 3rd Class	Crewman 1st Class	Crewman 2nd Class / Crewman	Crewman 3rd Class / Recruit
Enterprise	N/A	N/A	Conjectured	Conjectured	Conjectured	Conjectured	File:Ent En 3.png	File:Ent En 2.png	File:Ent En 1.png
The Motion Picture	Conjectured	Conjectured					No Insignia	No Insignia	No Insignia
Feature Films	File:Star Trek Film OR9.png	File:Star Trek Film OR8.png	File:Star Trek Film OR7.png	File:Star Trek Film OR6.png	File:Star Trek Film OR5.png	File:Star Trek Film OR4.png	File:Star Trek Film OR3.png	No Insignia	No Insignia
TNG	File:St-tng masterchiefpettyofficer.png	File:St-tng seniorchiefpettyofficer.png	File:St-tng chiefpettyofficer.png	File:St-tng pettyofficer.png	File:St-tng pettyofficer.png	File:St-tng pettyofficer.png	No Insignia	No Insignia	No Insignia
DS9	File:Star Trek DS9 OR9.png	File:Star Trek DS9 OR8.png	File:Star Trek DS9 OR7.png	File:Star Trek DS9 OR6.png	File:Star Trek DS9 OR5.png	File:Star Trek DS9 OR4.png	File:Star Trek DS9 OR3.png	File:Star Trek DS9 OR2.png	No Insignia
Enlisted personnel from Star Trek: The Original Series wore uniforms without rank insignia

Cadet ranks
Cadet 1st Class	Cadet 2nd Class	Cadet 3rd Class	Cadet 4th Class
File:Star Trek TNG CD4.png	File:Star Trek TNG CD3.png	File:Star Trek TNG CD2.png	File:Star Trek TNG CD1.png

Alternate reality ranks

Star Trek: Enterprise era Mirror Universe ranks
Fleet Admiral	Vice Admiral	Captain	Commander	Lieutenant Commander	Lieutenant	Ensign
File:ISS Enterpirse OF8,10.png	File:ISS Enterpirse OF8,10.png	File:ISS Enterpirse OF5.png	File:ISS Enterpirse OF4.png	File:ISS Enterpirse OF3.png	File:ISS Enterpirse OF2.png	File:ISS Enterpirse OF1.png

Star Trek: The Next Generation era "Future Imperfect" and "Parallels" ranks
Admiral	Captain	Commander	Lieutenant	Ensign
File:Star Trek The Next Generation, Alternate OF 9.gif	File:Star Trek The Next Generation, Alternate OF 5.gif	File:Star Trek The Next Generation, Alternate OF 4.gif	File:Star Trek The Next Generation, Alternate OF 2.gif	File:Star Trek The Next Generation, Alternate OF 1b.gif

Conjectural ranks

Main article: Conjectural ranks of Star Trek

File:BranchAdmiral.png

Admiral McCoy's
shoulder board

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

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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Christensen, David & Doser, Cathy (1989). Klingon Covert Operations Manual. Sue Burchfield: Private Publisher. ISBN Unregistered.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• 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. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)

• 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. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

• "Starfleet Rank Chart". The Trekker's Galactopedia Insignia Section. Retrieved May 9. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

See also

• Comparative ranks and insignia of Star Trek
• List of Starfleet officers
• List of Starfleet officers by rank
• Rank insignia of the Galactic Empire
• Hollywood Pins
• Military rank
• Naval officer ranks
• Ranks and insignia of NATO

External links

• Description of Starfleet ranks
• The Trekker's Galactopedia
• Starfleet ranks and insignia at Memory Alpha