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Kirk's Lieutenant "temporary rank"[]
In the First Officer section, there's a box about Kirk's rank as Lieutenant. Quoting, Kirk's rank is visible on the transporter display Chekov uses to rescue him and Sulu, which indicates he was given the temporary rank of lieutenant.
Written as it is, it sounds as if the origin of the rank is confirmed, but isn't this explanation actually speculation (not much unlike the old version included in the "removed" topic in this talk section)?
Shouldn't the line be rephrased to point out that it's not confirmed ("which indicates that he might've been given")? Nothing in canon, nor in the script and novelization tells us if the rank was given him by Pike for the mission or if Kirk came on the Enterprise already holding that rank. We just know that Spock addresses him by "Cadet" at the hearing and that in the script Kirk's log starts with "lieutenant's log", that's all.
I know nothing about military. Can/could a cadet be given an officer commission, like non-canon novels apparently did with TOS Kirk?
--Hakka84 (talk) 02:03, 25 February 2022 (UTC)