Minor Pickiness by Mark

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Minor Pickiness

POSTED BY: MARK
UPDATED: Friday, November 15, 2002 09:58
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Tuesday, November 12, 2002 12:08 PM

Yeah, I know, you'll get to the end of this post and say "Why the hell did he need to say that" but I don't care... 'Cause I think you should say what you think, it might stir something in others.

Anyway...

In Out Of Gas - When we're in one of the flashback scenes, we see Mal introducing Zoe to what will become Serenity... Now what bothers me is that she calls him Sir. Now, When it's not a flashback then it's not a problem, because Mal is the Captain of the ship and you call the Captain Sir... But in the flashback, it's set just after the end of the war and, back then, Mal was Zoe's (I expect Corporal Zoe's) Sergeant. And as everyone knows who's seen a military film or TV show with Lee Ermy starring, you NEVER call a Sergeant Sir.
"I'm not an Officer! I work for a living!!!"

Minor Jossian Boo Boo?

Or explainable?

Twelve spheres of unendurable brightness spalled the velvety blackness of space.
The silence on Lester Tourville's flag bridge was absolute
And then the spell was broken as Shannon Foraker looked up from her console from where she had just sent a seemingly innocent command to the main computers of State Security's finest Superdreadnoughts.
"Oops." She said.

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Tuesday, November 12, 2002 12:53 PM

HOBBES

500 years changes military rules/ranks/ordering.

Just be glad they don't call everyone Comrade whatever, or Citizen whatever.

Maybe Zoe really respects him, maybe the Independants classified Sergents as officers, who knows.

I think the writers just screwed up.

-------------------------------------------------
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May you be in heaven an hour before
The Devil knows you’re dead.

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Tuesday, November 12, 2002 2:34 PM

CARDIE

At the Battle of Serenity he ended up being in command of everyone of the Independent troops that were left alive when all the officers were killed. Maybe Zoe considered it a battlefield promotion.

Cardie

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Tuesday, November 12, 2002 4:18 PM

DELVO

Your information about the present military is incorrect as well. Privates call their Sarges "sir" all the time. In fact, this is the first I've ever heard of it not being insisted upon. (My brother was in the Army for a while.)

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Wednesday, November 13, 2002 2:30 AM

QUILL

I b'lieve one calls a Sergeant "Sir" (if one values one's life) but NEVER "Officer."

Inside every cynic there's an idealist desperately yearning to be let out, and when they are let out they're usually a real pain and cause all sorts of trouble. --Chris Boucher

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Wednesday, November 13, 2002 3:42 AM

MARK

Oh well then... I stand VERY corrected. I always was more of a fan of military technology than the rules and regs that the soldiers live under.

Maybe I've just watched one too many Vietnam movies and gotten the details all jumbled up... Sorry to all the past and future troopers out there.

Twelve spheres of unendurable brightness spalled the velvety blackness of space.
The silence on Lester Tourville's flag bridge was absolute
And then the spell was broken as Shannon Foraker looked up from her console from where she had just sent a seemingly innocent command to the main computers of State Security's finest Superdreadnoughts.
"Oops." She said.

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Wednesday, November 13, 2002 4:26 AM

LJSQUARED

I don't know anything of Modern Armed Forces but in the Royal Navy and the Red Coats of 1800ish this is definately true. Anybody not an Officer was probably just called Mr "soandso" or just "soandso". Being a Captain had nothing to do with it, infact most captain's prefered to be called cap'n.

Side Note: In the strange event that an entire ship was left without officers and a un-commisioned man must take charge he would not be called "sir" but "cap'n".

Sorry I've read to much C.S. Forester

Firefly@Trekvideo.com
http://www.trekvideo.com/firefly

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Wednesday, November 13, 2002 6:54 AM

QUILL

Quote:
Originally posted by Mark:
Oh well then... I stand VERY corrected. I always was more of a fan of military technology than the rules and regs that the soldiers live under.

Maybe I've just watched one too many Vietnam movies and gotten the details all jumbled up... Sorry to all the past and future troopers out there.

All I know about it is what I got off of S:AAB; my dad was a sarge but I haven't had a chance to ask him.

Inside every cynic there's an idealist desperately yearning to be let out, and when they are let out they're usually a real pain and cause all sorts of trouble. --Chris Boucher

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Thursday, November 14, 2002 12:36 PM

TINYTIMM

Quote:
Originally posted by Quill:
I b'lieve one calls a Sergeant "Sir" (if one values one's life) but NEVER "Officer."

Depends on which Army, in the US Army, a Sergeant is addressed as Sergeant, except for First Sergeant and Sergeant Major. Other Armies have different traditions. Some US NCOs would address a Sergeant Major as "Sir", like they would an officer or warrant officer, or Cadet serving for training purposes.

Other forces other rules.

Jeff Timm
Who was in the US Army 1972 - 1982, Private (E-1) to Staff Sergeant (E-6)

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Friday, November 15, 2002 9:58 AM

KEF

In every movie and TV show I've every seen, real or fictional, that showed someone entering the military, one of the very first things that a recruit was "taught" by the drill sergeant the moment the recruit stepped off the bus was that EVERY time they addressed a superior, they must begin and end with "sir". As in, "Sir! Yes, Sir!"
More antecdotaly, from the ocassional military personnel I've encountered, I've noticed that some have a tendency to address anyone they respect, even civilians, as "sir".
The Zoe character doesn't strike me as being one to stand on ceremony- i.e. to only begin calling Mal "sir" once he officially assumed captaincy of Serenity. It seemed to me she simply does it out of habit. Which doesn't strike me personally as being at all incongruous with their implied history.

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