Valjiir

[Valka]

It's roomier than a similar set would have been on Star Trek Voyager.

[Geo]

That was my impression too.

On Chakov's chewing scene, both main figures in the scene have that Russian outlook.

[Mylochka]

In this illustration, Daffy Gollub is anxious to see whether or not disgust with a non-stop diet of foam rubber cubes will tempt Del into entering the cooking contest...

[Geo]

 
Should be a no-brainer. Unless women in the 23th century aren't that picky anymore about what to stuff in their mouth.

[Valka]

I'm very impressed with how clean the tables are. 

[Geo]

One could eat of them!

[Mylochka]

Daphne Gollub tries to calculate who will be the odds-on favorite in the cooking contest...

[Valka]

Something looks odd with their rank stripes - when was Daffy ever an Ensign while Ruth was a Lieutenant?

[Mylochka]

I think so, but I could be wrong.

[Valka]

Was Daffy an Ensign at the same time that Ruth was a Lieutenant and Del was aboard? What are their ranks during this cooking contest story?

[Mylochka]

It's hard to find references to Daffy's rank in the stories.  Ruth is identified as a lieutenant at the beginning of "D'Artangnan and the Silver Streak"  which comes before this story.  Del becomes a lieutenant at the end of "Redshirts," so he's a lieutenant.  Daffy is identified as lieutenant in "Could Mohammed Move a Mountain?" which comes not that long after this story... I don't know. Maybe she should be a lieutenant here.... I'm not sure now what made me think she was still an ensign...

[Geo]

Which begs the question how many lieutenants does the Enterprise need?
What was the amount of crew? About 400?

[Mylochka]

The number given in the episodes is usually around 430.  And yeah, there are always a lot of lieutenants.  The majority of named minor characters are lieutenants. I think they outnumber the ensigns we meet.  We definitely see more lieutenants than yeomen.  At one time I could have given you a tally of the (relatively small) number of characters identified as being just crewmen, but I've forgotten it now. Not only does the Enterprise have a lot of lieutenants, the ship even has a lot of characters at the rank of lieutenant commander.  Apparently those few crewmen need lots of supervision...

[Mylochka]

Maybe starships have more higher ranking officers because their missions are -- as Kirk repeatedly says before he's about to photon torpedo some alien's butt out of existence -- primarily scientific.  They have a lot of science specialists whose rank could reflect their advanced degrees and experience in their field... even though some of a lot of those specialists -- for example their archeologist and historian -- seem to be attractive young women in their early to mid-twenties...

Anyway, you were right, Valka.  Daphne Gollub is a lieutenant at this point in the series.  Here she is with the correct sleeve-bling...

[Mylochka]

Pictures from Star Trek: Phase Two's upcoming production of "Mindsifter"  have been popping up on my Facebook feed recently.  Seeing pictures of their "Captain Spock" made me think of Valjiir's "Shadow Captain" story arc -- which is based on the same premise.  Kirk is abducted by Klingons, who use the Mind Sifter on him, then send him back into the past.  The Valjiir stories focus on what happens to Spock as he becomes captain and tries to track down the Klingon's trail.

These stories were among the very first created illustrations for.  Looking back on them, I decided I could do a little better now than I did then.  Here's one of the new illustrations for these stories..