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THE NEXT GENERATION ERA RANK SYSTEM.

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When Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered in 1987, the costume department, headed by William Ware Theiss, decided to create a new set of simplified, unobtrusive rank insignia to reflect Roddenberry's vision of the pacifistic, relaxed 24th century. Gone would be the militaristic insignia designed for the movies, and the naval themed stripes of The Original Series. A simple set fo rank pips, based on the stripe/half-stripe system in place in the current U.S. Navy, was put into place, and is still in use in current 24th century era Trek productions, 15 years after TNG premiered and 15 years in elapsed time of the Trek universe (from "Encounter at Farpoint" [TNG] until "Nemesis" [Movie #10]).

Line Officers.

Here is a chart with the line officer ranks that have been canonically established in the course of modern Star Trek.

( NOTE: A comprehensive Fleet rank chart can be found on the Insignia page. ) 

Captain. canonically established, first appeared in "Encounter at Farpoint" worn by Jean-Luc Picard.	(four solid pips worn on left collar of standard uniforms, left breast of some dress uniforms & some future uniform variants).
Commander. canonically established, first appeared in "Encounter at Farpoint" worn by William Riker and Beverly Crusher.	(three solid pips worn on left collar of standard uniforms, left breast of some dress uniforms & some future uniform variants).
Lieutenant Commander. canonically established, first appeared in "Encounter at Farpoint" worn by Data and Deanna Troi.	(two solid and one hollow pip worn on left collar of standard uniforms, left breast of some dress uniforms & some future uniform variants).
Lieutenant. canonically established, first appeared in "Encounter at Farpoint" worn by Natasha Yar.	(two solid pips worn on left collar of standard uniforms, left breast of some dress uniforms & some future uniform variants).
Junior Lieutenant. canonically established, first appeared in "Encounter at Farpoint" worn by Geordi LaForge and Worf.	(one solid and one hollow pip worn on left collar of standard uniforms, left breast of some dress uniforms & some future uniform variants).
Ensign. canonically established, first appeared in "Encounter at Farpoint" worn by supernumerary crewmembers.	(one solid pip worn on left collar of standard uniforms, left breast of some dress uniforms & some future uniform variants).

All of the officer ranks were clarified early on, Picard was shown as captain, Riker and Crusher as commanders, Data and Troi as lieutenant commanders, Yar as a lieutenant, and Geordi and Worf as junior lieutenants, as well as many ensigns over the years, such as Ro and Wesley. Over the course of the show, Worf was promoted to full lieutenant, and Geordi to lieutenant commander. These insignia continued to be used by the casts of Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

Some oddities that have arisen were minor production errors. Picard, in

"The Best of Both Worlds" [TNG #74 & 75] referred to Riker as a lieutenant commander when he first met him, although Riker was a full commander from the beginning of the series, and it was mentioned that Riker had been offered a captaincy prior to his placement as Enterprise-D executive. The explanation for this would be that Riker was a lieutenant commander when he was first considered for the exec position by Picard, and was newly promoted to commander as of "Encounter at Farpoint." This explanation would assume that if Riker had achieved the captaincy of the Drake, he would of done so as a commander in rank, indicating it may have been a smaller ship that could have the skipper position. In "All Good Things" [TNG #177&178] Data is mistakenly depicted as a junior lieutenant in the flashback sequences, lacking a pip on his uniform.

Flag Officers: The first season admiral uniforms appears to use a series of varying sized squeaks or lozenges on the epaulet to show the flag grade, however there is no clear comparison with the later flag rank systems. The proper flag ranks were first seen in season 2 episodes, with standard looking rank pips enclosed in gold bars. The season 2 admiral uniforms had odd neck designs, with vertical rank bars, and were finalized with less ostentatious versions from season 3 on. It seems that TNG era ranks have eliminated the Commodore/Lower Rear Admiral rank, many officers seem to jump right up from captain to the two-pip flag rank (such as Janeway in "Nemesis"), although a few novels have noted that the rank hasn't been eliminated, just that it is rare. Most of the admirals seen are of the three or four pip variety. (No one-pip or five-pip flag officers have ever been seen onscreen, to my knowledge).

Non-Commissioned Ratings: No reference was made to enlisted personnel is Starfleet until "Family," when Sergei Rozhenko introduced himself as a retired Chief Petty Officer, and identified O'Brien as a CPO also, which is odd because O'Brien wore lieutenant's pips until the premiere of Deep Space Nine. There were no sightings of non-commissioned ranks in Starfleet in the Next Generation era until "The Drumhead," when Simon Tarses was confirmed to be a crewman, and had opted to not attend Starfleet Academy and attain a commission. He wore no insignia. Later, when Deep Space Nine premiered, O'Brien was referred to as Chief again, supposedly as his rank and not his position, as was assumed during TNG. It was also mentioned that he had received a promotion upon arriving at DS9. He wore a single hollow pip, denoting a rank somewhere below ensign. O'Brien had previously worn an ensign pip in "Encounter at Farpoint" and "Lonely Among Us" [TNG], and then a lieutenant rank throughout the series. These appearances are supposed to be retroactively ignored as mistakes in the eyes of the producers, since it is maintained he has never been an officer. Promotional material for DS9 indicates the hollow pip represents 'warrant officer,' although being a WO and a CPO would be mutually exclusive. After DS9's fourth season, O'Brien wore an embroidered device with three chevrons and two pips, a more sensible insignia for a CPO. Throughout DS9 and Voyager, many non-commissioned personnel were shown, although none besides O'Brien and one other ever had insignia. These include specialists, technicians and many that were simply referred to as crewmen and crewman first class, second class, etc. In "Where No One Has Gone Before," Kosinski beamed aboard wearing a uniform with no communicator and a single silver rectangle as rank insignia. He was identified as non-military personnel, this fits perfectly the role of a warrant officer, so it can be supposed that is what that signifies.

Cadets: In "Allegiance," the cadet uniform was first seen, it was a black jumpsuit with department color shoulders and had no insignia. Later, in "The First Duty" there was a more elaborate cadet getup, with a higher collar and a four pin system to show class year. All uniforms until "Valiant" were shown to only be red, until that episode returned to cadet departmental color schemes. In DS9 episodes, the black and red cadet suits were updated to grey and red, so as not to be confused with the similar officer jumpsuits in use in that series. Cadets on the Valiant also wore a division insignia on an opposite collar.

Provisional Officers: Voyager featured many Maquis officers given provisional commissions, they were shown as a separate lozenge pin with stripes inside concurrent with the pip system. There didn't seem to be a NCO system to go with this, as NCOs wouldnt be given commissions. As these are field awards of acting ranks, the cadet and flag grades would not be factored into this system.