With regard to the command track, first of all, it's unusual for anyone to go from low rank directly to captain - that's kind of the whole point about Kirk being so SPESHUL. And in TOS canon, he served on another ship before getting command of Enterprise.
Every captain that I can think of knows how to pilot. They all pilot shuttlecrafts, and they would know how to navigate, fire weapons and whatnot. First Officers are basically captains in training - and they can do most of the "command" jobs. Riker was offered his own command and turned it down because he wanted to be on the Enterprise. Sulu later became a captain, (as did Spock of course!) and Chekov was the first Officer under Paul whatsisface (Winfield?) in Wrath of Khan. Not to mention that the captain and first officer don't spend 24 hours on the bridge, so other command officers will have command of various shifts.
But also TOS was different from TNG. In TOS it was fairly typical for the science officer to be first officer. Kind of like double duty. But that changed, too, probably as more people enlisted in StarFleet (as more races joined the Federation) and the first officer became a kind of mini-captain in charge of the crew stuff and whatnot.
Deanna Troi was ship's counselor, but she took the command exam - and eventually passed, and she was at the con when Enterprise crashed in Generations. :-P
You can't use James Kirk as an example of anything with regard to command because in reboot he went from cadet to captain which had never been done before, and even in TOS, he was the youngest captain in Starfleet. In the early seasons of TNG, Riker was apparently on the "Kirk" track and wanted to beat Kirk's record, but, yanno, if he did, he would have had to leave the show, and they couldn't have that. So he turned down command because he decided he wanted Enterprise after Picard retired/got promoted. :-P
But um, during TOS era, and reboot, the first officer would have a double duty, and the designation "first officer" pretty much meant, "If anything happens to the captain, I'm in charge." It was less a job in itself and more a status, you know?
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Every captain that I can think of knows how to pilot. They all pilot shuttlecrafts, and they would know how to navigate, fire weapons and whatnot. First Officers are basically captains in training - and they can do most of the "command" jobs. Riker was offered his own command and turned it down because he wanted to be on the Enterprise. Sulu later became a captain, (as did Spock of course!) and Chekov was the first Officer under Paul whatsisface (Winfield?) in Wrath of Khan. Not to mention that the captain and first officer don't spend 24 hours on the bridge, so other command officers will have command of various shifts.
But also TOS was different from TNG. In TOS it was fairly typical for the science officer to be first officer. Kind of like double duty. But that changed, too, probably as more people enlisted in StarFleet (as more races joined the Federation) and the first officer became a kind of mini-captain in charge of the crew stuff and whatnot.
Deanna Troi was ship's counselor, but she took the command exam - and eventually passed, and she was at the con when Enterprise crashed in Generations. :-P
You can't use James Kirk as an example of anything with regard to command because in reboot he went from cadet to captain which had never been done before, and even in TOS, he was the youngest captain in Starfleet. In the early seasons of TNG, Riker was apparently on the "Kirk" track and wanted to beat Kirk's record, but, yanno, if he did, he would have had to leave the show, and they couldn't have that. So he turned down command because he decided he wanted Enterprise after Picard retired/got promoted. :-P
But um, during TOS era, and reboot, the first officer would have a double duty, and the designation "first officer" pretty much meant, "If anything happens to the captain, I'm in charge." It was less a job in itself and more a status, you know?
/rambling :-P