The crew

Re-watching the "JOURNEY to BABEL" episode yesterday they show the Vulcan shuttle at the beginning as it enters the landing bay. A redshirt honour guard enters to receive the ambassadorial party and I realize right there this is probably the highest number of security guards ever shown in one place: 8 in all.

Obsession had multiple numbers of cannon fodder, ...uh, security officers getting killed off but the JtB group is the highest count in a single appearance, I think.

It had me thinking again, with the full Enterprise complement of 430 give-or-take crewmembers, you have a need for security officers, but you also have a clear need for engineers, for medical personnel, operations technicians, and whatever other category of needed personnel so there can't be an unlimited number of security goons loafing around their mancave office when the Enterprise is just riding out in deep space with no emergencies requiring their presence.

I guess that's the magic of television, you can have as much of something as you need when you need it, but were this real, I couldn't imagine a ship having more than a half-dozen full-time crewmembers designated officially as security officers, with selected personnel from other sections pulling reserve duty when needed.

I still chuckle at seeing crewmen like Marla McGivers being assigned to a deep space exploratory craft on a 5-year mission hoping that her easy gig as an Earth history specialist won't get disturbed too often when visiting a planet thousands of light-years away.

It probably makes a lot more sense that most Starfleet personnel pull double- or triple-duty as they rise up the ranks.

 

A lot of bit players play crewmembers who work in multiple divisions, for example Eddie Paskey's Leslie is both a security guard and an engineer (and a helmsman, and a navigator, and a sickbay technician, and...).

 

Ron Veto's Harrison also is a jack-of-all-trades....lol

 

Well, "Harrison" is a Section-31 cover name, after all

 

Exactly why Star Trek is preferable to Star Wars with all due respect. Star Trek has unlimited story potential. You are exploring the galaxy! Anything can happen. Star Wars is a simplistic good guys vs. bad guys formula. (sort of like the Abrams movies)

Very entertaining but lacking in depth.

 

And driving the truck that killed Edith Keeler.

Now there's a fan fic waiting to be written.

 

I actually considered doing that for a Strange New Worlds story once. I just looked up and reread the few abandoned paragraphs from 2007 on my hard drive. That was all I wrote before I decided it was kind of a dippy idea.

 

What the hell. I just posted what I wrote back in the day over in the Fan Fiction forum. Check it out if you're curious:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=262219

Now, I'm not saying it's good or anything, but folks might get a kick out of it. Be kind.

 

Thanks! And FWIW, the notion of Lesley being a literal background extra amongst the crew to get away with his dastardly deeds is one that really tickles me!

 

Well, thanks. Maybe there's something there than I can salvage into something someday...

 

I think he is obviously a Klingon SPY! Changing his uniform to blend in.

 

There was series of novels by Kevin Ryan, Errand of Fury, where a security redshirt on Kirk's Enterprise was actually a Klingon spy. I'm sure I was unconsciously influenced by that premise.

 

It would be interesting to know if any or many of them attended those first conventions.