ST : TVH - Why does the dog not smell Chekov or Uhura?

[Grant]

The screenplay specifically says the dog is a drug-sniffing dog. Also, at the point where the dog notices Uhura and Chekov, they had just beamed in; nobody calls for an intruder alert until they notice the power drain, so the sailor and dog were just on a routine drug patrol.

Why do you want to use facts from the script when you can speculate and push your own theory?

Drug abuse by naval personal IS a thing. Random testing in 1982 showed 7+% of tested personal were positive for drugs.....

http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/Pages/NotOnMyShipNotInMyNavy!COSetsHisSightsOnSpice.aspx

 

[Franklin]

The way the onscreen events unfold, we don't even know it was a service dog. For all we know, the sailor in question was permitted a pet (or was taking care of one belonging to a top officer), and was giving it some exercise in areas of the ship where personnel wouldn't be a distraction...

Timo Saloniemi

I could believe that if it had been a poodle and the guy wasn't carrying a gun.

On topic:
Whatever type of dog it was, it noticing the beam in with a mild reaction to the sound was obviously done on screen to heighten the suspense a little bit. They are sneaking onto a nuclear wessel, after all. No one in the theater knows it's a drug dog, but putting it in the script gives an explanation why the handler didn't react to the dog. It didn't give any signal that required action. Something spooked it a moment. Big deal. We're all friends, here.

 

[cardinal biggles]

The screenplay specifically says the dog is a drug-sniffing dog. Also, at the point where the dog notices Uhura and Chekov, they had just beamed in; nobody calls for an intruder alert until they notice the power drain, so the sailor and dog were just on a routine drug patrol.

Why do you want to use facts from the script when you can speculate and push your own theory?

Yeah, silly me. I guess that's what comes from shaving with Occam™-brand razors.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

A drug-sniffing dog wouldn't be searching only for users' or dealers' stashes. It would also be searching for drugs being smuggled.

 

[cardinal biggles]

You'd think they wouldn't want to store their contraband near something as sensitive as the nuclear reactors... radioactive coke indeed.

 

[Timo]

Wouldn't that be the ideal location? 90% of the crew would have superstitions about the radiation being a threat, and would stay away. The 10% who knew it was perfectly safe down there would have their narrow areas of responsibility and might not spot the stash all that easily. The person doing the stashing would obviously be among the 10%...

Of course, the big problem would be to get the stuff in and out. But this particular department might have the best excuse of moving stuff in heavily sealed containers that no ship personnel or MP patrol wants to open!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Trekker4747]

Thinking about it an intruder dog wouldn't make much sense. there's almost no way for the dog to know the smell of those who're supposed to be there -on a ship full of hundreds of people- and those who are not.

But then a drug-sniffing dog doesn't make much sense either because I can't see crew smuggling drugs onto the ship being too big of a concern, least of all near the reactor.

Wouldn't that be the ideal location? 90% of the crew would have superstitions about the radiation being a threat, and would stay away.

Ummm. I would think that somewhere between signing up to serve on a nuclear vessel and actually serving on it someone would tell you how nuclear energy works and that it poses you no meaningful harm if everything is operating correctly and is undamaged.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

But then a drug-sniffing dog doesn't make much sense either because I can't see crew smuggling drugs onto the ship being too big of a concern, least of all near the reactor.

Why not? If there's money to be made (we're not talking pocket change), people will do it.

Anybody have any actual stats showing how prevalent stashing and smuggling actually was aboard US Navy ships of the era?