What exactly were they ignoring at the time of their argument? Nothing was happening, and when something did happen, all quibbling stopped and they were down to business. Similar to how we see in many Marvel/Avengers movies, for that matter.
Ethan Peck cast as DSC's Spock
- Thread starter Lawrence B
- Start date
No. She found herself assigned to the Farragut because of her relationship.
... their Captain?
He was clearly so bothered by this breach of military protocol. And when the Klingons attacked and the situation became serious, they didn't.
"SPOCK: You misunderstand. It is true I chose not to feel anything upon realising that my own life was ending. As Admiral Pike was dying, I joined with his consciousness and experienced what he felt at the moment of his passing. Anger. Confusion. Loneliness. Fear. I had experienced those feelings before, multiplied exponentially on the day my planet was destroyed. Such a feeling is something I choose never to experience again. Nyota, you mistake my choice not to feel as a reflection of my not caring. Well, I assure you, the truth is precisely the opposite.
(Boom!)
KIRK: What the hell was that?
[Bridge]
SULU: What happened? Where's their signal?
COMMS TECH: It cut out. I'm working to get them back.
[Trade ship]
SPOCK: We are being pursued by a D-4 class Klingon vessel.
KIRK: I thought this sector was abandoned!
UHURA: It must be a random patrol.
KIRK: Hold on!
SPOCK: This ship has no offensive capabilities."
Seems pretty clear to me they were ignoring their *work* in a dangerous area and they were taken completely by surprise by an enemy ship because of it. Hardly what I'd call an 'uneventful journey'.
If it caught the Enterprise crew who were monitoring off guard also, I'm pretty sure sitting silently would have made no difference.
Was the Enterprise monitoring the whole area, or just following the signal of their own ship which they knew because it was theirs? I would talk about the logical issues of Enterprise being able to scan all the way to Kronos from the border of Klingon space, but ID is hardly the first Trek production guilty of acting like everything is right next to everything else even though it makes no sense.
My impression was that they were monitoring the area (remember they isolated Khan's location a little earlier and Sulu gave him a call - and he's one guy!) and the Klingon weapons fire disrupted their signal.
Trek characters have been caught by surprise weapons fire in many similar situations, I don't see how this instance is any different.
Well, it's different because they were all arguing with each other and visibly not paying attention to their work.
We cannot have any kind of indisputable proof as to whether or not they would have noticed the attack sooner had they stuck to their jobs, but we don't need any proof of that. Focusing on your job in dangerous territory is a basic training principle which they clearly should be aware of and should be following. And it's a basic principle for a reason: because even if it doesn't make a difference on every mission, it will unquestionably make a difference on some of them, and you can't know ahead of time which is which.
But this is a movie, it isn't designed to be a handbook on how to handle real life combat situations. It is supposed to entertain. The exchanges during that sequence entertained me.
As the first office of the Enterprise, that duty might have fallen to him regardless. He then worked to avoid favoritism, which means his relationship was known. This isn't a fraternization problem like it is in current military. Uhura had every right and skill to be on the Enterprise and his acknowledgement is not a matter of relationship, but her skill.
I enjoyed that scene as well, with great chemistry between all three.
Yes. And then she demanded he change it to the Enterprise, implying that he would have been in the proverbial doghouse otherwise, and he did so immediately. So, same difference, as far as I'm concerned.
Fair point, but I think we'll simply have to agree to disagree insofar as whether it's problematic or not. As someone who has worked in the field of education, I simply can't overlook the inherent ethical violation of a teacher and student having such a relationship, to be honest. I know it happens in real life, but it's a very serious thing, and the writer placing Spock and Uhura so casually in such a scenario just doesn't play well with me on any level, I'm afraid. I would probably feel differently if they were to have "leaned into it" and played up that angle more, and actually had some significant consequences flow from it. Instead, it felt like merely one of a few too many not-well-thought-out contrivances to get everyone aboard the Enterprise together as quickly as possible. (Again, I just mean the preface here, not the whole pairing altogether.)
I entirely agree. It didn't seem to me that they were distracted to the point of endangering the mission, personally. To me it seemed like they were perfectly capable of multitasking, and the Klingons simply got the drop on them despite. Also, if Kirk had ordered them to stop, I'm sure they would have instantly. But he obviously didn't find it to rise to that level. He just found it a little annoying. He even participated a bit himself. It was all in good fun. (On the other hand, perhaps if I were in the military it might have bothered me like it apparently did some, though. Hard to say.)
-MMoM
But this is a movie, it isn't designed to be a handbook on how to handle real life combat situations. It is supposed to entertain. The exchanges during that sequence entertained me.
That's great. Honestly, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I just personally find it more entertaining and rewarding when Starfleet is just a little more professional than that. Not like real life combat situations and hardline military discipline, but just a reasonable balance between discipline and 'family', as you put it.
Having been with a group of Vietnam vets who could flip on a dime from serious to joking I have a feeling that the balance is not as clean cut as one might think. Not disputing the enjoyment aspect of a scene, clearly, but, to be fair, bickering has been a part of Trek for a while.
Maybe, though honestly that sort of extreme swing feels more like the kind of thing produced by the long-term desperation of war rather than professionals in a exploration setting.
And it's not bickering I have a problem with. Odo and Quark could be totally hilarious. But bickering has a time and place, like many things. And, indeed, Star Trek has never been perfect and almost any 'problem' I (or you) might have with any given scene is guaranteed to have happened somewhere else in the franchise as well. I just watched the ENT arc about Reed and Hayes. Bleh. More believable, sadly, than the shuttle scene, but definitely not very entertaining and came pretty damn close to making me hate Reed as a character.
Maybe, but I've listened to enough vet stories to know that it isn't clean or precise.
And you have to allow for a bit of dramatic license. Crisp, no-nonsense, professionalism may be more "realistic" but movie and TV dialogue requires a certain degree of banter, emotion, humor, color, characterization, etc. Theatrical dialogue only approximates actual speech; ideally, it should be more entertaining than the way people talk and act in real life. 
Digression: I actually learned this lesson years ago when scripting a TALES FROM THE CRYPT audiodrama. My original draft fell flat because I was trying too hard to make the characters sound like real people would when scared out of their wits: "Oh crap! Oh my God! Help me, somebody! Help! Oh, god, no, please . . . "
In other words, lots of sobbing and whimpering and screaming and cursing. Believable, but not very compelling. Then I realized that TALES OF THE CRYPT is not about documentary realism, so I made the dialogue more comic-booky and theatrical. "No! This can't be happening! There's no such thing as vampires!"
I like to think that was more fun and dramatic. And the same applies to Starfleet officers on a dangerous mission: you need some banter and bickering to spice things up.
Digression: I actually learned this lesson years ago when scripting a TALES FROM THE CRYPT audiodrama. My original draft fell flat because I was trying too hard to make the characters sound like real people would when scared out of their wits: "Oh crap! Oh my God! Help me, somebody! Help! Oh, god, no, please . . . "
In other words, lots of sobbing and whimpering and screaming and cursing. Believable, but not very compelling. Then I realized that TALES OF THE CRYPT is not about documentary realism, so I made the dialogue more comic-booky and theatrical. "No! This can't be happening! There's no such thing as vampires!"
I like to think that was more fun and dramatic. And the same applies to Starfleet officers on a dangerous mission: you need some banter and bickering to spice things up.
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