Worst command decisions by Captain James T. Kirk

[JonnyQuest037]

Even in The Menagerie, we are told that detailed video records are not normally available.

That's not quite what was said in "The Menagerie." What Kirk said was:

That's impossible. Mister Spock, no vessel makes record tapes in that detail, that perfect. What were we watching?

In other words, the Talosian illusions looked better and more detailed than what Starfleet video records usually looked like. I'd imagine that the standard ship's records were much more static and shot from a more limited number of angles, for one thing. The Enterprise probably had some visual record of the mission to Talos IV, but it didn't compare with what the Talosians could do. And the difference was striking enough that Kirk could tell the difference after watching for only a few seconds.

 

[Henoch]

TOS seemed to go low tech in recording events. The only recording we see in TOS is from tricorders which must be turned on and controlled by hand. Wink Of An Eye showed a typical Starfleet recording...

Today, cops wear personal cameras and small drones carry cameras. Extrapolation into the future: nano-cameras on everyone are digitally combined to recreate a 3D view of events; or, a swarm of nano-drones buzzing around a landing party recording everything.

 

[Phaser Two]

TOS seemed to go low tech in recording events. The only recording we see in TOS is from tricorders which must be turned on and controlled by hand. Wink Of An Eye showed a typical Starfleet recording...

Today, cops wear personal cameras and small drones carry cameras. Extrapolation into the future: nano-cameras on everyone are digitally combined to recreate a 3D view of events; or, a swarm of nano-drones buzzing around a landing party recording everything.

I assumed there was indeed some sort of drone that came the tricorder. Good call; I like your explanation. But Star Trek didn't show much interest in recordings from CM to ATSC and WOE. And leave us not forget, the tricorders in WOE had the ability to alter dialogue on playback. (!)

 

[Steven P Bastien]

That's not quite what was said in "The Menagerie." What Kirk said was:

In other words, the Talosian illusions looked better and more detailed than what Starfleet video records usually looked like. I'd imagine that the standard ship's records were much more static and shot from a more limited number of angles, for one thing. The Enterprise probably had some visual record of the mission to Talos IV, but it didn't compare with what the Talosians could do. And the difference was striking enough that Kirk could tell the difference after watching for only a few seconds.

True. Kirk's comment can be interpreted in different ways, and is likely just the writers trying to justify why the video that Kirk is seeing looks like a filmed movie.

But, more to the point, we know that TOS does not show a lot of use of video monitoring on the ship. We've seen the bridge video in "Court Marshall" and the tricorder video in a few episodes, and probably a few others I'm not thinking of.

Whether this was a deliberate choice by the creators, or just a missed point, I don't know. Maybe it is easy for "TV people" to imagine a transporter, but a miniature inexpensive video camera might boggle their "1965-minds" because they are used to the $100K studio cameras that weight 100 pounds.

So, then we can get into "head-cannon" and wonder if the future society rejects constant surveillance because it is an invasion of privacy. Space travel is tough enough without "big-brother" watching your every turn.

 

[Nyotarules]

So, then we can get into "head-cannon" and wonder if the future society rejects constant surveillance because it is an invasion of privacy. Space travel is tough enough without "big-brother" watching your every turn.

Concepts like 'invasion of privacy' might not exist on other non human worlds. Vulcan, a whole planet is said to be a crime free zone either because crime is illogical or Big Surak is watching your every move.

 

[johnnybear]

How could McCoy film himself in that scene though?
JB

 

[Mytran]

How could McCoy film himself in that scene though?
JB

He stood in front of a mirror?

 

[Steven P Bastien]

Yet another prediction from Star Trek, the invention of the selfie video.

 

[MAGolding]

TOS seemed to go low tech in recording events. The only recording we see in TOS is from tricorders which must be turned on and controlled by hand. Wink Of An Eye showed a typical Starfleet recording...

Today, cops wear personal cameras and small drones carry cameras. Extrapolation into the future: nano-cameras on everyone are digitally combined to recreate a 3D view of events; or, a swarm of nano-drones buzzing around a landing party recording everything.

How could McCoy film himself in that scene though?
JB

He stood in front of a mirror?

Or maybe McCoy used the tricorder to activate an image recorder that was permanently in the room, control what it recorded, stop recording,and transmit a copy of the recording to his tricorder for playback later. In sort McCoy mighthave used his tricorder as a remote control for a camera that might have been on the wall behind him.

 

[Phaser Two]

How could McCoy film himself in that scene though?
JB

First off, it might have been another member of the landing party with a tricorder who was filming McCoy. We know that Lemli beamed down because he was standing behind Kirk in one of the opening shots. Perhaps he had a tricorder, or a sixth person (not pictured) beside K, S, Mc, Compton and Lemli beamed down and was filming McCoy.

Second, this is where I think Henoch was going with the small aerial drone with a camera. I sort of figured that a tricorder could launch such a device to take shots of the landing party.

 

[Steven P Bastien]

But really, it was just the director forgetting to film a second shot without McCoy in the picture, and so they just reused the original shot as if it was a recorded version from McCoy.

 

[johnnybear]

That's the more realistic reasoning, Steven P!
JB

 

[Delta Vega]

So I had a bad day. I didn't ask to have that happen to me.

Since that rock fell on me I have to say that standing on my head is a lot easier now.

Gaz, you deserved everything you got

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Gaz, you deserved everything you got

 

[UssGlenn]

How could McCoy film himself in that scene though?
JB

Or maybe McCoy used the tricorder to activate an image recorder that was permanently in the room, control what it recorded, stop recording,and transmit a copy of the recording to his tricorder for playback later. In sort McCoy mighthave used his tricorder as a remote control for a camera that might have been on the wall behind him.

It's not a "real" picture. Much like the Ships sensors, the Tricorder is scanning the entire room with subspace sensors and recording everything. Then when asked for visual playback you can place the "camera" anywhere and render a photo realistic video. This is also how you can get dramatic zooms and pans in security footage such as with the Klingon boarding party in STIII.

 

[Tenacity]

Kodos was thought to be dead long ago. No one saved the DNA evidence. Even if they did save it, do you think many samples are spread across the inhabited galaxy so that it will be available to Kirk ...

If Kodos' DNA was on record, then a "sample" wouldn't be required. It would be more a matter if his (or everyone's?) DNA was on record in the first place.

 

[Steven P Bastien]

If Kodos' DNA was on record, then a "sample" wouldn't be required. It would be more a matter if his (or everyone's?) DNA was on record in the first place.

Agreed. Still, even if the DNA was on record and then Kirk could locate where it was on record and then have it transmitted to the Enterprise, we already know what would have happened.

Spock, "I think we have a match"
Kirk, "But not an exact match"

Basically, the story was going to make up any excuse why Kodos could not be identified with 100 percent certainty. So the easiest thing to assume is that the DNA evidence was not available and there were no other means to identify him, other than the voice recognition, which was not able to work perfectly because of the long time period and "the actor's" ability to change his voice somewhat. Yes, Kirk lied when he said, "disguising your voice will make no difference" because it seems to have made at least a small difference which was enough for him to reject the evidence.

Forgetting that 1965 was not a time when writers would be thinking about DNA evidence and viewers would not either, we can still make good excuses for why not all DNA is available. We could imagine that there is a privacy issue and long ago laws were enacted to protect DNA and people were reluctant to submit samples. Or, given the size of the inhabited part of the galaxy, maybe remote outposts do not go through the trouble to record DNA systematically. Perhaps it is done regularly on Earth in major cities, but remote areas of Earth (if they even exist) and backwater planets? maybe no. Maybe the records are there, but for some reason are not organized and centralized making it hard for a Starship to get the information quickly. Maybe within a few weeks of Kodos dying they do in fact track down a sample or a record and positively identify him and the history books can now be corrected.

We can imagine that in another 55 years from now, new identification methods will be known that we are not even thinking about now. People then will also debate about that technology in relation to this episode because TOS will still be watched and talked about, which I think is amazing.

 

[Phaser Two]

Agreed. Still, even if the DNA was on record and then Kirk could locate where it was on record and then have it transmitted to the Enterprise, we already know what would have happened.

Spock, "I think we have a match"
Kirk, "But not an exact match"

Basically, the story was going to make up any excuse why Kodos could not be identified with 100 percent certainty. So the easiest thing to assume is that the DNA evidence was not available and there were no other means to identify him, other than the voice recognition, which was not able to work perfectly because of the long time period and "the actor's" ability to change his voice somewhat. Yes, Kirk lied when he said, "disguising your voice will make no difference" because it seems to have made at least a small difference which was enough for him to reject the evidence.

Forgetting that 1965 was not a time when writers would be thinking about DNA evidence and viewers would not either, we can still make good excuses for why not all DNA is available. We could imagine that there is a privacy issue and long ago laws were enacted to protect DNA and people were reluctant to submit samples. Or, given the size of the inhabited part of the galaxy, maybe remote outposts do not go through the trouble to record DNA systematically. Perhaps it is done regularly on Earth in major cities, but remote areas of Earth (if they even exist) and backwater planets? maybe no. Maybe the records are there, but for some reason are not organized and centralized making it hard for a Starship to get the information quickly. Maybe within a few weeks of Kodos dying they do in fact track down a sample or a record and positively identify him and the history books can now be corrected.

We can imagine that in another 55 years from now, new identification methods will be known that we are not even thinking about now. People then will also debate about that technology in relation to this episode because TOS will still be watched and talked about, which I think is amazing.

I think you're right - and it *is* amazing.

Did you mention the destruction of the colony as a reason/solution for the nonuse-of-DNA issue? I really like your privacy-based explanation, but I always figured that the records of Kodos' DNA were lost with Tarsus IV, which may still not explain why they were not backed up somewhere on a UFP server that Kirk, as a high-ranking Starfleet officer, could have accessed.

 

[MAGolding]

I think that the problem was not so much finding out whether Karidian was Kodos, though he was trying to make it difficult, but proving that Governor Kodos was the Executioner, that he had ordered and carried out the massacre.

It is possible that the 4,000 colonists who weren't killed weren't informed of the massacre until after Kodos was overthrown, and so could not testify who was responsible.

It is possible that all of Kodos's accomplices were killed in the fighting. Otherwise they would have been tried and they would have tried to blame everything on Kodos and his orders, and thus there would have been a lot of legally recorded testimony from the trials saying that Kodos ordered the massacre.

It is certain that the 4,000 dead colonists were unable to testify, and uncertain how much forensic evidence was left to be examined.

And a badly burned unidentifiable body was found and believed to be that of Kodos, so he was presumed dead.

It is said that there were only 9 witness who saw Kodos and could identify him. Since there were voice recordings and photos of Kodos, there must have been many survivors who could identify Governor Kodos. So the problem should have been to identify Kodos with the leader of the exterminations, the man who spoke the speech to his victims before killing them.

So the 9 surviving witnesses could have been part of the last batch of victims, with Kodos being interrupted by the arrival of Starfleet rescuers right after he read the speech to them. And maybe most of those survivors/witnesses were killed in the cross fire between Kodos's men and Starfleet, leaving only nine potential witnesses.

And because Kodos was believed dead, and all his men were killed, there were no trials. So the witnesses gave statements to the authorities that satisfied the news media and historians that Kodos was responsible, but weren't legally valid testimony because those statements weren't made during a trial.

So if all the witnesses died before Kodos was identified and tried, there would be no way to get legally valid testimony to convict Kodos. Or so his daughter may have thought and hoped, even though her sanity seemed rather questionable.

 

[Tenacity]

the nine witnesses.

probably eye witnesses, actual present when kodo said something incriminating, or did something.

otherwise it would be hear-say, inuendo, fake news, deep fake.