My take on The Galileo Seven

I think it was just a bit of sloppy writing and I really like “The Galileo Seven.”

 

I think we're reading too much into Spock's "first command" exchange. For original Trek, all of these firsts worked fine. Spock's first command - in the series. Even with Spock being on the Enterprise "11 years ago" he could only made the first officer position recently. We have no idea.

Spock's first command.
Spock being happy for the first time.
Spock doing Pon Farr for the first time.

When Star Trek was just a TV series and not a franchise with a metric ton of world building, books and backstory, all of this was fine.

As far as I'm concerned, the original series is accurate and everything else is either consistent with it or not. TOS is right. Everything else is wrong. YMMV.

Honestly, I look at the series as a 1960's TV series making it up as it went. That's probably why I find it to be the most fun and exciting of the various series; it doesn't have to fit within the confines of previously established canon. It's what made the idea of the Bad Robot films exciting, even if they failed to live up to the promise.

 

Yes, it was. When they took the unused portion of that great overhead-bridge shot and inserted it into The Lights of Zetar two years later, I remember thinking, "Whaaat? They can't steal director Robert Gist's work like that ..."



Wish that Gist had returned to helm more episodes.

 

I'm pretty sure the clapboard for this overhead shot would have had "Stock" written on it. It was made with the intention of re-using it. But then (I'd say) it was so striking and memorable that they didn't feel right putting it into episodes much.

 

I wish the same could be said for the: "Sulu seated at the Helm, looking back over his shoulder at the Captain" shot <--- They OVERUSED that one.

 

I would have loved more TOS episodes featuring the Galileo shuttle, besides Metamorphosis (and Doomsday Machine, Immunity Syndrome). The original script intended Kirk, Uhura and Chekov to be caught from the Galileo instead of being switched during beaming to the surface of the Triskelion planet in the Gamesters of Triskelion.

 

This is what I have always interpreted McCoy to mean.

 

Same here for years but then if you use that criteria then there would be very few times anyone in Starfleet could get command experience. I mean Spock was in charge of the Enterprise so many times when Kirk had disappeared or captured. Kirk was off the ship for 3 months - so that wouldn't be regarded as command experience for Spock because he still had his regular officers? I mean in Galileo he still had McCoy and Scotty so that probably shouldn't count either.
So is that how the captains retain power. Not let their first officers in charge of any shuttle mission. OK Spock was in charge of a mission in the Animated Series - that didn't work out all that well

 

Amazing the knots people will twist themselves into to say that Spock's first command wasn't his first command.

But one Yeoman Third Class, and all of a sudden, the Enterprise has a full complement of enlisted crewmen...

 

If McCoy hadn't made that remark and someone asked me what was Spock's first command. I would say that time the Talosians kidnapped Pike and Number One. Not the Galileo 7. Or maybe when Trelane kidnapped Kirk or when Kirk was split in two. Just off the top of my head here.

 

It was sloppy writing, and I like “The Galileo Seven.”

 

Now that I think about it, was McCoy at Spock's trial in Menagerie? He may simply not have known better.

 

If Spock has been in active service for over a decade it beggars belief he didn’t have command experience. In “The Cage” he was in command with Pike and Number One off the ship. It probably wasn’t the first and most likely not the last time either.

Before “The Galileo Seven” Spock had had command in Kirk’s absence.

And in his years of service as a Science Officer he had to have led landing parties for a variety of reasons.

It’s just sloppy writing.

 

McCoy was not one of the judges because he wasn't a command level officer. Kirk was the captain, Mendez (fake) was a starbase commander, and Pike was a Fleet Captain.

 

There are FOUR lights!

 

^^^
You're about 100 years too early for that reference...

 

Considering it was ripped off from 1984, I think it's timely...

 

But... Books aren't Canon. /em ducks

 

Is there a difference between temporarily becoming the "acting captain" when Pike or Kirk is away and obtaining "first command"?

 

Yeah, it seems like it. Sitting in someone else's chair while he's ashore is not "your" command. It's his command, and you're keeping it warm for him.

But the Galileo being off on its own and out of contact, is unambiguously Spock's command, because the shuttlecraft has no permanent captain that Spock is filling in for, and its small crew has been assembled specifically to report to Spock, not just obey whichever guy is momentarily the most senior.