Commander Hutchinson: a raw deal?

[Herbert]

It’s probably time for a 4-part novel series about Hutchinson and the hours before and after his tragic and completely under-appreciated death. Star Trek needs to resolve this. Now.

No, no, no. Only a six-part novel would do him proper justice. Wait a minute, maybe Hutch should be the focus of the next Trek TV show.

Hutch was a throwaway character, killed as a part of a plot device. There's no need to analyze the ever-loving hell out of his death.

Oh wait, that's what we do here. Carry on.

 

[Oddish]

No, no, no. Only a six-part novel would do him proper justice. Wait a minute, maybe Hutch should be the focus of the next Trek TV show.

We need a full series of books about a ship crewed entirely by these forgotten human (with one exception) throwaways.

Helmsman Nick Lacarno, former pilot prodigy who now flies a trash hauler and drinks a lot and tries not to think about the wreckage that is his life, and holds an old grudge against Starfleet, the Academy, and a captain named Picard...
Ship's doctor Simon Tarses, ejected from Starfleet because he was part Romulan...
Marla Gilmore, released from the New Zealand penal colony after serving five years as an accessory to mass murder...
Engineer Joe Carey, brought back to life by the Kobali and instinctively drawn to the planet where he was born... and the family who believed him dead...
Cadet Jeremy Aster, returned to earth to live with relatives after being orphaned, but reaching for the stars is in his blood...
And the captain of this motley crew, the grizzled survivor of a grave phaser wound, a man known only as... Hutch!

 

[PatB1974]

Good evening.

In "Starship Mine", Commander Calvin "Hutch" Hutchinson is the sole friendly casualty of the terrorist plot to raid the Enterprise. Upon reflection, it bothers me that no one acknowledged his death once the crisis had been resolved; bothersome as he may have been to others (i.e., the senior staff of the flagship of The Federation), he nevertheless came across as amiable and, presumably, he would have been just as valorous as any Starfleet officer had he been presented with an opportunity to act. If nothing else, during the episode's denouement, Data could have contributed a line or two concerning the tragedy of the man's death only for Riker to console/advise him in return.

I felt bad for Hutch. He was just a friendly guy who talked too much. He deserved better than he got.

 

[Ragitsu]

No, no, no. Only a six-part novel would do him proper justice. Wait a minute, maybe Hutch should be the focus of the next Trek TV show.

Hutch was a throwaway character, killed as a part of a plot device. There's no need to analyze the ever-loving hell out of his death.

Oh wait, that's what we do here. Carry on.

A while back, you arrived on another thread and proceeded to complain about "complaining" because the thread in question dealt with an old television series (which is somewhat farcical on a board where people overtly discuss a show that is twenty-nine to thirty-six years old). Later on, you apologized for a spat that only transpired because you decided to continue being unusually quarrelsome. Here's to hoping you learned from the experience.

"First Contact" - The rape of Riker - Post 1

"First Contact" - The rape of Riker - Post 2

 

[Tosk]

I'm sure we've all wavered between arguing Trek minutiae and thinking that someone else is going way too deep on something similar. We're none of us prefect.

 

[Ragitsu]

I'm sure we've all wavered between arguing Trek minutiae and thinking that someone else is going way too deep on something similar. We're none of us prefect.

I live for the minutiae. Little things make a big difference.

 

[Herbert]

And the captain of this motley crew, the grizzled survivor of a grave phaser wound, a man known only as... Hutch!

Maybe he could have a fellow officer buddy called Starsky

 

[Herbert]

A while back, you arrived on another thread and proceeded to complain about "complaining" because the thread in question dealt with an old television series (which is somewhat farcical on a board where people overtly discuss a show that is twenty-nine to thirty-six years old). Later on, you apologized for a spat that only transpired because you decided to continue being unusually quarrelsome. Here's to hoping you learned from the experience.

"First Contact" - The rape of Riker - Post 1

"First Contact" - The rape of Riker - Post 2

I tried. I was a jerk in that thread and I sincerely apologized for it. I tried to ignore the minutiae and the endless obsessing over nothing that goes on on this board and I just can't completely ignore it. Call it a character flaw if you will but it's who I am. My sarcasm will not be contained. If you, or anyone, is going to start discussions like this, then expect that some will react in a manner as I did, or maybe not. It's the internet. Deal with it. I will be who I am.

 

[Ragitsu]

How does that old saying go? "One man's nothing is another man's everything."? If the subject matter is not to your liking, then I recommend abstaining from participation.

 

[Herbert]

How does that old saying go? "One man's nothing is another man's everything."? If the subject matter is not to your liking, then I recommend abstaining from participation.

You might be surprised how much I do ignore. This time I failed my saving throw.
Since you're making a helpful recommendation to me, I will challenge you and anyone reading this. Maybe we should stop with these type of ultimately pointless minutiae threads and up our game by coming up with more compelling and interesting discussions. Is this truly all we have left to talk about after 50+ years of Trek, the death of one throw away character??

 

[Ragitsu]

Why deride others carrying on a harmless conversation?

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

You might be surprised how much I do ignore. This time I failed my saving throw.
Since you're making a helpful recommendation to me, I will challenge you and anyone reading this. Maybe we should stop with these type of ultimately pointless minutiae threads and up our game by coming up with more compelling and interesting discussions. Is this truly all we have left to talk about after 50+ years of Trek, the death of one throw away character??

Look, friend, imagine the amount of “meaningless” content your poor old moderator has to scan. Then I remember, this is great fun for many people, some of whom may have few other outlets. I don’t complain unless it starts to get personal.

 

[Oddish]

Yes, I got the wrong Marla in my last, so I fixed it. And added her son, another one-shot character: they come in all sizes.

It's a normal thing for the fate of some one shot characters to bother us more than others... I can't say Hutch crossed my radar much, but Simon Tarses and Nick Lacarno did.

 

[Ragitsu]

I wonder if the writer intended for viewers to feel sad over his death, without dedicating the entire episode ("The Bonding") or even just the last segment ("Skin of Evil") to an exploration over the nature of his end. Given the way the scene was shot and the music that played when the continuation opened on his draped corpse, my gut says "Yes". It's just a shame that instead of a pertinent line or two (which might have been tied into minor character development for Data, if the writer wanted that portion of the script to pull double duty) we got an awkwardly inserted joke with momentarily unnecessary Worf.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

We’ll never know what got left on the editing floor.

 

[Oddish]

Hutch was just interesting enough that we thought he deserved a better sendoff than he did, but not enough so that the writers did.

Regarding other shafted characters... I think two other characters should have turned up in "Shattered". One, Carey, instead of his "Friendship One" debacle. Two, Tuvix. One of the time zones could have intersected with the few weeks that he was around.

 

[Crewman6]

That was an act of supreme laziness on the part of the writers. "Oh, this guy's not a regular? Just have him killed off so we don't have to track his whereabouts during the rest of the episode."

So lame, especially since they went to such trouble to make him goofily likable in the episode's opening minutes.

 

[Oddish]

That was an act of supreme laziness on the part of the writers. "Oh, this guy's not a regular? Just have him killed off so we don't have to track his whereabouts during the rest of the episode."

It was probably something like "we want to do this 'Data does small talk' bit with a really loquacious person, but once we're done with that, the character is expendable".

 

[Crewman6]

It was probably something like "we want to do this 'Data does small talk' bit with a really loquacious person, but once we're done with that, the character is expendable".

Exactly.

 

[Ragitsu]

It is a decision that all too often ages like bell bottoms.