What is your personal head canon?

[Henoch]

(BTW, my personal headcanon is that Mitchell was actually assigned to the Enterprise before Kirk took command. That's how he knew Spock "for years" by the time of WNMHGB. The first command that Kirk requested Mitchell for was the cruiser he commanded before the Enterprise, but Mitchell was unavailable for that position. But as luck would have it, Kirk took command of the Enterprise himself a couple of years later. So at the time of WNMHGB, Mitchell actually knew Mr. Spock at bit better than Kirk did at that point.)

My head canon agrees that Mitchell was already on the Enterprise serving with Spock for 2-3 years before Kirk became Captain on the Enterprise. Both are Lt. Cmd.'s serving under Pike, so, who would Pike want to be first officer? To me, Spock is Pike's obvious choice due to his long, 11+ year relationship. I also recognize that Spock does not seek command, so, maybe Pike takes Mitchell on because of this, but I see this as a weaker argument. Maybe Starfleet politics got involved where Mitchell was their choice as first officer over Spock because "reasons".

Years prior to that, Kirk and Mitchell are serving together where Mitchell takes a poisoned dart meant for Kirk from a rodent thing on Dimorus and saves Kirk’s life. In my head canon, I put this event during Kirk's first command where he requested, and got, Mitchell to serve with him. What duty position did he have? Helmsman? First Officer? At this point I use the actors age difference (which I know is weak in TV casting): Bill Shatner is 6 years older than Gary Lockwood, but plays Kirk as two years younger than his real age (The Deadly Years), so I conclude a 4 year gap minimum. This 4(+) age gap is confirmed by Mitchell, "Hey man, I remember you back at the Academy. A stack of books with legs. The first thing I ever heard from an upperclassman was, watch out for Lieutenant Kirk. In his class, you either think or sink." I assume Mitchell is an underclassman and not in the faculty. If Kirk is now a young Commander on his first command, then Mitchell is probably a Lieutenant. To have Mitchell a first officer at this point seems unlikely since it would exceed the career path of even Kirk, so, not first officer is my conclusion.

Shortly later Kirk and Mitchell are separated where Mitchell ends up on the Enterprise. Why? Does Una Chin-Riley (aka Number One) leave the Enterprise (circa 2261 to 2263) and Mitchell is brought in to replace her as the new helmsman? In any case, the helmsman job on the Enterprise is a plumb assignment over serving on a smaller vessel, hence a good reason Mitchell transferred. This transfer most likely came with a new promotion to Lieutenant Commander, too (thanks to Kirk). Bringing him in as both helmsman and first officer seems a big stretch to me. YMMV .

 

[FredH]

Know I’ve said it before somewhere, but Excelsior’s transwarp basically works — except it turns out you can’t turn in transit, plus the crew turns into lizards. So they went back to the drawing board.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Know I’ve said it before somewhere, but Excelsior’s transwarp basically works — except it turns out you can’t turn in transit, plus the crew turns into lizards. So they went back to the drawing board.

But if it did that they could give it to their enemies and say it works haha

 

[Oddish]

But if it did that they could give it to their enemies and say it works haha

I wonder what the Klingons would turn into if they went Warp 10.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I wonder what the Klingons would turn into if they went Warp 10.

Goldfish with bat'leths

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

OH this one is easy.
Star Trek in all its incarnations is one more segment of the imagination of Tommy Westphall who imagined a hospital in a snow globe and many other things.

 

[FredH]

Alpha (2018) is a stealth Star Trek prequel, the earliest in the timeline so far. After all, it’s about

Spoiler

humanity overcoming its wariness via compassion, to bridge the gap with a hostile species

. If that’s not Trek, what is?

 

[Shat Happens]

Starship Captains on 5-year missions very far from the Starfleet HQ have very ample autonomy for making repercussive decisions, including but not limited to breaking even the Prime Directive under unforeseen circumstances.

For example in Balance of Terror,

STILES: Twenty seconds to Neutral Zone, sir.
KIRK: Lieutenant Uhura, inform Command base, In my opinion, no option. On my responsibility, we are proceeding into the Neutral Zone. Steady as we go, Mister Sulu. Continue firing.

then, after the battle ended:

RAND: We finally received an answer from Command base, sir. They say they'll support whatever decision you have to make.

Thus, it was legal when Kirk decided to drop all charges on Khan and Marla and maroon them on Ceti Alpha V.

However, in that case Khan came back and caused many problems.

Because of that, SF removed that particular authority from its Captains. But that in turn created another problem: they had no way to satisfactorily deal, for example, with Nova Squadron. That's why Picard and the gang had to sitojaxa* Ensign Sito

* verb. Oxford Press please take note of my invention

 

[Henoch]

However, in that case Khan came back and caused many problems.

That was all on Khan and his super ego. He could have taken the deceptive approach and allow his group to be rescued by the USS Reliant, then plot his revenge later; or genuinely be rescued, write a book and do speaking tours hence building up a new crop of followers. His choice. YMMV .

 

[fireproof78]

Ceti Alpha V.

However, in that case Khan came back and caused many problems.

Due to Reliant and their captain's incompetence.

 

[FredH]

Due to Reliant and their captain's incompetence.

I wouldn’t say the Captain’s incompetence: Terrell had no warning. Starfleet, on the other hand, should have been monitoring the system ever since “Space Seed”.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I wouldn’t say the Captain’s incompetence: Terrell had no warning. Starfleet, on the other hand, should have been monitoring the system ever since “Space Seed”.

Maybe they did but after a few years decided it was a waste of resources to keep doing that indefinitely

 

[fireproof78]

I wouldn’t say the Captain’s incompetence: Terrell had no warning. Starfleet, on the other hand, should have been monitoring the system ever since “Space Seed”.

I would.

A planet explodes and they can't detect it? No debris field? No change in astronomical charts? Chekov, who supposedly was there, doesn't recognize the system and immediately order a review of relevant data? The Ceti system should have been fully scrutinized.

Maybe they did but after a few years decided it was a waste of resources to keep doing that indefinitely

It's space. A planet exploding would be visible even to passive sensors.

 

[Shat Happens]

Due to Reliant and their captain's incompetence.

that's two captains screwing up

But really STII was all Spock's fault: if he had just done his Science Officer job, he would not only say "the planet number 5 has conditions for sustaining life", but add "however, gravimetric nuclear extrapolations indicate it will explode approximately 5 years from now" and Kirk would have said "ok, let's just find another planet then"

The green-blooded goblin deserved the radiation poisoning he got

 

[BillJ]

SNW, TOS and Movie versions of the Enterprise are all three different ships sharing the same registry.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

You mean the registry is a license plate, not a VIN number?

 

[BillJ]

You mean the registry is a license plate, not a VIN number?

Pretty much.

 

[fireproof78]

Starfleet DMV must suck.

 

[FredH]

that's two captains screwing up

But really STII was all Spock's fault: if he had just done his Science Officer job, he would not only say "the planet number 5 has conditions for sustaining life", but add "however, gravimetric nuclear extrapolations indicate it will explode approximately 5 years from now" and Kirk would have said "ok, let's just find another planet then"

The green-blooded goblin deserved the radiation poisoning he got

My headcanon has long been that Section 31 did it, in an ultimately botched attempt to wipe the Augments out entirely. In which case there’d have been nothing for Spock to detect beforehand.

 

[BillJ]

Starfleet DMV must suck.

Why? NCC-1701 was open, no sense in not using it if you're commissioning a new version of the ship. Also works for the "new" old Defiant footage from DS9.