Launching Galileo - Poor Decision?

[Timo]

The opinion I've formed about TOS Uhura is that she isn't exactly a communication officer, Uhura is a "general purpose" junior officer who has been assigned to the communications section, we've seen her move around to various positions and initially she was in a command gold uniform.

That sounds consistent with lots of other stuff. Many a Starfleet hero with ambitions towards command has done "menial" work in her or his youth, wearing odd colors and performing tasks seemingly beneath her or his skill or drive. Even Riker seemed to be a Security goon when he got cloned in "Second Chances", despite definitely wanting to be a starship captain one day.

Possibly such "broadening out one's experience" period is mandatory for all command-line hopefuls, and typically involves no-brain tasks such as steering the ship or piping in the communications. Both of those tasks would really help in "getting the feel of the ship", that is, how she responds in various situations, in terms of technology and personnel.

It's just that Uhura doesn't seem to have any intention of moving beyond the status she achieves in "Corbomite Maneuver". Thirty years later, she's still doing that same job, and for all we know is going to retire from it. That would suggest job satisfaction and discredit the stepping-stone theory.

I love McCoy, but he sure can make bad situations worse by encouraging this kind of badmouthing of superior officers.

It's probably that McCoy is the one who lacks command experience. He has no idea about the group dynamics of a stranded landing party, and thinks he can get away with the same stuff he does aboard the 430-person starship. A bit myopic from "an expert in space psychology", but his expertise could pertain to starships rather than landing parties.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[T'Girl]

Many a Starfleet hero with ambitions towards command has done "menial" work in her or his youth

In Uhura's case it might go beyond doing just fresh out of the academy "menial" work. In one episode Uhura is in coveralls and has crawled into her console to fix it. She remarked to Spock that it had been years since she had done such work. Now anyone who has ever been in the military will tell you that officers do not fix things. This suggests to me that Uhura, instead of attending the academy, came up through the ranks.

As much as Starfleet has "the ranks."

 

[Timo]

Cadets probably do fix things, though, just for the educational value. Might be Uhura was making a subtle reference to not being all that old yet.

Of course, Uhura could have been a civilian engineer of some sort before enrolling at the Academy, much like McCoy is now established as having gotten his professional training first, and like Scotty apparently ran the powerplants of civilian ships before joining the Fleet.

Uhura being an engineer sounds somewhat truer than her being a linguist, IMHO...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Captrek]

Many a Starfleet hero with ambitions towards command has done "menial" work in her or his youth, wearing odd colors and performing tasks seemingly beneath her or his skill or drive. Even Riker seemed to be a Security goon when he got cloned in "Second Chances", despite definitely wanting to be a starship captain one day.

Possibly such "broadening out one's experience" period is mandatory for all command-line hopefuls, and typically involves no-brain tasks such as steering the ship or piping in the communications. Both of those tasks would really help in "getting the feel of the ship", that is, how she responds in various situations, in terms of technology and personnel.

It's just that Uhura doesn't seem to have any intention of moving beyond the status she achieves in "Corbomite Maneuver". Thirty years later, she's still doing that same job, and for all we know is going to retire from it. That would suggest job satisfaction and discredit the stepping-stone theory.

Uhura’s problem is that she never got stabbed through the heart by a Nausicaan.

 

[Pauln6]

Uhura started in a command uniform but changed to red after two episodes (presumably because it suited her better). She is a communications specialist as well as a command officer. The bridge position involves a lot of co-ordination more akin to the later Ops position. Uhura will receive a 'hail' from her team in the communications bay which filters all the information that the ship's receivers pick up - it's then up to her to prioritise what the Captain needs to know. She also has some skill with electronic engineering and the use of computers and she was placed in command of a security team in CotEoF. In the novelisation of STIV she also scrambles Starfleet's communications network (involving a lot of hacking and security bypassing one assumes) to delay the response when they steal the Enterprise. So no, she's not just a telephone operator and yes, she is a highly competent officer who should have taken the centre chair on at least a couple of occasions during TOS.

It is likely that she was placed in charge of the research team and this is why she conveys the information to Kirk. It's also possible that she did the work herself (although less likely given that the ship has numerous scientists to do this kind of work).

It's a good episode, although Mears was originally intended to be Rand and I still lament the loss of my beloved Janice.

 

[Timo]

Since when has gold meant command? Yeah, Kirk wears it - but so do guys and gals like Latimer or Martine. Or Yeoman Smith, for that matter. None of those were particularly commanding personalities, or served in particularly commanding roles.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Pauln6]

It's traditional. I think the Operations Division didn't come in until TMP so anybody in gold was part of the Command Division . Red was services and engineering, while blue was medical and science. I think the change to a red uniform was more a question of style for Nichols, although I've never seen an official comment.

 

[Wingsley]

I always found "The Galileo Seven" to be one of STAR TREK's finest adventures.

Quite a bit has been made in this thread of a few issues...

The shuttlecraft crew giving Spock a hard time, Kirk giving Ferris a hard time. Did each go over the line? Let's take Kirk first. Kirk, in the TOS era, is a starship captain. In the TREK Universe, that sets him apart. He's a special kind of commander, not unlike an outpost commander. He takes his ship out on the frontier where there are no friendlies or communications with home for considerable periods of time. That means he's not just responsible for his ship and he's not just the Federation's point-man "out there", he also has to be largely autonomous. He's "it", and Starfleet better make sure they promote the right officer to sit in that "center seat". So when Kirk makes his "nose off my bridge" remark to Ferris, it is an eyebrow-raiser, but Ferris seems to expect the insolence. After all, this is Kirk's bridge and this ship goes into frontiers and hazards the home crowd wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. What is surprising is McCoy's remark about this shuttlecraft ride being Spock's "first command". In a sense, the Murasaki-Galileo mission is like mini-starship mission. Spock is placed in command, and that makes him God. But he's a full commander, and he never commanded a shuttlecraft on a hazardous mission before? That doesn't seem right.

The whole point of this story was to take the proud, "in control" officers on the Galileo and temporarily maroon them on Gilligan's Island long enough for the civilized veneer to slip away and get them bickering at each other. Even Scott chides Spock about "a phaser can only drain so fast". It's a survival situation, and Spock is too busy being a Vulcan professor. It is entertaining to watch, even though it would've been outright hilarious if none of the characters had been needlessly killed. Despite the "Dreadnought" suggestion that Boma had been given the boot, I would expect no action was taken. If an inquiry were initiated, Spock's competence would be the first thing under review. Given Spock's poor handling of the "natives" (a few phaser shots might've changed everything) if anyone were to be punished the punishment would start at the top. Boma and McCoy can easily be forgiven on this one.

One minor point, maybe making a mountain out of a mole hill, would be Boma's remark just before the shuttle first looses control in space. Note that he pipes up "That's to be expected, Mr. Spock." Let's not dismiss Boma's role in the original mission plan. Spock may have been in command, but the mission wasn't (originally, anyway) all about him. It could be that Boma was expecting to be every bit as much "Mr. Murasaki" as Spock, and he was just sounding off as a professional at that point. We see this again just after the crash (when Boma was cleaning his nose) and he can't stop chatting about what he thought about what happened. That's part of the core of this episode: the characters knew there would be danger, but were still surprised when they were thrust into it, and then they discover they're in over their heads and the civility evaporates as they fight to survive.

Uhura, the multi-purpose wonder. Some comments have been made about Uhura stepping up to report to Kirk on findings. Was this appropriate, or was it out-of-character? There are a couple of issues to consider. In the military, officers are generalists. NCOs and Warrant Officers are specialists. While it is understandable that there would be quite a bit of specialization on a starship bridge, it should be pointed out that Uhura running Spock's science station in a pinch seems no more radical than Chekov's subbing for Spock when Spock is away, or Uhura at the navigator's station, or Scott at the helm, or Spock making a medical diagnosis on the surface of Argus X...

Uhura's regular job is to be chief of communications. Despite the poor job the writers and producers put forth of using her character as an important part of the bridge crew, her in-a-pinch service in "The Galileo Seven" seems to be just what the doctor ordered. With the Murasaki ionization ruining all external communications, what else is Uhura going to do? Sit there and read static? As a junior officer in a position of department head, and naturally as a generalist, she should be expected to step up and take the initiative. BTW, this isn't the only time she does this. Check out "Whom Gods Destroy" and "Spock's Brain", if memory serves.

Back to the O.P.: Should the shuttlecraft have been launched in the first place? Well, this is a Federation starship we're talking about. She is a frontier vessel and Kirk has standing orders to investigate phenomena like the Murasaki 312 Effect. This isn't just some random order that Starfleet hands down. Given the dangerous situation the shuttlecraft mission becomes, it seems quite logical no only that Starfleet would give such an order, but also that command-grade officers like Kirk and Spock would be eager to jump in with both feet. They're like moths drawn to a light, with this one. It's their nature.


There are other issues about this ep I could nit-pick about. Why are the Galileo crew in their everyday duty uniforms during a shuttlecraft mission? Shouldn't they be wearing work jumpsuits for flight? This is actually a significant issue for me. Every time they take a shuttlecraft into deep space, they should be wearing a flight uniform. This would only seem appropriate. It would have the effect of eliminating the silly Mears-in-a-mini deal right away.

And if heavy interference is blocking transporter functions, would you step into one of those machines? I have to wonder what landing parties on foot were supposed to accomplish when scanning an entire planet.

If "The Galileo Seven" had been made in the last 20 years instead of 44 years ago, what do you think of the likelihood that Taurus II would be inhabited by dinosaurs instead of King Kong?

 

[maryh]

If we assume Uhura is the communication specialist I believe that would include some type of 23rd century internet. The ships computers are very sophisticated, but finite in their capacity to store information. No doubt new information is always coming out and Uhura receives it, stores and updates the computers as needed.

If we assume there is some type of slow paced wireless method of computer to computer information highway available throughout the galaxy, it seems like Uhura would be the one who would set up and scan for the signals of computers located on other planets, other vessels etc where more information might be located if the computers on the Enterprise are lacking. If, in this episode, the information on this area of the galaxy is lacking, she would be the one scanning all the frequencies that various computers located at various distances from the Enterprise may operating at, and she could scan them to see if their computers had any information on the area that the Enterprise doesn't have.

Through hard work, clever research, communication skills and stubborness she just might have located information about this sector by scanning various external computer signals and searching their data and information. Just a thought.

Of course signals and communications are messed up at that tiem, but she might have been able to pick up a few.

 

[Wingsley]

I'd say that, with the exception of McCoy and Chapel, the Enterprise department heads are all generalists rather than specialists. The doesn't mean that there couldn't be officers on-board that were specialists, of course. That would bring us back around to McCoy and Chapel. But Uhura as cheif of communications and Sulu as chief helmsman have been seen at other stations and duties. And, of course, Scott has been seen more than once operating the science station. And DeSalle even switched uniform colors during the series.

 

[Pauln6]

I'd say that, with the exception of McCoy and Chapel, the Enterprise department heads are all generalists rather than specialists. The doesn't mean that there couldn't be officers on-board that were specialists, of course. That would bring us back around to McCoy and Chapel. But Uhura as cheif of communications and Sulu as chief helmsman have been seen at other stations and duties. And, of course, Scott has been seen more than once operating the science station. And DeSalle even switched uniform colors during the series.

McCoy and Chapel are generalists too, albeit in more realistically narrower fields. McCoy works as a general physician, a surgeon, a pathologist, a psychiatrist, a chemist, and a biological researcher. Chapel trained as a biological researcher alongside Roger Korby (whose specialisms were paleobiology, astrobiology, and 'archeological medicine'), and (inexplicably) worked as a nurse while simultaneously training to be a medical doctor. There are limits (often ignored for the sake of expediency) as to how broad officer training could be but I think that their focus is on management of the enlisted crew specialists (which is why the crew in the communications bay does the hard work for Uhura). This is one of the reasons why I'm not overly keen on Trek's top heavy cast of characters. They should have featured far more enlisted crew specialists on missions - at least TOS did a better of job of this than later shows and it also gave us a higher body count

 

[Captrek]

Chapel... (inexplicably) worked as a nurse while simultaneously training to be a medical doctor.

Not inexplicable at all. The explanation is developments in feminism in the years between the TV series and TMP.

 

[Pauln6]

Chapel... (inexplicably) worked as a nurse while simultaneously training to be a medical doctor.

Not inexplicable at all. The explanation is developments in feminism in the years between the TV series and TMP.

They should have made her head of Life Sciences instead of another medical doctor. At least that would have given her a niche of her own.

Still, I only meant it was inexplicable because it takes 7 years to fully qualify as a doctor the last few of which you spend training on the job. Since TMP takes place less than 3 years after TOS (a total of less than 8 years), and Chapel is fully qualified, she should really have been a junior doctor working under McCoy at least during the latter stages of TOS.

 

[estar9821]

Why did they bother landing search parties on the planet to look for the missing Galileo crewmembers? It doesn't make sense to me. On foot you could barely scratch the surface of the amount of terrain that needs to be covered, and lives were put in jeopardy, as they had no way of knowing whether the planet was dangerous or not. It was unexplored territory. If I were Kirk, I would have just stuck to having the Columbus search for them, as it could cover more area at less risk to the crew.

 

[Captrek]

I only meant it was inexplicable because it takes 7 years to fully qualify as a doctor the last few of which you spend training on the job. Since TMP takes place less than 3 years after TOS (a total of less than 8 years), and Chapel is fully qualified, she should really have been a junior doctor working under McCoy at least during the latter stages of TOS.

1) At the time of TMP, Kirk had spent 2-1/2 years as Chief of Starfleet Operations, and TOS was cancelled after the first three years of a five-year mission, so it was at least 4-1/2 years, not “less than 3.”

2) The process of becoming a doctor just might possibly not be in exactly the same form 300 years from now as it is in present-day USA. Maybe it takes more time. Maybe it takes less. Maybe in TOS she’s working part-time as a nurse and has already begun her medical school studies. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure she’s working part-time as a nurse and her hours depend on whether Spock is in sickbay.

 

[Wingsley]

It could've been that Chapel, as Head Nurse, was already an NP with a fast-track to becoming a doctor.

But I never excepted that there were only a few years between "Turnabout Intruder" and TMP anyway. Those two stories were shot ten years apart, and I don't see why we shouldn't expect at least a vaguely similar amount of time to have passed "in Universe" for the characters.

 

[kkozoriz1]

I felt the same way. Who knows how much medical training will change in 300 years?
In one of the novels (Doctor's Orders?) Kirk goes to Sickbay is is surprised that Lia Burke (?) can prescribe medications. I imagine that a nurse in Starfleet is much like an intern now.

 

[T'Girl]

Chapel... (inexplicably) worked as a nurse while simultaneously training to be a medical doctor.

Not inexplicable at all. The explanation is developments in feminism in the years between the TV series and TMP.

It is kind of offensive if you think about it, being a nurse just isn't good enough, we need to make Chapel a full doctor. Somewhat like Roddenberry's idea that there something wrong with being a enlist, so all the important people on the show have to be commissioned officers.

Just like old Gene was during "The War."

.

 

[Pauln6]

Well many people view the pilot as Year One, the first season as Year Two, and Chapel was still a nurse in TAS, which many people view as part of Year Five. In the sixties, nursing training didn't involve much whereas today we have a variety of formal nursing qualifications and we have practitioner nurses who can prescribe certain medications. I suppose we have to view Chapel in that light - she was a biologist rather than a formally 'trained' nurse akin to a sixties nurse.

I would have been happy to see her remain a nurse but if she had to qualify as a doctor I would have preferred that to be a Phd in astrobiology rather than an MD, then Chapel could have taken up the astro/xeno/exobiologist role that was missing from the TOS era and could have stepped out from McCoy's shadow. I'd really have liked her to have been part of Reliant's crew in TWoK as well.

Back to the Galileo debate, one thing I like about TOS is that it makes more of how vast and empty space is than later shows. Searching without a distress beacon to home in on is next to impossible. I agree that a land search on foot would be a poor use of resources unless you had debris to indicate a crash site.

I also think it would have been more sensible plotwise for the shuttle to be fitted with a remote-controlled probe to examine the stellar phenomenon from a safe distance and for some other disaster to have swept the shuttle into danger.

 

[T'Bonz]

It is kind of offensive if you think about it, being a nurse just isn't good enough, we need to make Chapel a full doctor.

Well it used to be that women were encouraged to be nurses, not doctors. Nursing was seen as a pink collar job, and most doctors were male.

Times have changed. Nursing has got more complex and specialized and there are male nurses now (not as many as females, admittedly). While it's still considered more of a female job, women CHOOSE it now and aren't forced into it when they'd rather be a doctor.

A good nurse commands a decent salary too.