In almost every case, had Calhoun not acted the way he did, he, his crew, and most of the Federation, would be dead.
Case closed.
Picard's continued support of Calhoun - bewildering?
- Thread starter Cadet49
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In almost every case, had Calhoun not acted the way he did, he, his crew, and most of the Federation, would be dead.
Case closed.
Funny, though, that Calhoun keeps getting into situations in which if he acted like a normal Starfleet captain everyone would be dead, but normal Starfleet captains never get into those situations. Almost as if the events that happen to him are crafted in order to ensure that his methods are the only ones that could allow success.
Doesn't this run contra the entire idea of Star Trek? That is the exact same rationale as Section 31, and I am pretty sure they are the bad guys.
So when has Calhoun broken the rules or bent them more than Kirk ever did? Calhoun respects the law and is loyal to the principles of the federation. He is gruffier than most in the 24th century, but Starfleet can't be all philosophers and poets. Its the old West, and lawless region where Calhoun is at, so he has to act like a frontiersman and cowboy.
Peter David's version of the Federation is more Wild West than Utopia and therefore you need a lone ranger character to keep the peace.
I've read all but Blind Man's Bluff because IMO the NF books have become tired. PAD's no longer doing a good job and the plots are getting more and more ridiculous.
Picard supported him and it would be antithetical to Picard to withdraw his support, no matter what Calhoun did. In private, Picard may wonder what the hell he was doing supporting Calhoun, but he'd never make that public.
I've read all but Blind Man's Bluff because IMO the NF books have become tired. PAD's no longer doing a good job and the plots are getting more and more ridiculous.
Picard supported him and it would be antithetical to Picard to withdraw his support, no matter what Calhoun did. In private, Picard may wonder what the hell he was doing supporting Calhoun, but he'd never make that public.
Which was what it was like in Star Trek before they tried that holier than thou Utopia crap.
no, because it was a bluff.
So you'd be okay with the captain of a destroyer levelling weapons on another destroyer as a bluff in real life, you wouldn't want the first captain court martialed or anything?
i'd probably launch an investigation into why such a bluff was necessary and the circumstances surrounding it and THEN decide if he needed a court martial or psyche evaluation.
THIS!!!
I loved NF in the beginning, but stopped after a while since I couldn't get over the glorifying of this crew he created and they were so much more awesome-er then all of Starfleet.
I was hoping for more character development for Calhoun, but he has remained the same person through all of the books, basicly, with the exception that he 'learned to love'. That, together with him being able to always win, made him to much of a Gary Stu to me.
That is what a court martial is. The court martial is the trial, not the sentence.
^No, I think captcalhoun is referring to the preliminary hearing or investigation which is conducted to determine whether a court-martial is warranted. Look at TOS: "Court-martial": The first act is Commodore Stone conducting the preliminary investigation and deciding to proceed with the court-martial, and the rest of the episode is the court-martial itself. It's the same as in the civilian judicial system: you don't just jump right to the trial, but you conduct a preliminary hearing to determine whether the evidence warrants it (and it's quite common for a plea bargain to be struck or the charges to be dropped at this stage).
Ah, fair enough then.
that is what i meant, indeed.
That's my interpretation of a court martial as well.
All the way back in Book One,
Wouldn't that first contact have made Picard seriously question the integrity of this man he had recommended to command a ship of the line?
Calhoun commands a Galaxy-class starship with children aboard... I wonder how they would interpret his sometimes very aggressive actions... they were bound to hear about some of them (e.g. how he handled the situation with the aliens while they were lost in Missing in Action)... would their teachers be celebrating the captain, the way Picard was celebrated with a "Captain Picard Day" on TNG??
Picard locates Calhoun on a SI mission after he had just killed an orion smuggler in a gruesome way, in revenge for killing his partner, but staged it in such a way so that it would look like he had killed the Orion in self-defense.
Calhoun commands a Galaxy-class starship with children aboard... I wonder how they would interpret his sometimes very aggressive actions... they were bound to hear about some of them (e.g. how he handled the situation with the aliens while they were lost in Missing in Action)... would their teachers be celebrating the captain, the way Picard was celebrated with a "Captain Picard Day" on TNG??
If I was a kid on a Galaxy-class I would be more concerned by the fact that I'm living in a flying tin can that could be destroyed at any time and wondering why the hell my parents though that living here was a good idea, instead of what the captain decided to do today.
A home on a planet can be destroyed at any time too, by an earthquake, a hurricane, a tornado, a fire, an asteroid impact, or in the Trek universe, an alien invasion, a freak subspace anomaly, and any number of other things. Sure, a starship may potentially face a greater number of threats, but it's analogous to, say, getting a job in Israel or Egypt and relocating your family there. It's a question of how you balance concerns for safety with the desire to keep the family together.
Keep in mind that TNG's later producers mostly ignored the original creators' intent behind the Galaxy-class design, which was a vessel meant to strike out into uncharted territory and spend as much as 15 years away from home. You'd have trouble gathering a crew for such a mission if you required all your personnel to stay completely separated from their families for 15 years.
Having said all that, boy is Peter David good at building an exciting plot! I'm only part way through Blind Man's Bluff, and can't wait to see how it ends! He always guarantees a fun ride full of some humor and some thought provPliny questions. I just wonder if Calhoun and his questionable actions would be tolerated if placed in negotiations with ... say ... the Romulans, or some other group that could lead to interstellar war...
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