The Galileo Seven

[BillJ]

I was just watching this episode today and something occurred to me: they were still 150 pounds over weight when Spock left Gaetano in no-mans land.

Had Spock put Gaetano out there because he was the one who was going to be left behind?

 

[Gojira]

I am not sure who Spock would have chosen. I just watched this episode this weekend and one of the things I have realized is that while the rest of the crew want to paint Spock as this unfeeling computer I must say that their emotional outbursts are a bit unreasonable.

 

[Gotham Central]

I am not sure who Spock would have chosen. I just watched this episode this weekend and one of the things I have realized is that while the rest of the crew want to paint Spock as this unfeeling computer I must say that their emotional outbursts are a bit unreasonable.

The entire episode was stupid on many levels and required all of the characters to act in unreasonable ways.

1) Why was this Quasar so important that Kirk risks a humanitarian catastrophe in order to study it?

2) Why exactly did they risk a shuttle to study this Quasar? Does the enterprise not carry probes?

3) Why exactly did it require SEVEN people for this mission? Why was Doctor McCoy, Gatano, Boma and Mr Scott on the mission in the first place. I know that the Enterprise routinely risks senior officers on silly missions....but why were the Ship's CMO and Chief Engineer on a survey mission?

4) Why is Spock suddenly incapable of making sound decisions? For that matter, why are people saying that this is Spock's "first command." That whole plot thread was just silly. Spock is First Officer and he has been in command of the Enterprise.

5) McCoy was even more insufferable than usual.

6) Boma was down right insubordinate and should have been put in check right off the bat. At the very least he should have been brought up on charges when the episode was over.

 

[Knight Templar]

6) Boma was down right insubordinate and should have been put in check right off the bat. At the very least he should have been brought up on charges when the episode was over.

If you read the novel "Dreadnought" he was cashiered after the episode at the insistence of Scott and McCoy.

 

[UnknownSample]

...while the rest of the crew want to paint Spock as this unfeeling computer I must say that their emotional outbursts are a bit unreasonable.

Yes, one of the things the episode was about was the hypocrisy of the humans on the shuttlecraft. In the end, everyone's judgment was flawed and questionable.

Gotham Central-- Your questions deserve answers, but unanswered questions don't equal stupidity.

 

[T'Girl]

For that matter, why are people saying that this is Spock's "first command." That whole plot thread was just silly. Spock is First Officer and he has been in command of the Enterprise.

At the time of Gaileo Seven when was Spock ever in "command" of the Enterprise? There were time when he was the watch officer, but so were Sulu, Scott and others. Being the watch officer does give you a certain amount of authority, but does not put you "in command," even if the Captain is off the ship.

 

[Timo]

1) Why was this Quasar so important that Kirk risks a humanitarian catastrophe in order to study it?

Let's remember that Kirk stumbled onto the mini-quasar only because of that catastrophe. Apparently, by taking a shortcut to the emergency rendezvous, Kirk went where no man has gone before, and possibly also where no man would go again for a long time.

Let's also remember that he was heading for a rendezvous. It would not help the beleaguered colony a bit if Kirk reached that spot early, if the other starship wasn't there yet. Kirk had a time margin that was his to use, unrelated to the crisis.

2) Why exactly did they risk a shuttle to study this Quasar? Does the enterprise not carry probes?

Early on in the episode, it turns out that there is quite a lot to be studied within the region of influence of the Murasaki phenomenon: our shipborne heroes refer to four star systems within! The mission of the shuttle might well have been more on the lines of "Let's find out what in here is worth studying" than "Let's start studying". That is, the ship's top experts on diverse fields of study would get in the middle of things and decide where their particular department wants the probes fired.

3) Why exactly did it require SEVEN people for this mission? Why was Doctor McCoy, Gatano, Boma and Mr Scott on the mission in the first place. I know that the Enterprise routinely risks senior officers on silly missions....but why were the Ship's CMO and Chief Engineer on a survey mission?

See above. Boma and Gaetano probably were specialists on Murasaki, and Mears and Latimer were support personnel, but McCoy and Scott could have been assessing the soon-to-be-launched survey campaign from the points of biosciences and warp engineering. This wasn't a spot study, but an undertaking comparable to surveying Australia or North America; it would need preplanning, which this shuttle sortie might have provided.

4) Why is Spock suddenly incapable of making sound decisions? For that matter, why are people saying that this is Spock's "first command." That whole plot thread was just silly. Spock is First Officer and he has been in command of the Enterprise.

Why wouldn't Spock's decisions count as "sound"? And this is called Spock's "first command" only by McCoy in his dying moment; I wouldn't take the good doctor too literally there, nor would I hold Spock's response against him. Probably there are dozens of earlier field sorties like this one where Spock commanded small groups of people but McCoy wasn't there to witness it. Plus, of course, situations where Spock sat in the Captain's chair on various starships, but only in a subordinate role.

5) McCoy was even more insufferable than usual.

Usually, he isn't the ranking officer in a crisis... The perceived responsibility might have weighed on him quite a bit.

6) Boma was down right insubordinate and should have been put in check right off the bat. At the very least he should have been brought up on charges when the episode was over.

Boma was a scientist. Those need to be insubordinate and laugh, cry and spit at the suggestions of their superiors if they want to get valid results; they bow to a higher authority than mere rank braid. Boma would be used to telling his boss he is dead wrong, and unused to situations where obeying of orders would be of importance.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Maurice]

^^^It's still sloppy storytelling. They could have started the story with the ship waiting for the shuttle to return from a mission someplace, and the shuttle is taking the flight through the quasar-thing because it's a good opportunity to grab some scans, then all Hell breaks loose. I suspect they didn't do that because they wanted to show their new super-cool shuttlecraft launch sequence at the top of the show.

 

[TOSalltheway]

Remember what Spock said..."there are always alternatives". They did not have to leave anyone behind. Now hear me out. They only had to reduce weight. Follow me on this. You amputate all arms and legs from everyone but the one person needed to pilot the ship. That saves the weight without leaving anyone behind. True they survive without any arms and legs, but look at Captain Pike. (OK just kidding).

 

[Knight Templar]

Remember what Spock said..."there are always alternatives". They did not have to leave anyone behind. Now hear me out. They only had to reduce weight. Follow me on this. You amputate all arms and legs from everyone but the one person needed to pilot the ship. That saves the weight without leaving anyone behind. True they survive without any arms and legs, but look at Captain Pike. (OK just kidding).

Now.

YOU should be a Starfleet officer!!

That is innovative thinking.

Though first I would have the crew all get naked just to see if that helped.

 

[UnknownSample]

Follow me on this. You amputate all arms and legs from everyone but the one person needed to pilot the ship.

I think they did that on the Futurama Trek episode...

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Considering the destructive nature of quasars, it's perfectly understandable that it would be a standing order from Starfleet to investigate one. Besides, I never got the impression they "stumbled upon it." It appears to have been a planned survey, the result of their course which took them near it.

 

[Timo]

It would be pretty damn difficult to fail to see that thing from a distance, yes.

Although happily enough, it's never called a "quasar" (which is a galaxy-sized thing not found inside galaxies), but "quasar-like formation, vague, undefined", and Starfleet has given its skippers standing orders to stop and explore "quasars and quasar-like phenomena". Yes, the latter phrase sort of suggests that starships might one day stumble on a quasar, even though all Trek beyond TOS makes it clear this is technologically impossible up until the 24th century at least. But I could see Starfleet giving orders to its skippers to ask a set of specific questions whenever meeting with God, just in case. Stranger things have happened...

They could have started the story with the ship waiting for the shuttle to return from a mission someplace

But the episode desperately needed the filler of shipboard drama, i.e. the existence of the Ferris character. Just keeping the camera on the castaways would have backfired big time, as the director could not have been expected to maintain the Hitchcockian intensity of a single-room theatrical play on the styrofoam set.

Trek has been pretty damn innovative with getting a set of heroes isolated and stranded in a shuttle, mind you. Here it is for a deliberate survey mission into the unknown. In "Metamorphosis", it's a ferry mission gone wrong, the way you wanted. "Skin of Evil" had a crash into a mountainside to cut the hero off the rest of the universe; "Timescape" did that by freezing the universe. "Ascent" had an onboard bomb cutting the voyage short. "Shuttlepod One" does the hopeless lifeboat scenario. Did we ever get the mad hijacker? ("Past Prologue" sort of did.)

Timo Saloniemi