A more realistic approach to away teams
- Thread starter MikeS
- Start date
What's realistic isn't necessarily what makes for good television. I agree they probably should have had characters who specialized in away team missions that didn't necessarily consist of the bridge crew.
But I disagree that it's a huge risk to take your bridge crew off the ship. Besides the fact that given dramatic license they don't expect that something will always go wrong within ten minutes of arriving anywhere, just because somebody doesn't have three pips on their collar does not mean they are not qualified to run the bridge. There are plenty of very competent lieutenants on the ship.
It's usually referenced that they do full scans of the surface before landing anywhere, but they're on an exploration mission, not a survey mission. They want to experience what's on the planet, not just note it down in a journal.
But I disagree that it's a huge risk to take your bridge crew off the ship. Besides the fact that given dramatic license they don't expect that something will always go wrong within ten minutes of arriving anywhere, just because somebody doesn't have three pips on their collar does not mean they are not qualified to run the bridge. There are plenty of very competent lieutenants on the ship.
It's usually referenced that they do full scans of the surface before landing anywhere, but they're on an exploration mission, not a survey mission. They want to experience what's on the planet, not just note it down in a journal.
^^^
Agreed on all points. IMO, the fact that the bridge crew can leave the ship indicates that there are other officers that are qualified to run it in their absence (even if we don't see them very often).
Trek has always focused since day one on the senior officers of the ship. The only way that will change is if a future Trek series decides to do otherwise.
Agreed on all points. IMO, the fact that the bridge crew can leave the ship indicates that there are other officers that are qualified to run it in their absence (even if we don't see them very often).
Trek has always focused since day one on the senior officers of the ship. The only way that will change is if a future Trek series decides to do otherwise.
Sending hundreds of your crew down to potentially a planet of Borg doesn't seem a wise course of action either.
"Captain's Log, stardate 41325.4. Despite the massive and obvious stupidity of it, the writers are insisting that I..." 
David Gerrold entertained the idea of away teams as early as 1973, in his book The World of Star Trek. He proposed the first officer lead the team, with the captain staying on the bridge. Apparently he was able to push some of these ideas during TNG's first season. But as others have said, realism doesn't always equal effective drama. Your top-billed actor as captain is eventually going to grow tired of missing out on all the action scenes.
Gerrold, D.C. Fontana and Bob Justman all should have gotten co-creator credit on TNG. But the matter was settled privately.
I agree. In TMP and TWOK they wore these "field jackets" over their basic uniform shirts. I liked that, it added an extra touch of realism.
If you look on the Starship team as being explorers and First Contact guys then would you send your second string team down to the planet and say to the natives "Our Captain and XO and second officer are all on board ship because you might kill them. We're here to determine whether you are friendly or not as we're not all that important to the ship"?
Captain Cook and Horatio Hornblower and Neil Armstrong discovered places. They didn't stay behind where it was safe. You know Buzz Aldrin would have loved to have been the first to land on the moon despite the dangers.
Captain Cook and Horatio Hornblower and Neil Armstrong discovered places. They didn't stay behind where it was safe. You know Buzz Aldrin would have loved to have been the first to land on the moon despite the dangers.
And in The Cage as well. Of course, I imagine budgets probably got in the way of that. After all, it's one more costume to make.
Although Enterprise did also have field jackets too.
That goes back to Kirk leading the majority of the landing parties. You have to think about "what is Kirk's real job?" Is he basically just a bus driver" taking exploration teams to their destinations? Or is Kirk the over all mission leader, not just the Captain of the transport ship?
It really makes no sense to leave the most experienced personnel aboard the ship. It took years to train people like Kirk, Spock and others, now don't use them.
Maybe the next time the ship goes into battle, Kirk should excuse himself and leave the bridge.
If something happen to Kirk (killed), Sulu was perfectly capable of returning the ship to a starbase to acquire another Captain.
So a landing party is composed of the mission leader, the best general scientist, the best doctor, and supplemented with additional specialist, add a few armed body guards.
There would be a time and place to do just this, allow junior officers to gain experience, gain confidence, missions of low level importance.
But most of the time policy should be to send in "the first team."
was my joke to subtle?
Funny enough…this stupid policy was actually addressed back in TOS.
Remember back in "The Ultimate Computer" the M5 very specifically pointed out that having the captain and CMO on a simple survey mission was unnecessary. Kirk of course got all in a huff over that simple bit of logic and thus the M5 joined the ranks of evil machines out to crush the human spirit….
Remember back in "The Ultimate Computer" the M5 very specifically pointed out that having the captain and CMO on a simple survey mission was unnecessary. Kirk of course got all in a huff over that simple bit of logic and thus the M5 joined the ranks of evil machines out to crush the human spirit….
Kirk didn't like M-5 well before the survey mission...
The Ultimate Computer said:
Yes
I'm not a big sports fan.
That's true, however I've always wondered what happened to those Cage jackets: they already existed. Whatever became of them?
Two of them even were made for women, what with the mirrored flap, y'know, like women's shirts have reverse buttons on the front.
Apparently, I didn´t for a second think about sports teams
But now that I got it, it really is funny 
Although you involuntarily brought up an interesting point
IMO away teams should be mission specialists, like a swat team or spec forces unit. Oddly something like gate team from SG1, a small man squad with a verity of talents to carry out the mission. If its not a diplomatic mission the bridge crew have no place going.
Even if it was, I doubt you'd need a navigator, a helmsman and communications officer.
