Decker's demotion -- unprofessionally handled?

Since the bridge crew already knew that Kirk was taking over (Sulu: "He doesn't know"), I'm assuming that there was official communication of the change of command orders. It's not Kirk's fault that Decker was too busy playing in Scotty's sandbox to read his email.

 

It's certainly not Kirk's fault, but it is Starfleet Command's fault for stupidly CCing the whole bridge crew on what should have been a private e-mail to the captain, so to speak.

 

Who knows who sent that message, tho. Perhaps Chekov, Sulu and Uhura are aboard only because Kirk sent them personal summons, with explanations? We don't learn whether they were part of the refit gang or part of the VGer interception gang, but we might surmise the two gangs would be largely separate - Decker himself would be an exception, for quoted reasons.

Timo Saloniemi

 

The needs of the story outweigh the needs of an accurate account of organization protocol and courtesy.

 

Hmh? The story here is that Kirk tramples on protocol to get command of the ship, and acts like a bully to boot. He's neither courteous nor particularly organized. And doesn't give a damn.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I`ve recently seen the german dub..there it`s made quite clear that its temporary...they have it worded "...unter vorübergehender Zurückstufung zum Commander" ... "temporary demotion to Commander"

 

I guess there's nothing definitive, but I think the implication is that Uhura, Chekhov and Sulu are part of Decker's crew. Hence, they're already aboard. And consider Uhura's line, "Ensign, the possibilities of our returning from this mission in one piece may have just doubled," in response to Kirk taking over. That sounds like someone who was going to be part of the mission one way or another.

 

Apparently nobody making the movie remembered Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea where Admiral Nelson commanded the missions and Captain Crane commanded the submarine.

 

Brevet may come from the French word for temporary, but a Brevet rank was not temporary but more or less honorary and could last for decades.

By the way, Admirals don't usually command their flagships, instead retaining the ship's captains to command the flagships while the admirals command their fleets. On a modern aircraft carrier there can be several captains in rank beside the captain who is the commander or captain of the ship.

 

But is having the Enteprise commanded by Kirk in this emergency Starfleet's, humanity's , and the Federation's "first, best destiny"?

 

Given that, as Uhura rightly pointed out, the chance of the mission's success went up due to Kirk's unique talent for command, yes.

 

Once he got a couple of bonehead errors out of the way and got his right hand man back. .

 

It's basically the same wording in the English version's dialogue, too:

KIRK: I'm taking over the center seat, Will.
DECKER: You're what?
KIRK: I'm replacing you as Captain of the Enterprise. You'll stay on as Executive Officer. Temporary grade-reduction to Commander.

 

I would agree with an earlier poster, Kirk didn't need to hold the rank of Captain to take command of Enterprise. In the very next film we are shown that this is not the case. However, it is understood that Kirk took the Enterprise on another five year mission after the Vger incident. It had to do with the fact that the first film after TOS, someone wanted Captain Kirk.

 

Kirk nagged (blackmailed?) Admiral Nogura to get command of the Enterprise, then waltzed on board to yank the captain's chair out from under Decker. Decker is then given the scraps of being kicked down to XO while losing a bit of braid. That left Decker more or less in line with the First Officer, just easier to ignore. Not that he wasn't easy to ignore in the first place.

Kirk saw an opportunity to get the Grey Lady back and no one was going to stand in his way. Who knows how many favours he called in to make it work, but by damn he'd be her captain again. Age, treachery, and a questionable hair weave will always triumph over youth and skill.

 

Kirk was just a dick throughout the entire film.

 

An XO is the first officer.