Re Spock choosing the blue shirt, over the gold (which he has worn as well early in the series. I realize the costume designers probably put the character in blue because it gave contrast on the bridge. And technically I suppose Spock is entitled to wear blue, being science officer, though you would think the command/exec/first office position would have had precedence uniform wise. But I have often wickedly speculated that knowing how jealous or insecure Kirk was at times of stress in his command, Spock might have chosen to wear blue rather than gold/green, because it was less of a red flag to Kirk in their daily interactions. Just an observation.
“The Galileo Seven”—why those seven?
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
That's why he off-loaded dealing with people (Operations) onto Finney.
McCoy is not the head of Life Sciences, he's the head of the Medical Department which includes other doctors and psychiatrists. In the past, I put both Boyce and Piper as the Head of Sciences plus the Medical Department. They also had staff for stuff out of the expertise; reporting to them were the astroscientists (Sulu), zoologist, the botanist, the biophysicist, and even the microbiologist. During the Cage, it looks like Spock is currently a science officer of some field, but he seems to being groomed for command (temporary transfer) under Pike and hence his bridge presence and the fact that he is third-in-succession of command.
To play devil's advocate, McCoy was the one to set up the medical/bio tests on the big amoeba. And he trashed Spock after the mission for botching the acetylcholine tests.
In "The Corbomite Maneuver" Kirk asks for a report from "Life Sciences" and McCoy on the bridge answered for them so he was at that time the department head of "Life Sciences".
KIRK: Have the department heads meet me on the bridge.
Examples?
Good catches; I missed those. In any case, is Spock the overall head of Sciences? Hmm. Spock does instruct McCoy in surgical procedures (Journey to Babel and Spock's Brain.)
Good catches; I missed those. In any case, is Spock the overall head of Sciences? Hmm. Spock does instruct McCoy in surgical procedures (Journey to Babel and Spock's Brain.)
You could say Spock is a subject matter expert in Vulcan physiology. Apparently Doctor M'Benga was not available in "Journey to Babel" and "Spock's Brain"
McCoy is generally present in "department head" type briefings with Kirk and Spock and both McCoy and Spock give their separate reports. If Spock is the overall head of Sciences then it is weird that he waits for McCoy to deliver his report to him during the meeting while he gets reports from his underlings prior to. It would seem more like "Life Sciences" is separate from "Sciences", IMHO.
So Scotty outranks Giotto and Finney for taking command of the whole ship, but wears a lower rank. I really don't see what advantage this system would be for anyone, it seems more likely to cause confusion. Why not just have everyone wear their actual rank? There are only a handful of lieutenant commanders, everybody would know who was in charge of what.
Spock is referred to as science officer in WNMHGB, though; it seems likely that his position is the same as in the rest of the series but the uniform color was switched later.
I’ve always seen Spock as a Physical Science kind of guy.You could say Spock is a subject matter expert in Vulcan physiology. Apparently Doctor M'Benga was not available in "Journey to Babel" and "Spock's Brain"
McCoy is generally present in "department head" type briefings with Kirk and Spock and both McCoy and Spock give their separate reports. If Spock is the overall head of Sciences then it is weird that he waits for McCoy to deliver his report to him during the meeting while he gets reports from his underlings prior to. It would seem more like "Life Sciences" is separate from "Sciences", IMHO.
Apparently, qualifications for line ship command is not solely based on rank, seniority in rank, or simply being a division head. Scotty has the qualifications while both Giotto and Finney do not, but they have more seniority than Scott. I think some fan fiction has Scotty joining Starfleet a little later in his career based on his comments in Operation: Annihilate:
SPOCK: Planet development is normal, Captain. Originally colonised as a freighting-line base in this area.
SCOTT: Aye, they make regular trips from here carrying supplies to the asteroid belt for the miners and bringing cargo out. I've made the run a couple of times myself as an engineering advisor.
Then again, I think Kirk can leave anyone he wants in charge when he leaves the bridge. I guess he can do the same when he leaves the ship, too. If he is unfit for command, incapacitated or dead, not so much based on Journey to Babel and The Deadly Years. I wonder why Commodore Stocker was able to take command when Lt. Sulu was perfectly fine? I guess Stocker was qualified for ship command, but knowing his limited experience on Starships, he was willing to turn over command to Spock or even Scott, but not to Sulu. I guess he didn't know Sulu's abilities since, per Sulu's service records, only got his command qualifications a couple of years ago. YMMV SCOTT: Aye, they make regular trips from here carrying supplies to the asteroid belt for the miners and bringing cargo out. I've made the run a couple of times myself as an engineering advisor.
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I think it's remarkable that Kirk will say, "This is my science officer, Mr. Spock." Think about that.
If the Enterprise were real, and given to us now by magic, it would be sent out as a pure science mission, with no expectation of ever using the guns. And even in the Star Trek universe, the stated mission is to explore strange new worlds. They have to be doing cosmology and astrophysics routinely, taking observations of many targets other than Murasaki 312. And when they go to any unexplored planet, they would engage with potentially every scientific discipline there is.
This is a greatly underplayed aspect of Star Trek for dramatic reasons, but realistically, Kirk should have called Spock his chief science officer. Nobody since the Renaissance could dream of being "the" science officer.
If the Enterprise were real, and given to us now by magic, it would be sent out as a pure science mission, with no expectation of ever using the guns. And even in the Star Trek universe, the stated mission is to explore strange new worlds. They have to be doing cosmology and astrophysics routinely, taking observations of many targets other than Murasaki 312. And when they go to any unexplored planet, they would engage with potentially every scientific discipline there is.
This is a greatly underplayed aspect of Star Trek for dramatic reasons, but realistically, Kirk should have called Spock his chief science officer. Nobody since the Renaissance could dream of being "the" science officer.
He's obviously a bit of a generalist, but the only thing that is coming to mind where he's specifically mentioned as an expert is computer science, but I could see him being an applied physicist who specialized in computers.
Yeah, Spock's specialisms seem to be computers, mathematics, physics, astronomy, and astrophysics but he has a decent general knowledge, possibly partly due to a reluctance to give other characters the lines.
I actually find it more interesting to consider the specialisms of the supporting cast. A guy that knows everything is less interesting in many ways. it's more interesting when we find something he can't do.
What episode is Kirk's meltdown?
THE ENEMY WITHIN, MIRI, TURNABOUT INTRUDER, WHOM GODS DESTROY, AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD, OBSESSION, CORBOMITE MANEUVER and probably at least a dozen more.
And virtually all of those examples were not actually Kirk or was under some influence.
"THE ENEMY WITHIN" - it was the dark half of Kirk, not the singular, regular Kirk.
"MIRI" - he was infected with that puberty disease.
"TURNABOUT INTRUDER" - it was Janice Lester inside Kirk's body.
"WHOM GODS DESTROY" - that was Garth using Kirk's likeness.
"AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD" - he was under the influence of the Gorgon powered children.
"OBSESSION" - I'll agree to this one.
"THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER" - when did he have a meltdown here?
Well "in vino veritas". Under the influence, Kirk revealed his fear of losing command, Spock revealed his distress about his relationship with his mother. These were not implanted thoughts or concerns. They were worries, weaknesses that normal functioning can conceal, but they are none the less there and real. I am not denigrating Kirk. One of the personality traits a Captain probably should have, is the need to be in control. The responsibility would no doubt crush someone who didn't want or welcome that. But the reverse is the fear of losing control, "command" as it were. One reason why Spock is probably much less of a threat to Kirk than someone like Gary Mitchell, who also craved power. Spock could take command (and he could at times be pretty ruthless when pushed) but he doesn't need it, like Kirk does. In fact, I think he's quite content to be at Kirk's side. Or Pike's. Maybe its because, as a Vulcan with a lifespan of several hundred years, he's relatively young, and happy to have a "Captain" to follow. Perhaps he'll come to "command" more naturally in time. But Kirk is at that stage, where he's ready to command, is a good commander. And deep down, fears losing it (as has been revealed in a few episodes). It's not a failing. It's the other half of the coin from wanting Command. IMHO. Of course others may disagree, and that's fine. I think it showed up in quite a few episodes. I like Kirk for it. You don't want a wishy washy commander. You want someone who wants to be in command and is a natural leader.
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Kirk has worries, but he doesn't melt down under stress unless there's some other circumstance at play.
Vulcans don't live several hundred years.
you miss the point. When people melt down, they reveal their inner issues. I.E. "in vino veritas".
And from what I remember of the early specs on Vulcans, they do live 2-3 hundred years. Sarek was young at 101.
Vulcans live to be in the 200s, yes. We saw Sarek reach around 204, and he might have lived longer if not for Bandi Syndrome. I'm thinking probably around 250. I have never heard of a Vulcan reaching 300, though.
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