The thing that was always more baffling to me, was why the away teams (in this super advanced 24th century of theirs) never took along a freakin camera and transmitted what they were seeing to the Enterprise. Instead of having to give Picard some vague and not very helpful verbal description all the time.
The closest they ever got was Geordi's crazy kaleidescope vision in the first season, and that was more for kicks than anything else.
The closest they ever got was Geordi's crazy kaleidescope vision in the first season, and that was more for kicks than anything else.
Or why security teams don't wear armor?
I remember Sisko melting a meter thick rock wall on a wide beam setting and Data destroying an irregation system up to the to of a mountain with hand phasers...
Armor probably would just be a good excuse for enemies to ignore the pansy a$$ stun setting, unless said armor is a 3 meter tall shielded battle mech. That might make a difference.
I don't think Enterprise carries those though.
How come, in the 24th century, people are still carrying the kind of firearms that require the shooter to expose himself to return fire in order to see or fire upon an armed target? How come nobody ever carries grenades? And did they ever take delivery of the Echo Papa Six Oh Seven?
The in-universe explanation is that Riker (or whoever decides on the away team members) probably has more confidence in the abilities of the senior staff than some no-name ensigns. (Unless the ensigns are specialists or are there for extra muscle, and so occasionally you do see no-names on away missions.)
No surprise then that by Voyager's time, the policy had been quietly buried by Starfleet. Even after Chakotay got Cavit's job, never did he assert any authority to stop Janeway from beaming anywhere (and don't say it's because of Voyager's peculiar circumstances - it was plenty inconsistent, but for the most part the ship was run by Starfleet regulations). Likewise, Sisko (who had attained Captain's rank by then), Picard in the movies, and any given guest Captain were all seen routinely beaming into dangerous situations whenever they felt like it. I think only in "Nemesis" did Riker suggest that Picard going for a joy ride would be worth bringing up as a dumb thing to do, and Picard blew him off anyway.
Yup, somewhere along the line the "XO only on away missions" thing wasn't worth enforcing anymore. Stoopid cowboys.
Mark
Yup, somewhere along the line the "XO only on away missions" thing wasn't worth enforcing anymore. Stoopid cowboys.
Mark
So I get why a captain shouldn't always beam into an unknown place, but isn't it equally as foolish to have the entire command staff go instead? Seems like every time they beam down they have everyone but the captain go.
I know, the entire senior staff go while the captain is left on board and when the captain wants to go they have a go at him
Or why not just beam down some sort of probe/camera before sending any people down. They could get some idea of what they were heading into.
Geordie once did that but it was risky.
In TOS, this was not a big problem, as typically the ship was not all that interested in what the landing party was doing. After all, the commander of the team was also the commander of the ship and the overall mission, and was on the spot already.
TOS also gave us every reason to believe that visual records were being made - we saw some, e.g. in the teaser of "Friday's Child". Apparently, and in all simplicity, the tricorder was also a camcorder. Whether the capacity existed to send the imagery to the ship in real time... Well, why not? "Miri" suggested that uplinking was technologically somewhat challenging, but only to the degree of involving the hand communicators as a mediating agent.
TNG should really have thought this through when introducing the all-new dramatic element of communication between away teams and the mission commander.
Timo Saloniemi
TOS also gave us every reason to believe that visual records were being made - we saw some, e.g. in the teaser of "Friday's Child". Apparently, and in all simplicity, the tricorder was also a camcorder. Whether the capacity existed to send the imagery to the ship in real time... Well, why not? "Miri" suggested that uplinking was technologically somewhat challenging, but only to the degree of involving the hand communicators as a mediating agent.
TNG should really have thought this through when introducing the all-new dramatic element of communication between away teams and the mission commander.
Timo Saloniemi
They generally use the ship's sensors to do that.
Because it's a TV show. People don't tune in to see probes.
The MALP in Stargate was only used to assess conditions around the gate at the other end. Once conditions were established as "safe", the team went through and marched out of range into danger.
IIRC, they did use aerial drones once or maybe in a few episodes, but those didn't solve all the problems.
IIRC, they did use aerial drones once or maybe in a few episodes, but those didn't solve all the problems.
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