Away Teams

[SimpleLogic]

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.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Back on TOS it was clear cut.

Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov could all safely beam down together, because if there was any actual danger, they were conveniently accompanied by a contingent of redshirts who could stand in front of them.

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No seriously, the OP is absolutely right. Sending the first officer plus command staff is just as bad as sending the captain.

For realism's sake, they should have had separate away team specialists all the way, something like "science marines," with the only bridge officer among them being the away team commander. But that would have entailed a radical change in the show's format and a highly ensemble cast.

 

[Loskene]

Enterprise is in reality very short staffed. It has about a dozen crew who pilot the ship, run engineering and give commands, six or seven rotating security officers, a doctor with a couple of nurses and one thousand people who push buttons or walk towards buttons to push.

If those buttons are not pushed the ship will explode so the less important have to make do beaming down.

 

[SimpleLogic]

For realism's sake, they should have had separate away team specialists all the way, something like "science marines," with the only bridge officer among them being the away team commander. But that would have entailed a radical change in the show's format and a highly ensemble cast.

True, I just find it funny that Riker is like, "No captain it is too dangerous for you,. Come on Data, Geordi, Worf, Crusher, Yar, Pulaski, Troi, Crusher, Guinan, O'Brien, Ro, Quark, Kim, Spock, Gowron, Sela..."

 

[Worf'sParmach]

True, I just find it funny that Riker is like, "No captain it is too dangerous for you,. Come on Data, Geordi, Worf, Crusher, Yar, Pulaski, Troi, Crusher, Guinan, O'Brien, Ro, Quark, Kim, Spock, Gowron, Sela..."

 

[Flake]

At the end of Datalore in TNG someone calls for security to help defeat Lore and who turns up phasers at the ready? Picard, Riker and Yar :P

Infact I think they would have androids everywhere by the 24th century but Trek cant do that now because of star wars. They can do the dirty work so Picard can put his feet up and sip Tea.

 

[Pavonis]

Enterprise (any of them) is overstaffed. The producers of the series (any of the series) should have had a smaller crew if they wanted to justify the main characters participating in the dangerous situation of the week without the likes of us wondering where the rest of the crew is and why they're not along.

 

[Melakon]

To rationalize the bridge crew always on away missions, the Enterprise would have had to be the size of 1936's Flash Gordon rocketships.

 

[Bigjoe]

The show would have been a little dull if we had unknowns on away missions all the time.

 

[USS Excelsior]

But if they were on away teams all the time then they wouldn't be unknowns anymore!

 

[Lance]

I always found it amusing that they had this pretense where Picard would give Riker the authority to pick and choose whomever he wanted to take with him... but nine times out of ten Number One would just pick Worf and Data anyway. I can imagine Ensign Crumbum in the background thinking "Geez... and I was so sure he was gonna pick me over the android and the Klingon this time!".

 

[USS Excelsior]

Obviously it's convenient for the TV show. You wouldn't need that many crew members and certainly not anyone doing manual labour or physical security.

If you wanted to repair the ship it should be more like how that Repair Station did it with high speed and automation, and replicating replacement parts along the way.

 

[Dale Sams]

The problem is that TNG tries to make TOS look silly, and as you say replicates the problem...when it really wasn't silly of TOS to let Kirk on the away teams. If TOS is..say...British explorer ships, then most of the TOS away team selections make perfect sense. Whereas TNG are modern warships, and of course you arn't going to see Captain Picard of the Aircraft Carrier Midway disembarking to fight some terrorists.

I don't know where that leaves Archer...a Polynesian canoe chief?

 

[Captrek]

For realism's sake, they should have had separate away team specialists all the way, something like "science marines," with the only bridge officer among them being the away team commander. But that would have entailed a radical change in the show's format and a highly ensemble cast.

True, I just find it funny that Riker is like, "No captain it is too dangerous for you,. Come on Data, Geordi, Worf, Crusher, Yar, Pulaski, Troi, Crusher, Guinan, O'Brien, Ro, Quark, Kim, Spock, Gowron, Sela..."

The captain often orders the XO to take a “minimal away team” — typically the android and the Klingon to avoid risking any more real people — when the situation is deemed especially dangerous.

In the more common case, the situation is deemed relatively safe and the bulk of the command staff may be included on the away team. Though the situation isn’t especially dangerous, there is a possibility of a catastrophe resulting in the loss of the entire away team. In that event, the captain is the person best qualified to oversee continuing ship operations and assemble a new command staff.

It’s kind of similar to the USA Continuity of Government policy, “During large, pan-government events, such as the State of the Union Address, and presidential inaugurations, one member of the Cabinet is removed to a remote, safe, COG-designated location.” Only in this case it’s the captain rather than a Cabinet member.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Hey! Androids and Klingons are real people too!!!!!!

 

[Captrek]

According to Phillipa Louvois, you’re right about the android. There’s still no official word on you Klingon bastards.

 

[Melakon]

David Gerrold's away team concept could have worked if casting decisions and writing had been different. I'll use Yar as the example. Picard orders away team. Riker gives Yar the assignment. Yar chooses 2 or 3 security or specialist types, one of whom could be a guest part with sizable dialogue.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I guess an away team could really just consist of a junior officer and a squad of enlisted personnel.

But then every Star Trek series and film has been officer-heavy as far as who does much of the action with enlisted personnel relegated mainly to technical and support roles in the background, IMO.

 

[Mojochi]

Yeah, in reality none of them should be going on away missions unless they are diplomatic in nature. Hell in the CMO's case, sending your chief medical officer on an away mission to render aid is like sending a hospital's chief of surgery out in an ambulance

When you call someone a chief of something like security, engineering, medicine, then they are administrators & top specialists, only to be called away in the rarest of circumstances, not to make some goofy Pakleds "Go"

Frankly, chief of operations shouldn't refer to the inner workings of the ship. That should be like chief of facilities or something comparable. Chief of Operations should be the person in charge of all away mission ops, whether science, militaristic or technical related

& if the captain is the designated diplomat, then he actually has more need to go away then the XO. These are all jobs that need to either be more specifically designated or for the sake of tv, need to actually be more like TOS had it... ambiguous

 

[Timo]

How often could a mission to an unknown, inhabited planet be considered "not diplomatic"?

Even if it was known in advance to involve fighting back angry hordes, Kirk beaming down with two redshirts armed with phasers would be equivalent to MacArthur wading up the shores of a Pacific island with the entire 3rd Marine Division going hut-hut-hut around him. Hand phasers aren't honor guard sidearms, they are strategic weapons! Generally speaking, landing party duty should be rather risk-free. The problem isn't with the demonstrated practices of beam-down, it's with the implausible calamities the parties are subject to.

As for sending down the CMO, she doesn't run a hospital full of doctors. She is one of perhaps four MDs aboard (see "Remember Me"), and that's pretty much it. One of the four has to go down whenever mere paramedics don't suffice - and the CMO isn't a poorer choice than the other three.

Sending the CEO out in "Samaritan Snare" was just plain silly. But perhaps it was diplomatic?

Timo Saloniemi