Commodores, Ambassadors and other Starfleet bureaucrats

[Commishsleer]

Admiral Komack is the villain in a lot of ahem fanfics I have read.
Don't judge me.

Actually I think that Komack is right in 'Amok Time' not to allow Kirk to change course without an explanation.
Kirk should have explained to him later that Spock's life was on the line. Who knows - he might have allowed the course change.

 

[Armored Saint]

Commodore Wesley was a good one, but of course, it's the only sane and competent Commodore we saw commanding a starship.


About the civilian bureaucrats: Ferris was a kind of jerk, but he has a point. John Crawford (the actor) was really good.

Fox acted like a dick at first, but he has been able to redeem himself.

Baris was definetely an ass and a diva.

The poor Nancy Hedford had good reasons to complain.

 

[MacLeod]

Scott was promoted to Captain of Engineering, and McCoy was a retired Admiral in TNG. I'm pretty sure Bones never was in command of a ship.

But rank is different from skill.

Sure a Doctor can reach the Admiralty but that doesn't mean they would be immediatly qualified to command a starship.

As for Scotty sure he was promoted to Captain, but he was the Enterprise's second officer during the five year mission. And it might be faiur to say he might have made a competent Commanding Officer if not for his first love of Engineering.

 

[Avro Arrow]

You can have plenty of flag officers that wouldn't need to know that since they are not likely to be running a ship.

Starbase 10 was apparently in the vicinity of the Neutral Zone; Stocker should have been aware of the treaty that prohibited entry.

Whether or not the person in question has ever commanded a ship, Starfleet shouldn't be promoting anyone to flag rank who doesn't understand the concept of "entering the Neutral Zone is an act of war, don't do it."

Unless there's a track record where ships are often able to get away with short jaunts through it because either the Romulans are uninterested or because they respond too slowly. Given that they'd gone a century without a notable incident, it does suggest you could go your career figuring it's technically dangerous but you'll get away with it.

I wasn't really thinking of the risk to the individual ship, but rather to the fact that entering the Zone basically equals a declaration of war against the Romulans. Whether or not they can intercept you doesn't really matter... if they see you do it, you have the potential to plunge the Federation into war. (Sure, the diplomats can possibly resolve things after the fact, as they must obviously have done after Balance of Terror, but you shouldn't really be putting the Federation in that position in the first place.)

Also, Balance of Terror told us that the treaty was unbroken for a century, so it doesn't sound like anyone actually tried violating the Zone during that time... from either side.

Stocker may reason that the time saved getting Kirk and company to the starbase is valuable enough and the risk of interception low enough that it's worth taking.

I'm sure Kirk would have been the first to point out that their individual lives weren't worth a possible Second Romulan War.

 

[Timo]

FWIW, it seems to be accepted procedure when Saavik in the ST2 simulation enters the (Klingon?) Neutral Zone and merely sends out a message explaining she's on a mission of mercy. Stocker probably did the same - and for all we know, there's a provision in the RNZ treaty that does allow for missions of mercy...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Armored Saint]

You can have plenty of flag officers that wouldn't need to know that since they are not likely to be running a ship.

Starbase 10 was apparently in the vicinity of the Neutral Zone; Stocker should have been aware of the treaty that prohibited entry.

He surely knew, but he didn't realized Romulans don't act as comprehensive gentlemen. As Kirk said, he was a paper pusher, so probably he had the basic skills to evacuate or defend a starbase in case of attack, but he wouldn't have been in a situation where he would have order starship's captain to cross the Neutral Zone. In case of need, he would ask to Starfleet command to send a ship in the best delays.

Speaking of starbases administrator, the civilian manager of K7 seemed to be a nice open-minded and patient person...so absolutely not like Baris.

 

[Nebusj]

FWIW, it seems to be accepted procedure when Saavik in the ST2 simulation enters the (Klingon?) Neutral Zone and merely sends out a message explaining she's on a mission of mercy. Stocker probably did the same - and for all we know, there's a provision in the RNZ treaty that does allow for missions of mercy...

In the Kobayashi Maru simulator the freighter's specified as being in Gamma Hydra, Section Ten, so it's probably in the vicinity of the ``Deadly Years'' action.

Come to it, the Kobayashi Maru simulator has a freighter in the Neutral Zone, so it's plausible for a civilian ship to be crossing the border anyway. Of course, that is decades after the Romulans re-emerge into galactic society. (I forget how the simulation in Star Trek 2009 set it up, but then there's little on-screen reason to suppose the Romulans are secreted away and unknown at that point in the 2009 timeline.)

 

[J.T.B.]

Speaking of starbases administrator, the civilian manager of K7 seemed to be a nice open-minded and patient person...so absolutely not like Baris.

I may have seen Whit Bissell play a bad guy in a Western or two, but he never really loses his cool. He's usually an even-tempered, serious public servant or professional man.

 

[Timo]

Come to it, the Kobayashi Maru simulator has a freighter in the Neutral Zone, so it's plausible for a civilian ship to be crossing the border anyway.

Excellent point - although McCoy's bottle introduces the possibility of border-crossing being commonplace but utterly illegal... Probably Romulans would not wish to officially allow ships to enter "until and unless proven to be armed and/or government-operated", even if it were in their interest to allow civilian traffic and only keep warships out.

In the 2009 movie, no mention is made of a Romulan connection, or of Gamma Hydra. "The neutral zone" is mentioned nevertheless, and this time around might be a purely Klingon thing.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Delta Vega]

The thing that always struck me about Star Trek Commodores, Ambassadors and more so, other Ships Captains, is that they were all completely incompetent, and total arseholes.
Kirk seems to be the only guy in the Federeation who actually knows what he is doing.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The thing that always struck me about Star Trek Commodores, Ambassadors and more so, other Ships Captains, is that they were all completely incompetent, and total arseholes.
Kirk seems to be the only guy in the Federeation who actually knows what he is doing.

Helps to be the lead character.

 

[Delta Vega]

The thing that always struck me about Star Trek Commodores, Ambassadors and more so, other Ships Captains, is that they were all completely incompetent, and total arseholes.
Kirk seems to be the only guy in the Federeation who actually knows what he is doing.

Helps to be the lead character.

Of course, but it shouldnt be beyond the realms of belief that other high ranking Federation Officers, who we would percieve, went through the same training, would have the same or similar level of almost infallability.

 

[Armored Saint]

Stone and Mendez were doing perfectly their job. If I remember well, the only to have been depreciated by Kirk was Stocker. The other Starship commanders we seen were always described by Kirk as brave and competent, but the only case we really seen was Commodore Wesley.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The thing that always struck me about Star Trek Commodores, Ambassadors and more so, other Ships Captains, is that they were all completely incompetent, and total arseholes.
Kirk seems to be the only guy in the Federeation who actually knows what he is doing.

Helps to be the lead character.

Of course, but it shouldnt be beyond the realms of belief that other high ranking Federation Officers, who we would percieve, went through the same training, would have the same or similar level of almost infallability.

We see guys like Stone and Wesley who seem capable and competent. And then there is Pike who's also a talented commander. The number of COs and flag officers we see in TOS is pretty small, so it's hard to judge just how good the average officer is.

 

[Armored Saint]

We don't see a lot of COs in TNG either and Admirals tend to be passive messengers. I suppose a 2014 Star Trek series would be more objective and more "realistic" about that.