Crusher taking command of enterprise was big mistake

[Kegek]

^
Honestly, there's really no particular reason Crusher stays other than... well, they wanted to develop an excuse to have a subplot about her in command, obviously, as it was something they hadn't done before. Troi's subplot on the same subject was set up more plausibly.

 

[Takeru]

AviTrek said:
What always bothered me in that episode was Crusher could have manned a landing party just as well as anyone else. Why not send her down to the planet and leave someone more experienced in command.

Yeah, that didn't make much sense. I once read that the producers wanted to see how the audience would react to a woman commanding the ship, it was a test for Voyager.

 

[NathanielM]

Yah well, that may be, but ensigns and Lietentants in general, rarely get to just take the Con. It is usually the XO or even rarely the Gunnery Officer.

 

[Timo]

Regarding Crusher's qualifications, it's highly unlikely that she would be a line officer in any sense of the expression. Judging by "Thine Own Self" dialogue, the training and test she took qualified her to "stand bridge watches", to be Officer of the Deck whenever the Captain so decrees - a no-brainer job in today's navies that is usually given to the most junior officers available. In essence, the test probably made Commander Crusher equally eligible for OOD duty as the lowliest yellow- or redshirt aboard. Which is a handy feature, gotta admit.

Nor does it seem that such training is usual among medical personnel, since neither McCoy nor Pulaski ever displayed such qualifications. The superman Bashir no doubt eagerly volunteered for training of this sort early in his career, but McCoy and Pulaski seem to have made it to high rank without ever considering command tasks. (Command in ship operations, that is - they obviously command their respective medical staffs.) The command test must be but one out of dozens of different means for gaining enough brownie points for a promotion.

As for the logic of Picard leaving her in command... Well, that would be a better-protected assignment than any of the surface teams. Picard might face some tough questioning for such a personally driven decision, but from his viewpoint it must have been rather sound. Keep Beverly out of danger, and keep her where she can quickly deploy to any planetary spot that requires her medical attention. The one thing Picard really should have done differently is make her remain aboard as the CMO, not as the OOD!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[NathanielM]

Timo said:
Regarding Crusher's qualifications, it's highly unlikely that she would be a line officer in any sense of the expression. Judging by "Thine Own Self" dialogue, the training and test she took qualified her to "stand bridge watches", to be Officer of the Deck whenever the Captain so decrees - a no-brainer job in today's navies that is usually given to the most junior officers available. In essence, the test probably made Commander Crusher equally eligible for OOD duty as the lowliest yellow- or redshirt aboard. Which is a handy feature, gotta admit.

Nor does it seem that such training is usual among medical personnel, since neither McCoy nor Pulaski ever displayed such qualifications. The superman Bashir no doubt eagerly volunteered for training of this sort early in his career, but McCoy and Pulaski seem to have made it to high rank without ever considering command tasks. (Command in ship operations, that is - they obviously command their respective medical staffs.) The command test must be but one out of dozens of different means for gaining enough brownie points for a promotion.

As for the logic of Picard leaving her in command... Well, that would be a better-protected assignment than any of the surface teams. Picard might face some tough questioning for such a personally driven decision, but from his viewpoint it must have been rather sound. Keep Beverly out of danger, and keep her where she can quickly deploy to any planetary spot that requires her medical attention. The one thing Picard really should have done differently is make her remain aboard as the CMO, not as the OOD!

Timo Saloniemi

I wish they would have killed Crusher off instead of Yar.. I'd like to see that gay little shit wesley in the tar and drown...

That or see him get nicked by a phaser on kill and see him disintergrate slowly.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Tomalak said:

Baba101 said:
It doesnt matter us and nato countries it should have been a line officer taking command.

Shit, you mean the Enterprise was under NATO command all this time?

I really do not understand the need for Starfleet to conform with US Navy protocols and organization. It's a different organization, in a different time-frame, with different people involved. It's like asking to the US Army to conform to the organization of the Roman Legions.

 

[CaptainStoner]

Obviously the structure of command on ships in the future is more fluid, not to mention less afraid of women and gays, as it is today.
The Wesley character wasn't so much annoying as it was the writing for him. If they'd kept him off the bridge, and slowly developed this whiz kid character, it would have been much better. But I never got the impression he was gay, just a dork, like many of us watching Trek in the first place!
Have you folks ever read Wil Wheaton's reviews of the early TNG episodes? If you haven't, prepare to laugh till it hurts. He is a hilarious writer. You can find them easily with a search.

 

[Forbin]

I'm not a dork, dammit, I'm a geek!

 

[Forbin]

Takeru said:

AviTrek said:
What always bothered me in that episode was Crusher could have manned a landing party just as well as anyone else. Why not send her down to the planet and leave someone more experienced in command.

Yeah, that didn't make much sense. I once read that the producers wanted to see how the audience would react to a woman commanding the ship, it was a test for Voyager.

If so it was a misstep. I have nothing at all against a woman captain, but I about putting a doctor in charge.

 

[Praetor]

I never really had a problem with it. Starfleet isn't the navy no matter how much it resembles it. It's been said numerous times that ranks in Starfleet are more like job titles than anything else, so just because she's a Commander doesn't mean she would automatically be a capable command officer. That said, it does seem to be explained nicely that she received command training to allow her to cross disciplines. I guess McCoy and Pulaski never wanted to... I certainly see it as in keeping with their character to eschew leadership positions.

I also think, in some ways, it was 'safer' for Crusher to stay on the ship rather than be a part of the search teams. Maybe Picard wanted her onboard in case there were casualties. Picard probably also assumed that another senior officer would be able to beam up quickly in the event that the Borg ship emerged and the situation worsened, even though it didn't happen in the episode. Perhaps Picard thought there would be heavy combat on the planet rather than in orbit.

Regardless, clearly Picard must have had confidence in her ability to command, and its entirely possible that she had much more experience in the area than we were ever led to believe.

Finally, while I've never heard the idea that the producers were testing the waters for a female Janeway, it certainly makes sense.

 

[CaptainStoner]

Though we didn't see it much, I'm also reminded that the Enterprise-D had the separation feature.
Now if I were Captain I would still keep my Chief Medical Officer in a separation, but it does stand to reason that given this ability of the Galaxy class ships, it is to your advantage to have all your Senior Staff able to take the Bridge, even the Counsellor. I would think in practice the Counsellor is probably the most likely choice to command the warpdrive section and get the civilians to safety while the saucer section dukes it out.

 

[stormturmoil]

Something to bear in mind is that at any given point, the Chief Medical officer may have to remove other officers from command due to impairment for medical reasons (as we have seen in several episodes). Since they are, therefore, evidently empowered to remove command officers from command if they deem the need sufficent, it may be the case that they are in fact required to be able to replace those officers in command if, for some reason, they have to remove them all from command.

Even today, a ship's captain can be removed from command on medical grounds. In theory, it's possible for the chain of command to get bucked all the way down if it keeps happening.

 

[Forbin]

CaptainStoner said:
I would think in practice the Counsellor is probably the most likely choice to command the warpdrive section and get the civilians to safety while the saucer section dukes it out.

Ya got that backwards. The saucer is the "lifeboat" with no warp drive, the star drive section is the combat ship.

 

[Timo]

Since they are, therefore, evidently empowered to remove command officers from command if they deem the need sufficent, it may be the case that they are in fact required to be able to replace those officers in command if, for some reason, they have to remove them all from command.

And that would be an excellent reason to permanently forbid medical personnel from having any sort of command qualifications.

If they did have those qualifications, they could simply declare their superiors unfit on a whim and assume command at will. Better have safeguards at place, such as making sure that the one person who can relieve the superior officer is the one who cannot have ambitions to replace him or her.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Anwar]

They can't relieve them on their own, don't they need the support of another command officer to do so? McCoy needed Spock to relieve Kirk in "Obsession".

 

[Praetor]

Yeah, and I imageine you'd have to have a few other officers going along with it anyway, lest you have an impromptu mutiny on your hand if the cause was wrong.

 

[Vulcanian]

I thought Beverly did a pretty good job of it but I would not want her all the time.

 

[Anwar]

What Crusher did was smart. The Borg are basically a force of nature, so the only way to stop them is with another force of nature (The solar flare) and she used that metaphasic heat shield from that episode with the Ferengi scientist where she solved his murder mystery.

 

[Tomalak]

Indeed! No one else would have thought of that, and would most likely have got the Enterprise destroyed, including Picard and Riker. Good choice there, Jean Luc.

 

[Praetor]

^^And good point. Anyone else might not have thought of the metaphasic shielding, or have been willing to gamble with the new technology as she was becasue she believed in Dr. Reyga and had tested it firsthand.

'Force of nature vs. Force of nature.' I like that idea. Now if we cuold just get hte damn Borg to get into a fight with a black hole...