Dr. Crusher and giving orders

[knightgrace]

The final test in the Bridge officers exam that Dee took on screen, that we all saw, required that Deanna save the ship by ordering one of her crewmen to sacrifice themselves for the good of the many. I don't suppose it's always Geordie that has to be murdered, every time anyone takes this exam on any ship ship in the fleet, but what if it were?

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This is one of the most beautiful scenes in all of Star Trek. Horrible, but this has always been necessary. At some point, someone has to give an order like this. And in an individual's career, I hope that it doesn't occur, but they absolutely must be prepared to.

In the movie 'Gettysburg' I think that there is a line 'that to be a good soldier, one has has to love the Army beyond almost anything else, but to be a good officer, one has to be willing to destroy that which you love the most.'

Or if you perfer, firefighters, they have to go into the fire, taking appropriate precautions to rescue...knowing that they might succeed, but not come out...

This is why you should love firefighters, because they are willing to die for you., a stranger.

This is the essence...of being many things.

 

[Uncle Sock]

I always understood Star Trek to work on the idea that a higher-ranking officer can automatically give orders to anyone of lower rank. The only exceptions would be if the lower-ranking officer was already following orders from someone even higher up, or if their area of expertise overrode the chain of command. For example, Crusher could relieve even Picard of command if necessary. And by the same logic, if there were a dangerous situation where Worf had the most relevant expertise, he could probably give an order to a higher-ranking officer—something like, “Get out of here, it’s not safe.”

The problem is that Star Trek often portrays higher-ranking officers as having every skill. You’ll see Picard or other captains say things like, “Have you tried recalibrating the lateral emission converter, Geordi?” only for Geordi to respond as if it never occurred to him—even though earlier episodes show him doing things like practically building a warp core out of stone bricks.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I always understood Star Trek to work on the idea that a higher-ranking officer can automatically give orders to anyone of lower rank. The only exceptions would be if the lower-ranking officer was already following orders from someone even higher up, or if their area of expertise overrode the chain of command. For example, Crusher could relieve even Picard of command if necessary. And by the same logic, if there were a dangerous situation where Worf had the most relevant expertise, he could probably give an order to a higher-ranking officer—something like, “Get out of here, it’s not safe.”

The problem is that Star Trek often portrays higher-ranking officers as having every skill. You’ll see Picard or other captains say things like, “Have you tried recalibrating the lateral emission converter, Geordi?” only for Geordi to respond as if it never occurred to him—even though earlier episodes show him doing things like practically building a warp core out of stone bricks.

Locutus probably stuffed Jean-Luc's brain with 10 times as much science as he learned at the academy... Did the "Inner Light" scenario work better on Picard after the Best of Both Worlds then it would have before because the wiring in his brain had been brought up to code by the Borg?