Launching Galileo - Poor Decision?

[Trevacious]

The novel was Dreadnought, Scotty brought charges solely against Boma and had him thrown out of Starfleet.

And so Boma turned his talents to more Evil pursuits.

 

[MikeH92467]

Or we can simply wave our hands and assume that 23rd-century life scan scanners work on a technology that wouldn’t occur to a 20th-century lay audience.

We don’t know what those scanners are picking up or how they use that information to determine the presence or absence of life forms. That alone doesn’t make it implausible or put it beyond suspension of disbelief — does it?

I rather enjoy it when they put a bit of effort in to explain Trek tech though. How dull would warp drive be if they'd never bothered to try and explain it?

But in the context of the thread you'd have to wave your hands frantically as the earlier post was suggesting that the vague pulp sci fi tricorders have much greater range than shown in the G7 episode. If they narrowed it down and said that the tricorder measures both infra-red and magnetic disturbances created by living organisms we could start to envisage the circumstances in which the equipment would work optimally and when it would be hindered instead of it being totally random depending on the plot.

Ah, but then you run the risk of getting into "technobabble" territory. GR wanted to keep technobabble (without calling it that) to a minimum. There's a story about a script that used several pages of technically correct, but dense scientific jargon to describe a 180 degree turn. GR ripped out the segment and inserted "reverse course!" I'd rather hear plausible hints at the science rather than convoluted explanations that may or not be scientifically sound. YMMV.

 

[Pauln6]

Or we can simply wave our hands and assume that 23rd-century life scan scanners work on a technology that wouldn’t occur to a 20th-century lay audience.

We don’t know what those scanners are picking up or how they use that information to determine the presence or absence of life forms. That alone doesn’t make it implausible or put it beyond suspension of disbelief — does it?

I rather enjoy it when they put a bit of effort in to explain Trek tech though. How dull would warp drive be if they'd never bothered to try and explain it?

But in the context of the thread you'd have to wave your hands frantically as the earlier post was suggesting that the vague pulp sci fi tricorders have much greater range than shown in the G7 episode. If they narrowed it down and said that the tricorder measures both infra-red and magnetic disturbances created by living organisms we could start to envisage the circumstances in which the equipment would work optimally and when it would be hindered instead of it being totally random depending on the plot.

Ah, but then you run the risk of getting into "technobabble" territory. GR wanted to keep technobabble (without calling it that) to a minimum. There's a story about a script that used several pages of technically correct, but dense scientific jargon to describe a 180 degree turn. GR ripped out the segment and inserted "reverse course!" I'd rather hear plausible hints at the science rather than convoluted explanations that may or not be scientifically sound. YMMV.

I agree there is a balance to be struck. I watched some sci movie the other day that was full of scientifically correct jargan - the plot was still rubbish and the directing was leaden.

Having said that, I don't think there is anything wrong with having parameters within which the writers can work, even if that is just transporters have a maximum range of 40,000 km - write your stories around that limitation.

 

[maryh]

As Timo pointed out earlier, what on Earth is Kirk thinking sending an away party like that? Three key senior officers all together? Big mistake. Now, I know they had to do it for more "story", as some key characters were needed for material on the away mission, but it was way too risky. I could see Kirk sending out a shuttle for investigation, but not with so many key officers. Spock I can understand, because of his command capability, intelligence, and experience. But let the others be junior officers.

This has been noted before that, if this were reality, they probably would never send higher ranking officers to the planet surfaces and into dangerous situations. But it would be boring to watch Kirk simply stay on the bridge and receive information from the landing party. Same with Spock. It makes a more exciting and eventful series to have them involved in the action so we suspend our disbelief in favor of excitement.

The indigenous creatures seemed way too conveniently nearby to cause them trouble.

A member of the search party that landed on the surface and experienced a fatality told Kirk that the creatures are "all over the place". Even if their tricorders are working, they may have been no area in which they could have avoided encountering the creatures.

However, Spock was right about the using the fuel for a flare. And it was logical, despite him saying it wasn't.
Knowing Kirk, the Enterprise would stay even up to the point of being late for the rendezvous. On the planet, the away team would run out of water and food before long and die. This was the only way.

My son agrees and pointed out that it wasn't simply an act of desperation, rather it was a calculated risk very similar to the one Kirk took in The Corbomite Maneuver. When logic offers no solution, and all problem solving tactics are exhausted -- both Kirk and Spock acted similarly and resorted to taking a calculated risk. Kind of a mixture between logic, wishful thinking and insight.

 

[Timo]

It makes a more exciting and eventful series to have [the heroic senior officers] involved in the action so we suspend our disbelief in favor of excitement.

OTOH, my disbelief wouldn't be reduced even if many of the senior officers aboard the shuttle were replaced by their junior counterparts. I'd still wonder why the shuttle needed a medical specialist aboard, even if he or she were a random nurse. Or an engineer, even if he or she were some Ensign we had never seen before.

It might actually have been great fun to observe the shuttle castaways cope with their situation if they did lack a doctor and an engineer - if the crew consisted of, say, a shuttle pilot, a clerk, and a bunch of astrophysicists, and the pilot was the only one they had who'd know about getting the shuttle working again, and she was injured in the fall. Yeoman Mears might have to save the day for a change.

But since the drama absolutely required having McCoy there as counterpoint to Spock, and Scotty as the dutiful follower and doer as counterpoint to McCoy, they should have come up with a rationale for having them aboard. "Your mission is to establish whether an observation outpost can be built next to Murasaki 312. Scotty, you see if it's feasible in the engineering sense. Bones, you make sure it's safe for humans. And Vulcans, of course; Mr. Spock, I expect your science team to collect such astounding preliminary results that Starfleet Command won't have my hide for making this unscheduled stop."

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Pauln6]

It makes a more exciting and eventful series to have [the heroic senior officers] involved in the action so we suspend our disbelief in favor of excitement.

OTOH, my disbelief wouldn't be reduced even if many of the senior officers aboard the shuttle were replaced by their junior counterparts. I'd still wonder why the shuttle needed a medical specialist aboard, even if he or she were a random nurse. Or an engineer, even if he or she were some Ensign we had never seen before.

It might actually have been great fun to observe the shuttle castaways cope with their situation if they did lack a doctor and an engineer - if the crew consisted of, say, a shuttle pilot, a clerk, and a bunch of astrophysicists, and the pilot was the only one they had who'd know about getting the shuttle working again, and she was injured in the fall. Yeoman Mears might have to save the day for a change.

But since the drama absolutely required having McCoy there as counterpoint to Spock, and Scotty as the dutiful follower and doer as counterpoint to McCoy, they should have come up with a rationale for having them aboard. "Your mission is to establish whether an observation outpost can be built next to Murasaki 312. Scotty, you see if it's feasible in the engineering sense. Bones, you make sure it's safe for humans. And Vulcans, of course; Mr. Spock, I expect your science team to collect such astounding preliminary results that Starfleet Command won't have my hide for making this unscheduled stop."

Timo Saloniemi

Early TOS does a better job of featuring supporting characters who are there as part of their job description rather than being a main character although later episodes just decided to milk the big three more often. I like episodes that focus only on Kirk, Spock, and McCoy far less than those that spread the load over a supporting cast. I think the crew of the G7 is broad enough that it makes sense. I suppose we also have to remember that Starfleet officers probably have to log a certain number of hours doing different missions to stay fully trained too. A couple of the crew could just have been up for the next mission of that type.

TNG and Voyager suffer in some ways from having the larger regular cast because the characters step outside their main roles and senior officers do almost everything. I prefer B5, DS9, and NuBSG where you have a a second tier of recurring characters whose roles can be more plot driven.