Let's be real, could Captain Decker have pulled it off?

[Vger23]

No, Decker knew the ship better than Kirk, but Kirk knew the crew and had the confidence to take risks and deal with "the unknown" far in advance of what Decker demonstrated.

I think the writing does a nice job showing this, as Decker's decision making is often questionable after the wormhole incident (unwarranted gamble, phasering the tractor beam, etc). Also, would he have been able to separate his emotions involving the Ilia Probe enough to have the useful insights Kirk had on how to "use" the probe to potentially learn more?

Kirk was the right guy.

 

[BillJ]

The problem is that Sonak got turned into a misshapen blob because Kirk took over and started rushing things like the transporters.

You mean because the ship needed to launch sooner in order to have time to intercept V'ger? Really a stretch to try and blame Kirk for a transporter accident.

Someone in the know, either the transporter chief or chief engineer had to give the okay to use them.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

Also, would he have been able to separate his emotions involving the Ilia Probe enough to have the useful insights Kirk had on how to "use" the probe to potentially learn more?

That's assuming that Ilia would have been turned into a probe.

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What strikes me about this scene is that Spock is the one who interferes with the probe by destroying the Science Console. Spock should have been the one digitized, not Ilia. For whatever reason (aside from needs of the plot), the probe turned its attention to Ilia.

Also, the only reason Ilia is there is because she is a replacement for whoever died in the transporter accident. The transporter accident wouldn't have happened because Decker probably would have had the transporters offline; so, there's no transporter accident and no Ilia, because she wouldn't have been brought onboard as a replacement.

Then there's this exchange from Chapter 3 of the novelization​

“The Enterprise, Jim. There’s a chance they can get her out of orbital dockyards in time.”
“And?” Whatever Nogura had sent her here to say, he wasn’t going to help her with it.
“The commanding Admiral. . .”
“Meaning Nogura, of course. . .”
“Of course. He’s ordered everyone available from your old crew aboard. That will give Captain Decker the best. . .”

There's no telling if Sulu, Uhura, Chekov and McCoy would have been aboard the Enterprise if she had launched as originally planned. That means that Sulu, Uhura and Chekov are just as unfamiliar with the redesigned Enterprise as Kirk was. They all might have 'five years' experience out there', dealing with the unknown, but any one of them could have hit the wrong button due to their unfamiliarity with the Enterprise redesign, and that's the end of the mission.

I know the movie glosses it over by assuming that Sulu, Uhura and Chekov have been there for the entire time the Enterprise was in drydock being refitted - but from the novelization, it looks like the Enterprise would have launched with a whole new crew.​

 

[CoveTom]

I know the movie glosses it over by assuming that Sulu, Uhura and Chekov have been there for the entire time the Enterprise was in drydock being refitted - but from the novelization, it looks like the Enterprise would have launched with a whole new crew.

I tend to think of the novelization as a work of fan fiction (by a particularly horny, sex-crazed fan) and give no weight to what it has to say. Going by the movie, the rest of the crew have been there working on the refit.

 

[Firebird]

I tend to think of the novelization as a work of fan fiction (by a particularly horny, sex-crazed fan) and give no weight to what it has to say.

Odd way to view something one of the movie's co-writers penned himself.

Compared to some of Gene's other 70's and 80's work, the TMP novelization is quite tame.

 

[CoveTom]

Odd way to view something one of the movie's co-writers penned himself.

Compared to some of Gene's other 70's and 80's work, the TMP novelization is quite tame.

The novels have never been considered part of canon. And let's be honest... the TMP novel is quite awful, in many ways. The movie script was far superior, even if Roddenberry took issue with Livingston's work.