Battaglia
my thoughts on Resistance. spoilers
- Thread starter captcalhoun
- Start date
I know what you mean. I started the book yesterday and couldn't stop. I read 100 pages in a row, never putting the book aside.
I'm very astonished that a book can keep me so curious that I simply won't stop reading. I really like those three/four-pages-paragraphs with shifting perspective of the characters, sometimes illuminating the same scene from another person's point of view. The story itself is written very fast with a lot of turns. Well done.
I guess I'm also happy since I had to drag myself through "Death in Winter". It was interesting but somehow not a very gripping, engaging tale. :-(
Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
I finished J.M. Dillard’s Resistance the other day, and took a bit of time to gather my thoughts. It’s a hell of a ride, fast paced all the way through, but also rather bumpy. Ultimately, looking at the whole package, I’d have to say that there’s more I disliked about the book than otherwise, despite the break-neck pace and (mostly) engrossing plot. There were just too many moments that make me go ‘guh?’, too many… not exactly holes in the plot, but by the end of the novel there’s so much suspension of disbelief that has to occur you could build a bridge out of it (get it? Suspension bridge? Oh, never mind.)
I guess I should start with the Borg. If the goal of this book was to make the Borg scary again, as I’ve heard comments to the effect of, let me say this was a spectacular failure. I understand that the intent was to rob the Borg of their predictability, but mindlessly violent, stupid Borg are less threatening than predictable Borg with the full drive of the Collective at their disposal. And the big ‘shock’ that the Borg now kill on sight is just disappointing. One of the great things about the Borg is that they weren’t like your usual sadistic, bloodthirsty villains; standing against them is like standing against a natural disaster: vast, impersonal, without malice but devastatingly destructive. Voyager did a good job fleshing the Borg out, giving context to the imperatives that drive the hive mind. And though survivable, assimilation, and the menace of a zombie-like existence fighting your former peers, is still a more frightening prospect than death. Resistance tosses all that out, and for what? Borg with the mentality of berserkers (although it was nice to finally see all those serrated appendages put to logical use – I always wondered what function those spindly doodads were supposed to serve).
And dumb. It’s been, what, two or three years since “Endgame”? Does it really take that long to create a new queen, or did doing so only just occur to them recently? Bad luck, that—by sheer coincidence, the Enterprise just happened to be in the neighbourhood. By book tries to make the point that the Borg are programmed to protect the queen, but they don’t put much effort into it, do they? Even after two infiltration attempts and assimilating Picard, it never occurs to them to actually raise shields to prevent anybody else from beaming over and trying again! And why wouldn’t the Borg be able to see through a cloak? Not exactly the advanced technological menace we think they are, if they can’t detect a ship under a slapped-together cloaking field.
The Borg themselves are oddly portrayed, and the fact that they are severed from the Collective and thus erratic can only explain so much. Even if you’re protecting the queen at all costs, it’s not resources effective to kill intruders—if you’re close enough to cut into them with your appendages, then you’re close enough to launch assimilation tubules, which will disable their victim pretty quickly. And since when do the Borg have proprietary DNA? To the best of my knowledge, assimilation hijacks body and mind, but it doesn’t re-write the victim’s genetic code. You’re still the same species you are before—we’ve seen plenty of examples of Borg drones retaining their characteristic racial features (Klingons, Bajorans, etc).
For that matter, you’re still the same sex, which is another point Resistance trips on. The Borg are genderless, yes; they don’t reproduce biologically, so a drone’s a drone regardless of the victim’s prior gender identity. But sex is physical and doesn’t disappear any more than species; there are assimilated men and women (Seven was clearly female when still part of the Collective, as was the Bajoran from “Brief Candle”, etc.), and if they ever get to assimilate Andorians, chan drones and zhen drones and all the rest. So why would they need to ‘feminize’ a drone rather than using a drone that’s already female? For that matter, why feminize a drone at all? I always thought that the whole ‘queen’ thing was just a conceit to the insect analogy; the body is artificial, so only the controlling mind matters, and sex has little impact there—at least, the biological differences in brain construction between the sexes can’t be greater than that between species, and obvious the Borg would need to have conquered that problem a long time ago. Personally, I think the whole notion to the queen needing to develop in ‘royal jelly’ was taking the analogy too far, and a ‘testosterone poison’ was just silly given how hard to swallow the initial premise was to begin with.
The plot suffers from an overabundance of such cutesy, rabbit-out-of-the-hat solutions. The aforementioned cloak is another example. Suddenly, the schematics for building a cloaking device that would work on a Federation starship happen to be in the computer, and the device itself is so astoundingly rudimentary that it can be replicated, assembled and installed on a starship in the space of a few hours. I guess cloaking scientists in the Romulan Empire must be bored a lot of the time if the technology is that basic and universally compatible. Then again, it’s not the full starship, because Worf orders saucer separation. Frankly, I didn’t know the E-E could do that, though I admit that might have been established elsewhere and I missed it (although the Sovereign-class looks a lot more integral and compact than swan-necked Galaxy ever did). But why do it? He tells T’Lana that if they see the Borg coming—meaning the rest had failed in their mission—to turn tail and run to the nearest starbase. Uh, great, except how does that work without warp engines? If you can see the Borg, they’ve certainly seen you, and since they’re on a ‘destroy everything human’ mission, the saucer section would be pretty much done for, so that’s really quite useless.
Another surprise: Crusher just happens to have the Locutus line of accessories with her. I guess she kept them in sickbay for ten years and across at least one change of starship and a stint at Starfleet Medical… just in case Picard gets nostalgic for his days as a homicidal zombie, I guess. Certainly I would have imagined Locutus’ parts would have been at a dedicated Borg research center. But hey, while we’re on the topic, how about Picard’s out-of-left-field decision to turn back into Locutus. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but certainly it’s the kind of decision that we ought to see some precursors for and not sprung on the reader for dramatic effect. I actually don’t think it was a bad plan—we’ve seen that kind of subterfuge work with the Borg before (“Unimatrix Zero”) and it’s creative enough that the individualism-blind Borg might not have immediately developed countermeasures—with one exception: Picard was the last person on that ship that should have carried out such a mission. Locutus is, after all, one of the rare Borg individuals, and as such would very recognizable to other Borg. Hey, there’s Locutus walking down the corridor! When did he get back, and how come I can’t hear him in the Collective? That Picard managed to get away with it as long as he did is a testament to just how deeply stupid these new Borg are.
On the character front, that was mostly good. T’Lana as a voice of dissent could work, though I admit by the end I was getting a bit annoyed at how mule-headedly she clung to her views, and I have to wonder about somebody who claims to have reached a degree of comfort with emotional decision making but can’t suppress obvious emotional reactions to Worf because of his allegedly emotional command style (Worf? Come on, he might do things in the heat of the moment from time to time, like that thing with Jadzia, but overall there are scarecrows less stuffy than Worf). Battaglia and Nave were well fleshed out for redshirts, but it was pretty obvious that redshirts they were (Battaglia when he recounted his past experiences with the Borg, Nave when the author introduced her with an info-dump of how super-dee-duper Nave was instead of fleshing out the character gradually like she did T’Lana). I’ll agree with those who found Janeway out of character—she should know better than most not to take any threat of the Borg lightly, particularly since she has actually had a Borg-related crisis even after ‘killing’ the queen. Then coming down on Picard like that, after he succeeded… weird. I can understand being angry that her orders were defied, but to get all anal about the chain of command after Picard had come through for them all is hypocritical at best. I hope this is part of some plot arc for Janeway, like Shakaar’s odd behaviour was (though I would imagine Janeway's will be a little less fatal, ha).
Wow. I’m looking back at all the above now, and its pretty dang critical. It’s just that there were so many of these individual ‘bumps’ in the story. Because Resistance did keep me interested, coming back for more, which is a hell of a step up on the dull Death in Winter. The scenes on the cube, particularly in the last mission, were gripping, and I liked that I couldn’t tell who would live and die among the extras.
Also, I want to make particular mention of how well done the Picard/Crusher dynamic was. Death in Winter totally failed to make an impact on the relevance of their now being a couple. But their opening scene together—the tranquil, comfortable love—was a sensible depiction of a friendship evolved, and I was surprised to find myself pleased that they had finally found some happiness. No torrid melodrama here, but the deep caring of two mature individuals. Even the later scenes, when Picard goes off on a risky mission, are commendable for avoiding any radical shifts in temperament from either of them, keeping them professional—after all, they’ve always cared about each other, so really not much has changed. Resistance does a good job keeping that in perspective.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
I finished J.M. Dillard’s Resistance the other day, and took a bit of time to gather my thoughts. It’s a hell of a ride, fast paced all the way through, but also rather bumpy. Ultimately, looking at the whole package, I’d have to say that there’s more I disliked about the book than otherwise, despite the break-neck pace and (mostly) engrossing plot. There were just too many moments that make me go ‘guh?’, too many… not exactly holes in the plot, but by the end of the novel there’s so much suspension of disbelief that has to occur you could build a bridge out of it (get it? Suspension bridge? Oh, never mind.)
I guess I should start with the Borg. If the goal of this book was to make the Borg scary again, as I’ve heard comments to the effect of, let me say this was a spectacular failure. I understand that the intent was to rob the Borg of their predictability, but mindlessly violent, stupid Borg are less threatening than predictable Borg with the full drive of the Collective at their disposal. And the big ‘shock’ that the Borg now kill on sight is just disappointing. One of the great things about the Borg is that they weren’t like your usual sadistic, bloodthirsty villains; standing against them is like standing against a natural disaster: vast, impersonal, without malice but devastatingly destructive. Voyager did a good job fleshing the Borg out, giving context to the imperatives that drive the hive mind. And though survivable, assimilation, and the menace of a zombie-like existence fighting your former peers, is still a more frightening prospect than death. Resistance tosses all that out, and for what? Borg with the mentality of berserkers (although it was nice to finally see all those serrated appendages put to logical use – I always wondered what function those spindly doodads were supposed to serve).
And dumb. It’s been, what, two or three years since “Endgame”? Does it really take that long to create a new queen, or did doing so only just occur to them recently? Bad luck, that—by sheer coincidence, the Enterprise just happened to be in the neighbourhood. By book tries to make the point that the Borg are programmed to protect the queen, but they don’t put much effort into it, do they? Even after two infiltration attempts and assimilating Picard, it never occurs to them to actually raise shields to prevent anybody else from beaming over and trying again! And why wouldn’t the Borg be able to see through a cloak? Not exactly the advanced technological menace we think they are, if they can’t detect a ship under a slapped-together cloaking field.
The Borg themselves are oddly portrayed, and the fact that they are severed from the Collective and thus erratic can only explain so much. Even if you’re protecting the queen at all costs, it’s not resources effective to kill intruders—if you’re close enough to cut into them with your appendages, then you’re close enough to launch assimilation tubules, which will disable their victim pretty quickly. And since when do the Borg have proprietary DNA? To the best of my knowledge, assimilation hijacks body and mind, but it doesn’t re-write the victim’s genetic code. You’re still the same species you are before—we’ve seen plenty of examples of Borg drones retaining their characteristic racial features (Klingons, Bajorans, etc).
For that matter, you’re still the same sex, which is another point Resistance trips on. The Borg are genderless, yes; they don’t reproduce biologically, so a drone’s a drone regardless of the victim’s prior gender identity. But sex is physical and doesn’t disappear any more than species; there are assimilated men and women (Seven was clearly female when still part of the Collective, as was the Bajoran from “Brief Candle”, etc.), and if they ever get to assimilate Andorians, chan drones and zhen drones and all the rest. So why would they need to ‘feminize’ a drone rather than using a drone that’s already female? For that matter, why feminize a drone at all? I always thought that the whole ‘queen’ thing was just a conceit to the insect analogy; the body is artificial, so only the controlling mind matters, and sex has little impact there—at least, the biological differences in brain construction between the sexes can’t be greater than that between species, and obvious the Borg would need to have conquered that problem a long time ago. Personally, I think the whole notion to the queen needing to develop in ‘royal jelly’ was taking the analogy too far, and a ‘testosterone poison’ was just silly given how hard to swallow the initial premise was to begin with.
The plot suffers from an overabundance of such cutesy, rabbit-out-of-the-hat solutions. The aforementioned cloak is another example. Suddenly, the schematics for building a cloaking device that would work on a Federation starship happen to be in the computer, and the device itself is so astoundingly rudimentary that it can be replicated, assembled and installed on a starship in the space of a few hours. I guess cloaking scientists in the Romulan Empire must be bored a lot of the time if the technology is that basic and universally compatible. Then again, it’s not the full starship, because Worf orders saucer separation. Frankly, I didn’t know the E-E could do that, though I admit that might have been established elsewhere and I missed it (although the Sovereign-class looks a lot more integral and compact than swan-necked Galaxy ever did). But why do it? He tells T’Lana that if they see the Borg coming—meaning the rest had failed in their mission—to turn tail and run to the nearest starbase. Uh, great, except how does that work without warp engines? If you can see the Borg, they’ve certainly seen you, and since they’re on a ‘destroy everything human’ mission, the saucer section would be pretty much done for, so that’s really quite useless.
Another surprise: Crusher just happens to have the Locutus line of accessories with her. I guess she kept them in sickbay for ten years and across at least one change of starship and a stint at Starfleet Medical… just in case Picard gets nostalgic for his days as a homicidal zombie, I guess. Certainly I would have imagined Locutus’ parts would have been at a dedicated Borg research center. But hey, while we’re on the topic, how about Picard’s out-of-left-field decision to turn back into Locutus. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but certainly it’s the kind of decision that we ought to see some precursors for and not sprung on the reader for dramatic effect. I actually don’t think it was a bad plan—we’ve seen that kind of subterfuge work with the Borg before (“Unimatrix Zero”) and it’s creative enough that the individualism-blind Borg might not have immediately developed countermeasures—with one exception: Picard was the last person on that ship that should have carried out such a mission. Locutus is, after all, one of the rare Borg individuals, and as such would very recognizable to other Borg. Hey, there’s Locutus walking down the corridor! When did he get back, and how come I can’t hear him in the Collective? That Picard managed to get away with it as long as he did is a testament to just how deeply stupid these new Borg are.
On the character front, that was mostly good. T’Lana as a voice of dissent could work, though I admit by the end I was getting a bit annoyed at how mule-headedly she clung to her views, and I have to wonder about somebody who claims to have reached a degree of comfort with emotional decision making but can’t suppress obvious emotional reactions to Worf because of his allegedly emotional command style (Worf? Come on, he might do things in the heat of the moment from time to time, like that thing with Jadzia, but overall there are scarecrows less stuffy than Worf). Battaglia and Nave were well fleshed out for redshirts, but it was pretty obvious that redshirts they were (Battaglia when he recounted his past experiences with the Borg, Nave when the author introduced her with an info-dump of how super-dee-duper Nave was instead of fleshing out the character gradually like she did T’Lana). I’ll agree with those who found Janeway out of character—she should know better than most not to take any threat of the Borg lightly, particularly since she has actually had a Borg-related crisis even after ‘killing’ the queen. Then coming down on Picard like that, after he succeeded… weird. I can understand being angry that her orders were defied, but to get all anal about the chain of command after Picard had come through for them all is hypocritical at best. I hope this is part of some plot arc for Janeway, like Shakaar’s odd behaviour was (though I would imagine Janeway's will be a little less fatal, ha).
Wow. I’m looking back at all the above now, and its pretty dang critical. It’s just that there were so many of these individual ‘bumps’ in the story. Because Resistance did keep me interested, coming back for more, which is a hell of a step up on the dull Death in Winter. The scenes on the cube, particularly in the last mission, were gripping, and I liked that I couldn’t tell who would live and die among the extras.
Also, I want to make particular mention of how well done the Picard/Crusher dynamic was. Death in Winter totally failed to make an impact on the relevance of their now being a couple. But their opening scene together—the tranquil, comfortable love—was a sensible depiction of a friendship evolved, and I was surprised to find myself pleased that they had finally found some happiness. No torrid melodrama here, but the deep caring of two mature individuals. Even the later scenes, when Picard goes off on a risky mission, are commendable for avoiding any radical shifts in temperament from either of them, keeping them professional—after all, they’ve always cared about each other, so really not much has changed. Resistance does a good job keeping that in perspective.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
Ha! For that you'll need to go read the opening in Borders or something.
Ha! For that you'll need to go read the opening in Borders or something.
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
Trent, very nice review. And you have hit the proverbial nail on the head with what is not right with the book. One thing I do think you left out is how empty the Enterprise actually seems now. It just doesn't seem like it's fully staffed once again.
Trent, very nice review. And you have hit the proverbial nail on the head with what is not right with the book. One thing I do think you left out is how empty the Enterprise actually seems now. It just doesn't seem like it's fully staffed once again.
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
^^^ I think it's for the best, though. Books can't focus on excessive character development (EDIT: in terms of the number of characters), and only so many books can be released for so long (hence the Titan series versus the main "TNG" relaunch plus Janeway, the Chakotay-led Voyager relaunch, etc.).
^^^ I think it's for the best, though. Books can't focus on excessive character development (EDIT: in terms of the number of characters), and only so many books can be released for so long (hence the Titan series versus the main "TNG" relaunch plus Janeway, the Chakotay-led Voyager relaunch, etc.).
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
Huh? Books have much more room for character development than TV shows or movies do. They can be considerably longer, explore characters in greater depth, actually get into their heads, etc.
Huh? Books have much more room for character development than TV shows or movies do. They can be considerably longer, explore characters in greater depth, actually get into their heads, etc.
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
^^^ Forgive me for not clarifying, so I edited my post above.
I can't see how all the TNG cast, minus Data, plus Tuvok, Vale, Ogawa, T'Lana, Kadohata, Madden, Janeway, and a few others can be further developed within a single average book - assuming that Riker and Troi never transferred.
Assuming that the TNG relaunch became "realistic" in having multiple captain-ranked and commander-ranked officers aboard like the TOS movies:
1) Riker would've had the captaincy (and it was a sheer idiocy that he was demoted by the writers after BOBW), while remaining First Officer;
2) Madden would've become Second Officer;
3) Worf and Vale would've become Commander (the former becoming Strat-Ops Officer, and the latter retaining the Tactical position);
4) Tuvok would've also become Commander to split the Tactical and Security positions (realistically, this should be the case).
^^^ Forgive me for not clarifying, so I edited my post above.
I can't see how all the TNG cast, minus Data, plus Tuvok, Vale, Ogawa, T'Lana, Kadohata, Madden, Janeway, and a few others can be further developed within a single average book - assuming that Riker and Troi never transferred.
Assuming that the TNG relaunch became "realistic" in having multiple captain-ranked and commander-ranked officers aboard like the TOS movies:
1) Riker would've had the captaincy (and it was a sheer idiocy that he was demoted by the writers after BOBW), while remaining First Officer;
2) Madden would've become Second Officer;
3) Worf and Vale would've become Commander (the former becoming Strat-Ops Officer, and the latter retaining the Tactical position);
4) Tuvok would've also become Commander to split the Tactical and Security positions (realistically, this should be the case).
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
yes, but that DOESN'T COUNT.
Madden's only 'real' appearance as far as novels go is in a bizarre alternate reality in Q&A.
yes, but that DOESN'T COUNT.
Madden's only 'real' appearance as far as novels go is in a bizarre alternate reality in Q&A.
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
Huh? "Assuming they never transferred?" What are you even talking about?
And it's not "a single average book," it's two whole series of books. Even within a single book, you're able to give development to a lot more characters than you can in a TV or movie script. The word count of a typical TV episode script is maybe 10-12,000 words; the word count of a typical novel is maybe 80-120,000 words. Far more space to tell a story, to go into much greater depth, to give attention to a lot more characters per installment than you ever could on the screen.
Of course, in prose you can go into much more depth describing a single scene, so it would be an overstatement to say that a book represents ten episodes' worth of content, but it's easily 3-5 episodes' worth per book. So just 5-8 books can give you as much story as a whole TV season.
First off, that's about as "realistic" as a Roadrunner cartoon. Second, what's the point in making any such assumption? I don't know what you're even talking about at this point.
Hammer said:
^^^ Forgive me for not clarifying, so I edited my post above.
I can't see how all the TNG cast, minus Data, plus Tuvok, Vale, Ogawa, T'Lana, Kadohata, Madden, Janeway, and a few others can be further developed within a single average book - assuming that Riker and Troi never transferred.
Huh? "Assuming they never transferred?" What are you even talking about?
And it's not "a single average book," it's two whole series of books. Even within a single book, you're able to give development to a lot more characters than you can in a TV or movie script. The word count of a typical TV episode script is maybe 10-12,000 words; the word count of a typical novel is maybe 80-120,000 words. Far more space to tell a story, to go into much greater depth, to give attention to a lot more characters per installment than you ever could on the screen.
Of course, in prose you can go into much more depth describing a single scene, so it would be an overstatement to say that a book represents ten episodes' worth of content, but it's easily 3-5 episodes' worth per book. So just 5-8 books can give you as much story as a whole TV season.
First off, that's about as "realistic" as a Roadrunner cartoon. Second, what's the point in making any such assumption? I don't know what you're even talking about at this point.
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
The (stupid, unfunny, idiotic) scene with Madden in Nemesis was cut from the final film, so we are not beholden to it -- a fact I, at least, was grateful for, as a) that scene was, as I said, stupid, unfunny, and idiotic and b) there's already a viable first officer candidate right there on the ship in Worf, who is a lieutenant commander on the command track, and whose last position in Starfleet was as strategic operations officer for an entire sector, fleet liaison between Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force, and in charge of the day-to-day of the Defiant. Becoming first officer would be a lateral move from his position on Deep Space 9, and for him to be anything less than first officer is a demotion the character has done nothing to earn.
So, thanks to the good sense shown by Stuart Baird and/or his editors in cutting that dumbshit scene from Nemesis, we aren't obligated to use Martin Madden (though, as captcalhoun said, I did have him appear in an alternate timeline in Q & A).
I know, I was just being cheeky.
The (stupid, unfunny, idiotic) scene with Madden in Nemesis was cut from the final film, so we are not beholden to it -- a fact I, at least, was grateful for, as a) that scene was, as I said, stupid, unfunny, and idiotic and b) there's already a viable first officer candidate right there on the ship in Worf, who is a lieutenant commander on the command track, and whose last position in Starfleet was as strategic operations officer for an entire sector, fleet liaison between Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force, and in charge of the day-to-day of the Defiant. Becoming first officer would be a lateral move from his position on Deep Space 9, and for him to be anything less than first officer is a demotion the character has done nothing to earn.
So, thanks to the good sense shown by Stuart Baird and/or his editors in cutting that dumbshit scene from Nemesis, we aren't obligated to use Martin Madden (though, as captcalhoun said, I did have him appear in an alternate timeline in Q & A).
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
Worf used a forcefield to dodge a bullet in a TNG TV show that took place in the holodeck with Troi and his son (did he not). This was the one where Alexander wanted to do his Wild West reenactment. So why can't the Borg repel bullets?
Also, "Fictiously yours" really got it right with the review. So many problems. Resistance, not that great and I was also glad someone else thought T'Lana was annoying because I still don't like her. Maybe that will changer after Before Dishonor.
I am also confused to as why Data can't be brought back, heck, this seems to be the easiest to pull off when you look at Spock and Kirk. I hate they killed Data off and placing him in B4's body or making a break through where they could manufacture many Androids would have been cool. Just dump and have LaForge say, well, I did have a neural network map of his brain just before we arrived at Romulus as an experiment. Now we get to see if it works and if it does, he only forgets a few days.
Kinda weird they can't build more Androids as much as the DI keep taking them and studying them.
Worf used a forcefield to dodge a bullet in a TNG TV show that took place in the holodeck with Troi and his son (did he not). This was the one where Alexander wanted to do his Wild West reenactment. So why can't the Borg repel bullets?
Also, "Fictiously yours" really got it right with the review. So many problems. Resistance, not that great and I was also glad someone else thought T'Lana was annoying because I still don't like her. Maybe that will changer after Before Dishonor.
I am also confused to as why Data can't be brought back, heck, this seems to be the easiest to pull off when you look at Spock and Kirk. I hate they killed Data off and placing him in B4's body or making a break through where they could manufacture many Androids would have been cool. Just dump and have LaForge say, well, I did have a neural network map of his brain just before we arrived at Romulus as an experiment. Now we get to see if it works and if it does, he only forgets a few days.
Kinda weird they can't build more Androids as much as the DI keep taking them and studying them.
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
^^^ KRAD: Then forgive ME for my ignorance of your knowledge.
Actually, to comment on your "lateral move" part, moving from strategic operations officer to a ship's first officer seems to me to be a bit of a demotion, as well.
I mean, Worf was the Defiant's first officer PLUS all the functions above (the liaison function being somewhat diplomatic, too). Perhaps he should've been promoted to captain, with Picard retaining the CO position. After all, Captain Spock was the Big Diplomatic Officer on the Enterprise-A.
Doesn't the US Navy have similar personnel assignments aboard their carriers, in particular?
^^^ KRAD: Then forgive ME for my ignorance of your knowledge.
Actually, to comment on your "lateral move" part, moving from strategic operations officer to a ship's first officer seems to me to be a bit of a demotion, as well.
I mean, Worf was the Defiant's first officer PLUS all the functions above (the liaison function being somewhat diplomatic, too). Perhaps he should've been promoted to captain, with Picard retaining the CO position. After all, Captain Spock was the Big Diplomatic Officer on the Enterprise-A.
Doesn't the US Navy have similar personnel assignments aboard their carriers, in particular?
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
I wouldn't go that far -- remember, he was a lieutenant commander when he took the diplomatic post at the end of DS9, and we established in the fiction that he didn't return to Starfleet until a few weeks prior to Nemesis. Besides, Nemesis had him still as a lieutenant commander in any case.
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
It's not a question of whether it can be done, but of whether it should be done. And the fact that it's been done before is itself the best reason of all not to do it yet again. Why should Trek fiction repeat itself? Haven't enough deaths been trivialized by subsequent resurrections?
It's not a question of whether it can be done, but of whether it should be done. And the fact that it's been done before is itself the best reason of all not to do it yet again. Why should Trek fiction repeat itself? Haven't enough deaths been trivialized by subsequent resurrections?
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
Smaller ships run very differently. For comparison, the Sovereign-class starship U.S.S. Enterprise has roughly 750 personnel, including officers. That would make it comparable in size to a modern U.S. naval amphibious command ship (790 enlisted personnel, 52 officers) such as the U.S.S. Blue Ridge (LCC 19). Its CO is Captain David A. Lausman, and its XO is Lieutenant Commander Timothy Cooke. The other key post listed in most U.S. naval vessels' command hierarchies is that of Command Master Chief, the senior non-commissioned officer of the ship.
A U.S. naval vessel with a few hundred enlisted personnel and non-commissioned officers aboard might have less than two dozen commissioned officers.
Furthermore, most modern-day naval vessels' officer compliments are composed primarily of lieutenants (of junior and senior grade). Some smaller vessels might be commanded by officers of lieutenant commander or commander rank. Very small craft might be captained by lieutenants, with no other officers aboard. Only the largest and most important vessels (i.e., capital ships or "ships of the line") tend to have COs with the rank of captain. One would almost never find multiple persons holding the rank of captain or even commander serving together on the same ship (again, except for the carriers, which have crews larger than any Starfleet vessel we've ever been shown in any series or movie).
In this respect, Star Trek's depictions of rank hierarchy on starships have always differed from that which is customary on most of the world's modern navies.
Well, the carriers are special animals. They're more like floating cities; the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) has more than 6,200 personnel aboard (roughly 3,200 ship's crew; another 3,000 in the air group). It has captains in both the CO and XO billets.Hammer said:
Doesn't the US Navy have similar personnel assignments aboard their carriers, in particular?
Smaller ships run very differently. For comparison, the Sovereign-class starship U.S.S. Enterprise has roughly 750 personnel, including officers. That would make it comparable in size to a modern U.S. naval amphibious command ship (790 enlisted personnel, 52 officers) such as the U.S.S. Blue Ridge (LCC 19). Its CO is Captain David A. Lausman, and its XO is Lieutenant Commander Timothy Cooke. The other key post listed in most U.S. naval vessels' command hierarchies is that of Command Master Chief, the senior non-commissioned officer of the ship.
A U.S. naval vessel with a few hundred enlisted personnel and non-commissioned officers aboard might have less than two dozen commissioned officers.
Furthermore, most modern-day naval vessels' officer compliments are composed primarily of lieutenants (of junior and senior grade). Some smaller vessels might be commanded by officers of lieutenant commander or commander rank. Very small craft might be captained by lieutenants, with no other officers aboard. Only the largest and most important vessels (i.e., capital ships or "ships of the line") tend to have COs with the rank of captain. One would almost never find multiple persons holding the rank of captain or even commander serving together on the same ship (again, except for the carriers, which have crews larger than any Starfleet vessel we've ever been shown in any series or movie).
In this respect, Star Trek's depictions of rank hierarchy on starships have always differed from that which is customary on most of the world's modern navies.
Re: Roman Reviews "Resistance" (Hey - Alliteration!)
I know that's the bottom line (since petty officer O'Brien was the only major non-commissioned officer in the spinoffs, and since almost every other minor person aboard was either an officer or a civilian), but the extent of the differences could easily be discussed. What about the Royal Navy?
I wonder how the "ensign" rank could be skipped so quickly?
I think that was the case for Starfleet, too, with Data's debate with would-be CO Chris Hobson of the Sutherland in "Redemption, Part II."
I know that's the bottom line (since petty officer O'Brien was the only major non-commissioned officer in the spinoffs, and since almost every other minor person aboard was either an officer or a civilian), but the extent of the differences could easily be discussed. What about the Royal Navy?
I wonder how the "ensign" rank could be skipped so quickly?
I think that was the case for Starfleet, too, with Data's debate with would-be CO Chris Hobson of the Sutherland in "Redemption, Part II."