Picard's Crew

[Mojochi]

It's made fairly clear that Picard hand selected Riker, & did so in a fairly unorthodox way, by selecting someone who had a very firm mind of his own about the role

We also later find out that he personally brought in Laforge too, after having shown some technical proficiency & determined work ethic, and I suspect that rotating chief engineer situation early on was largely due to him waiting to put LaForge there specifically.

The next one is an assumption, but I have to believe after decades in Starfleet, Data was only moving up to the 3rd seat of the flagship at Picard's behest as well. He does after all have something of a soft spot for hard luck cases, like Sito Jaxa, & Data is nothing if not an odd man out, that most might not want anything to do with, in a command role.

That very same quality of Picard's makes me think he might have had a hand in seeing the fleet's only Klingon given a fair shake as well. It certainly played out that way for Ro Laren. Heck, even Guinan seems to have shown up mainly to be there for him

Now apart from Troi, who I couldn't really guess how she got recruited, except to note that Picard seems rather unique in his choice to have a therapist sitting by at all times as his personal advisor, this leaves Crusher as the only major officer on board that he seemingly didn't hand select, & not only that but might've had little knowledge of until late in the process. He doesn't even seem all that thrilled at 1st, for obvious reasons

Doesn't it seem odd that with all the input he had into his other crew, he'd have been so disinvolved in the CMO spot? Can we maybe think he knew of her interest & deliberately kept out of it, trying to not seem like he was showing favoritism to a close aquiantance? That too doesn't seem like the worst thing really. I imagine lots of captains enlisting friends to their crew. It might even be useful in some ways. Maybe Picard would be a little more formal than that, but maybe it was that he didn't want her to think he'd done it for her?

Anyway, I've just always thought it was a little odd that she got that job without him having any say, when it's clear he had a lot of say about the rest. Certainly she was qualified for it, but his say would more than likely supercede that if he so chose.

 

[Finn]

DS9 suggested doctors get assigned differently

 

[Mojochi]

DS9 suggested doctors get assigned differently

Have you any recollection where they said things about that? I'm not recalling it offhand. That kind of stuff interests me lol

Seems like (TOS) Pike's Dr. Boyce might've been a personal friend. I'd dare say even Bones might've been Kirk's choice as a transplant to replace Piper. I mean, he's calling him by a nickname

 

[Finn]

The episode where someone from Bashir’s graduating class came aboard.

He talked as if certain assignments were reserved for top graduates, in this case the Lexington, which Bashir didn’t go for in favor of frontier medicine

 

[Finn]

It sounded like it had nothing to do with the Captain. Why wouldn’t they go for the Enterprise?

 

[jackoverfull]

I remember Crusher saying she requested that assignment, I think it was in the pilot.

Also, Picard selected Tasha as well. I believe this leaves only troi and worf that we don’t know exactly how they ended up on the enterprise.

 

[Mojochi]

We don't really know about Data either, right? It's certainly a given in my mind though. I'd forgotten about Tasha

Now if we're talking about graduates, then yes, I can imagine a lot of hoops to jump through to get top jobs.

Bev is a way better candidate than that though. Really an expert in her field by then. I just started getting the feeling that in Picard's case, this was a pick of the litter scenario for him. It's the flagship maiden crew, & he seems in almost all cases to be calling the shots wherever he wants... Except for Bev, who he might purposely have avoided being involved in, once he maybe knew of her interest

 

[STEPhon IT]

For a character like Picard, and having an exclusive vessel like the Galaxy Class, I think candidates are available from all over for him to choose. He can either choose or deny anyone he wants on his team; its nice to have insight to why he chose the crew he had, it shows he wanted personnel who can think on their feet and was loyal to what the individuals believed in. He was not only exploring strange new worlds, but also exploring people.

 

[Mojochi]

Certainly we see others takings chances on people in their crew, like Tom Paris, but I don't think we've seen someone doing it so much as Picard. He really puts himself out there looking for unusual choices

Data as 2nd officer alone is probably imho one of the craziest things anybody in his position would think to do... & then there's the whole Wesley thing. Who'd ever have the balls to do that?

He's ALWAYS picking up a misfit somewhere, & putting them on a crew that's heralded as the golden chalice of postings.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Eh, idk, the GOAT chose Paris for one particular assignment and after back in the pen. Wasn't a betazoid her choice as helm officer? He lucked out because she was killed, but I doubt with her gold standards she would choose a loser like him.

 

[Mojochi]

^ Good point lol

 

[jackoverfull]

We don't really know about Data either, right? It's certainly a given in my mind though. I'd forgotten about Tasha

correct.

 

[Ottens]

When you add it all up, it sounds like Picard hand-picked almost his entire senior staff! That doesn't sound like a good way to run a fleet. Too much risk of nepotism and groupthink.

Maybe it's because, as @STEPhon IT suggested, this was a Galaxy-class starship, and the Federation's flagship to boot, that Command gave Picard so much leeway.

I think we've also had a few references of officers, including captains, being transferred alone? That would lend credence to the theory Picard and the Enterprise-D were unique in this sense.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Not only in the military or in everyday employment, the person in charge approves who will be part of staff; I would believe Picard had a similar luxury to approve who he wanted. Made sense.

 

[Ottens]

Not only in the military or in everyday employment, the person in charge approves who will be part of staff [...]

Not everywhere, and not in every country, and I certainly hope that by the 24th century we would have a more professional, merit-based system for appointments and promotions!

 

[Finn]

Then Riker shouldn’t have been a buffoon while considering promotions….

 

[Orphalesion]

Not everywhere, and not in every country, and I certainly hope that by the 24th century we would have a more professional, merit-based system for appointments and promotions!

I agree with that, and there is some evidence for that in the episodes where we see Riker and Deanna doing crew evaluations. I can't remember the exact details, but it sounded like they, at the very least, had input in the doling out of promotions.
I expect when a Captain is granted the opportunity to take over a brand-new ship and assemble its crew they probably get a pool of candidates that fulfil a set of criteria from which they then can pick.

 

[Ragitsu]

Picard's Crew

You make the man sound like a gangster...

 

[flandry84]

If the CMO is the only officer that can,in extraordinary circumstances order the Captain off duty,then maybe the selection of the CMO should be outside the captains purview.

 

[Mojochi]

If the CMO is the only officer that can,in extraordinary circumstances order the Captain off duty,then maybe the selection of the CMO should be outside the captains purview.

That's only in the case of medical incompetence though, which is paramount to a situation where the captain is unfit to serve. I gather there's extenuating circumstances that grant the 1st officer just as much right to relieve the captain, in the event of being unfit as well, or in the absence of either, any serving officer who feels they have that legitimate claim also.

Frankly, I never understood why anyone would deliberately allow a captain to choose their XO. It's as much a conflict of interest as you're rightly implying the captain & CMO dynamic is. It should be a higher command decision that places these officers together imho, to forego the possibility of coercion in the chain of command

Lord knows Erik Pressman preferring a #1 who is a "yes man" could very easily have allowed that Pegasus malfeasance to go on longer than it should have. We all look upon Picard as a renaissance commander for having the moral compass to choose one that would not just be a blindly obedient stooge, but in all sense, it shouldn't even be an option to not have that.