Saavik's First Spacdock Flight

[Ssosmcin]

Something occurred to me while watching TWOK. As you all know, Spock asks Saavik if she ever piloted a starship out of spacedock, and she says she has not. Of course, Spock has her take command for the maneuver. This sends a wave a comical terror through Kirk and McCoy, who goes so far as to offer Jim a tranquilizer.

It's a funny scene, but it hit me (finally 27 years later) that there's no reason for nervousness. Saavik is not piloting the Enterprise, she's sitting in the command chair. She gives two, count 'em two, orders: "Aft Thrusters" and "one quarter impulse power." It's Sulu doing the actual flying and he wouldn't slam the ship into anything. Even if Saavik said "full impulse to starboard" and tried to crash through the drydock, Sulu wouldn't carry out the order. There's no risk.

Then, after they make it out of spacedock (whew!), Kirk gives Bones some shit eating look, like Saavik did something amazing. I mean, jeez, poor Sulu. No wonder why he wanted to get over to Excelsior.

Now, they did a play on this in TUC when Valeris took the Enterprise out of dock ("I've always wanted to try that" - either taking the ship out in gegeral or at one quarter impluse), she was at the helm. Now THIS makes sense. She very well could have scraped the hull against the airlock.

Anyways, this doesn't ruin TWOK or anything, but it does make the scene a little pointless.

 

[Anticitizen]

I always thought McCoy was offering Kirk the tranquilizer because there was a sexy, well-endowed Kirstie Alley on the bridge and Kirk was going ga-ga over her. I either completely misinterpreted that scene or was trying to rationalize a scene that made no sense (since you put it that way).

 

[OneBuckFilms]

Kirk's nervousness is probably more of "Will she get this right" than "will she crash the ship".

There's a measure of pride in watching the new cadets doing well.

 

[Kirby]

If this is really a training cruise, why is Sulu even at the helm at all? Sure, maybe to get them out of spacedock without destroying the thing, but shouldn't a cadet be flying the ship with Sulu or some other qualified helmsman standing by with a clipboard or something?

Kirk: "I'm just glad to have you at the helm for three weeks, I don't think these kids can steer."

Sure it's a funny line, but when are the 'kids' going to learn if the guy that's been flying the ship for 20 years is still doing it.

 

[Doug Otte]

I always thought McCoy was offering Kirk the tranquilizer because there was a sexy, well-endowed Kirstie Alley on the bridge and Kirk was going ga-ga over her. I either completely misinterpreted that scene or was trying to rationalize a scene that made no sense (since you put it that way).

It's the former. I've never heard anyone else express, nor did I imagine, your latter interpretation.

Doug

 

[Mysterion]

And the joke doesn't even pay-off until years later when Galaxy Quest premieres.

 

[nx1701g]

If this is really a training cruise, why is Sulu even at the helm at all? Sure, maybe to get them out of spacedock without destroying the thing, but shouldn't a cadet be flying the ship with Sulu or some other qualified helmsman standing by with a clipboard or something?

Kirk: "I'm just glad to have you at the helm for three weeks, I don't think these kids can steer."

Sure it's a funny line, but when are the 'kids' going to learn if the guy that's been flying the ship for 20 years is still doing it.

When Sulu transfers over to the Excelsior in the three weeks...

 

[Colonel Midnight]

Kirk's nervousness is probably more of "Will she get this right" than "will she crash the ship".

There's a measure of pride in watching the new cadets doing well.

Exactly. This scene never bugged me... especially after seeing just how many bloody people there are in RL standing around on the bridge of a USCG ship when it gets underway, "just in case". *oy*

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[Hartzilla2007]

If this is really a training cruise, why is Sulu even at the helm at all? Sure, maybe to get them out of spacedock without destroying the thing, but shouldn't a cadet be flying the ship with Sulu or some other qualified helmsman standing by with a clipboard or something?

Kirk: "I'm just glad to have you at the helm for three weeks, I don't think these kids can steer."

Sure it's a funny line, but when are the 'kids' going to learn if the guy that's been flying the ship for 20 years is still doing it.

When Sulu transfers over to the Excelsior in the three weeks...

NOT in the film, NOT in the Director's Cut. Therefore DID NOT happen.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Kirk's nervousness is probably more of "Will she get this right" than "will she crash the ship".

There's a measure of pride in watching the new cadets doing well.

Exactly. -CM-

Kirk looks far too nervous to be merely worried about her "getting this right." It plays like a guy watching his kid, who just got his license, take out his cherry 57 Chevy. Besides, isn't Saavik Spock's prize pupil? Why would Kirk be so worked up over one of the students not screwing up a piloting procedure?

 

[Yeoman Randi]

<snip>
Kirk looks far too nervous to be merely worried about her "getting this right." It plays like a guy watching his kid, who just got his license, take out his cherry 57 Chevy. Besides, isn't Saavik Spock's prize pupil? Why would Kirk be so worked up over one of the students not screwing up a piloting procedure?

We've always felt the same way about this scene.

 

[David cgc]

If this is really a training cruise, why is Sulu even at the helm at all? Sure, maybe to get them out of spacedock without destroying the thing, but shouldn't a cadet be flying the ship with Sulu or some other qualified helmsman standing by with a clipboard or something?

Kirk: "I'm just glad to have you at the helm for three weeks, I don't think these kids can steer."

Sure it's a funny line, but when are the 'kids' going to learn if the guy that's been flying the ship for 20 years is still doing it.

When Sulu transfers over to the Excelsior in the three weeks...

NOT in the film, NOT in the Director's Cut. Therefore DID NOT happen.

Okay, when Sulu ceases to helm the ship for unspecified reasons in three weeks.

 

[Search4]

Kirk is nervous -despite- Sulu piloting. That's what is funny, to my mind.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

When Sulu transfers over to the Excelsior in the three weeks...

NOT in the film, NOT in the Director's Cut. Therefore DID NOT happen.

Okay, when Sulu ceases to helm the ship for unspecified reasons in three weeks.

You mean when their Training Cruise is scheduled to end?

 

[Therin of Andor]

NOT in the film, NOT in the Director's Cut. Therefore DID NOT happen.

NOT in the film, NOT in the Director's Cut. Therefore MIGHT NOT have happened, especially if overruled by a future canonical production.

We never saw anyone go to the bathroom either, and that certainly happened. (And we did see Kirk sitting on a closed toilet in ST V.)

 

[Hartzilla2007]

NOT in the film, NOT in the Director's Cut. Therefore DID NOT happen.

NOT in the film, NOT in the Director's Cut. Therefore MIGHT NOT have happened, especially if overruled by a future canonical production.

We never saw anyone go to the bathroom either, and that certainly happened. (And we did see Kirk sitting on a closed toilet in ST V.)

So Sulu was a Captain the whole time and no one mentioned it is what your saying.

 

[JB2005]

^Why not?

 

[Hartzilla2007]

^Why not?

Because that makes no sense and don't give me that well they didn't show them using the bathroom so its possible stuff, the audience isn't so stupid they would assume people don't pee in the future if it isn't shown where as a promotion has to be mentioned or it or noone knows about it and it probably didn't happen.

Plus if Sulu was going to be a captain it would have been sometime after they got back and that would have gone out the window the moment he helped Kirk steal the Enterprise no matter what the Federation president said.

And seeing as the cut Sulu promotion scene had ADMIRAL Kirk being the one to cut the orders, well guess who isn't an admiral anymore and as such has orders that now don't mean crap?

And forgetting all this name one thing (outside the novelizations of Treks II-IV) that points to Sulu being a captain or about to be promoted to captain besides a cut scene that probably dosen't even exist anymore.

 

[Therin of Andor]

So Sulu was a Captain the whole time and no one mentioned it is what your saying.

In the novelizations, yes he was. Recently, a trade-sized omnibus of II, III and IV was released and the rank was scaled back to a promotion to Commander, not Captain, during the shuttle discussion - with the unfortunate problem that Chekov then outranked Sulu at the beginning of ST II.

But in any case, I was simply correcting your statement that if it's "NOT in the film, NOT in the Director's Cut..." therefore "it DID NOT happen" - because that's not how it works. If it's NOT in the film, and NOT in the Director's Cut, therefore MIGHT NOT have happened, especially if overruled by a future canonical production.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Saavik is not piloting the Enterprise, she's sitting in the command chair. She gives two, count 'em two, orders: "Aft Thrusters" and "one quarter impulse power." It's Sulu doing the actual flying and he wouldn't slam the ship into anything. Even if Saavik said "full impulse to starboard" and tried to crash through the drydock, Sulu wouldn't carry out the order. There's no risk.

Saavik may not have been handling the helm herself but she was certainly the "ship's driver" or "pilot" at the time. In the navy, the person in charge of the bridge, say an Officer of the Deck or Officer of the Watch, is the ship's driver responsible for the supervision of the helm and safe maneuvering of the vessel. Many USN officers who aspire to be ship's captains, the most skilled ship drivers, must train in difficult maneuvers and take the "conn" in both simiulated (similar to the Kobayashi Maru simulator without the Klingons and the no-win stuff) and actual sea operations as part of their continued training and development.