The Cage\Menagerie oddities

[CoveTom]

^ Interesting. So let's take that and apply it to "The Cage". Assume that the two in civilian clothes are members of the crew. Is it realistic that these off-duty crew members would stoll past their Captain and not salute or otherwise acknowledge him?

 

[Captain Robert April]

In going about your day-to-day business, when you're indoors, you don't salute. For one thing, corridors are often on the narrow side in the first place, so rendering a proper salute could cost someone an eye.

I'll defer to a Navy vet if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that on board ship, unless you're being called in front of the captain to be chewed out over something and have to give a reporting statement ("Sir, Crewman Dumbass reports as ordered."), or you're first stepping off the gangplank and requesting permission to come aboard, salutes are pretty much dispensed with.

 

[Capt.Mac]

For behind the scenes info check out "The Cage Page" at startrekhistory.com:
http://www.startrekhistory.com/cagepage.html

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Anybody catch the bit in ST XI when Captain Robau is on his way to the shuttlecraft? Absolutely everyone he passed in the Kelvin corridors stopped and stood at attention (no actual salutes though) whenever he passed by them. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

[BillJ]

Anybody catch the bit in ST XI when Captain Robau is on his way to the shuttlecraft? Absolutely everyone he passed in the Kelvin corridors stopped and stood at attention (no actual salutes though) whenever he passed by them. I thought that was pretty cool.

Pretty dumb if you ask me. I'd rather my people be doing their actual jobs in the middle of a pitched battle instead of stopping to kiss my ass.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Agreed. The scene was clearly set up by someone with no real military experience, or even knew anybody with any real military experience.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Assuming that what Robau was about to do was common knowledge throughout the ship, maybe the crew did this out of respect because they knew he was going to die? I doubt anyone expected the Romulans who were about to destroy the Kelvin were going to let Robau live.

 

[Captain Robert April]

And when in the hell did Robau have the time to do a shipwide announcement that he was about to fly off on an obvious suicide mission?

 

[Therin of Andor]

And when in the hell did Robau have the time to do a shipwide announcement that he was about to fly off on an obvious suicide mission?

Twitter.

 

[CoveTom]

Robau tweets? Hmm....

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And when in the hell did Robau have the time to do a shipwide announcement that he was about to fly off on an obvious suicide mission?

It wouldn't take long. A minute, maybe less. He could have done it right after he left George Kirk in command.

 

[number6]

Or somebody looked out the window.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Perhaps the incoming transmissions from the Narada were being broadcast all over the Kelvin so that the whole crew would know right away?

 

[The Castellan]

Anybody catch the bit in ST XI when Captain Robau is on his way to the shuttlecraft? Absolutely everyone he passed in the Kelvin corridors stopped and stood at attention (no actual salutes though) whenever he passed by them. I thought that was pretty cool.

Not me, I prefer to see crew members be just crew members of Starfleet, not a bunch of army grunts.

 

[T'Girl]

And when in the hell did Robau have the time to do a shipwide announcement that he was about to fly off on an obvious suicide mission?

No announcement would have been necessary, you'd be amazed how fast word spreads through a ship, or across a military base.

I thought that was pretty cool.

Not me, I prefer to see crew members be just crew members of Starfleet, not a bunch of army grunts.

It's the people down in the "bowels" of the starship who actual keep it running, that's what grunts are. I prefer to think of Starfleet personnel as grunts.

 

[Timo]

No announcement would have been necessary, you'd be amazed how fast word spreads through a ship, or across a military base.

Kirk appeared to never tell his crew anything of importance, except when it was of dramatic convenience (essentially, when the audience needed to be told things), but somehow the news still spread. I suspect Uhura actually had a job to do: apart from purring "Hailing frequencies open", she was making sure commands were being relayed and news were being spread.

The "dead man walking" interpretation of those (actually precious few) salutes sounds reasonable to me. Although quite a few of the "salutes" appear to be simple cases of a crewman or -woman allowing Robau to pass in a tight corridor obscured by smoke and debris.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[GSchnitzer]

The script for "The Cage" sheds a tiny bit of light on these people Pike passes them in the corridor:

*******

Scene 7 INT. ENTERPRISE PASSAGEWAY

Revealing a small portion of the passageway as Winter [Pike] enters scene; passes a casually dressed Young Man and Young Lady, intent on each other, obviously headed for a ship's recreation area. Then Winter [Pike] reaches a hatch marked "Captain," opens it, exiting into the room

*******

So they are casually dressed, headed for the rec room and too intent on each other to pay much or any attention to the Captain.

On a different issue, the script says this about Mister Spock:

****

With the almost British accent of one who has learned the language in textbooks, he speaks to Winter [Pike]:

MISTER SPOCK

Definitely something out there.
Moving this way.

******

So Mister Spock's odd voice inflections are actually scripted.

 

[F. King Daniel]

And when in the hell did Robau have the time to do a shipwide announcement that he was about to fly off on an obvious suicide mission?

No announcement would have been necessary, you'd be amazed how fast word spreads through a ship, or across a military base.

Yeah, someone on the bridge just has to say "prepare a shuttle.... the captain's going over there" to a technician on the hangar deck and the word would spread like wildfire.

 

[scotpens]

And isn't it true that real world military officers only salute if they are wearing hats?

In the real world ... it depends.

You don't stop what you doing everytime a officer walks through, unless it's a general and sometime not even then. If you're part of a work detail, the head of the detail salutes and no one else. No one wears a hat on the flight line, you still salute when appropriate.

It's actually pretty complex.

And some areas have relaxed discipline as a matter of policy. For example, the central courtyard of the Pentagon is a no-hat, no-salute zone.

 

[The Castellan]

And when in the hell did Robau have the time to do a shipwide announcement that he was about to fly off on an obvious suicide mission?

No announcement would have been necessary, you'd be amazed how fast word spreads through a ship, or across a military base.

I thought that was pretty cool.

Not me, I prefer to see crew members be just crew members of Starfleet, not a bunch of army grunts.

It's the people down in the "bowels" of the starship who actual keep it running, that's what grunts are. I prefer to think of Starfleet personnel as grunts.

I'm referring to the grunt type who shout "Sir, yes sir!" all the time, or like those overbearing marines in Aliens. to me, that's not Starfleet. Anyhow, that Captain of the Kelvin is the most overrated character in Trek. He's got a bald head, big whoop.

The folks who keep the ship going are what I myself would call engineers.