Vulcans in command

[FPAlpha]

Hey,

something that popped into my head just now.

What's everybody's take on Vulcan's being in command over non-Vulcans?

The reason why i'm asking is that genuine empathy is very vital once you assume command over a group of people. I'm a manager, so i learned that a genuine heart to heart with a member of my team sometimes solves problems far more efficiently than being the boss and just giving out orders. It's also important that the empathy comes from a real place because humans ( and i assume all other species) will "feel" if it's just an act and if so this will do more damage than good.

How would Vulcans approach this? I mean empathy is not alien to them but they do try to suppress emotions and be as logical as possible but what if a heart to heart with someone is far better than a logical step by step approach to solving a problem? Would a Vulcan captain be able to drop his logic shields enough to show genuine empathy? Would they need to go through special training for this?

I'm curious what you all think.

 

[MarcKle1964]

Perhaps a friendly Vulcan who doesn't have a stick inserted inside him where it shouldn't be? SNW and ENT taught us that not all Vulcans are friendly, ethical or progressive like Spock.

One who has lived with humans like T'Pol who doesn't start twitching at the thought of lengthy future time with humans?

One who was rescued by human-ish folk like Bajorans and has learned emotions aren't bad, m'kay?

Surely there's a Vulcan captain who won't be a strident martinet and who encourages his crew to meditate to learn to regulate emotions?

The conflict/drama potential for the writers... starting with the search for candidates. (Imagines 'Kobayashi Maru' shenanigans to see how they do with things like exposure to odors lactose intolerant human produce while in elevators turbolifts or breath sounds or the human 24 hour schedule - just how long is a Vulcan day? Can they deal with not enough sleep?)

 

[FredH]

I’d think it’s all a matter of needing to adapt to the needs of the crew. Try flipping it: imagine a human serving on a Vulcan ship. They’ll have to adjust to working with mostly Vulcans, learn to “curb their enthusiasms”, so to speak, and adopt a certain amount of Vulcan shipboard and interpersonal etiquette. (And use a lot of deodorant.) In the same way, a decent Vulcan captain of a non-Vulcan crew will have to somewhat adapt to or work around the “crew culture” they’re in charge of. They don’t have to start cracking jokes, but they do have to learn a certain amount of “emotional intelligence”.