What's with The Galileo Seven?

[Gotham Central]

Is it me or is this the most contrived episode of the original series? Despite all of the talk about logic in the episode, nothing about the episode seemed logical.

Why exactly was Dr. McCoy, Scotty and some random Yeoman on that shuttle in the first place? They were studying a quazar. Indeed, with the exception of Spock there does not seem to be a good reason for any of those people to be there.

On top of that, ahy exactly did they send a shuttle into that mess in the first place? The Enterprise seemed to go in there without much difficulty.

Then of course there is the unsusally hostile attitude toward Spock. Spock aslo seemed a bit out of character (he has never had difficulty shooting hostiles in the past...why now?).

The whole episode just seems out of balance.

 

[Thelin]

I never quite understood the reasoning behind the personnel selection for that mission, either. However, I've always looked at it that the whole illogical situation was there to further contrast what's logical and illogical.

Or it could just be a silly episode.

 

[sbk1234]

It's not just you.

 

[Hambone]

Why exactly was Dr. McCoy, Scotty and some random Yeoman on that shuttle in the first place? They were studying a quazar. Indeed, with the exception of Spock there does not seem to be a good reason for any of those people to be there.

As an Army veteran, let me assure you that sometimes the "duty roster" makes no sense at all. They need a certain member from each department on the mission and you go. Boma seems to be an expert on quasars (he's the first to figure out why the shuttle was affected the way it was). The others probably had various duties assigned; to gather data in various categories.

On top of that, ahy exactly did they send a shuttle into that mess in the first place? The Enterprise seemed to go in there without much difficulty.

That's the episode "hook". The quasar affected the shuttle and the ship's sensors in a way that was unexpected.

Then of course there is the unsusally hostile attitude toward Spock. Spock aslo seemed a bit out of character (he has never had difficulty shooting hostiles in the past...why now?).

At this early stage in the series' life, the creators were still trying to develop and introduce the Spock character and Vulcan peculiarities to the audience. His hesitancy to kill (or stun?) the ape-men is supposed to show his respect for all life-forms. The rest of the crew's animosity towards Spock grows out of this.

That being said, the rest of the crew was way, waaay out of line in their insubordination towards Spock, their commanding officer. There should have been some "busts" or even courts-martial when they returned to the ship.

I've always liked this episode, with one exception; the ape-men subplot should have been re-written, or at least they should not have been shown on-screen. Anyone who thinks the Gorn looked phoney should watch this episode. The Gorn is a freakin' work of genius compared to these carpet-covered stuntmen.

 

[ClayinCA]

That being said, the rest of the crew was way, waaay out of line in their insubordination towards Spock, their commanding officer. There should have been some "busts" or even courts-martial when they returned to the ship.

I always imagined that Kirk transferred Boma off the ship so fast it made his head spin.

 

[Vonstadt]

I agree, as to the roster it sorta made sense to me, a lot of military and NASA operations often have some redundancy in its crewing of certian missions.

Lt. Latimer - Pilot

Mr. Spock - Co Pilot/Mission Commander/Science specialist

Scotty - Flight Engineer

Yeomen Mears - Data recorder and mission specialist

Dr. McCoy - Medical specialist in the event of injury, yes it culdve been a junior doc but maybe Bones wanted to stretch his legs so to speak.

Lt. Boma - back up Science Specialist and Quasar expert (soon to be out of a job )

Lt. Gaetano - Back crew/ Spare Pilot in case of injury to Latimer maybe? Perhaps was brought along to up his flight hours and or possibly cross train in one of the other specialties?

Really that is how I always saw it. Yeah the logic holes are really thick and wide in this one (Spock's first solo command??? seriously??) but this one had special mening for me as a kid. It was one of the first I saw and the weird hissing and far off growling through the mists and fog scared me.

plus their were spears and big cavemen with rocks and they shot phasers!

Not to mention Yeomn Mears was given a phaser and was ready to rock and roll. usually the Yeomans werent armed, so that was nice to see too.

Overall still a fun episode for me to watch. I still wish Scotty had stood up and rapped Lt. boma right in his prejudiced mouth when he overstepped his bounds.

He might've too had Spock not interupted him when he yeled "Mr. Boma that is quite enough!" and stood up.

Vons

 

[therritn]

My big problem with that episode is that the crew members overlooked the fact that phasers do have a heavy stun setting, and therefore don't have to kill the creatures. Being heavily stunned would be as effective. Also, Spock should have put Boma on report. I can imagine what would have happened if Boma mouthed off to Kirk.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Is it me or is this the most contrived episode of the original series? Despite all of the talk about logic in the episode, nothing about the episode seemed logical.

"Contrived" is exactly the word for it.

The writer presents the premise that Spock has risen to second-in-command of the Enterprise without having ever been given independent charge of a party of seven or eight people before.

Uh-huh.

That's like promoting a third-year cadet to captain and putting him in command of the Enterprise just because he saved the Earth.

Wait a minute...

 

[Red Ranger]

That being said, the rest of the crew was way, waaay out of line in their insubordination towards Spock, their commanding officer. There should have been some "busts" or even courts-martial when they returned to the ship.

I always imagined that Kirk transferred Boma off the ship so fast it made his head spin.

Well, there was a novel that followed up on the aftemath of Boma's actions. In Diane Carey's Dreadnaught, Boma appears, now a civilian scientist working with a powerful Admiral, and it's revealed Scotty brough him up on charges of insubordination since Spock wouldn't, and Boma gets drummed out of Starfleet. Sure, there are implausibilities in the ep, but I rather liked it, esp. when Spock commits a desperate act to try to save the crew. -- RR

 

[Shatmandu]

In the first draft of the script, McCoy is said to have gotten his boots extra-shined, trailed Yeoman Mears all day getting upskirt peeks, accidentally followed her onto the shuttle, and was too embarassed to back out so he made up an excuse: that he was there to monitor crew medical reaction to close-up quasar exposure.

Joe, noted Trek historian

 

[Timo]

We could easily label all the guest stars as mini-quasar specialists (indeed, the two people serving as "redshirts" don't wear red, and were probably given the duty when there no longer was a quasar research mission for them). Really, the only crew members I have a problem with there are Scotty and McCoy. Monitoring strange phenomena isn't a long duration mission - and missions of much more extended nature have never had flight engineers or medical personnel aboard.

However, the mission might have been of a greater scope than we were led to believe. Remember that Kirk wanted to make the most of the few hours he had to spare. Perhaps the shuttle was also expected to chart the local star systems for future use as colonies or observation outposts - and McCoy has been known to be the right specialist to judge the viability of colonies. Scotty could have been scouting out things of similar nature.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[ahkyahnan]

To my mind, this particular shuttle mission was essentially the same as any general landing party mission, they were just in space instead of on a planet, and I think the number of personnel and their functions were fairly consistent with the typical landing party complement, with the exception of a security officer maybe. (And once the shuttle went down it effectively became a general landing party.) A general first visit landing party usually included McCoy or some other medical officer, so I don't see him being an unusual choice. Scotty often accompanied landing party's when there was something technical involved, and in this case that would the shuttle itself in case it needed fixed. And, lo and behold, it did end up needing fixed. As mentioned earlier the others were probably specialists or data collectors. To me it's not much different from the investigative landing parties we saw in "The Apple" or "Shore Leave" for example. (Except the shuttlecraft has 1 extra seat.)

Mark

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm thinking its because Doohan and Kelley were on contract.

 

[Maurice]

I'm thinking it's because it's Trek doing "Lifeboat" and logic doesn't much apply.

 

[Basil]

It isn't too contrived if you consider that the crew of the Galileo is roughly equivalent to the crew of a space shuttle today, and certainly within the realm of believability for conjecture based on the space program in the 1960s.

That Spock never apparently commanded a mission before is more problematic.

At first glance, it seems unlikely unless this episode was written for the Spock of the Pike era and simply adjusted for the later Kirk time period.

But also consider that Spock, primarily a science officer by training but capable of first officer duties because of his intellect, may indeed never have commanded a mission but instead either simply been part of landing parties or gone solo. We have presidents who never served in the military but technically are commanders in chief, after all. And imagine if Spock requested not to be put in command until the Galileo mission. Certainly his behavior -- including taking abuse from his crew -- and choices -- using logic as the primary means to cope with an illogical environment -- reflect the experiences of someone not at ease giving orders.

Of course, it also depends on how one defines "mission." Was the investigation of the quasar on the same order as the Apollo mission to the moon, or was it simply another day on the job, where a group of workers took the space bus to do a few routine checks and then go home? If the former, then it might have required more of Spock,. including selecting his personnel, preparing data, calibrating equipment, etc. In this respect, it may not have been the first time Spock was in charge, but it could have been the first time he was essentially captain of his own ship.

Is it unlikely that he could have gotten as far in his career without commanding a mission? Yes. But there is the possibility that someone as unique as Spock in Starfleet may have been given a wider berth in requesting duties and responsibilities than other officers. It's a paramilitary organization, not strict military, and a pacifist like Spock might even have had a conscientious objector status, at least initially.

 

[Timo]

Umm, why do you people think Spock had done no command jobs before this shuttle sortie? Nothing of the sort is actually said in the episode.

All we have is a remark from McCoy: "It's your big chance". Spock is beduffled as to what McCoy might mean, so the Doctor explains that Spock always wanted to lead by logic: "You've never voiced it, but you've always thought that logic was the best basis on which to build command. Am I right?"

So all we learn here is that, as far as McCoy knows, Spock has never before been able to conduct a leadership task by using pure logic as the basis. Which means he could have performed lots of leadership tasks, only he had to follow illogical human customs and take into consideration illogical human sensibilities in those tasks. Now he is isolated from the rest of Starfleet, and can finally do things his own way. Which, as we learn, ain't exactly the best possible one.

McCoy never claims Spock didn't have prior command experience, and Spock never alludes to this, either. None of the bit players dare suggest that Spock would be a greenhorn, either. So there really isn't any dilemma on Spock's putative lack of command precedent, not if we go only by the material given in the episode.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Gotham Central]

Umm, why do you people think Spock had done no command jobs before this shuttle sortie? Nothing of the sort is actually said in the episode.

All we have is a remark from McCoy: "It's your big chance". Spock is beduffled as to what McCoy might mean, so the Doctor explains that Spock always wanted to lead by logic: "You've never voiced it, but you've always thought that logic was the best basis on which to build command. Am I right?"

So all we learn here is that, as far as McCoy knows, Spock has never before been able to conduct a leadership task by using pure logic as the basis. Which means he could have performed lots of leadership tasks, only he had to follow illogical human customs and take into consideration illogical human sensibilities in those tasks. Now he is isolated from the rest of Starfleet, and can finally do things his own way. Which, as we learn, ain't exactly the best possible one.

McCoy never claims Spock didn't have prior command experience, and Spock never alludes to this, either. None of the bit players dare suggest that Spock would be a greenhorn, either. So there really isn't any dilemma on Spock's putative lack of command precedent, not if we go only by the material given in the episode.

Timo Saloniemi

Actually toward the end of the Episode while the shuttle was in the decaying orbit, McCoy says something to the effect of "so ends your first command."

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Umm, why do you people think Spock had done no command jobs before this shuttle sortie? Nothing of the sort is actually said in the episode.

All we have is a remark from McCoy: "It's your big chance". Spock is beduffled as to what McCoy might mean, so the Doctor explains that Spock always wanted to lead by logic: "You've never voiced it, but you've always thought that logic was the best basis on which to build command. Am I right?"

So all we learn here is that, as far as McCoy knows, Spock has never before been able to conduct a leadership task by using pure logic as the basis. Which means he could have performed lots of leadership tasks, only he had to follow illogical human customs and take into consideration illogical human sensibilities in those tasks. Now he is isolated from the rest of Starfleet, and can finally do things his own way. Which, as we learn, ain't exactly the best possible one.

McCoy never claims Spock didn't have prior command experience, and Spock never alludes to this, either. None of the bit players dare suggest that Spock would be a greenhorn, either. So there really isn't any dilemma on Spock's putative lack of command precedent, not if we go only by the material given in the episode.

Timo Saloniemi

Actually toward the end of the Episode while the shuttle was in the decaying orbit, McCoy says something to the effect of "so ends your first command."

Yep. Second Treksplanation in one day that I ain't buying - doesn't pass the smell test.

 

[Gary Sebben]

Sometimes you don't worry about stuff like that if the episode is good enough, and this one is.

It's easy to see why the neo-cons were called Vulcan's when you see this episode. Both Spock and Rumsfeld et al. felt that shock and awe would put the "primitives" in line and gain their respect. McCoy is spot on when he says "Did you ever think they would react emotionally? With anger?" The results on the Murisaki planet and in Iraq were equally surprising to both parties.

And then Spock's act of igniting the shuttle fuel was beautifully acted out.

 

[Cakes488]

Umm, why do you people think Spock had done no command jobs before this shuttle sortie? Nothing of the sort is actually said in the episode.

All we have is a remark from McCoy: "It's your big chance". Spock is beduffled as to what McCoy might mean, so the Doctor explains that Spock always wanted to lead by logic: "You've never voiced it, but you've always thought that logic was the best basis on which to build command. Am I right?"

So all we learn here is that, as far as McCoy knows, Spock has never before been able to conduct a leadership task by using pure logic as the basis. Which means he could have performed lots of leadership tasks, only he had to follow illogical human customs and take into consideration illogical human sensibilities in those tasks. Now he is isolated from the rest of Starfleet, and can finally do things his own way. Which, as we learn, ain't exactly the best possible one.

McCoy never claims Spock didn't have prior command experience, and Spock never alludes to this, either. None of the bit players dare suggest that Spock would be a greenhorn, either. So there really isn't any dilemma on Spock's putative lack of command precedent, not if we go only by the material given in the episode.

Timo Saloniemi

Now when you guys say "command jobs"...are you talking about away missions only? Or does that include Spock being in charge of the bridge too?