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What's with The Galileo Seven?

Having just watched this episode for the first time last night, I was more perplexed by the tone of the ending. Two people died, along with nearly the rest of those on the Galileo, as well, and everyone on the bridge is cracking jokes and yukking it up? :lol:

It's really not that much of a stretch to see them laughing or joking after what occurs in the episode. They see death all the time...it's part of the job of being in Starfleet...Kirk and Company take crew deaths very seriously...no matter what they do at the end of the episode doesn't negate that fact.

Also often in uncomfortable situations people will laugh and joke to help alleivate the stress. What else should they do -- really? Have a somber moment on the bridge remembering their fallen comrades with a service or something? I mean how many ep's would we have to end in that fashion then...?

Yeah really. And worse things have happened anyways. Like when Kirk beamed the two men out into space when he thought a planet was there. One "oh my god" on his part and then, forgotten.
 
^^ At least he said OMG! But what should be done then.....should they have a service or something? Then that's what Trek would be....funerals for red shirts every week.
 
^^ At least he said OMG! But what should be done then.....should they have a service or something? Then that's what Trek would be....funerals for red shirts every week.

With the good Al Sharpton ready to give the Eulogy at a moment's call!!

Rob

I can see it now. "These men died because they were RED SHIRTS! They suffered, for the colour of their shirts!"
 
Two people died, along with nearly the rest of those on the Galileo, as well, and everyone on the bridge is cracking jokes and yukking it up?

Actually, there's another problem in there, too. Kirk orders the occupants beamed aboard, Uhura reports that five were transported, and Kirk appears relieved. He doesn't ask which five were saved. Should he really appear relieved at that juncture, when odds are that he might have lost his close friends Spock or McCoy?

It's only natural that they'd lighten up for the final scene, since some time has already passed after the adventure. But immediately after the rescue of five out of seven, Kirk's expression should be one of rather grim determination when he commands "Mr. Sulu, Makus 3, warp factor 1", not one of such obvious relief. The smile tugging up the corner of his mouth there and then is what I find less plausible than the laughter he shares with the survivors later on.

Timo Saloniemi
 
He doesn't ask which five were saved. Should he really appear relieved at that juncture, when odds are that he might have lost his close friends Spock or McCoy?

I think this shows that everyone in Kirk's crew mattered to him. That people survived was the most important thing to him.
 
He doesn't ask which five were saved. Should he really appear relieved at that juncture, when odds are that he might have lost his close friends Spock or McCoy?

I think this shows that everyone in Kirk's crew mattered to him. That people survived was the most important thing to him.

Yeah, that's what I got from it too - relief that anyone at all made it.

My nitpick of this episode was the initial squabbling over who would have to be left behind on the planet - nobody mentioned the fact that they could come back for whoever was left behind, it wasn't a death sentence (well, until the sasquatch showed up, anyway).
 
Indeed, staying put sounded like a viable option through and through. The Enterprise would depart, fine. But she was on a schedule to deliver a shipment within five days of the initial crash, meaning she'd quite plausibly be back in ten. Or faster, since Kirk says initially that it's only three days to the destination, and he feels confident he can loiter for quite a few days.

Why couldn't the landing party hold out for less than a week? The giants pose no real threat if one chooses to set phasers to kill. There's no mention of a shortage of food or water, either.

Timo Saloniemi
 
We don't know the designed endurance of the TOS shuttles, so we don't know if there should be an onboard solution to that little problem. But let's remember that there's a space at the aft end of the shuttle that is separated by a bulkhead and a door, for no apparent purpose. An excellent location for a porta-pot, supposedly on the unseen portside wall. Add a bit of recycling and voilá - endurance to outlast the most determined order 480G anthropoid.

Timo Saloniemi
 
Having just watched this episode for the first time last night, I was more perplexed by the tone of the ending. Two people died, along with nearly the rest of those on the Galileo, as well, and everyone on the bridge is cracking jokes and yukking it up? :lol:

Typical Gene L. Coon chuckle-scene. Tone of first season changes noticably after GLC joins the staff. Very disconcerting in many episodes with death and destruction in them. Even at end of Doomsday Machine IIRC. 60s TV happy ending for general audience before they switch over to the Lucy Show or Dean Martin or whatever was next on the docket. Too bad. A serious, thoughtful ending more often would have changed the whole tenor of the show.

Luckily it's still pretty good in spite of it!
 
Having just watched this episode for the first time last night, I was more perplexed by the tone of the ending. Two people died, along with nearly the rest of those on the Galileo, as well, and everyone on the bridge is cracking jokes and yukking it up? :lol:

Typical Gene L. Coon chuckle-scene. Tone of first season changes noticably after GLC joins the staff. Very disconcerting in many episodes with death and destruction in them. Even at end of Doomsday Machine IIRC. 60s TV happy ending for general audience before they switch over to the Lucy Show or Dean Martin or whatever was next on the docket. Too bad. A serious, thoughtful ending more often would have changed the whole tenor of the show.

Luckily it's still pretty good in spite of it!

So how would you propose to end the show instead when they had these lighter moments upon closing? Somber reflection? Yeah that wouldn't of been endearing for very long.
 
Having just watched this episode for the first time last night, I was more perplexed by the tone of the ending. Two people died, along with nearly the rest of those on the Galileo, as well, and everyone on the bridge is cracking jokes and yukking it up? :lol:

Typical Gene L. Coon chuckle-scene. Tone of first season changes noticably after GLC joins the staff. Very disconcerting in many episodes with death and destruction in them. Even at end of Doomsday Machine IIRC. 60s TV happy ending for general audience before they switch over to the Lucy Show or Dean Martin or whatever was next on the docket. Too bad. A serious, thoughtful ending more often would have changed the whole tenor of the show.

Luckily it's still pretty good in spite of it!

So how would you propose to end the show instead when they had these lighter moments upon closing? Somber reflection? Yeah that wouldn't of been endearing for very long.

..and become as 'forgetable' to the 'real world' as TNG is becoming. TOS did it good, and that is why it is still #1..

Rob
 
^^^ Ahhhh Rob and I agree! I shall now have a good weekend! =)

It was only a matter of time..wink wink..

Have a good weekend. I'm going to take my kids back to the DRIVE-IN...sounds like a sequel to a movie!!!

DRIVE-IN THEATRER II: Back to the Drive In!!!

Rob
 
Along the same lines, was Scotty or McCoy ever given command of anything? Scotty presumably is the second officer and though McCoy runs the sick bay (the way Spock presumably runs sciences) and has been on expeditions, do either men have actual command experience outside of taking over temporarily when Kirk or Spock are gone?
As has been pointed out, I don't believe we've ever seen McCoy being given command of any sort. Of course, he's in charge of the medical division, but that's a bit different. But even though he has a senior officer's rank, he doesn't necessarily have command training. He certainly has shown on more than one occasion that his interest is solely in being a doctor. He's not at all interested in the military aspects of Starfleet or even that much in the exploration aspects, unless they happen to coincide with his medical interests. He just wants to help sick people. So he may have done what was necessary within the structure of Starfleet to achieve the medical post he wanted, but not have pursued any sort of command training. In fact, in "The Menagerie," we see that McCoy places Spock under arrest given his senior officer status, but command is transferred to Hansen, presumably because Hansen has command training and McCoy does not. After all, we learn in TNG that Dr. Crusher having command training was an optional thing she chose.

As for Scotty, he most definitely has command training, and is left in charge of the Enterprise on many occasions, but again he seemed someone who was specifically devoted to his engineering talents. Again looking at TNG, he defers to LaForge and allows him to take command, saying that even though he was a captain in rank, he never wanted to be anything other than an engineer. So it seems reasonably likely that he went through command training, and was perfectly capable of commanding the Enterprise when the situation warranted, but had no interest in actually commanding his own ship.

Regarding the Scotty/Sulu thing, I don't think we ever got a clear definition of the command structure of the Enterprise. Obviously, Kirk was in command and Spock was the first officer. Given the number of times he was put in command throughout the course of the series, I think it's reasonable to assume Scotty was the second officer as well as chief engineer.

Beyond that, it gets murky. Sulu was seen in command on many occasions too, so he could perhaps be the fourth in line. Chekov was way too junior an officer at that point to have held that post, so I think we'd count him out. But what about Uhura? We never see her in command, save for the animated series, but she is the same rank as Sulu and has lots of bridge experience. And we see in several episodes that she's capable of manning other stations, like navigation. She could have easily have had command training too. Nichelle Nichols asserts in her autobiography that Uhura was fourth in command, but we know what that's worth... :)
 
Legend has it that the original idea for "Catspaw" was that Uhura was going to be one left in command, but that idea was overruled by some studio or network muckymuck.

As for the Sulu-or-Scotty question, I think it all depended on who was on duty at the time. If Sulu was there and Scotty had his hands full in Engineering, Sulu got the conn, whereas if things were squared away down below, Scotty took the center seat. Note that in "The Menagerie", even though Scotty is present, Hansen is the one who was in command when Kirk and Mendez arrived.

And regarding Chekov, an often overlooked moment is in "Journey to Babel", after the Orion ship goes blooey and the spy croaks, as Kirk is headed back to Sickbay, he turns command over to Chekov (another of those moments George Takei can blame on his time shooting "The Green Berets").
 
^ One presumes that anyone who is a member of the bridge crew is considered trained enough to take command of the bridge in a pinch. However, Chekov obviously was not high up in the command structure.

There is a difference, of course, between the captain assigning someone command and someone being given command by default due to their place in the command structure of the ship. Kirk could, I suppose, assign command to whatever crew member he wanted, even Ensign Ricky. But if Kirk is killed or incapacitated or otherwise taken out of command without assigning someone to be in command, it would fall to Spock automatically, as second in command.

Similarly, I think either Scotty or Sulu were perfectly well qualified to take command as needed, but one of them was probably specifically designated as third in the chain of command. In other words, if Kirk and Spock were both suddenly and unexpectedly killed, and no specific order were given regarding who was left in command, who would automatically be placed in command? My guess is Scotty, but I could be wrong.
 
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