Who did Kirk inherit from Pike's crew

[DarrenTR1970]

Gentlemen

I don’t know if anyone has asked this or not but, out of Captain Pike’s crew, who do you think Kirk inherited when he took command of the Enterprise.

I think Spock is a given based on the evidence from the pilot episode and ‘The Menagerie’, but what about the others?

McCoy most likely came onboard sometime after the second pilot episode ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ and before the first episode in production, ‘The Corbomite Maneuver’. Various tie-in media have McCoy being offered the position of the Enterprise’s CMO but having to turn it down for one reason or another and Dr. Piper being a temporary replacement until the Enterprise returned to Earth.

Chekov most like came aboard sometime during the first season as a ‘lower-decks’ person before being assigned to bridge at the start of the second season; starting with the episode ‘Catspaw’.

So where does that leave Scotty, Sulu and Uhura?

Scotty I think is a given; probably joining sometime prior to or during Captain Pike’s second five-year-mission as an assistant engineer before being promoted to chief engineer under Captain Kirk.

Sulu could have been a ‘lower-decks’ officer assigned to another department, as evidenced by his blue sciences division shirt he’s wearing in ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’, who came onboard sometime during the tail-end of Pike’s second five-year-mission

That leaves Uhura. She’s not in the second pilot episode; in her place is Lt. Alden. Again, though, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t somewhere onboard in another department, as evidenced by her wearing Command Gold in her first appearance ‘The Corbomite Maneuver’. She could simply have transferred to Communications shortly after the Enterprise returned from the Galactic Barrier.

So, what say you?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Spock and Geological Technician Fisher are the only carryovers I can think of offhand.

 

[Nerys Myk]

There might be some extras who appeared in the Cage and TOS.

 

[Tosk]

Not to speak for Darren, but I think he means "in universe, who do you think was there before Kirk" as opposed to which actors were actually in both pilots.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'd like to think there was a mix. Scotty might have been there before Kirk, though I prefer the idea of him serving on various ships prior to the E. He's the oldest character so he's probably been CEO on a few ships. And Kirk might have inherited Piper from Pike. Sulu and Uhura are younger officers and probably came on board with or after Kirk.

 

[Phaser Two]

For some reason I like to think Scotty was there before Kirk. It just feels right. I'm not clear on when we're supposed to think McCoy signed on; he and Kirk certainly seem to know each other well in CM. The younger folks probably transferred in with Kirk. He was probably allowed some discretion in staffing up his ship.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'd like to think there was a mix. Scotty might have been there before Kirk, though I prefer the idea of him serving on various ships prior to the E. He's the oldest character so he's probably been CEO on a few ships.

In 'Relics' Scotty says that while he had served on other ships, the Enterprise was his first as chief engineer.

 

[Vger23]

I'm down with assuming Scotty was there for a while before Kirk.

 

[Terok Nor]

I like to think Kirk came aboard, gathered Pike's crew in the shuttlebay and announced "a new broom sweeps clean" before running outside, locking the doors and blowing everyone out into space.

Spock was on vacation at the time.

 

[F. King Daniel]

DC Fontana's novel Vulcan's Glory put Scotty on Pike's crew (and building a still in engineering) as a junior engineer.

 

[Tim Thomason]

I just assume that the only staffing change was Kirk himself, and most of the crew in WNMHGB were the same crew at the tail end of Pike's captaincy. The crew has lower staff rotating in and out all the time in TOS.

 

[SpyOne]

^
Yeah, that was my impression as well: officers rotate in and out on a regular basis. Any time the Enterprise visits a starbase, assume a handful of people leave and a handful of new folks replace them.
So I'd assume that when Kirk took over nearly everyone aboard had served under Pike for at least a little while.
But I doubt many of them served with him for very long.

I would guess that Scotty was aboard maybe a year before Kirk. I don't think he'd been a junior Engineer on Enterprise first: promotion usually includes a transfer. There are practical reasons for that, not the least of which is that some people have trouble adjusting to their drinking buddy suddenly being their boss. So Scotty demonstrated his excellence somewhere else and got made a Chief Engineer and transferred to the Enterprise.

 

[GNDN18]

I was always struck by the easy camaraderie between Kirk and Scotty seen in the earliest episodes. It suggests that they knew each other well and had built a lot of trust in each other’s abilities; perhaps they worked together on other ships.

OTOH, you could see how Kirk would have relied on Scotty as a senior holdover who was both competent and knew the ship’s little ways. Of course, the two might simply have clicked from the first handshake when Kirk assumed command.

Either way, those early episodes showcased a special non-com/first lieutenant relationship that was lost over time, when Scotty’s character veered dangerously close to comic relief.

Engineering Division ready as always.

 

[Phaser Two]

I was always struck by the easy camaraderie between Kirk and Scotty seen in the earliest episodes. It suggests that they knew each other well and had built a lot of trust in each other’s abilities; perhaps they worked together on other ships.

OTOH, you could see how Kirk would have relied on Scotty as a senior holdover who was both competent and knew the ship’s little ways. Of course, the two might simply have clicked from the first handshake when Kirk assumed command.

Either way, those early episodes showcased a special non-com/first lieutenant relationship that was lost over time, when Scotty’s character veered dangerously close to comic relief.
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Engineering Division ready as always.

Agreed/disagreed. There was an easy relationship - good catch - but I don't think Scotty devolved into comic relief in later TOS, if that's what you were implying. He was a strong character throughout.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I agree that it seems plausible that Scotty served under Pike, at least briefly. You could also make a case for Sulu, since he had a substantially different job description early in Kirk's tenure. I think Fisher has to be a different guy, considering the 13-year gap between "The Cage" and "The Menagerie," but perhaps he could be a relative of the guy in "The Cage" (I think he was unnamed, right?).

McCoy I would say was definitely not on Pike's Enterprise. Not only was he not familiar with Pike in "The Menagerie," but according to "Friday's Child," he served on the planet Capella IV some time before his assignment to the Enterprise. Since we see McCoy wearing the black-collared Starfleet uniform in the video records of his time there, that's probably where he was right before he came to the Enterprise.

I've now come around to thinking that it's possible that Gary Mitchell also served on Enterprise under Pike for a few years. It's one way to reconcile Dr. Dehner's statements in WNM that Spock has served next to Pike "for years" and yet that Kirk also asked for Mitchell for his first command. (You could also move the beginning of Kirk's captaincy on the Enterprise back a few years, but I prefer not to do that, so that Kirk isn't any more implausibly young when he takes over.)

So I now think of the progression as being something like this:

2262 - Kirk is promoted to Commander.
2262 - Mitchell is assigned to the USS Enterprise as helmsman, serving with Captain Pike and Mister Spock.
2263 - After serving as a first officer on another ship, Kirk assumes command of a small vessel as his first command (I have it as the USS Saladin, NCC-500). Commander Kirk asks for his friend Gary Mitchell to serve with him, but Mitchell is already assigned to the Enterprise under Captain Pike.
2265 - Pike is promoted to Fleet Captain, Kirk takes over the Enterprise and begins a mission to the edge of the galaxy. He is reunited with his old friend Gary Mitchell.​

This also gives us the intriguing notion that, for a time, Gary Mitchell knew Spock better than Kirk did. And can you imagine how much Mitchell and Number One would've disliked each other? If he thought Dehner was a walking freezer unit...!

 

[GNDN18]

I don't think Scotty devolved into comic relief in later TOS, if that's what you were implying. He was a strong character throughout

To be fair to me, that was no implication about Scotty becoming a comic foil... That said, he was always a strong character.

De gustibus and reasonable minds can differ; let's say that Doohan's characterization of Scotty broadened considerably, especially in the third season. In "The Corbomite Maneuver", "Mudd's Women", and "The Galileo Seven", Scotty was a no-nonsense--if somewhat acerbic--officer and engineer. By "The Tholian Web" and "That Which Survives", he's practically hyperventilating by comparison.

Don't get me started about The Voyage Home or especially The Final Frontier, for all love.

 

[Phaser Two]

To be fair to me, that was no implication about Scotty becoming a comic foil... That said, he was always a strong character.

De gustibus and reasonable minds can differ; let's say that Doohan's characterization of Scotty broadened considerably, especially in the third season. In "The Corbomite Maneuver", "Mudd's Women", and "The Galileo Seven", Scotty was a no-nonsense--if somewhat acerbic--officer and engineer. By "The Tholian Web" and "That Which Survives", he's practically hyperventilating by comparison.

Don't get me started about The Voyage Home or especially The Final Frontier, for all love.

I thought you might mention the movies; I get that. I also see your point about him transforming into more of an "excitable repairman," as Hodin of Gideon put it. But S3 eps where he's more businesslike include Savage Curtain, Enterprise Incident, Whom Gods Destroy, Turnabout and Day of the Dove (alien-induced outburst aside) as well as his largely VO/OC parts in All Our Yesterdays, Empath and Plato. Spectre and Wink of an Eye are somewhere in between. And incidentally I disagree about Tholian Web; I think he’s fairly restrained and smooth. His interactions with Spock are gold.

 

[Greg Cox]

DC Fontana's novel Vulcan's Glory put Scotty on Pike's crew (and building a still in engineering) as a junior engineer.

Yep, although I think all of the Pike-era novels and comic books since then have ignored that. I've heard it argued that making Scotty part of Pike's crew doesn't really fit with "Menagerie" since Scotty, unlike Spock, is not seen reacting to his former captain's tragic fate . ....

 

[Phaser Two]

Yep, although I think all of the Pike-era novels and comic books since then have ignored that. I've heard it argued that making Scotty part of Pike's crew doesn't really fit with "Menagerie" since Scotty, unlike Spock, is not seen reacting to his former captain's tragic fate . ....

Interesting, but if I remember correctly, Scotty has something like three lines across both parts and is mostly seen wheeling Pike's chair into the briefing room. So I don't know that we had much of a chance to see him react to anything. Indeed, while probably unavoidable, it's the marginalization of everyone but Kirk and Spock that dulls "The Menagerie" more than a bit for me . . . .

 

[johnnybear]

Geological Technician Fisher is not the same guy from Pike's crew! Do we even know what that character's name was? Plus if it was then I'm sure Kirk would have recognised him from the footage!
JB