Why was The captain of the ENT-B such a noob?

[Red Ranger]

Well, they cast Alan Ruck for a reason -- they wanted someone with an aura of vulnerability and goofiness to play a newbie captain as a straw man to make Kirk look even better than if he had to deal with an experienced captain. The role in many ways is similar to the roles Ruck played on Ferris Buehler's Day Off and Spin City. Kind of silly, but hey, it was GEN!

As for whether Enterprise-B was the flagship, probably not. I actually like the idea of a Starfleet flagship, started in TNG. But I think that was still a mostly ceremonial title. To digress, the only time we see that Enterprise-D has some kind of official "flagship" role was in Chain of Command, where it's revealed the D would be the command ship for that sector if Minos Korva was attacked by the Cardassians.

Red Ranger

They had refered to it as the flagship well before Chain of Command. In Sarek for example, I believe (I just saw it during that Christmas marathon).

While it's true Enterprise-D was referred to as a "flagship" before Chain of Command, I thought I made clear the distinction. When they said "flagship," I believe it wasn't in a literal sense. In that ep, they call it the "command ship for the sector encompassing Minos Korva," but Jellico and the rest of the crew don't mention the work "flagship." So maybe they do use that term, but as others have pointed out, it's not a literal definition. The words "command ship" are a literal phrase. -- RR

 

[zakfa]

I think that being willing to defer to Kirk and ask for advice instead of letting his ego get in the way was a good quality. The ship wasn't 100% operational and they were in a bad spot and even then they didn't manage to save everyone and Kirk ended up in the Nexus. I haven't read any of the books but seeing that in Measure Of A Man the admiral remarks that every ship named Enterprise became legendary I'm sure he went on to do great things.

 

[TheGodBen]

Just think about what the poor guy had to contend with. He has just been given command of a ship with an iconic name, they are just out of spacedock with only half the systems they would normally have, the crew isn't expecting an emergency situation, a living legend is on the bridge with him, and there are reporters all over the place.

That's not the best way to start a new job.

I can understand why he was a little hesitant in the movie, and I'm sure that in normal circumstances he would make a fine captain.

 

[-Brett-]

Was the B the "flagship"?

Must have been surely, it was "the enterprise"

*sigh*

I'm beginning to hate TNG.

 

[Nerys Myk]

As far as I can tell and prefer to believe until something onscreen actually
contradicts it, the Enterprise has always been the flagship of the fleet.

Why choose this starting point? Why not "until something onscreen actually contradicts it, the Enterprise has always been a run-of-the-mill ship"?


Timo Saloniemi

Because the Enterprise has never been shown as a run-of-the-mill
ship and I like it as the flagship.

It was one of twelve ships, all of which did pretty much the same "Run-of-the-mill" job. Some which even had Commodores as their CO.

 

[RoJoHen]

Umm, or then they cast Ruck because he looked even more handsome and heroic and confidence-inspiringi

Too bad only a few years later he got really old and fat.


Honestly, Harriman was new. Harriman had a skeleton crew and a ship that technically wasn't even finished being built yet. He was only supposed to take "a quick run around the block" for the sake of publicity.

I don't think he was necessarily a bad captain. He was thrown into a rescue mission that he and his ship were not the least bit prepared for; you can't blame him for freezing up. He probably just didn't wake up that day in "captain mode."

 

[Hoshi_Mayweather]

I doubt the A would have been a flagship - it's model had been superseded by the Excelsior class

My thinking exactly.

Even though I'd think the 'flagship' would be the Admiral's vessel with other ships (as some have pointed out) during wartime, the Excelsior seems to be the ship that was to be the 'future' of the Federation.

No doubt any ship called the Enterprise would be a ship that carries a legacy, but I would think as time goes on--especially as we've never seen each and every Captain in Starfleet exceed his, her, or itself--different ships, be they Enterprise, Potemkin, Hood, Excelsior could have been 'the ship' that many wanted to serve on.

For all we know, in Sisko's era, DS9 could have been the place where many wanted to serve, where the top assignments were--especially the gung-ho ones--because they felt that was were the action was. Especially after the Dominion War.

With Harriman: For all we know, his tour was a 'quiet' one, and another Starfleet vessel caught the attention of HQ...i.e. Captain Sulu and his crew...or the captain of the Saratoga.

 

[ClayinCA]

The role in many ways is similar to the roles Ruck played on Ferris Buehler's Day Off and Spin City.

Not sure what you're talking about here, since the two characters you cite are neither similar to each other or to the role of Harriman. The Spin City character, in particular, was an amoral (if not immoral), misogynistic jerk, not remotely qualities displayed by our brief glimpse of John Harriman.

Too bad only a few years later he got really old and fat.

He looks a lot better these days, though, as shown in his appearance in the fan film Of Gods and Men.

 

[USS Triumphant]

It was one of twelve ships, all of which did pretty much the same "Run-of-the-mill" job. Some which even had Commodores as their CO.

No. Matt Decker was a captain, but Starfleet regs said that since there can only be one captain on a ship, a visiting captain is temporarily elevated to commodore while there. The intention was that it be a courtesy, not that it actually be used in a chain of command.

I think they did away with that reg after the events that led to Decker's death, and apparently with the rank of Commodore, too. I don't recall anyone referring to Captain Scott as a commodore.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

It was one of twelve ships, all of which did pretty much the same "Run-of-the-mill" job. Some which even had Commodores as their CO.

No. Matt Decker was a captain, but Starfleet regs said that since there can only be one captain on a ship, a visiting captain is temporarily elevated to commodore while there. The intention was that it be a courtesy, not that it actually be used in a chain of command.

I think they did away with that reg after the events that led to Decker's death, and apparently with the rank of Commodore, too. I don't recall anyone referring to Captain Scott as a commodore.

Where the heck did you hear that?

 

[USS Triumphant]

Where the heck did you hear that?

I don't know. I just went and read an episode summary, and there's nothing like that in there.

I spent some time when I was 14 and 16 involuntarily shifting between parallel Earths, and I never actually got back to my original world. Maybe that was in the version of the episode where I came from. I hate stuff like this. Capital of Romania changed retroactively, laundromats disappeared retroactively, and other changes I don't even want to talk about.

(If you think I'm crazy, then I'm kidding, of course. But if not, then I'd like to know why you don't.)

 

[QuasarVM]

That captain was terrible. He even made the captain of the Excelsior in Star Trek III look competent by comparison.

He acted like he'd never stepped onto the bridge of a starship before...even a bridge simulator!

Ugh.

 

[RandyS]

John Harriman suffered from what most of the movie-ers captains suffered from and that was being a character made stupid to make Kirk look better. He is cut from the same cloth as Styles and Esteban.

Actually it's not just the movies. It's anybody who ever commanded an Enterprise that wasn't either Kirk or Picard. It started with Pike. The second time we saw him he'd been burned up in that Class J starship accident.

Then there was Will Decker. Okay, he didn't die in an accident, but he took over the ship from Kirk, so naturally he had to go.

Harriman was made to look stupid simply because he wasn't Kirk.

Garrett was killed by the Klngons because her Enterprise wasn't either Kirk's or Picard's.

Hell, even their own first officers weren't immune to the "Enterprise curse". Spock was the captain for one movie, and ended up dead at the end.

80 years later Starfleet considers Picard lost by the Borg, and gives the ship to Riker. What does Riker do? He's gonna ram the Borg ship and kill himself and his entire crew, and only survived it because Picard was able to break through his Borg programming and save the day.

It's all due to dramatic writing. Kirk and Picard must be percieved as the heroes.

 

[Elder Knight]

The writers did try to show that Harriman had some good qualities, when he devises the strategy to "vent plasma from the Warp engines" or whatever it is. We see from Kirk's reaction that it's hopeless, but he's trying to work with what he has. And of course, he's ready to run off to mess with the deflector dish rather than delegating this task.

My explanation is that there's some stagnation in the gene pool by thsi century, and only a few individuals -- namely the stars -- really use their heads.

 

[Meredith]

Harriman was only Captain for a three hour media tour and ended up loosing Kirk in the Nexus.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Lazy writing - the usual. In the TOS-based movies, captains other than Kirk were rarely portrayed as minimally competent much less qualified to command a vessel.

Word is that in the new version of "Star Trek" this will be rectified. Bring on Robau!

 

[Peach Wookiee]

^lol!

 

[Nerys Myk]

Even in TOS the other Cpatains tended to wind up dead, insane or both.

 

[Basill]

I just assumed his balls would be delivered the following Tuesday.