You Like the E-E bridge crew?

[Nathan]

Just finished Takedown but got to thinking how disjointed the E-E crew is. They've become so cookie cutter to me as of late. Even tho' I like Picard, LaForge, & Worf, it just seems anyone could stand in for them.

The secondary characters are even worse. I was glad that Chen wasn't really in the book -- she's the worse....is she a contact specialist? Command track?? helmsman??? or Picard's Aide? I suppose the answer is "yes" and its almost like "here's a dose of wacky/zany Chen and here is some odd way of getting her into the story.

Guess when I compare the latest E-E crew, to the Titan crew, Seekers crew, Aventine crew, and even the DS9 crew, I am the least invested in the E-E crew, meaning if someone on the E-E crew were to get blown out of the nearest airlock, I wouldn't be that moved in the story as opposed to someone from the other ships latest crew make up that would meet an unfortunate demise.

At any rate, your thoughts on the latest E-E crew...Like, Dislike, or just neutral?

 

[Mage]

Well, Takedown wasn't really a ensemble piece, so I find it hard to judge an entire bridge crew.

Having said that, I felt Worf and Geordi have been portrayed better in the last few years. But I love the E-E crew. No issues with any of them. It would be nice to get to know the new tactical security officer a bit better, Aneta Smrhova. She could do with a bit more development. I miss Choudhury, and Kadohata. Elfiki is cool, I adore Chen!!!

 

[Elias Vaughn]

I'll never understand why some people don't like Chen. She's such a breath of fresh air on a ship where everyone seems so serious and dour all the time without her.

 

[Starbreaker]

The crew has just changed so much from book to book and then they're usually not even featured in their own book line. I don't have a problem with anyone, but they're definitely not that memorable of a configuration at the moment. Voyager's crew seems to be a better written ensemble overall, but that's understandable because it's handled by one writer and not a multitude of authors trying to collaborate on character development.

 

[Kilana2]

The secondary characters are even worse. I was glad that Chen wasn't really in the book -- she's the worse....is she a contact specialist? Command track?? helmsman??? or Picard's Aide? I suppose the answer is "yes" and its almost like "here's a dose of wacky/zany Chen and here is some odd way of getting her into the story.

For Chen I wouldn´t cry a tear if she were "gone" one day. Secondary characters were more likeable to me in the DS9 Relaunch, especially Prynn and Shar. I´m still a TNG fan, but the secondary characters are bland (Dinah Elfiki) or they polarize or are annoying. Chen, to her credit, undergoes a positive change. When the authors stopped to describe her flings aboard and focused on her other skills, she started to get (at leastI more interesting. I will wait for the German translation for Takedown but I won´t make a hasty judgment.

 

[Christopher]

Chen, to her credit, undergoes a positive change. When the authors stopped to describe her flings aboard and focused on her other skills, she started to get (at leastI more interesting.

I don't understand why there should be a conflict there. Just because a person has a healthy and unashamed sex life, that doesn't mean they lack in professional competence. When I introduced T'Ryssa, I focused primarily on her professional work and relationships with her colleagues, and while her sexual entanglements were ongoing, they were far less emphasized than her work, because the story was mainly about her work. I'm certain she's had far more scenes with Picard, Worf, Choudhury, Elfiki, La Forge, or various aliens than she's had with Rennan Konya or Taurik.

So it's completely unfair to say we haven't focused on T'Ryssa's other skills. We've focused on them heavily, with occasional digressions into her personal life. I don't see how that's different from how any other character is written.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

There's been so much shake-up among the characters on the Enterprise's bridge, I almost feel like the prevailing attitude among those writing them feels like 'if I leave a unique mark on a character, they're going to end up killed off or leaving the ship before I ever get the chance to even try doing something with them.' I mean, out of all the operational crew, the default main characters, the Enterprise crew have had the most difficulty keeping a consistent cast.

I've been saying for ages, I really want some Enterprise-E novels set back up in the timeline to establish these characters further and give them a chance to stand out more for me, because I have names, but I can't really do much regarding personalities, beyond T'Ryssa, who's been the most developed of the new crew currently serving.

 

[Kilana2]

Chen, to her credit, undergoes a positive change. When the authors stopped to describe her flings aboard and focused on her other skills, she started to get (at leastI more interesting.

I don't understand why there should be a conflict there. Just because a person has a healthy and unashamed sex life, that doesn't mean they lack in professional competence. When I introduced T'Ryssa, I focused primarily on her professional work and relationships with her colleagues, and while her sexual entanglements were ongoing, they were far less emphasized than her work, because the story was mainly about her work. I'm certain she's had far more scenes with Picard, Worf, Choudhury, Elfiki, La Forge, or various aliens than she's had with Rennan Konya or Taurik.

So it's completely unfair to say we haven't focused on T'Ryssa's other skills. We've focused on them heavily, with occasional digressions into her personal life. I don't see how that's different from how any other character is written.

There is someone I saw in a TV show, a young girl (16 years), much younger than Chen. She is a skilled singer, but I found her attitude annoying. Others might say she is just bubbly, cheeky and confident, even happy-go-lucky. She tried to curry favor with her coaches. She had her fans but also received a shitstorm for her appearances. She polarized, so to speak. She reminded me of T´Ryssa, and it is obvious that I might have projected my feelings a bit.
My phrasing was unclear and no offense meant as to Chen´s characterization. I never had any doubts about T´Ryssa´s professional skills. She wouldn´t be aboard Enterprise if she weren´t qualified and fit for her tasks. And I never claimed that Chen is lacking expertise or that there is a correlation between her private and her professional life.
And, to add something positive, I like Picard and Beverly being mentors for her. I also like her conflicting emotions towards her Vulcan father are shown and how she deals with it.
And there is still the admittedly unfair worldview of males having one-night-stands are lady killers and therefore heroes whereas women acting the same way are bitches. That´s definitely not what I support and stand for. T´Ryssa is in her private life free to do whatever she wants of course.
As to Dinah Elfiki. There is still a chance that she gets more scenes. In fact, I´m hoping for it.
Next time I will be cautious with generalizations and projections, Christopher. Just the fact that a character hasn´t many scenes or isn´t fully introduced in a story doesn´t mean that he/she is generally bland or boring.
There were also characters like Sarah Nave and Lionardo Battaglia who were killed off too soon and we never had the chance to learn more about them. Losing them hurt, because I was too emotionally involved. T´Ryssa hasn´t reached that stage for me, but she could one day. I´m still no Chen fan, but we will see. May I´ll get something out of her after all. That I don´t cry a tear for her being gone was a bit harsh, I must admit.
But this thread is on the other hand about liking the members of the E-E Bridge or not. I don´t have to be fan of everyone. But I think a healthy argument about favorite or less favorite characters is appropriate.

 

[Stevil2001]

It's amazing how uninteresting all the TNG relaunch characters have been compared to how quickly the DS9 ones established themselves. (With the caveat that I've only read up to Losing the Peace. But that's nine books-- compare what DS9 had done by the end of Mission: Gamma! The different is staggering.) The only book I really got interested in any of them was Q & A, and then PAD wrote them out of character, and then Christopher killed off the most interesting of them.

 

[Kilana2]

Someone had to die. Leybenzon dies in the line of duty. And he wasn´nt especially likeable.
When Jasminder Choudhury was introduced, I immediately liked her. I was disappointed when I checked about her future:

Spoiler: Jasminder Choudhury

Choudhury being killed off. To be honest, Chief of Security is a job that comes with big risks.

T´Lana really had potential. The left Enterprise, before she could develop farther and

Spoiler: T´Lana

was finally killed

I´d like to have seen how she finally gets along with Worf.

I must admit, depite not being a fan of T´Ryssa, at least she sticks out. The mix of veterans and newbies is a concept I can relate to. Everybody can benefit from each other.

 

[Nathan]

Forgot about Leybenzon, I actually liked the character, of course he got killed.
Yeah, Chen does stick out, I just think she's in there now for plot purposes only. Contact Specialist to Picard's aide to Running the bridge crew in one scene. PUH-LEEZE!!! She may have been a good contact specialist, but then her role in future books may be limited.

I was put off when she was Picard's aide (and I was actually a General's aide years ago in my early military career) so I guess I have some say on the subject, but it was written as if the author never knew what that job entailed or that you have be uber-savvy otherwise looking like a smacked @$$ is a reflection of the boss, and the way she acted all immature (or as one author put it, "embracing her human side!!" UGgh/.

Also, sorta weird how he never had an aide really in the series or in previous books (perhaps he did, but it seemed the role wasn't that prominent) and now books later she didn't stay in that role.

The kicker was when she became (by plot device I get) in charge of the ship (or least running things on the bridge).

I wonder how prominent she'll be other upcoming TNG Books...if not, then you know the author had no use for her.

And yeah, can't say you can't switch jobs like Harry Kim (isn't he the Security Officer now????) but when you see he never had any interest in security and he now running that department -- he put in there for plot purposes. I suppose I'm derailing the thread, but I think in one book when he was the Head of Security he led something landing party/assault (as if was a US Army Ranger) -- a little far fetched.

Almost like saying, let's make Bev Crusher in charge of security now if she is tired of being the top dog as the head doctor on the ship. Yeah, possible, but not good story telling.

 

[flandry84]

Outside of Picard I don't give a single damn about any of them.
Does anyone buy any of the current bridge crew as Starfleet's "best of the best".
I remember how at the end of every episode of TOS,the younger me wanted to go with Kirk & co as the credits began to roll. (I would run a mile from LaForge and Chen(and I don't run many miles).

 

[Kilana2]

Yeah, Chen does stick out, I just think she's in there now for plot purposes only. Contact Specialist to Picard's aide to Running the bridge crew in one scene. PUH-LEEZE!!! She may have been a good contact specialist, but then her role in future books may be limited.

I was put off when she was Picard's aide (and I was actually a General's aide years ago in my early military career) so I guess I have some say on the subject, but it was written as if the author never knew what that job entailed or that you have be uber-savvy otherwise looking like a smacked @$$ is a reflection of the boss, and the way she acted all immature (or as one author put it, "embracing her human side!!" UGgh/.

Also, sorta weird how he never had an aide really in the series or in previous books (perhaps he did, but it seemed the role wasn't that prominent) and now books later she didn't stay in that role.

The kicker was when she became (by plot device I get) in charge of the ship (or least running things on the bridge).

I wonder how prominent she'll be other upcoming TNG Books...if not, then you know the author had no use for her.

Chen might need some time to mature. But as I mentioned before, that doesn´t mean she´s not good in her job. That´s why I like the concept of Jean-Luc and Beverly are mentors to her. I´m still no T´Ryssa fan, but I must defend her now (I must admit, I´m not up to date to current TNG stories, but I´m familiar with most of the TNG relaunch): why isn´t she entitled to be in charge of the bridge? I think she had proper command training, at least the minimum necessary. She has to gather some professional experience. By not allowing her to take over responsibility she won´t get it. Picard recognizes some potential in Chen. Like he did with Ro Laren and others.

 

[Enterprise1701]

I wish we could have some episodic novels that flesh out the novel-introduced Enterprise-E officers. And set over a short period of time. There's so much uncovered time among the post-Destiny novels. And how much info do we really have on Aneta Šmrhová, Ravel Dygan, Hegol Den, Joanna Faur, etc.?

 

[Kilana2]

I wish we could have some episodic novels that flesh out the novel-introduced Enterprise-E officers. And set over a short period of time. There's so much uncovered time among the post-Destiny novels. And how much info do we really have on Aneta Šmrhová, Ravel Dygan, Hegol Den, Joanna Faur, etc.?

I agree. They did well with Worlds of DS9 and Mission Gamma, where each novel focused on a few characters.

They killed off Lio and Sarah after introducing them so that we could bond with them and their loss elicited an reaction, depending on if you liked them or not.

With T´Lana and Jasminder gone, Enterprise-E needs good plots involving the characters you have cited.

 

[Csalem]

I too have found some of the new E-E characters bland but I do also love Chen.

I think part of the problem is we have had so few "ordinary" stories with the TNG crew over the last few years that we have had so little time to get to know them. We just had the TNG relaunch when we were straight into Destiny. And then we had Typhon Pact, Cold Equations and The Fall. These were all major stories the crew were involved in that we had so little time to explore the characters. And the stories kept jumping months ahead. At least on DS9 and VGR things happen at a slower pace we can spend more time with the new characters and to get to know them.

Starting with The Fall, things seemed to have slowed down a bit and the new TNG characters are coming a bit more three-dimensional and feel a bit more real.

 

[Kilana2]

Glad to hear that, as Cold Equations and The Fall (at least the first two or three novels) are published in Germany this year.

 

[BuckBokai]

I think/hope that Armageddon's Arrow (By Dayton Ward) will probably expand on the bridge crew a bit. It feels like the first novel in a while to solely focus on the Enterprise characters without involving other ships or interstellar politics that move the focus off the crew. Don't get me wrong though, I loved those other novels. However, I am hopeful we'll learn more about the lesser written E bridge crew characters coming up. For one thing, I couldn't even tell you who's at conn currently.
I'm a big fan of Chen though in particular and thought she was written well by Christopher when she was introduced. Fingers crossed to read more about her in the future!
So to answer the threads question, I think the potential is there for me to really like the E-E bridge crew, but I need a little more written about them to get there.

 

[Paris]

I'm a Chen fan, and was sad she didn't show up in Takedown at all (unless I missed her somehow). Elfiki got a little love in one of Christopher's DTI novels. I really like Dygan and find myself hoping that he'll get a SF commission one of these days (even if it doesn't work that way for exchange officers). Worf and Geordi are still favorites. Hopefully Dayton gives us some decent character development this May

 

[Kilana2]

I like the whole concept of the exchange program, Cardassians being employed on federation starships and space stations. But I have missed out on it somehow.