A lot of this could be solved very quickly if, instead of Picard or some other Captain allowing their ship to take a serious pounding before they even begin to contemplate a “measured response”, they just turned over tactical control to the tactical/weapons officer and let him/her cut loose with everything they had. IMMEDIATELY.
Perhaps some Admiral or major figure should clue Picard in to the fact that he shouldn’t be allowing large numbers of his crew to be killed before he actually does something.
Worf: “Captain, they’ve just raised shields and powered up their weapons”
Picard: “Very well, you know what to do. Wake me when it’s over.”
Worf: (Throws everything at the enemy and blows the crap out of them in less than 3 seconds.)
Troi: “Captain, just before they died I sensed a powerful confusion on board their ship. They didn’t expect you to do anything until after they’d nearly crippled the Enterprise.”
Picard: “Yes, well, we won’t be doing that anymore.” (walks off bridge)
(crew looks at Riker, confused)
Riker: “Remember that Ensign who got killed last month when we allowed those three Ferengi to board us? Well, it was the nephew of the President of ArgleBargle VI. Star Fleet strongly suggested that Captain Picard start being more proactive when the ship is in danger.”
General Order #7 (death penalty for going to Talos IV) will be rescinded and diplomatic relations with the Talosians will be opened. The Talosians’ seductive ability to create illusory worlds by telepathy cannot possibly be any greater threat to our civilization than the holodeck already represents.
You can’t have too many powerful friends. In any encounter between a Starfleet vessel and a Q, the prime imperative will be to curry favor and get the Q on our side at all costs. The captain will be under orders to offer absolutely anything that might help – flatterly, oral gratification, or human/sentient sacrifices.
The duplication of Riker by a transporter malfunction proves it can be done on purpose. Every ship’s databanks will carry the pattern buffers of the Federation’s 10 or 20 best soldiers, armed and ready; these will be used to beam-create an army at need – but only in the direst emergency, as what to do with the survivors afterwards presents so many practical, ethical and legal problems.
A number of the items from it have already been mentioned here, and some of them in my opinion are purely wishful thinking: “To prevent my on-board computer from being reprogrammed by every Tom, Dick and Harry that sneaks on board, its software will be stored in ROM chips that are soldered to the motherboard; RAM will be reserved for data only.”
And a few others are arguably excessively pragmatic and flying in the face of valuable, if problematic, ideals that Starfleet was founded upon. Still… worth a look to see how many useful notes can be cribbed from it.
Well, there’s a big difference between proving that such duplication is possible ‘on purpose’ based on an accident, and actually replicating the circumstances in a controlled and safe way. Some of the issues that I can see…
What if you really need to have a nearby planet with a strong distortion field handy?
How about the energy expense in creating duplicate copies of these people? I admit that if we manage to redirect warp power to the transporter system, that should be good for a few duplications, but what if the warp engines can’t take the power drain?
:: salutes Lt Commander Opal ::
Also, research into ‘duplication’ transporter techniques might be hard to justify on a PR basis, especially if you end up getting 0 copies back of the first volunteers instead of 2.
On a more serious note: I’d cancel the Prime Directive.
Besides being patronizing, it makes no scientific sense - there’s no such thing as a “natural development” of a civilization. In fact, use of the word “natural” as regards to sentient races is indicative of fuzzy thinking. It implies that history has some sort of goal, when in fact it’s just one thing happening after another.
Besides, what can be more “natural” than a technologically superior culture dominating an inferior one? Happens all the time.
The sections of the Prime Directive that need the most urgent review would have to include: -
Any races encountered that are not already under the control of Star Fleet must be given an easy to understand ultimatum: Cooperate or face annihilation.
Standard issue phasers for officers to have “kill” as the lowest setting.
I’d also do something about those wimpy uniforms.
For all male and female crew members I envisage a spiffy, sleeveless body hugging shirt to show off whipcord like arm muscles, and other upper body features, to good effect.
A utility belt with a few backup weapons, such as a ceremonial (but sharp) dagger, would come in handy, particularly if a member of the crew tries to take you out with maximum prejudice for disregarding some obscure Star Fleet directive and move everyone in the crew a step higher on the promotional ladder.
I’d allow beards for the command level members of the crew. A Vulcan, in particular, tends to look quite piratical with a neatly trimmed van dyke.
Now, this one I have to object to! There are too many situations where it has been downright handy to be able to incapacitate an enemy without causing lasting harm… and you want to exchange that for a ‘killing force only’ sidearm? I mean, what are we, 20th century policemen here?
Actually, come to think of it, my own recommendation for standard issue phasers would be to integrate sensor and computer circuits into them, so that they will automatically adjust settings based on what they are being pointed at. Aim at an unprotected human - level 1 stun. Aim at hardier species like a Sindareen, or other life form with phaser resistance, and your weapon automatically ups the setting. Aim straight at a duranium wall, and it calculates the necessary phaser setting to penetrate the barrier.
Oh, and there will always be the option to override the automatic settings or simply turn off that feature.
Speaking of which… All Starfleet officers must take speech lessons.
Consider the original Enterprise crew, for example… Kirk, Spock, McCoy and company. An Asian man and a black woman spoke better English than anyone else on that ship!
In case the captain and second in command are busy or disabled, emergency command holograms will be on hand to take both of these roles. Said holograms will all utilize the Picard-Riker algorithm for resolving problems.
Details of this algorithm follow:
Picard-type command holograms are slick, self-assured, skillful negotiators. They will attempt to resolve the situation until such time as a) The situation is resolved, b) Negotiation lasts five minutes or past a commercial break, whichever comes first. Either way, when one of these conditions comes to pass the Picard hologram will turn command over to the Riker hologram.
The Riker AI is a crazy, antagonistic, unbelievably violent WASP who will use absolutely any excuse to lay waste to the opponents in the name of the federation. In order to maintain good-guy cred with the enlisted ranks Riker will have to disguise his bloodthirsty disposition. To expedite this his memory banks have been filled with volumes of federation law and the latest copy of Google: Starfleet, allowing him to search for loopholes with optimal efficiency.
The “red alert yellow alert” system is confusing, and conducive to inciting low levels of panic. As such, the Starfleet Department of Internal Affairs will institute a new five-level Security Advisor System, which is to be used on every ship. From low to high alert, the five levels are severe, high, elevated, guarded, and low. Personnel may check the current threat level by referring to the ship counselor’s neckline. Officers and crewmen are advised to check the advisory system throughout the day, in order to remain appraised of recent developments.
Amendment to standard away-team procedure: after Wesley Crusher and a robot are beamed down, a team comprised entirely of redshirts will follow. At no time will I send a senior officer somewhere that a legion of space marines hasn’t already secured.
The command-rank uniforms should not look exactly like the cannon fodder uniforms.
Better yet, every command, medical, and engineering uniform will immediately be changed to a single unremarkable color. Let’s make it mauve, everyone likes mauve. Security officers will not wear a uniform: they will wear armor that actually works.
Red shirts may still wear red, so long as the uniform fabric is treated to be universally identifiable.
No matter how funny it looks on paper, teaching drunken boxing to klingons is probably a very bad idea.
Surge suppressors and circuit breakers. Much better than having your engineers running around the ship looking for yet another spare model 34A-sub 6 19.4 amp cylindrical size 5 fuse.
There are times when fleeing is the most appropriate response to a threat.
In battle, the Captain will not try a phaser shot, and then try a photon torpedo, and then try something else. The Captain will tell the crew to fire at will, and every available offensive weapon will be used right now.
In that spirit, an extra warp core will be kept on the ship. If the main warp core has a problem, it will be used as a spare. If the outcome of a battle isn’t looking so good, it will be forced to go critical and beamed onto (or as close as possible to) the enemy ship.
An away team tasked to explore potentially hostile territory will not contain officers, engineers, doctors, or ship’s counselors.
If, for any reason, it is actually necessary to send an officer into an unsecured area, there will be one (count 'em, one) officer in the landing party, and every member of the party will be wearing battle armor.
I don’t think either Kirk or Picard had any particular aversion to making a like a rabbit. In “Elaan of Troyius,” Kirk said as much. Looking at the original series, the Enterprise escaped from a tactical disadvantage at least as often as they defeated its foe – in fact I think clever escapes from clearly unwinnable situations were the rule, not the exception.
Actually I think there’s a reason to not always unleash all the hounds at once. According to the Technical Manual, if both ships are at warp, firing phasers is largely equivalent to throwing spitballs. Contrariwise, there’s a set number of photon torpedos, and once they’re gone, they’re gone till you’re back at Starbase.
Why, yes, I am pretending that Voyager never aired. Why do you ask?
That’s prodigal even by Starfleet standards. Warp cores are BIG, and they take a long time to build.
Can’t completely agree here, either, unless you define your terms more clearly. I’d be more than happy to serve on an away team with Miles O’Brian (engineer) or Data (senior officer). The thing that made most sense on TNG was that Data was pretty much the linchpin of the away teams. Not because he’s expendable, but because he’s most likely to be useful in the widest variety of situations.
I’ll agree that Picard and Crusher should NEVER go on an away mission until Security have secured the hell out of the location. (And by security I mean "Starfleet Marines who have taken over the physical ass-kicking part of the Tactical Department.) I was tempted to say LaForge too, but his unique abilities justify sending him SOMETIMES–just not routinely.
