Yes, I wrote “landing party” rather than “away team.” I don’t care that the latter term is more accurate; Kirk never said “away team” in his life. Neither did Spock. By contrast Riker always said “away team.” Surely you’re not suggesting that Riker was better than Spock. That’s crazy talk. Anyone who says “away team” needs to be slapped in the face.
So what was I talking about? Right, away teams. and episodes of any of the Star Trek series when (a) the captain commanded the away team himself or herself, and was correct to do so. Bonus points if it was also reasonable for him to take his first officer alone too. (I didn’t say “him or her” that last time because nothing Janeway did was ever reasonable.)
I’ll start with “Errand of Mercy,” the TOS episode in which the Klingons were introduced and they and the Feds get smacked down by the godlike Organians on account of everybody acting like jerks. (Well, not Spock.) You may recall that the Federation and the Klingon Empire had just started a war over, I don’t know, dilithium crystals or Orion space whores or whatever, and the Enterprise’s mission was to convince the Organians (whom they believe to be humanoids with medieval technology) to let the Federation put a base on their planet, so Organia can become a legitimate military target and get nuked from orbit.
At first blush it may seem ridiculous for Kirk to leave even the bridge, much less the fricking ship, under such circumstances. But consider. The important part of this mission is the diplomatic aspect; the Enterprise isn’t expected or intended to get into it with the Klingons alone. It’s reasonable to think that only Kirk is empowered to negotiate on the Federation’s behalf. Morever, he’s got to be 29 or 30 years old in this episode and a very junior captain. As soon as the suffixless Enterprise finishes here, they’re going to rendezvous with a fleet or task group and join in battle. Kirk isn’t going to be in charge at that point; he’s gonna be following orders of some admiral or commodore. The same would hold true if he’d left Spock in command, or Scotty or Sulu. The best use of his time and talents is going to be going to meet the Organian leaders; he was absolutely right to go down himself. Even to take Spock.
(incidentally, is this the old episode of TOS in which (a) all the action takes place off the ship, and (b) there is no half-naked hot chick wandering around?)
Anyway … can anybody else name a TREK episode in which the captain led the away mission and would have been irresponsible to do otherwise? Contrariwise, you can talk about episodes in which teh captain’s going on the landing party was especially silly.
Devil in the Dark. The initial landing party (Kirk, Spock, McCoy) are meeting with the head of the mining colony that’s sent a distress call because some unknown creature is attacking people and destroying machinery. It’s a good team to engage the mining colony leadership on that issue. The Captain to deal with the key leader meeting and his science and medical officers to review the data available (which included medical review of the cadaver in the colony morgue.)
Staying on the planet to work through the issue is a different call. It’s not the Captains job to run around in tunnels looking for aliens. It is the Captain’s job to provide leadership at the decisive point of the operation. The mission is on the planet The ship at that point is in a strictly supporting role with minimal threat. Lashing the Captain to the ship at that point is probably a bad use of that leadership. McCoy as a department head probably wasn’t needed given what they knew. Spock or his notional key subordinate in the science department probably should have been on the planet to figure out the mystery.
My bigger issue than Kirk’s beaming down all the time was Spock’s two hatted role. He’s a department head and first officer. He tends to operate as Science officer leaving Kirk mostly without someone performing XO type duties. A good XO who could lead (which Spock showed issues with in Galileo Seven) could have filled in a lot of cracks. A good XO let’s you split command group coverage between the ship and planet. A Captain preferring to be either forward or on the bridge is then less of an issue. Spock mostly got hauled along in his science officer role though. That’s the bigger problem than Kirk’s preference of leading from the front.
In “Mirror, Mirror,” Kirk was also negotiating with the Halkans before the (entirely unexpected) accident with the transporter. Another diplomatic mission gone awry! :eek:
In “Arena” Kirk and co. thought they were beaming down to a reception by a friendly colony. (They had NO idea the colony was blasted to rubble? Seriously, don’t they ever LOOK at where they’re beaming down to??)
In “Gamesters of Triskelion,” Kirk notes in his log that they’re inspecting an automated navigational and communications station. So it makes perfect sense for Chekov and Uhura to beam down (probably to oversee a team of technicians), and none whatsoever for Kirk to get involved (unless he was planning on banging someone like Zhanna).
I disagree about “Devil in the Dark.” Kirk and Spock weren’t intially involved in the monster hunt; they first came down to meet with the director of the mining operation, and then stayed to brief the security detail. They went after the Horta on their own only after Spock sensed she was nearby.
Cestus III a purely military installation? I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure it was a colony with women and children. That was one reason Kirk was so pissed off with what the Gorns had done.
Does Trouble with Tribbles count? Kirk pretty much had to meet with the bureaucrat who’d ordered a sector-wide alert, just to find out what the deal was.
In “This Side of Paradise,” Kirk had to beam down to meet Sanduval face-to-face; he wasn’t infected with the spores until he was back on the Enterprise.
In “Squire of Gothos,” he had to confront Trelane face-to-face.
In “Return of the Archons” and “Catspaw” … there was no reason for Kirk and Spock to investigate personally, especially after what had happened to the landing parties that had already beamed down!
Kirk is styled after old school explorers of the 17th and 18th centuries. And much like them…there isn’t another ship of the same nationality around for a lonnnng whiles. There was no reason at all for Kirk to stay on the bridge.
Besides he was usually best qualified for whatever mission they happened to be on.
