He also reminds me of several aggressive battalion commanders I’ve known - the kind who always rush out in the field to take charge of any event occurring in their sector.
I can understand the Captain leaving the ship on a diplomatic mission where he has to leave it to negotiate. I can understand the Captain leaving the ship if the ship is docked at a Federation Starbase. I can’t understand the Captain leaving the ship and taking his First Officer (and sometimes Chief Engineer) with him leaving an Ensign or Lieutenant in Command. It’s one thing to leave a jr officer with the Bridge, but NOT in Command. There’s a difference.
Obviously, that was one criticism of ST:TOS that Roddenberry listened to when he got a chance to do ST:TNG. And he had a bigger budget for casting his 2nd time at bat too.
Yep, this. Was especially highlighted in TNG where there was a bit more diplomacy and the Second Officer got sent on missions more than the Captain. There was a lot more contact in TNG with ‘civilized’ planets than in TOS, so the opportunities for the captain to 'Show the flag" was greater.
But even there, with 1,000+ crew and families, the numbers of available specailists outside of 4-5 people seemed rather low.
And IIRC, Captain Sisko stayed pretty much on DS9 unless negotiating some deal with the Bajorans or Cardassians or Klingons.
But I can’t point to specific episodes to prove my point
It’s ridiculous that the chief science officer and the 1st Oifficer (XO) are the same person. The XO has a fulltime job already.
He Captained the Defiant during the war, did he not?
Given that there are children on the Enterprise in NextGen, it wouldn’t be surprising to find children on a military observation post in the same Universe. Still incredibly stupid, but then, The Federation is a utopia full of morons who constantly forget that the entire rest of the galaxy isn’t similarly governed.
Well, it IS Spock after all. He’s more than human. He probably never sleeps.
I bet he does annual crew reviews, too. With a crew of 420, that’s more than one a day.
Who once in a while would get their heads bashed in on a beach in the Philippines or Hawaii. Learning from the past, Jimmy lad…
As David Gerrold wrote, some might have preferred a dramatic show where Kirk makes decisions as commander of the mission, but what we got was an action-adventure show where Kirk faces danger as THE hero and star. Kirk at age 34 is a full Captain, one of only 12 capital Starship commanders, and holder of a list of decorations and commendations for both battle AND peace missions as long as Rand’s hair when shaken loose – he’s literally the Federation’s best man for any job on the frontlines.
Uhhhhh … 30. 430. 
Again, by analogy with the Age of Exploration (and the settling of the American West), such outposts would be commonplace on the outskirts of the Federation in Kirk’s time. Lots of today’s major cities started as isolated forts that served a number of functions (military, scientific, commercial); and yes, they were homes to families with young children.
Hard to see how things could have happened otherwise. It’s nowhere near as dumb as putting families with young children on board a starship that regularly seeks to contact new and potentially dangerous alien species.
That’s what the show was missing, more paperwork.
I’m sure it varied, with crew coming and going. Transfers. Number of Red Shirts in the landing party that week.
yeah, that’s the ticket!
428, if you’re gonna get all shirty.
“Deres ova four hundred guys up there.”
Let me say something. I only saw three guys in that ship. Maybe there ain’t no more.
A well-publicized military victory is a big help if you are thinking of going into politics. Worked for Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and US President William Henry Harrison. (If you don’t recall the man, you may have heard his slogan, “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too.”) Your commanders were just setting themselves up to be the next Moshe Dayan. Or Custer.
The lack of paperwork on TV takes away from the realism. Paperwork is why Barney Miller was so great.
crap.
I don’t think that Spock does all the crew evaluations. I think that each department head does their own. (McCoy, medical. Scotty, engineering. Etc.)
That was all on the touchscreen thing Yeoman Rand was always handing to Kirk for him to tap.
Realism is over to.