XPost: rec.arts.sf.tv, rec.arts.startrek.current   
   From: pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu   
      
   Dimensional Traveler  writes:   
   >>   
   > You know, one of the differences in feel between TOS and both TNG and   
   > the 2009 re-boot is in how they address discipline and chain of   
   > command. TOS was written by people who had some idea of what the   
   > military was really like, many of them having served themselves.  Yes,   
   > they bend things a bit for story purposes and the limits of filming a   
   > TV show, but their starting point was a working military.  Characters   
   > stay at their posts.  Kirk didn't tell his subordinates how to do a   
   > task, he just said "do it".  Every time he sits down there's a yeoman   
   > handing him a report to read and sign.  How often did we see Picard   
   > doing paperwork?   
   >   
   > With the re-boot movie they display a level of military discipline   
   > that Somali pirates would laugh at.  Civilian cargo and fishing   
   > vessels have better discipline than the 2009 version Starfleet!  In   
   > the middle of an action while at General Quarters a bridge officer   
   > leaves his post, without even telling anyone let alone asking   
   > permission or arranging a replacement, to go interfere with a superior   
   > officer doing their job in a different part of the ship!  (Literally   
   > running thru the ship yelling "I can do that!"?!?!?!)  One of the   
   > duties of an executive officer is to play Devil's Advocate for his CO,   
   > presenting alternatives and pointing out potential problems with the   
   > CO's plans.  Its both to help his own training and to serve as a   
   > necessary sounding board for his CO.  In the re-boot, when Spock is in   
   > command his reaction to his exec (Kirk) disagreeing is to literally   
   > throw him off the ship!  And do you really want me to go in to the   
   > whole idea of a cadet who hasn't even graduated being given command of   
   > a major ship ahead of literally thousands of more senior, more   
   > experienced officers?  All of which would be horrid whether it was a   
   > Trek movie or some new setting.   
      
   The only one of these complaints I'd quibble with even slightly is   
   Kirk's conduct as XO -- he pushed his disagreement to the point of   
   insubordination.  But Spock's reaction was, as you say, ridiculous.   
   --   
   As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should   
   be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;   
   and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)