posted
How to put this... I want to hear what you guys consider good examples of crew interaction during combat. I'm not asking for best battles or most ingenious maneuvers or things like that - that'd be too easy. What I'm looking for is how the crew interacts during combat: relaying orders, responding to commands, efficiency under fire. What battles or episodes stand out to you as prime examples of how a crew SHOULD function in combat?
I hope I'm making sense here. What I'm investigating is how we as tech geeks appreciate the chatter that occurs as a starship goes through millions of dollars of special effects. The 'splosions are mere dressing these days, but it's how a crew works under fire that makes a battle memorable. What are the best examples of a crew working like this?
posted
Example of a bad battle: any time the CO takes so much time issuing orders that the ship gets hit five or six times before taking action.
Good battle: off hand, any time a crew-member takes an abandoned station after the death/injury of the original crewmen. Example: "WotW" when Worf takes over Tactical after the officer manning it is killed/injured. This shows situational awareness of the bridge crew, both in what is happening in the battle itself, as well as what is happening on the bridge.
posted
My favorite is in DS9's "Tears of the Prophets" (at least I think it was that one) where the crew are prepping all systems and chatting about the upcoming battle. Then Sisko arrives, and bam! everyone snaps to and the order to get underway is given in seconds.
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posted
TNG had some good crew interaction as well. Especially with Data at Ops, relaying technobabble.
Bad example: "Balance of Terror". Kirk gives Helm order to fire, Helm gives guy in Phaser Control Room order to fire. And he only needs to push a button. Surely, either Helm could have had that button, or Kirk could have given his order straight to the PCR.
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posted
For the Uniform. The Defiant's shot to hell and all its systems are fried, so Nog gets promoted to living C&C router for his, uh, special services. Very submarinish.
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posted
Re: "Balance of Terror": Perhaps there was a good reason for three men-in-the-loop there? I mean, the phasers fritzed out after just a few shots. Perhaps multiple specialists have to give green lights before one of those suckers can be fired safely? Especially on that weird proximity blast mode.
Generally, "BoT" had Kirk macromanaging the battle, which is a Good Thing. Few course commands, except for relevant "Let's turn back, NOW" ones. The single instance in Trek where micromanaging of weapons ("Phasers at proximity blast") was sensible and necessary. Sulu and Stiles were given a lot of freedom to perform the necessary maneuvers.
And everybody relevant was kept up to date on developments - sometimes Trek makes me wonder whether most of the people aboard a ship have the faintest idea of where they are and what they are supposed to be doing. (Then again, McCoy was always going "Huh?" when coming to the bridge, whereas Crusher always was on top of things even when she didn't as much as peek out of her office. Presumably the E-D had some sort of an automated PA system to relay relevant bridge dialogue to the right people.)
posted
I thought BoBW had some good bridge interaction, both in part one during Picard's initial engagement and in part two during Riker's elaborate assault on the cube.
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posted
the one thing that disappointed me, stylistically, about BoBW is, even though we were being treated to a pretty gnarly two-part battle ep there was very little tension in the bridge scenes.. the ships about to be lost, there was no damage to the bridge (and although engineering was critical and evacuated, it was well lit with no visible damage or strife).. Trek has learned since then that if you want to portray the fact thatthe warp core is critical and the ship is taking heavy fire,maybe the lights should flicker or some smoke and sparks should fly around. oh well.
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Nobody liked the Nemisis battle? I thought it was one of the best. The bridge set was mounted on shocks and the actors where really thrown around. A hole got blown in the bridge. the coordinated with other ships, used tactics to find the cloaked ship, ran out of quantum torpedoes, and had smoke...
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the ripped open bridge seemed kind of hokey to me.. i know that there are forcefields and stuff, but it still looked kind of ridiculous (on the other hand, the Data space jump was beautiful)
with the exception of the ripped open wall, the battle was awesome..
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I liked the Nemesis battle but to that "snap to attention" when a situation arises kinda thing, THe Search was great: Even Basheir jumps on tactical. Lets see sorry Dr. Crusher do that!
I'd point out "Way of the Warrior" as a great example of the toughest situation handles in the most professional way.
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Nemesis returned to something that hadnt been done for a long time, the background radio chatter on the bridge.. TOS didnt do that much after the first half of year one.
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quote:Even Basheir jumps on tactical. Lets see sorry Dr. Crusher do that!
I think that's one of the reasons I like Bashir so much - he's a doctor, but he's not willing to take the "I won't cause harm to a living thing" to the extreme that other medical officers will. I mean, damn, the dude is running around commanding security teams in the drill in WoTW!
posted
I thought the radio chatter of the battle with the Borg in "First Contact" over the Enterprise PA was pretty well orchistrated with all the funny camera angles on the Enterprise crew reaction to the rest of the fleet getting plastered while they sat there on the RNZ.
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quote:Originally posted by CaptainMike20X6: Trek has learned since then that if you want to portray the fact thatthe warp core is critical and the ship is taking heavy fire,maybe the lights should flicker or some smoke and sparks should fly around. oh well.
Indeed. Although it probably doesn't make a huge amount of sense, (oh no, the lights are darker. This makes me see my displays much better during the battle!), it does add atmosphere. And, using said example, notice how much the atmosphere goes up when they get onto the extremely-cool-looking-for-the-only-time-in-the-life-of-the-show Battle Bridge, with it's dim lights and 3d displays and cool chair.
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