DEEP SPACE NINE: THE DAY CREDIBILITY WENT OUT THE WINDOW
I mentioned in my article, issue 217 of The Log, "There is No Excuse for Absurdity" that it was wrong for Captain Picard to be involved in any type of covert undercover operations, as he is strictly a Starfleet/Starship Captain, and as such is not trained for that kind of role. Well Captain Picard is not the only example of where the Star Trek writers have broken every rule of credibility by getting characters to do things they shouldn't.
In Deep Space Nine's second/third season episode The Search pt 1, the writers introduced a new element into the show to juice it up, the USS Defiant, which was added in to give the programme a bit more manoeuvrability. Unlike other starships in the Federation fleet, the Defiant, as explained in the episode, was a warship originally designed to be used against the impending Borg invasion, and as we get to see further down the track, is a pretty mean piece of hardware. But one of the things that really got me hopping mad was when Sisko and his pals took the liberty to just take command of the Defiant and have a cruise around the Gamma Quadrant. Excuse me! Sisko? Commander Sisko of Deep Space Nine? Now I do believe there is a major discrepancy here or am I mistaken in suggesting our senior DS9 officers are neglecting their station duties to stretch the Defiant's legs from time to time? Plus there is one other major factor to be considered...
Picture this: In a modern day airforce, there are assigned pilots whose sole job it is to fly the fighter planes. So what makes fighter pilots different from all other commercial aviators? Training. Fighter pilots are trained to become one with their machines, pushing their limits to the max so they will always have the edge in the event of aerial combat with an aggressor. They do not fly for fun, they fly to fight, they fly to kill. For this reason, putting the best airline pilot in the world into an F15 fighter and sending him into combat would spell impending doom. Sure our pilot could fly well, but he would not be able to fight efficiently as his instincts and training have not prepared him for combat situations, no matter what his qualifications as an aviator, he would surely die.
In Deep Space Nine, Commander Sisko said that the Defiant was a Federation designed and built warship pure and simple, in essence, the Defiant was built to kill. So working on the principle that the Defiant is designed for a job that Starfleet Command really hasn't had to consider before, I have to ask, well if they built the ship, who was trained to be the crew? If the Defiant is a beast of destruction, all current Starfleet personnel, who are technically 'pacifist' explorers, would be inappropriate to be assigned to her. If the ship is as volatile as they say, I believe Starfleet Command would realise that their current training methods would not be suitable for this kind of ship and thus they would employ a special crack force (probably trained in secret so as not to arouse the suspicion of potentially hostile neighbours) whose sole purpose would have been to fly the Defiant and attack the Borg. It would be upto them to become one with the machine, they would not fly for fun, nor to explore strange new worlds, they would fly to fight the Borg, and kill them.
This brings us back to the problem of Commander Sisko. He mentions in The Search that he was involved in the design of the Defiant, which is fair enough, but the biggest niggle I have is that he arrives with the ship and no specially trained crew to fly it. If the Defiant was to be berthed at the station, in preparation for a possible attack from the Jem Hadar (who are trained killers), then a specially trained crew with it's specially trained Captain, wouldn't just park the ship and leave it there, they would begin to try and improve their fighting techniques, sharpening their skills in the event they would be needed against this impending threat. This practice happens in every airforce in the world today and has done so for years. So if the Defiant is all that stands between life and the loss of the entire Federation of Planets, then I know our specially trained crew would hell bent in being the best they could possibly be, preparing for every contingency of invasion, planning for every scenario, always looking for a way to keep the strategic advantage. Remember these people would not be Starfleet officers/explorers as we know them, they would be highly trained Starfleet navel soldiers.
If the Star Trek writers say that there is to be no special crew for the Defiant (in which case that job should be at least assigned to a select Starship crew) and it is to be looked after by Sisko and the others, then a whole string of problem's start to arise, like: who's looking after the station when all of our heroes (who also happen to be the senior office staff) are gallivanting around the universe? Also what if the Jem Hadar did launch an attack, do you feel our heroes would be neglecting their duties to the Federation and Bajor by flying off half cocked to intercept them full on? I mean, what if they are destroyed, who will defend and manage DS9 then? So in essence, the stupidity of the situation starts to become pretty clear. I just find it amazing that with all the personnel on offer in Starfleet Command, they have to assign these people two different responsibilities, and considering how much trouble the station seems to get into, sending the only people who can solve these constant dilemmas off in a warship appears to be a bit of a tactical mistake. which makes me wonder what would happen if a small Cardassian/Romulan/or any other Bad Guy taskforce just happened to show up as the Defiant flew off into the sunset?
In any case I suppose the worse part of all this is that you can just see the Star Trek writers putting our main DS9 cast on the ship more often, where they can start running into trouble rather than having it always come to them. It will no doubt make for some pretty exciting episodes, but having our heros doing things they are just not supposed to do will utterly destroy its credibility.