Craster wrote:
I've always been slightly annoyed by the silliness of design of the Enterprise and most sci-fi ships. Why would you put the bridge right up on top where a stray shot can take out the entire upper branch of the crew? Why wouldn't you bury it in the middle of the ship, and use screens and cameras to show them whatever they need to see?
Why would you have boarding parties consisting of the higher ranking shipboard officers? The marines were created for expressly that purpose - as a military force on board ship used for boarding parties and the repelling of enemy boarding parties, so why would you change that?
Also (although I can see why they do it), what's with the manual firing control on the captain's voice orders? When you're trying to hit a moving point in space, surely your computers can do a damned sight better job of tracking your target than doing it manually, and waiting for the captain to tell you when to fire? Explains why they miss so much, I guess.
There's one single reason for this, and it has nothing to do with logic. Basically, Gene Roddenberry was a massive fan of C.S Forrester Hornblower, in fact he always saw Kirk as a Hornblower figure - caring for his crew, wrestling with great responsibilities and solving problems - it's amusing how far Shatner took Kirk away from the internal struggle of Hornblower. Roddenberry pitched the show as 'Waggon Train in the stars' to reassure nervous executives, but he'd always been thinking of the 18th century period of British naval warfare and Forrester as the best structure for space stories.
That's why officers are the first to beam down and to board enemy ships, like in the Royal Navy. That's why there's one 'quaterdeck', highly visible and vunerable where all the command staff dwell, but visually bold and daring. It's why orders are relayed verbally down a chain of command, where the Captain gives the order to the 1st lieutenant (Number One) who passes it on to the officer. And it's why the combat owes so much to naval tropes, gauging the right moment, lining up the shot, human skill - etc. Though I always felt they should have highlighted that more, making the battles longer and tenser like in Khan as a result.
Top marks for Metal Angel's wonderful battles description by the way. I chuckled.