At least the captain doesn’t go down with them most of the time, unlike a previous one.
DS-9 is even worse about this. Entire senior staff and Captain on secret mission on the Defiant into a war zone, practically every other episode of seasons 5 and 6. Still somehow better track record of returning home without ado than Bashir’s attempting to attend a medical conference.
Feel like Stargate SG-1 had a much better approach for this. Send an anthropologist, a techy, the muscle and the team lead. Probably would have been a little more realistic if they had a squad of Navy Seals go first, but I think half they time they allude that they did off screen.
Super SG-1 nerd here, they often speak of the “marines” that get sent in to scout places first.
That said, the “front-line team”, as they are called here and there, gets priority on a lot of the big missions.
Besides, you really think sg-12 is capable of tackling a galaxy-ending scenario every 6-12 months? They can barely sort their crayons at chow time.
They send a disposable robot first, technically.
They do this on the Orville too. At least with Trek it was either the Captain or the XO, not both. In the Orville they both always go down. Loved that series but that always struck me as odd.
In TOS it was both captain and XO (Spock) every single time.
Always the least believable part of Star Trek.
It’s funny that early on in TNG they make the point that Picard shouldn’t go on away missions, but then the rest of the senior staff beam down every week.
At least they tried.
If you’re taking the setting seriously, yeah the command staff and bridge crew would not go on away missions, especially “exploring strange new worlds.” they’d have a team of petty officers led by a Lieutenant for that.
On a TV show, even one with an ensemble cast, you still want to put your main characters in situations to explore those characters, to include the Captain.
It is my understanding that the West Wing was originally envisioned as having the President as a recurring role, not a main one. That it was supposed to mainly be about the West Wing staff and not the politicians themselves. Except Martin Sheen’s Jeb Bartlett kicked way too much ass for that.
Possible solution? Make the exploration ship very small, with a crew of like 30 people, and then it makes sense that the main cast does everything.
they’d have a team of petty officers led by a Lieutenant for that.
Hey now, there would be at least one Ensign.
What, you don’t think an LT would lower himself to speaking to enlisted personnel, do you? That’s lower decks stuff.
They have no choice, Kirk killed off entire generations of Redshirts.
They discovered that away mission casualties are greatly reduced when the personnel involved have plot armor, and changed the regulations accordingly.
