06-19-2022, 10:56 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-19-2022, 04:46 PM by FaceInTheCrowd.)
I went back and looked at the beginning of the episode. McCoy tells Hedford she'll be fine once they reach the Enterprise's "medical facilities," which to me sounds like a lot more equipment is required than a simple shot that he could have brought with him. Maybe they need to put her in some kind of mystery treatment chamber, blood cleansing, etc. And Hedford's complaints are about Starfleet incompetence, not McCoy's, so it sounds to me as if someone else was responsible to prepping her and getting her there and the Enterprise was called in after she became ill.
Spock asks Kirk to look at his sensors because he's seen something unexplained on his. It's only after that that they lose control of the shuttle, and that's only a minute or two after they confirm that they have reached a planned course adjustment position. So they were on course and in control until a few moments after their first sighting of the companion.
Kirk, Spock and McCoy all there makes no sense, but they do it all the time even though it never makes sense. In one of the very earliest episodes there was no need for the captain of a transport ship to come along on a beam over to drop off a passenger, and in a later episode there was no need for the captain of the Exeter to beam down to arrange a planet survey. So we just have to write that off as a Starfleet bad habit that's a holdover from some earlier time when maybe a ship's captain really did have to do things like that.
Enterprise is supposed to be Starfleet's best and brightest, so if we exclude "Kirk is stupid" as an explanation, there has to be some other reason why they have to park the ship at least four hours away by shuttle and can't just warp in, beam Hedford up, get her to their sickbay for treatment and then beam her back down. That leaves bureaucratic or diplomatic restrictions. Because it is established that even in Trek's time, bureaucracy and diplomacy are still often stupid.
Spock asks Kirk to look at his sensors because he's seen something unexplained on his. It's only after that that they lose control of the shuttle, and that's only a minute or two after they confirm that they have reached a planned course adjustment position. So they were on course and in control until a few moments after their first sighting of the companion.
Kirk, Spock and McCoy all there makes no sense, but they do it all the time even though it never makes sense. In one of the very earliest episodes there was no need for the captain of a transport ship to come along on a beam over to drop off a passenger, and in a later episode there was no need for the captain of the Exeter to beam down to arrange a planet survey. So we just have to write that off as a Starfleet bad habit that's a holdover from some earlier time when maybe a ship's captain really did have to do things like that.
Enterprise is supposed to be Starfleet's best and brightest, so if we exclude "Kirk is stupid" as an explanation, there has to be some other reason why they have to park the ship at least four hours away by shuttle and can't just warp in, beam Hedford up, get her to their sickbay for treatment and then beam her back down. That leaves bureaucratic or diplomatic restrictions. Because it is established that even in Trek's time, bureaucracy and diplomacy are still often stupid.