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Neapolitan · 10-19-2014, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

The whole idea of Riker was to originally replicate the character of Kirk, as it was seen as being unlikely that a ship's captain would beam down to lead dangerous missions. So Picard was created to be a realistic captain whilst Riker would take the old Kirk role. Problem was that Riker was such a cardboard character, lousy actor and did well not to get written out of the series.

Whether it seem realistic or not, "that a ship's captain would beam down to lead dangerous missions" depends how you look at it. You can rationalize it and it probably wouldn't make sense at all. But if you look at it from the view point of when and how it was made and give it some leeway, it's something that isn't thought about much. Just like any sci-fi, Star Trek (tos) had its opportunity to create its own paradigm.

When Star Trek came out there was hardly any universal sci-fi/space mythology developed so there probably wasn't an unwritten that a captain shouldn't leave his spaceship for whatever reason. I think the original series borrowed from what was available at the time. Star Trek blended elements from James Bond movies, Westerns, Twilight Zone and even LotR. Besides being 007 & Captain Horatio Hornblower in outer space, Kirk was also like a sheriff, with Spock as his deputy, and Bones as the town doctor. Either on-board on an alien planet the action mostly centers around those main characters. And it was expected to see Kirk in the thick of it.

I asked my brother (who is more of a Trekee than me) about what you said and he said basically Picard stayed on board at the request of Kiker. But in movies Picard went down on every mission.