From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: graemecree@aol.com   
   Subject: Re: The Spock-Chapel "Romance"   
      
   Yeah, the Archons are a better example.  The Horizon was lost during   
   the trip home, not at Sigma Iotia.  But with the Archon, they KNEW   
   where she had gone missing, fercryinoutloud!  They knew where Roger   
   Korby went missing.  But they don't bother to look until they're darn   
   good and ready.  Christine had time to join Starfleet, and get   
   assigned to a ship.  Why didn't she just try to hire a ship and go   
   looking for him, like McCoy in Trek III?  Maybe even get a research   
   grant and do it on the government's nickel?   
      
   And it's not just rescue operations that are not Starfleet's forte.   
   Distress signals aren't either.  While the Exeter crew was dying,   
   nobody thought to send a message to Starfleet telling them what was   
   going on.  They DID have time to record a message saying that if   
   you've come on board, you're *already* screwed.  But no time to send a   
   message telling people not to come on board in the first place.  Heck   
   of a way to run a railroad.   
      
   And how did they explain the story with the Beagle again?  Merick's   
   crew kept coming down to look for him unti they were all down, or   
   something like that?  Like lemmings off a cliff, I tell ya.   
      
   And that's pretty much what happened with the Ariel in The Eye of the   
   Beholder, too.  Nobody thinks of sending or going for help.  They just   
   abandon ship at the slightest provocation.   
      
   At least in A Taste of Armageddon, Scotty smelled a rat when "Kirk"   
   ordered the whole crew to come down for Shore Leave simultaneously.   
   "Trained Eminians will assume support positions".  "Is that safe?" "Oh   
   yes, it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to learn how to   
   operate a starship.  Just flip a switch and activate the theme music,   
   right?"  But how come there's a General Order providing for Planetary   
   Genocide, and no General Order against the whole crew abandoning a   
   healthy ship outside of port?  If they thought there was no need for   
   such an obvious order, guess again.   
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