Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 3:08pm

They Were Both Right

The relationship of Captain Jellico and Commander Riker in Chain of Command is an example of a completely dysfunctional relationship between a Captain and his Executive Officer, with plenty of blame on both sides.  However, Riker must have led a very sheltered life in Star Fleet indeed if Jellico was the worst commander he ever served under.  Also, in a combat situation Riker was radiating to the crew that he didn’t trust their new captain.  That alone should have landed him in front of a court martial.  It could be argued that weakness, and forbearance, were Jellico’s main flaws as the top man, and not being a tyrant.  At any rate, I recall these words from The Caine Mutiny that all junior officers should recall when dealing with a difficult CO:

You’re learning that you don’t work with a captain because you like the way he parts his hair; you work with him because he’s GOT the job, or you’re no good!

 

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Pinky
Pinky
Friday, February 5, AD 2021 9:22am

I’ve heard the gang at RedLetterMedia talk about those two. It seems to me like the scriptwriters thought that Jellico was completely in the right, but the acting and production were completely pro-Riker.

Pinky
Pinky
Friday, February 5, AD 2021 11:42am

The first person who asks to drop ranks loses. Every superior and subordinate know how to communicate respect or its absence.

I think that across the two episodes a lot of main characters undermine Jellico. I remember Troy as the worst, telling the rest of the crew that he doesn’t know what he’s doing based on her psychic reading of him. These are the popular characters, and they can’t get along with him, so he’s framed as the bad guy. But his strategy was on-target and he actually improved the day-to-day operations of the ship.

I personally don’t like Riker, thought, so I’m probably being biased in my reading of it.

GregB
Saturday, February 6, AD 2021 4:42pm

The YouTube channel Military History Visualized has a video titled “German Army: Why No Collapse” covering unit cohesion. I would be interested in what people think about this video, and whether and/or how this applies to the Allied military forces.
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