February 20, 2024 • 28 mins
In another episode of this science fiction podcast, co-hosts and father and son duo Ethan and Anthony build their dream Star Trek crews. Tune in to hear their picks for the senior Star Fleet officer positions who will lead their hypothetical Federation galaxy-class ships. The hosts select their favorite Star Trek characters to serve as pilots, chief engineers, chief tactical or security officers, operations officers, ship's counselors, chief medical officers, first officers, and -- of course -- the captains! Join Ethan and Anthony for another fun, interesting sci-fi discussion.
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Episode Transcript
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Ethan (00:18):
Hello, everybody.
And welcome back to anotherepisode of father and son's
guide to the galaxy.
I'm your host, Ethan, and I'myour co host Anthony.
And today we will be doinganother topical episode.
This time, Star Trek, build yourdream
Anthony (00:33):
crew.
Oh yeah, I'm excited about thisone.
This'll be a fun episode.
We each are going to.
Put together our ideal or dreamcrew aboard a Federation
starship.
So let's jump right in.
Yep.
Let's do this.
All right, so we're gonna startwith the position of Helmsman,
(00:54):
so Who do you want at the helmof your starship and why?
Ethan (01:00):
So, for me, I would pick Sulu from the original series.
Good choice.
Cause like, you know throughoutthe series he's been known as
being an amazing pilot and oneof the only helmsmen we see in
all of Star Trek who carries asword with them.
That's true.
Anthony (01:14):
Very true.
Ethan (01:16):
Not to mention he's ripped.
Anthony (01:19):
Yeah, Sulu's a great choice.
So I went, this was kind of atough one, but I ultimately
decided on Tom Paris fromVoyager.
And the reason I picked Tom is,he reminds me a little bit of
Maverick from Top Gun, right?
He kinda, he's a little bit of arebel, he He has a sense of
(01:44):
adventure, and he's fearless.
And I think you need thosequalities in a pilot, right?
You want somebody who's notgoing to be afraid to you know,
do difficult maneuvers when thesituation requires it.
Somebody who's highly skilled.
And Tom, even though heeventually got kicked out of
Starfleet and was imprisonedprior to joining Voyager was
(02:10):
highly skilled as a pilot.
And he's also, in Voyager, hischaracter arc is interesting.
He's grown and matured,, he'sloyal he's loyal to Captain
Janeway, he's loyal to the crew,and he's a good guy.
And even when he does kindarebel a little bit, it's usually
for a good reason.
So, Tom Paris is my guy at thehelm.
(02:32):
Alright,
Ethan (02:32):
I think for any member of the bridge crew, My like, my
reasoning behind them would alsoinclude the question, like, what
happens if enemies manage tobeam onto the bridge, as we've
seen several times throughoutStar Trek, like, who would be
able to hold their own?
I think Sulu would do a reallygood job of that, because he,
like Paris, he's got this justreally keen and present sense of
(02:56):
adventure.
And, you know, he's alsoextremely strong from what we've
seen in the original series.
So I think he could take on afew guys who try to jump him on
the
Anthony (03:06):
bridge.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Sulu's a good guy.
Oh my! Alright, next positionwould be Operations.
Chief Operations Officer on thebridge.
Ethan (03:23):
So for mine I didn't really pick anybody who's
necessarily been in, in opsbefore.
But as we're looking into theposition of ops, it said any
senior officer can do the job.
So I picked Tuvok from Voyager,mainly cause he's a Vulcan.
And, you know, Vulcans are,like, incredibly organized and
(03:45):
can keep a straight head withyou know, tasks like that Ops
provides.
You know what I'm saying?
Anthony (03:50):
Right, right.
Yeah, Tuvok could easily dooperations, no doubt about it.
And he's probably got free timeleft.
Yeah, he's got plenty of skillsto where he could switch over to
that position.
That's a good choice.
I went with Data, and The reasonI went with Data is because I
(04:11):
just think if Data's available,you want him on your starship,
right?
He has so many qualities thatare helpful to the ship.
His ability to do calculations,his ability to analyze things,
he's just He's interesting aswell.
(04:32):
He's got an interestingpersonality, and I love that
he's always striving to becomehuman in his own android kind of
way.
And I just think Data is the guyyou need.
You need him on the bridge.
Ethan (04:48):
Yeah, I can see what you're saying.
The only problem is there'sseveral episodes where Data is
just completely incapacitatedthroughout Next Generation.
Like, I remember This oneepisode where I was kind of
watching it with you, where Datawas having dreams and he was
just missing his duty rotation,stuff like that.
And I feel like that's a lot,like, more able to happen with,
(05:11):
with an Android.
And if that does happen, harderto deal with, because, you know,
Starfleet doesn't know too muchabout Android anatomy and
circuitry
Anthony (05:18):
and things.
Yeah, that's fair.
I mean, data doesn't comewithout his complications,
right?
Right.
So I think that's a fairassessment, but I'm still taking
data as my operations guy.
Yeah, that's fair.
All right.
Next up, we've got.
Chief Tactical or Chief SecurityOfficer, and, and these are kind
of combined in most instances, Ithink.
(05:41):
So, we just thought we'd pick.
One person to handle handle bothtactical and security.
I went with Tuvok and Worf wasalso a great choice.
I loved Worf as the securityofficer, but he's a little
volatile at times Yeah, andTuvok like you mentioned he's
He's, you know, he's organized,he's level headed, he's very
(06:05):
loyal, Worf is loyal too, butVery logical.
Very logical, and you want aVulcan.
At least in one officerposition, I think, on board a
starship.
But, overall, I think Tuvok hasthe qualities that I would want
in my chief security officer orchief tactical officer.
Ethan (06:26):
Alright, I personally went with Odo for a couple of
reasons.
Odo, in his job as securityofficer in DS9, pretty much
refuses to use weapons.
So he's the kind of guy who cando the job, but not necessarily
have it be messy.
He's more just like the captureand incapacitate kind of guy
(06:47):
than just straight up kill themlike, I don't know, maybe Worf
would, I guess.
He's a little less violent, morelevel headed.
And also, an important thing is,he's the kind of guy, he's the
kind of character who would gorogue.
If he deemed it necessary, likeif there was just a captain who
was unwilling to act uponanything and if he saw it as the
(07:09):
right thing to do, he would, youknow, he would go rogue, which I
mean, not necessarily the bestthing, but Odo is also a very
loyal character and his mind isin the right direction, so you
know it would be for a goodreason.
Anthony (07:25):
Yeah.
OTOs a good choice.
It also helps to have ashapeshifter
Ethan (07:29):
Yeah.
In that position.
Especially if there was like agem Hadar inva invasion.
'cause all he is gotta do isstand there and they
Anthony (07:34):
stop.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
I, yeah, I like, I love Oto OTOsgreat.
So he, he could, he, he couldeasily be my security officer
too, but he, I, I went with twoV, but Odos a great choice.
Alright.
The next position we thoughtwe'd pick is ship's counselor.
Now.
(07:55):
Not every starship seems to havea ship's counselor, but the most
famous one is Counselor Troi,right?
Right.
But we thought we'd, we thoughtit'd be a good idea to have a
ship's counselor aboard ourstarship.
So who did you go
Ethan (08:08):
with?
I did go with Counselor Troibecause, you know, she's a,
she's an empath.
Right.
And so that's really easy to,like, be able to sense emotions
in whoever you're talking toand.
Kind of figure things out, butyou also want a good empath not
an empath like Lixwana, right?
Anthony (08:28):
Yeah, her mother maybe would not have been the best
choice.
Yeah, but yeah, I agree.
I mean Troy's great for thatposition and She was always
helpful On the Enterprise, inthe next generation, with her
Betazoid abilities, when theyran up against you know, an
(08:50):
alien, and they were, Picard wastrying to determine what their
intentions were, their motiveswere.
Yeah, great for negotiations.
Yeah, excellent fornegotiations.
So, yeah, Troy's a great choice.
I went a little unconventionalfor my ship's counselor, and uh,
well, I'll tell you who it isand then I'll explain why.
So I picked Neelix from Voyager.
(09:13):
Now, Neelix was not actually theship's counselor on Voyager,
right?
He didn't have the training andbackground and stuff, but he
kind of became the ship'scounselor.
Yeah.
You know, the de facto
Ethan (09:28):
ship's counselor.
He also took on an
Anthony (09:29):
ambassador role.
Yeah, and he took on anambassador role, that's right.
And I picked Neelix because Eventhough, when I first started
watching Voyager, I kind ofthought he was a little
annoying.
Eventually, he grew on me, andhe, I think much of the crew
thought he was annoying too,right, at first, but he
(09:50):
eventually grew on them, andhe's always concerned with the
well being of others, right,he's almost always completely
selfless, wants to help, wantsto talk to people who are
lonely, or who need to getsomething off their chest, and
he cooks, which is an addedbonus, so, yeah.
So Neelix will be my ship'scounselor.
(10:11):
I think he'll, he'll do a goodjob in that role.
Yeah,
Ethan (10:14):
that's a great one.
Especially if you're on a placelike Voyager and you have, like
replicator rations.
Right.
You gotta
Anthony (10:21):
have a chef.
You gotta have a chef, yeah.
Very important in the DeltaQuadrant.
Yep.
Alright.
Chief Medical Officer.
Ethan (10:31):
Alright, so for Medical Officer I picked the doctor
because, you know, he, as ahologram, that's basically all
he was designed to do.
Even though as we go furtherinto Voyager, he's more than
that.
At his core, he is designed andtrained to be a doctor.
Like, that's what made his veryexistence a thing.
(10:52):
And I feel like he can also copewith stress very well.
You know, cause he's a hologram,but then also he's, he's mobile.
Cause he's got that mobileemitter, even though there might
be times where you might nothave access to it.
Most of the time he's mobile andcan always be sterile too, which
is very important.
Anthony (11:13):
Yeah, the doctor's a great choice.
You know, there, there are somedownsides to the doctor because
he is just a hologram, right?
He's more than that dead.
He's, he's an evolving hologram,but you know, something could
happen to his mobile emitter andall of a sudden he's not
available.
I mean, they, they've had thathappen on.
Voyager, right?
(11:33):
Where he's, he's not there totreat their wounded, and Tom
Paris, who kind of fills in parttime as the medic, has, is
trying to do everything anddoesn't have the knowledge that
the doctor has.
That's a risk you're alwaysgoing to run, though, with a
Ethan (11:50):
character like that.
That's why it's important tohave nurses.
Right.
But Voyager didn't.
Anthony (11:55):
Yeah.
And if we're talking about astarship that's not lost in the
Delta Quadrant, you would haveother doctors on board, right?
Yeah.
Other medical personnel, likenurses, probably other, other
doctors as well.
So, so there would be backup.
If the doctor suddenly becameavailable due to technical
(12:15):
difficulties.
So yeah, and his bedside mannerdid improve over time It wasn't
the greatest at the beginning,but he did get better at it
Yeah, so I struggled with thisone a little bit.
Initially.
I was gonna go dr.
McCoy just because I love drMcCoy because he's got You know,
that kind of dry humor and just,he's just got an interesting
(12:39):
personality and I loved thefriendship that he had with Kirk
and Spock and the banter backand forth and all that.
But, I decided for my ChiefMedical Officer, I'm going Dr.
Beverly Crusher, and this is notjust because I defended Dr.
Pulaski in last week's episode.
Check that out if you haven'talready.
(13:02):
But I think Dr.
Crusher has not only the Skilland medical knowledge that is
required of a Chief Medicalofficer, but she also has the
bedside manner.
She, she's calm, she you know,she, she wants people to know
(13:22):
that they're in good hands andshe can deal with high pressure
situations and she's also notafraid if it becomes necessary.
To do what only a chief medicalofficer can do, a board of
Starship, which is to relievethe captain of duties if the
captain becomes incapacitated insome way.
(13:45):
Right.
And so I think there was atleast one episode in the next
generation where that happened,if not a couple.
And so she's got the qualities Iwould want in my main medical
person to bore the Starship.
Ethan (13:59):
Yeah.
And I guess if you were planningto.
have a mutiny on a ship a doctorwould be pretty good to have
because you could just relievethe captain of
Anthony (14:06):
duty yeah there you go i i don't want any mutinies on
my ship though
Ethan (14:10):
yeah but there's always the episodes where they get like
a replacement captain and he'sjust like not a good captain
Anthony (14:18):
All right how about science officer who'd you go
with for that all
Ethan (14:23):
right so for science officer i picked dax from ds9
good choice because like Notonly is she science officer on
Deep Space Nine, but also shehas like seven prior lives of
experience, I don't remember theexact number.
And so that means she also has abunch of training in other
fields of specialty as well.
(14:44):
Right.
So she's just basically a verygood all rounded officer to have
on
Anthony (14:49):
your ship.
Yeah, yeah, I think it's helpfulto have a troll that's got
Multiple lives of experiencethey can bring to the table.
So yeah, I like Dax.
She's she was a good scienceofficer for sure.
I went with Spock.
And the reason I went withSpock, I think is pretty
(15:10):
obvious.
He's super logical.
He He has a bright mind, heunderstands difficult concepts,
he knows how to analyzesituations, and even though he's
got all those Vulcan qualitiesthat we love, he's also half
human.
Which, as we've seen many timesin Star Trek that, that comes in
(15:33):
handy at times.
His half human, half Vulcanpersonalities are useful in a
variety of situations.
So, Spock it is for me, forScience Officer.
What about Chief Engineer?
Ethan (15:49):
For Chief Engineer, I put O'Brien.
Cause I mean, A, he's a reallygood engineer.
And then B, he also has afamily, and then there's like
always the things with the, withthe bridge crew and the
engineers, and so I think, Ihave a feeling if his family was
(16:10):
living on the ship, even if not,he has the ability to make the
really tough decisions that arelike able to keep the crew
alive, like he would probably,in the event needed, sacrifice
himself to save a ship, or youknow, Like, you know, he's, he
seems like that very kind oflike What's the word I'm looking
(16:30):
for?
Selfless?
Yeah, he's a pretty selfless
Anthony (16:33):
guy.
Yeah Yeah, would he be able toprioritize the ship over his
family though?
Ethan (16:41):
That is a good question
Anthony (16:44):
Yeah, I don't know.
I think you would I think if itcame down to it Miles O'Brien
would do the right thing.
He'd find a way to do both.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
He'd pick a, find a thirdoption.
Yeah, that's probably true.
But, I like O'Brien.
I'd be a little worried that hewas always wanting to hit the
bar.
Ethan (17:03):
I mean, he would be pretty fun to go do a holodeck
too.
Anthony (17:06):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
And play darts with.
Yeah.
Quarks,
Ethan (17:11):
that'd be fun.
You wouldn't have quarks on yourship.
Well,
Anthony (17:15):
yeah, wherever.
The break room.
Yeah 10 forward, right?
On, on Enterprise D.
That's what they called it.
Yeah.
Yeah good choice.
You can't go wrong with MilesO'Brien.
I went with Jordi LaForge.
Jordi is just, he's cool andcalm under pressure.
He's brilliant.
He knows the ship inside andout.
(17:37):
And I think he's, he's gonnagive ya everything that he has
in the most difficultsituations.
He's dependable, he's reliable,and and he's a good guy.
Like, he's easy to get alongwith, and there were those
episodes I'm drawing a blank nowon the character's name but
(17:57):
there was a, a guy who worked onthe engineering crew another
officer who was, had, had kindof like some mental health
problems and had trouble gettingalong with people.
I can't believe I can't rememberhis name.
I'll have to look that up later,but Geordi was like really
patient with him and helped himkind of grow as a, just as a
(18:18):
person, right?
Not just as an officer aboardthe ship.
So Geordi's got some greatleadership qualities as well.
So I think, I think he'll begood down in engineering.
Yeah, definitely.
Another position we decided toadd, which pretty much every
ship has, and it's notnecessarily a separate position
(18:41):
but that's second officer.
Who do you want in charge if thecaptain and the first officer
aren't available?
And usually that's selectedamong the senior officers.
So who would your second officerbe?
Yeah, so
Ethan (18:55):
of all the senior officers I've picked already, I
think, once again, I'd pickO'Brien in there, for the same
reasons, that I feel like hejust has really good decision
making skills, and as we've seenthroughout his numerous and,
and, appearances in DS9 and NextGeneration, you can kind of see
that stuff happening.
Anthony (19:15):
Right, right.
Yeah, that's a good choice.
I went with Spock for mine.
Spock was a First Officer,right?
He was Captain Kirk's FirstOfficer and he's got command
experience, and he, again, hecan do well in Difficult and
dangerous situations that are,you know, that are really tense
and require you know, carefulanalysis, and so, I think Spock
(19:38):
would be good, and he, he knowshow to lead, you know, others
look up to Spock, and so if mycaptain and my first officer
aren't available, I want Spockin charge of my ship.
Yeah.
Alright, what about firstofficer?
Ethan (19:54):
Alright, so for my first officer I picked somebody a
little more unconventional, ornot a series we've really
touched on very much in here.
I decided to pick Saru from StarTrek Discovery.
Probably about the one of theonly characters I really liked
from that show.
I, I feel like He was probablythe most developed out of all
(20:18):
the characters, and they did thebest, but After the earlier
seasons, he used to be likethis, just, scaredy cat
character who was afraid ofeverything.
But after some episodes there,he kind of evolves, and he turns
into, he's now like extremelyconfident and fearless in the
face of danger, that kind ofstuff.
(20:38):
And he's also a very groundedguy.
And I feel like he would makethe most responsible choices.
But I feel like he wouldn't beoptimal for the position of
captain.
Because sometimes captains haveto make, like, the wild choice.
Kind of on a hunch sometimes.
Right.
Which I don't think he wouldhave the ability to
Anthony (20:59):
make.
Right, right.
Yeah, Saru's a good, solidchoice.
I mean, he, he's loyal, he'she's respected.
So,
Ethan (21:08):
definitely.
I think like a Vulcan, he'd beable to provide the most logical
perspective.
Anthony (21:12):
Yeah, yeah, I think so too.
By the way, I looked up thecharacter that I was talking
about before.
It's Reginald Barclay.
I recognize the name.
Yeah, LaForge always called himReg.
I was just drawing a blank onhim, but he was an interesting
character on TNG.
Alright, so for my FirstOfficer, and again, this was a
tough choice, because there aresome great First Officers in
(21:33):
Star Trek.
One of the things you gottathink about with a First Officer
is, You know, their ability toget along and work well with the
captain, right?
And, and it's always, thecaptain is the one who chooses
the first officer in, you know,in the show, but we're picking
it here.
(21:53):
So I went with Commander Riker.
And, not just because Riker is,you know, a cool guy, a cool
character but he is incrediblyloyal to the captain.
He's competent, he demandsrespect from the, the crew and
(22:15):
he, he, he's always willing todo the hard thing.
You know?
And put himself out there.
And so, I think, I think Rikerreally has all the qualities
that you could want in a greatfirst officer.
(22:35):
And he can easily transition tothe captain position, right?
If the captain's not available,Riker, you know, could have been
a captain much earlier on in hiscareer than he was, right?
Because he was that capable, buthe loved Picard and he loved
being on the Enterprise, so hestayed on the Enterprise as
first officer, but he couldeasily step into the captain's
(22:57):
role, and that's That's the kindof quality you need in a first
officer.
Yeah,
Ethan (23:01):
not to mention he plays jazz.
Anthony (23:03):
Yeah, and he plays jazz to the very good point.
All right.
Big question.
Drumroll.
Who'd you pick for captain?
So for
Ethan (23:13):
my captain, I picked Captain Sisko.
All right.
Because, you know, Sisko is avery no crap kind of guy.
Like he's the kind of guy that'dbe like, Okay, I'm understanding
you're going through some thingsright now, but can you keep that
off hours, please, right?
Anthony (23:32):
Yeah, he he's pretty no nonsense.
He he's a little intimidatingcaptain, but But yeah, man,
Cisco's awesome
Ethan (23:41):
You know like I think there was an episode where a bar
fight happened Klingons And Ithink it was Bashir and O'Brien
were in the middle of it And hegot, like, really mad at them.
Anthony (23:53):
Yeah, they got reprimanded.
Yeah, Cisco's, Cisco's great.
And he's the emissary, so.
Yeah,
Ethan (24:00):
he's got some kind of pull with the Bajoran
government.
Yeah,
Anthony (24:05):
and their, and their profits.
Yeah, I, I love Cisco.
So, again, I struggled withthis.
So, for me, it came down, I, ofcourse, I love Captain Kirk,
but.
In terms of the captain that Iwould want to lead me on a
starship, it came down to eitherPicard or Janeway, and I love
(24:28):
them both.
Janeway, I've really come toappreciate her character as I've
been re watching Voyagerrecently.
She, she just has You know, the,she has all the skills that you
need as captain.
Her ability to command, to makedecisions quickly, her
(24:53):
willingness to listen to thecounsel and advice of others,
you know, most importantly hersenior officers.
And she's compassionate.
She doesn't want to get into aconflict, but if she does get
into a conflict, She'll do whatshe has to do to protect her
ship.
Yeah.
So, she's a great choice, but atthe end of the day, I went with
(25:14):
Picard.
And, Picard has all thosequalities as well but he,
there's something about Picardthat just draws me to him as a
character.
I love how intellectual he is, Ilove that he loves Shakespeare
and he also, Has a uniqueperspective as a captain having
(25:36):
been assimilated into the Borg.
Right?
As Locutus, and then coming backto Starfleet, so he, he knows
how to deal with the Borg, whichis one of the, you know, main
enemies of the Federation, andso I, and I, I could list other
reasons too, but I, I thinkmainly it just comes down to,
(25:59):
you I just like the guy, andhe's a great leader.
Janeway is a great leader too,but, you know, it was a close
call, but for me, I'm gonna goPicard.
And since I chose Riker as myfirst officer, it kind of makes
Ethan (26:12):
sense.
Yeah.
I would say though, I've.
I think Janeway could alsohandle the Borg because she, in
Voyager, they have seven of ninetoo.
Anthony (26:21):
Well, yeah, that's true.
I mean, she has handled theBorg, right?
Because they're in the DeltaQuadrant.
That's how they got seven ofnine.
Eventually, they kind of rescuedher from the Borg.
So yeah, she's, she's certainlycapable of it.
I just think Jean Luc has this.
It's a unique perspectivebecause he was actually a Borg
for a little while, and so,yeah, but, but yeah, both great
(26:43):
captains, I'd, I'd be happy tofollow either one of them into
battle, or on a spaceexploration.
Ethan (26:50):
Preferably an
Anthony (26:51):
exploration.
Yeah, preferably an exploration,not a battle.
Well that was cool, that was funto pick our dream crew.
I think we, I think we didpretty well.
I, I think our crews would wouldbe the best of the best if if we
could create our own Star Trekshow with those characters and
those positions, that'd be a lotof fun.
Ethan (27:10):
And hopefully not as much time travel shenanigans as
Captain Kirkwood had to offer.
Right.
A lot less paperwork for theFederation.
Anthony (27:18):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Well, thanks again forlistening, everyone.
It's been a, another funepisode.
We'll look forward to being backnext week.
And we will eventually resumeour review of Star Trek The
Original Series.
So if you enjoy those shows,we're not giving up on those.
But we wanted to start mixing insome other topical type shows as
well, just to keep itinteresting.
(27:39):
So stay tuned for what's next.
And don't forget to follow us onsocial media.
Shoot us an email if you have.
Questions or ideas for the show.
We'd love to hear from
Ethan (27:49):
you.
And if you want to share yourFavorite crew members or who you
would want to run a ship alsosend us an email about that
Yeah, we'd love to hear what youhave
Anthony (27:57):
to say.
Exactly.
Let us know what what you thinkso Anyway hope you guys have a
great week and we'll talk to youagain soon
Ethan (28:05):
See ya.
Hello, everybody.
And welcome back to anotherepisode of father and son's
guide to the galaxy.
I'm your host, Ethan, and I'myour co host Anthony.
And today we will be doinganother topical episode.
This time, Star Trek, build yourdream
Anthony (00:33):
crew.
Oh yeah, I'm excited about thisone.
This'll be a fun episode.
We each are going to.
Put together our ideal or dreamcrew aboard a Federation
starship.
So let's jump right in.
Yep.
Let's do this.
All right, so we're gonna startwith the position of Helmsman,
(00:54):
so Who do you want at the helmof your starship and why?
Ethan (01:00):
So, for me, I would pick Sulu from the original series.
Good choice.
Cause like, you know throughoutthe series he's been known as
being an amazing pilot and oneof the only helmsmen we see in
all of Star Trek who carries asword with them.
That's true.
Anthony (01:14):
Very true.
Ethan (01:16):
Not to mention he's ripped.
Anthony (01:19):
Yeah, Sulu's a great choice.
So I went, this was kind of atough one, but I ultimately
decided on Tom Paris fromVoyager.
And the reason I picked Tom is,he reminds me a little bit of
Maverick from Top Gun, right?
He kinda, he's a little bit of arebel, he He has a sense of
(01:44):
adventure, and he's fearless.
And I think you need thosequalities in a pilot, right?
You want somebody who's notgoing to be afraid to you know,
do difficult maneuvers when thesituation requires it.
Somebody who's highly skilled.
And Tom, even though heeventually got kicked out of
Starfleet and was imprisonedprior to joining Voyager was
(02:10):
highly skilled as a pilot.
And he's also, in Voyager, hischaracter arc is interesting.
He's grown and matured,, he'sloyal he's loyal to Captain
Janeway, he's loyal to the crew,and he's a good guy.
And even when he does kindarebel a little bit, it's usually
for a good reason.
So, Tom Paris is my guy at thehelm.
(02:32):
Alright,
Ethan (02:32):
I think for any member of the bridge crew, My like, my
reasoning behind them would alsoinclude the question, like, what
happens if enemies manage tobeam onto the bridge, as we've
seen several times throughoutStar Trek, like, who would be
able to hold their own?
I think Sulu would do a reallygood job of that, because he,
like Paris, he's got this justreally keen and present sense of
(02:56):
adventure.
And, you know, he's alsoextremely strong from what we've
seen in the original series.
So I think he could take on afew guys who try to jump him on
the
Anthony (03:06):
bridge.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Sulu's a good guy.
Oh my! Alright, next positionwould be Operations.
Chief Operations Officer on thebridge.
Ethan (03:23):
So for mine I didn't really pick anybody who's
necessarily been in, in opsbefore.
But as we're looking into theposition of ops, it said any
senior officer can do the job.
So I picked Tuvok from Voyager,mainly cause he's a Vulcan.
And, you know, Vulcans are,like, incredibly organized and
(03:45):
can keep a straight head withyou know, tasks like that Ops
provides.
You know what I'm saying?
Anthony (03:50):
Right, right.
Yeah, Tuvok could easily dooperations, no doubt about it.
And he's probably got free timeleft.
Yeah, he's got plenty of skillsto where he could switch over to
that position.
That's a good choice.
I went with Data, and The reasonI went with Data is because I
(04:11):
just think if Data's available,you want him on your starship,
right?
He has so many qualities thatare helpful to the ship.
His ability to do calculations,his ability to analyze things,
he's just He's interesting aswell.
(04:32):
He's got an interestingpersonality, and I love that
he's always striving to becomehuman in his own android kind of
way.
And I just think Data is the guyyou need.
You need him on the bridge.
Ethan (04:48):
Yeah, I can see what you're saying.
The only problem is there'sseveral episodes where Data is
just completely incapacitatedthroughout Next Generation.
Like, I remember This oneepisode where I was kind of
watching it with you, where Datawas having dreams and he was
just missing his duty rotation,stuff like that.
And I feel like that's a lot,like, more able to happen with,
(05:11):
with an Android.
And if that does happen, harderto deal with, because, you know,
Starfleet doesn't know too muchabout Android anatomy and
circuitry
Anthony (05:18):
and things.
Yeah, that's fair.
I mean, data doesn't comewithout his complications,
right?
Right.
So I think that's a fairassessment, but I'm still taking
data as my operations guy.
Yeah, that's fair.
All right.
Next up, we've got.
Chief Tactical or Chief SecurityOfficer, and, and these are kind
of combined in most instances, Ithink.
(05:41):
So, we just thought we'd pick.
One person to handle handle bothtactical and security.
I went with Tuvok and Worf wasalso a great choice.
I loved Worf as the securityofficer, but he's a little
volatile at times Yeah, andTuvok like you mentioned he's
He's, you know, he's organized,he's level headed, he's very
(06:05):
loyal, Worf is loyal too, butVery logical.
Very logical, and you want aVulcan.
At least in one officerposition, I think, on board a
starship.
But, overall, I think Tuvok hasthe qualities that I would want
in my chief security officer orchief tactical officer.
Ethan (06:26):
Alright, I personally went with Odo for a couple of
reasons.
Odo, in his job as securityofficer in DS9, pretty much
refuses to use weapons.
So he's the kind of guy who cando the job, but not necessarily
have it be messy.
He's more just like the captureand incapacitate kind of guy
(06:47):
than just straight up kill themlike, I don't know, maybe Worf
would, I guess.
He's a little less violent, morelevel headed.
And also, an important thing is,he's the kind of guy, he's the
kind of character who would gorogue.
If he deemed it necessary, likeif there was just a captain who
was unwilling to act uponanything and if he saw it as the
(07:09):
right thing to do, he would, youknow, he would go rogue, which I
mean, not necessarily the bestthing, but Odo is also a very
loyal character and his mind isin the right direction, so you
know it would be for a goodreason.
Anthony (07:25):
Yeah.
OTOs a good choice.
It also helps to have ashapeshifter
Ethan (07:29):
Yeah.
In that position.
Especially if there was like agem Hadar inva invasion.
'cause all he is gotta do isstand there and they
Anthony (07:34):
stop.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
I, yeah, I like, I love Oto OTOsgreat.
So he, he could, he, he couldeasily be my security officer
too, but he, I, I went with twoV, but Odos a great choice.
Alright.
The next position we thoughtwe'd pick is ship's counselor.
Now.
(07:55):
Not every starship seems to havea ship's counselor, but the most
famous one is Counselor Troi,right?
Right.
But we thought we'd, we thoughtit'd be a good idea to have a
ship's counselor aboard ourstarship.
So who did you go
Ethan (08:08):
with?
I did go with Counselor Troibecause, you know, she's a,
she's an empath.
Right.
And so that's really easy to,like, be able to sense emotions
in whoever you're talking toand.
Kind of figure things out, butyou also want a good empath not
an empath like Lixwana, right?
Anthony (08:28):
Yeah, her mother maybe would not have been the best
choice.
Yeah, but yeah, I agree.
I mean Troy's great for thatposition and She was always
helpful On the Enterprise, inthe next generation, with her
Betazoid abilities, when theyran up against you know, an
(08:50):
alien, and they were, Picard wastrying to determine what their
intentions were, their motiveswere.
Yeah, great for negotiations.
Yeah, excellent fornegotiations.
So, yeah, Troy's a great choice.
I went a little unconventionalfor my ship's counselor, and uh,
well, I'll tell you who it isand then I'll explain why.
So I picked Neelix from Voyager.
(09:13):
Now, Neelix was not actually theship's counselor on Voyager,
right?
He didn't have the training andbackground and stuff, but he
kind of became the ship'scounselor.
Yeah.
You know, the de facto
Ethan (09:28):
ship's counselor.
He also took on an
Anthony (09:29):
ambassador role.
Yeah, and he took on anambassador role, that's right.
And I picked Neelix because Eventhough, when I first started
watching Voyager, I kind ofthought he was a little
annoying.
Eventually, he grew on me, andhe, I think much of the crew
thought he was annoying too,right, at first, but he
(09:50):
eventually grew on them, andhe's always concerned with the
well being of others, right,he's almost always completely
selfless, wants to help, wantsto talk to people who are
lonely, or who need to getsomething off their chest, and
he cooks, which is an addedbonus, so, yeah.
So Neelix will be my ship'scounselor.
(10:11):
I think he'll, he'll do a goodjob in that role.
Yeah,
Ethan (10:14):
that's a great one.
Especially if you're on a placelike Voyager and you have, like
replicator rations.
Right.
You gotta
Anthony (10:21):
have a chef.
You gotta have a chef, yeah.
Very important in the DeltaQuadrant.
Yep.
Alright.
Chief Medical Officer.
Ethan (10:31):
Alright, so for Medical Officer I picked the doctor
because, you know, he, as ahologram, that's basically all
he was designed to do.
Even though as we go furtherinto Voyager, he's more than
that.
At his core, he is designed andtrained to be a doctor.
Like, that's what made his veryexistence a thing.
(10:52):
And I feel like he can also copewith stress very well.
You know, cause he's a hologram,but then also he's, he's mobile.
Cause he's got that mobileemitter, even though there might
be times where you might nothave access to it.
Most of the time he's mobile andcan always be sterile too, which
is very important.
Anthony (11:13):
Yeah, the doctor's a great choice.
You know, there, there are somedownsides to the doctor because
he is just a hologram, right?
He's more than that dead.
He's, he's an evolving hologram,but you know, something could
happen to his mobile emitter andall of a sudden he's not
available.
I mean, they, they've had thathappen on.
Voyager, right?
(11:33):
Where he's, he's not there totreat their wounded, and Tom
Paris, who kind of fills in parttime as the medic, has, is
trying to do everything anddoesn't have the knowledge that
the doctor has.
That's a risk you're alwaysgoing to run, though, with a
Ethan (11:50):
character like that.
That's why it's important tohave nurses.
Right.
But Voyager didn't.
Anthony (11:55):
Yeah.
And if we're talking about astarship that's not lost in the
Delta Quadrant, you would haveother doctors on board, right?
Yeah.
Other medical personnel, likenurses, probably other, other
doctors as well.
So, so there would be backup.
If the doctor suddenly becameavailable due to technical
(12:15):
difficulties.
So yeah, and his bedside mannerdid improve over time It wasn't
the greatest at the beginning,but he did get better at it
Yeah, so I struggled with thisone a little bit.
Initially.
I was gonna go dr.
McCoy just because I love drMcCoy because he's got You know,
that kind of dry humor and just,he's just got an interesting
(12:39):
personality and I loved thefriendship that he had with Kirk
and Spock and the banter backand forth and all that.
But, I decided for my ChiefMedical Officer, I'm going Dr.
Beverly Crusher, and this is notjust because I defended Dr.
Pulaski in last week's episode.
Check that out if you haven'talready.
(13:02):
But I think Dr.
Crusher has not only the Skilland medical knowledge that is
required of a Chief Medicalofficer, but she also has the
bedside manner.
She, she's calm, she you know,she, she wants people to know
(13:22):
that they're in good hands andshe can deal with high pressure
situations and she's also notafraid if it becomes necessary.
To do what only a chief medicalofficer can do, a board of
Starship, which is to relievethe captain of duties if the
captain becomes incapacitated insome way.
(13:45):
Right.
And so I think there was atleast one episode in the next
generation where that happened,if not a couple.
And so she's got the qualities Iwould want in my main medical
person to bore the Starship.
Ethan (13:59):
Yeah.
And I guess if you were planningto.
have a mutiny on a ship a doctorwould be pretty good to have
because you could just relievethe captain of
Anthony (14:06):
duty yeah there you go i i don't want any mutinies on
my ship though
Ethan (14:10):
yeah but there's always the episodes where they get like
a replacement captain and he'sjust like not a good captain
Anthony (14:18):
All right how about science officer who'd you go
with for that all
Ethan (14:23):
right so for science officer i picked dax from ds9
good choice because like Notonly is she science officer on
Deep Space Nine, but also shehas like seven prior lives of
experience, I don't remember theexact number.
And so that means she also has abunch of training in other
fields of specialty as well.
(14:44):
Right.
So she's just basically a verygood all rounded officer to have
on
Anthony (14:49):
your ship.
Yeah, yeah, I think it's helpfulto have a troll that's got
Multiple lives of experiencethey can bring to the table.
So yeah, I like Dax.
She's she was a good scienceofficer for sure.
I went with Spock.
And the reason I went withSpock, I think is pretty
(15:10):
obvious.
He's super logical.
He He has a bright mind, heunderstands difficult concepts,
he knows how to analyzesituations, and even though he's
got all those Vulcan qualitiesthat we love, he's also half
human.
Which, as we've seen many timesin Star Trek that, that comes in
(15:33):
handy at times.
His half human, half Vulcanpersonalities are useful in a
variety of situations.
So, Spock it is for me, forScience Officer.
What about Chief Engineer?
Ethan (15:49):
For Chief Engineer, I put O'Brien.
Cause I mean, A, he's a reallygood engineer.
And then B, he also has afamily, and then there's like
always the things with the, withthe bridge crew and the
engineers, and so I think, Ihave a feeling if his family was
(16:10):
living on the ship, even if not,he has the ability to make the
really tough decisions that arelike able to keep the crew
alive, like he would probably,in the event needed, sacrifice
himself to save a ship, or youknow, Like, you know, he's, he
seems like that very kind oflike What's the word I'm looking
(16:30):
for?
Selfless?
Yeah, he's a pretty selfless
Anthony (16:33):
guy.
Yeah Yeah, would he be able toprioritize the ship over his
family though?
Ethan (16:41):
That is a good question
Anthony (16:44):
Yeah, I don't know.
I think you would I think if itcame down to it Miles O'Brien
would do the right thing.
He'd find a way to do both.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
He'd pick a, find a thirdoption.
Yeah, that's probably true.
But, I like O'Brien.
I'd be a little worried that hewas always wanting to hit the
bar.
Ethan (17:03):
I mean, he would be pretty fun to go do a holodeck
too.
Anthony (17:06):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
And play darts with.
Yeah.
Quarks,
Ethan (17:11):
that'd be fun.
You wouldn't have quarks on yourship.
Well,
Anthony (17:15):
yeah, wherever.
The break room.
Yeah 10 forward, right?
On, on Enterprise D.
That's what they called it.
Yeah.
Yeah good choice.
You can't go wrong with MilesO'Brien.
I went with Jordi LaForge.
Jordi is just, he's cool andcalm under pressure.
He's brilliant.
He knows the ship inside andout.
(17:37):
And I think he's, he's gonnagive ya everything that he has
in the most difficultsituations.
He's dependable, he's reliable,and and he's a good guy.
Like, he's easy to get alongwith, and there were those
episodes I'm drawing a blank nowon the character's name but
(17:57):
there was a, a guy who worked onthe engineering crew another
officer who was, had, had kindof like some mental health
problems and had trouble gettingalong with people.
I can't believe I can't rememberhis name.
I'll have to look that up later,but Geordi was like really
patient with him and helped himkind of grow as a, just as a
(18:18):
person, right?
Not just as an officer aboardthe ship.
So Geordi's got some greatleadership qualities as well.
So I think, I think he'll begood down in engineering.
Yeah, definitely.
Another position we decided toadd, which pretty much every
ship has, and it's notnecessarily a separate position
(18:41):
but that's second officer.
Who do you want in charge if thecaptain and the first officer
aren't available?
And usually that's selectedamong the senior officers.
So who would your second officerbe?
Yeah, so
Ethan (18:55):
of all the senior officers I've picked already, I
think, once again, I'd pickO'Brien in there, for the same
reasons, that I feel like hejust has really good decision
making skills, and as we've seenthroughout his numerous and,
and, appearances in DS9 and NextGeneration, you can kind of see
that stuff happening.
Anthony (19:15):
Right, right.
Yeah, that's a good choice.
I went with Spock for mine.
Spock was a First Officer,right?
He was Captain Kirk's FirstOfficer and he's got command
experience, and he, again, hecan do well in Difficult and
dangerous situations that are,you know, that are really tense
and require you know, carefulanalysis, and so, I think Spock
(19:38):
would be good, and he, he knowshow to lead, you know, others
look up to Spock, and so if mycaptain and my first officer
aren't available, I want Spockin charge of my ship.
Yeah.
Alright, what about firstofficer?
Ethan (19:54):
Alright, so for my first officer I picked somebody a
little more unconventional, ornot a series we've really
touched on very much in here.
I decided to pick Saru from StarTrek Discovery.
Probably about the one of theonly characters I really liked
from that show.
I, I feel like He was probablythe most developed out of all
(20:18):
the characters, and they did thebest, but After the earlier
seasons, he used to be likethis, just, scaredy cat
character who was afraid ofeverything.
But after some episodes there,he kind of evolves, and he turns
into, he's now like extremelyconfident and fearless in the
face of danger, that kind ofstuff.
(20:38):
And he's also a very groundedguy.
And I feel like he would makethe most responsible choices.
But I feel like he wouldn't beoptimal for the position of
captain.
Because sometimes captains haveto make, like, the wild choice.
Kind of on a hunch sometimes.
Right.
Which I don't think he wouldhave the ability to
Anthony (20:59):
make.
Right, right.
Yeah, Saru's a good, solidchoice.
I mean, he, he's loyal, he'she's respected.
So,
Ethan (21:08):
definitely.
I think like a Vulcan, he'd beable to provide the most logical
perspective.
Anthony (21:12):
Yeah, yeah, I think so too.
By the way, I looked up thecharacter that I was talking
about before.
It's Reginald Barclay.
I recognize the name.
Yeah, LaForge always called himReg.
I was just drawing a blank onhim, but he was an interesting
character on TNG.
Alright, so for my FirstOfficer, and again, this was a
tough choice, because there aresome great First Officers in
(21:33):
Star Trek.
One of the things you gottathink about with a First Officer
is, You know, their ability toget along and work well with the
captain, right?
And, and it's always, thecaptain is the one who chooses
the first officer in, you know,in the show, but we're picking
it here.
(21:53):
So I went with Commander Riker.
And, not just because Riker is,you know, a cool guy, a cool
character but he is incrediblyloyal to the captain.
He's competent, he demandsrespect from the, the crew and
(22:15):
he, he, he's always willing todo the hard thing.
You know?
And put himself out there.
And so, I think, I think Rikerreally has all the qualities
that you could want in a greatfirst officer.
(22:35):
And he can easily transition tothe captain position, right?
If the captain's not available,Riker, you know, could have been
a captain much earlier on in hiscareer than he was, right?
Because he was that capable, buthe loved Picard and he loved
being on the Enterprise, so hestayed on the Enterprise as
first officer, but he couldeasily step into the captain's
(22:57):
role, and that's That's the kindof quality you need in a first
officer.
Yeah,
Ethan (23:01):
not to mention he plays jazz.
Anthony (23:03):
Yeah, and he plays jazz to the very good point.
All right.
Big question.
Drumroll.
Who'd you pick for captain?
So for
Ethan (23:13):
my captain, I picked Captain Sisko.
All right.
Because, you know, Sisko is avery no crap kind of guy.
Like he's the kind of guy that'dbe like, Okay, I'm understanding
you're going through some thingsright now, but can you keep that
off hours, please, right?
Anthony (23:32):
Yeah, he he's pretty no nonsense.
He he's a little intimidatingcaptain, but But yeah, man,
Cisco's awesome
Ethan (23:41):
You know like I think there was an episode where a bar
fight happened Klingons And Ithink it was Bashir and O'Brien
were in the middle of it And hegot, like, really mad at them.
Anthony (23:53):
Yeah, they got reprimanded.
Yeah, Cisco's, Cisco's great.
And he's the emissary, so.
Yeah,
Ethan (24:00):
he's got some kind of pull with the Bajoran
government.
Yeah,
Anthony (24:05):
and their, and their profits.
Yeah, I, I love Cisco.
So, again, I struggled withthis.
So, for me, it came down, I, ofcourse, I love Captain Kirk,
but.
In terms of the captain that Iwould want to lead me on a
starship, it came down to eitherPicard or Janeway, and I love
(24:28):
them both.
Janeway, I've really come toappreciate her character as I've
been re watching Voyagerrecently.
She, she just has You know, the,she has all the skills that you
need as captain.
Her ability to command, to makedecisions quickly, her
(24:53):
willingness to listen to thecounsel and advice of others,
you know, most importantly hersenior officers.
And she's compassionate.
She doesn't want to get into aconflict, but if she does get
into a conflict, She'll do whatshe has to do to protect her
ship.
Yeah.
So, she's a great choice, but atthe end of the day, I went with
(25:14):
Picard.
And, Picard has all thosequalities as well but he,
there's something about Picardthat just draws me to him as a
character.
I love how intellectual he is, Ilove that he loves Shakespeare
and he also, Has a uniqueperspective as a captain having
(25:36):
been assimilated into the Borg.
Right?
As Locutus, and then coming backto Starfleet, so he, he knows
how to deal with the Borg, whichis one of the, you know, main
enemies of the Federation, andso I, and I, I could list other
reasons too, but I, I thinkmainly it just comes down to,
(25:59):
you I just like the guy, andhe's a great leader.
Janeway is a great leader too,but, you know, it was a close
call, but for me, I'm gonna goPicard.
And since I chose Riker as myfirst officer, it kind of makes
Ethan (26:12):
sense.
Yeah.
I would say though, I've.
I think Janeway could alsohandle the Borg because she, in
Voyager, they have seven of ninetoo.
Anthony (26:21):
Well, yeah, that's true.
I mean, she has handled theBorg, right?
Because they're in the DeltaQuadrant.
That's how they got seven ofnine.
Eventually, they kind of rescuedher from the Borg.
So yeah, she's, she's certainlycapable of it.
I just think Jean Luc has this.
It's a unique perspectivebecause he was actually a Borg
for a little while, and so,yeah, but, but yeah, both great
(26:43):
captains, I'd, I'd be happy tofollow either one of them into
battle, or on a spaceexploration.
Ethan (26:50):
Preferably an
Anthony (26:51):
exploration.
Yeah, preferably an exploration,not a battle.
Well that was cool, that was funto pick our dream crew.
I think we, I think we didpretty well.
I, I think our crews would wouldbe the best of the best if if we
could create our own Star Trekshow with those characters and
those positions, that'd be a lotof fun.
Ethan (27:10):
And hopefully not as much time travel shenanigans as
Captain Kirkwood had to offer.
Right.
A lot less paperwork for theFederation.
Anthony (27:18):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Well, thanks again forlistening, everyone.
It's been a, another funepisode.
We'll look forward to being backnext week.
And we will eventually resumeour review of Star Trek The
Original Series.
So if you enjoy those shows,we're not giving up on those.
But we wanted to start mixing insome other topical type shows as
well, just to keep itinteresting.
(27:39):
So stay tuned for what's next.
And don't forget to follow us onsocial media.
Shoot us an email if you have.
Questions or ideas for the show.
We'd love to hear from
Ethan (27:49):
you.
And if you want to share yourFavorite crew members or who you
would want to run a ship alsosend us an email about that
Yeah, we'd love to hear what youhave
Anthony (27:57):
to say.
Exactly.
Let us know what what you thinkso Anyway hope you guys have a
great week and we'll talk to youagain soon
Ethan (28:05):
See ya.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!