Lord Yellowtail's Writing Room

A few months ago, before I decided to start blogging again, I found this post on the Trekkie Feminist Tumblr, asking who the reader would assemble for their dream All Woman Star Trek Crew (and why), from all available canons. I've been wanting to respond to it for a while, but am still Tumblr-averse, so I never got around to it.

But now i have a blog again, so the situation has changed. I've also split off certain positions that are really only combined on the TV show for plot convenience, but otherwise probably shouldn't be. I'm not going to try to define a full chain of command, as I'm still thinking about that. I'm also assuming this amalgamated crew is flying around immediately post-canon, in 2380.

Oh, and SPOILERS.

Commanding Officer: CAPT Nyota Uhura (Original Movie Era): She has decades of first-contact and doing-the-impossible on the job training from James Kirk, and wears a velvet smile and sparkling sense of humor around a razor-sharp intelligence (she's from an era when Starfleet actually needed communications officers on the bridge to decode languages and break encryptions and do all sorts of other things the computer couldn't) hiding a cortinide-and-duranium spine that makes her someone not worth crossing. Combined with her actual genuine compassion as demonstrated throughout TOS, she's everything Starfleet should want in a captain: an excellent, open-minded explorer who wants to see what's beyond the next star, and a veteran space combatant with enough experience to keep her ship and (whatever it's supposed to be protecting, as the case may be) in one piece, and someone who cares deeply for her crew but doesn’t let it cloud her dedication to the mission.

Executive/First Officer (2IC): CDR Shelby: (From TNG's "The Best of Both Worlds") I like the idea of her more brash, FIRE-THE-CANNONS-ALSO-I-AM-SCIENCE-AND-AMBITION personality being in balance with Uhura. I see this assignment as one where she's been given to Uhura to sand the rough edges off and train to actually be a starship captain herself. Given that every other XO we ever see is part o the crew's circle of True Companions and is never leaving, I think this would be an interesting and rarely seen dynamic for a Starfleet crew--I'm sure the wider Starfleet works like this, but it's not what we're used to seeing on Hero Ships.

Chief of the Boat (Senior Enlisted): SCPO Janice Rand: She brought order to what was surely the unspeakable chaos of James Kirk's captaincy of the Federation flagship, which was also apparently a Suicide Squad-class vessel given the insane, unsurvivable missions it kept being sent on, without losing her sanity. She is made of awesome and deserved far more than to be the subject of James Kirk's emo forbidden office romance rants. I imagine her older than her TOS era self here, but younger than she was in the later original movies, so ... late 30s/early 40s. I only bring up her age because like Uhura we see a huge chunk of her life on-screen and she changes considerably over time.

Operations Officer (Department Head)/Communications Officer: LT (jg) Gaila: I love Seven of Nine and think she's awesome, and due to her efficiency expertise I would've made her also be the OPSO, as like Data she's got the physical and mental ability to do both at once. But then I realized Operations Officer is a position that, to a large degree, is about managing people, not just things. Annika Hansen is okay at that in 2379. She's not really good enough to be an actual personnel manager. So then I thought about it and realized there is someone available who fits the bill. Gaila's got interpersonal skills to spare, and her training is stated to be as a computer specialist, according to a deleted scene. In other words, she makes sure the computers work and do the things they're supposed to do. From what we see in TNG and VOY, Communications is either a responsibility of TAC or OPS depending on what ship you're on. Given that she roomed with Uhura, it's reasonable to assume Gaila took some classes with her and is sufficiently cross-trained for both her primary position as OPSO, combining making sure the computers work and managing logistics, and COMMs. She's not nearly as good of a Communications Officer as Uhura, but 1) no one is; and 2) given the advancements in computer technology in the 24th century, she doesn't have to be. Also, Uhura is sitting right there. Bonus: I'm assuming Prime Reality (original canon) Uhura is Captain of this ship. Gaila comes from an alternate reality where she and Uhura were room-mates and best friends. Hilarity should ensue.

Science Officer (Department Head): LT Annika Hansen (Former Borg Drone Seven of Nine): She's brilliant and has a considerable chunk of the Borg's vast wealth of knowledge crammed in her head, and is demonstrably willing to consider unorthodox solutions to difficult scientific problems, and stand up for what she believes in. And by this point in her career she would have learned how to be flexible enough to fit into a Starfleet crew sufficiently to be in a position of leadership.

Chief Engineer (Department Head): LT CDR B'Elanna Torres: Even without finishing Starfleet Academy (which I'm gonna assume she actually finished upon returning to Earth, and finished quickly given her skill level by the end of VOY), without being able to recite Starfleet protocols and regulations forwards and backwards while suffering from polywater* intoxication, with no resupply resources and limited salvage opportunities at any given moment, she kept Voyager in one piece and functioning well enough to match 4 out of 5 "Our hat is homicidal nutcasery" species and natural phenomenon** in the Delta Quadrant, and managed to come up with solutions to survive the 1 out of 5 species and natural phenomenon that clearly outmatched Voyager long enough for everyone to pool their resources and come up with a solution. Given how she performs under those conditions, she should be completely magnificent in a situation where she has proper resources and a Captain who, like Janeway, is willing and able to work with her volatile personality.

 Chief Tactical Officer/Chief of Security (Department Head): CDR T'Pol: As much as I love what the fandom apparently has labelled "Science Polly"--though I'm not sure how I feel about the nickname--Seven of Nine, in both terms of her skill set and abilities and source timeframe is a superior candidate for Science Officer. T'Pol's science officer training is from a time when Vulcan was deliberately indoctrinating its scientists with arbitrary skepticism (e.g.: time travel cannot exist), and though she's gotten over that to a large degree by the end of Enterprise (the series), it's still affected her thinking and made her a bit more rigid than she might have otherwise been. On the other hand, there's a whole dimension to her character we never really get to see on screen (because the the writers were too interested in shoving Sex Symbol/Damsel in Distress T'Pol at us for most of the series). T'Pol was an operative of the Vulcan Ministry of Security. It's implied/all but stated she was as close to a wetworks operative as ST is ever likely to show on screen. I'm going to play out the associated inferences there and assume she would've also been trained in ship to ship combat and military police-style security work. Pretty much everything you need to know to keep a starship secure. I love T'Pol's character, and Tuvok demonstrates how much fun Vulcan TAC personnel who love their work are, and I'd love to explore this part of T'Pol's personality. I'd also like to have explored T'Pol as a mother in a committed relationship with Trip Tucker, but then they killed the baby and Trip and T'Pol broke up and I will never forgive the show runners for that.

Chief Medical Officer (Department Head): LT CDR (DR.) Selar: This oddly expressive, highly competent Vulcan physician was personally trained by Dr Beverley Crusher, and served on the Enterprise-D for most if not all of its seven-year mission, thus bearing witness to a great many improbable things, in and out Sickbay. As a doctor she should thus demonstrate a unique combination of coolness under extreme pressure and a somewhat unVulcan willingness to think outside the box when necessary.
 

Helm/Senior Flight Operations Officer (Department Head): LT Ro Laren: I love Ro, and always thought the way she was written out of the show was a terrible waste of her potential. If the actress had to leave, that's no reason to have destroyed her character's redemption arc. I'm not saying she shouldn't have chosen to go the Maquis, if that's where her heart and morals called her, but she was written as doing in such a way that it was an active betrayal of her Captain and her friends and crewmates on the Enterprise, and they had just spent literally seasons showing us she was better than that. So I'm gonna assume she is. So this is the Ro from before her whacky defection, the one that's a crack pilot and also, thanks to her graduation from the Advanced Tactical Training Course, apparently a highly competent space commando with considerable ship to ship combat skills. In fact, I'm just realizing that in terms of skill set she's scarily similar to LT Tom Paris.
 

Head Counsellor/First Contact Specialist (Department Head): CDR Deanna Troi: Because Star Trek: The Next Generation happened, and she's actually really good at this job (and her secondary first contact specialist job) when properly written.

Other Personnel: Head Nurse Christine Chapel; LT (jg) Samantha Wildman (Gamma Shift (night watch) bridge science officer); Dr Gillian Taylor (exobiologist--oceanic life specialist)

*My onboard dictionary recognizes this as a properly-spelled word by default. Nicely done, Apple.

** Because in the Delta Quadrant, the natural phenomena were actively trying to kill Voyager, most of the time. The Delta Quadrant was the Hub City of the Milky Way.