Star Trek (TOS): Court Martial

[PapaPalpatine]

Cogley also put his own client on the witness stand. As anyone who knows even the first thing about how court proceedings work will tell you, you don't do that unless it is absolutely necessary. In the first place, anyone you call as a witness is fair game to be cross examined, and you need to make sure they are prepared for whatever kind of grilling the other side will see fit to subject them to. To put your client on the stand is to throw them to the wolves; opposing counsel has all the more reason to be completely and utterly ruthless when it's their turn for questions.

[PapaPalpatine]

Re that dress: if my teenage daughter was going to be spending any time around James T. Kirk, I'd make sure that her wardrobe was as unflattering as humanly possible too!

Kirk is unquestionably a horndog, but I don't see him as the kind of cad who seduces under-aged girls. She'd be in far more danger around Wesley Crusher.

[TheLibrarian]

Since Chuck didn't mention it, I'm wondering if I remember this episode differently. I recall Finny making the point that it wasn't just Kirk who ruined his career, but the higher ups in Starfleet who are quick to bury anything or anyone that reflects poorly on the service and the fact that they were so quick to court martial Kirk proves that. I'd like to think Finny's plan was to fake being dead until Starfleet railroads Kirk as badly as he was, then come out and rub it all of their faces, prove his point that they were all arrogant bureaucrats who preach Starfleet infallibility but fail miserably in its execution. Given how many stuck up and insufferable admirals we've had to deal with in TNG and DS9, perhaps an internal shake up was something the service needed.

Does Starfleet really blackball someone so thoroughly for a single blot on their record? Because almost every Starfleet captain we encounter in TOS besides Kirk seems to be either insane (e.g. Commodore Decker), amoral (Ron Tracy), or both (Garth). Were all these guys completely on the straight and narrow until that breaking point when they snapped?

[TGLS]

No, they are clearly better liars than Kirk. That, and they managed to keep half their security department alive.

[Starbug]

Re that dress: if my teenage daughter was going to be spending any time around James T. Kirk, I'd make sure that her wardrobe was as unflattering as humanly possible too!

Kirk is unquestionably a horndog, but I don't see him as the kind of cad who seduces under-aged girls. She'd be in far more danger around Wesley Crusher.

Do we have a hard age of concent for the Federation?

Because here in Britain, it's only 16. Some countries go as low as 13 (the sick fucks).

[TGLS]

Do we have a hard age of consent for the Federation.

Given that San Francisco is capital of the Federation (or at least Starfleet central or something, and the general liberal policies of the Federation (as seen by that rogue planet episode and such), that would imply that California is in charge of all laws in the Federation. Thus, the age of consent would be 18, following modern Californian law (since 1913).

[GandALF]

Amok Time seems to show that arranged marriages and ritual battles to the death are allowed under Federal law. So the Federation charter must give planetary law a whole lot of leeway to do all sorts of crazy things.

[BlackoutCreature2]

Cogley also put his own client on the witness stand. As anyone who knows even the first thing about how court proceedings work will tell you, you don't do that unless it is absolutely necessary. In the first place, anyone you call as a witness is fair game to be cross examined, and you need to make sure they are prepared for whatever kind of grilling the other side will see fit to subject them to. To put your client on the stand is to throw them to the wolves; opposing counsel has all the more reason to be completely and utterly ruthless when it's their turn for questions.

Would this actually matter in a Court Martial? Does the defendant have the right to refuse to take the stand or plead the fifth in a military trial?

[Independent George]

Does Starfleet really blackball someone so thoroughly for a single blot on their record? Because almost every Starfleet captain we encounter in TOS besides Kirk seems to be either insane (e.g. Commodore Decker), amoral (Ron Tracy), or both (Garth). Were all these guys completely on the straight and narrow until that breaking point when they snapped?

Well, if he's a case of what Kirk might have become, maybe he gave some Admiral's wife Romulan mega-syphilis, and this was just an excuse to blackball him.

[cdrood]

Does Starfleet really blackball someone so thoroughly for a single blot on their record? Because almost every Starfleet captain we encounter in TOS besides Kirk seems to be either insane (e.g. Commodore Decker), amoral (Ron Tracy), or both (Garth). Were all these guys completely on the straight and narrow until that breaking point when they snapped?

I always took that to be part of Finney's persecution complex. All that was said was he was reprimanded and sent to the bottom of the promotions list. As it was said he was a Lieutenant at the time of the incident and is a Lt. Commander in the episode, it's clear it didn't irrevocably harm his career. Also, he's go a plumb assignment on one of only 12 top line ships.

I've always liked to think this episode kicked off Kirk's "computer killer" career. He takes every chance to get revenge after one almost screwed up his life.

As to Shaw prosecuting, it's something they don't mention, but it's likely they simply don't have that many Starfleet lawyers at Starbases. Heck, Cogley is apparently a civilian. It's the sort of thing Babylon 5 and the rebooted Battlestar Galactica did better with. They explain that resources are limited. On B5, their only choice is to wipe a murderer's mind because the death penalty isn't allowed, no one's going to pay to ship him back to a prison on Earth, and B5 doesn't have facilities to permanently house felons. On BSG, they address things like being pro-choice is fine in a large, growing society, but when our race is on verge of extinction the greater good overrides at least some personal rights. In essence, Star Trek often fails to acknowledge that the physical limitations space travel impart will require changes to accepted laws.