Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but I never really understood why the captain switched pods with Kaela. It felt like that part was just kind of "there" for no apparent reason. If he knew it was malfunctioning, why did they go in the first place?
shareHe did know that it was malfunctioning, which is why he courageously gave his to her. It makes sense too, considering she was the head medical officer and it was a medical ship, which makes her invaluable. He basically decided that it was worth the risk to get there to the distress call and hope that his pod would be fine.
Hope that helps.
Made no sense whatsoever. If the pod was malfunctioning and he knew, why didn't he just call central command or whatever and have another ship sent? Or just fix the damn pod!
shareI always had a problem with that too. We wouldn't sent an ambulance from A&E if it had a flat tire or faulty brake lights, We'd sent another ambulance.
It was an excuse to show some make-up effects and a neat laser scalpel, that's all.
It also didn;t make sense that the chief medical officer and the captain switched. Both where essential to the mission - The captain would have discussed it with the crew and got someone else to take the risk, someone more expendable!
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They needed to get the captain out of the way so Spader could step up, lazy sloppy writing but that was their aim. Plus, as noted, to show off some gimmicky special effects.
shareI am of the opinion the Captain was deciding to make a minor gamble on a malfunction, but wanted to make sure that he would take the consequences of the failure.
shareI am of the opinion the Captain was deciding to make a minor gamble on a malfunction, but wanted to make sure that he would take the consequences of the failure.
I think it's less like a Ambulance without breaks as much as a Ambulance with a leaking oil pan.
The system check showed that only one of the twenty odd systems protecting them from the jump was malfunctioning.
Going back to the oil pan, he encountered the ridiculous circumstances where a spatter of oil leads to an engine fire.
He decided that an emergency, like a mining incident where critical injury could occur, was urgent enough to risk a (relatively) minor malfunction.
Similarly, he didn't seem particularly damaged... The major problem was the nature of his condition (bonded to the pod by the cranium) and further malfunction of the pod ensuring a gruesome death (nothing says "squick" like getting your face/skull lifted off).
He saw a potential problem, dismissed it as minor, and made a poor toss of the dice. Granted, it was a bad choice, but not an unreasonable one for a human who obviously had operated these pods many times.
The captain of a ship doesn't voluntarily risk his life. He is the CAPTAIN, the one in charge. He sends someone else or finds another way. That's why the captain is the last to leave a foundered ship. The ship is his responsibility, not something he can voluntarily just give up. The exec would be expendable for those sorts of things, or in this case, a junior crewman. But the most likely action, as others have said, would be to wait till the pod was fixed or send another ship.
shareThe captain has a duty to his ship, yes. But his ship isn't the metal around him... It's the flesh and blood that crews it. He wouldn't ask anyone on the ship to take a risk he wasn't willing to take himself, therefor he took the risk. It was a minor error that he was willing to cross his fingers on to get to the distress call on time. When they explain (stretching definitions here) the warp tech, they state they can't guarantee they will arrive in time to be useful if they don't warp immediately. Likewise, they are the only... read singular, ship in range. They were the only chance for the miners if a typical accident had occurred.
On that same note, the captain seems to have little to do with the actual piloting of the ship in this age. He appears to be little more than a senior member for advice and judgment calls. He made an incorrect call, and paid the price for it. Note that he ensured the mistake would be his alone. The AI can easily return the ship without him, and he decided to risk his live on a buggy pod in the hopes the ship would get to the wounded in time.'
I won't argue he wasn't being a bonehead, but I will argue he was acting in his role of captain... protecting his ship (and crew that it is made of) and making judgement calls (again, he bet on the wrong horse, but it was his job to make the bet).
yes because "central command" can just send another ship to the middle of nowhere in time before the supernova explosion.
and malfunction was possible, but it was a chance, a chance he took, you know, like any person in military does entering a field. its a calculated risk that didnt pay out this time.
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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.
Captain knew the pod might have problems, but believed it was an acceptable risk. His ship was the only one in range, and there was a the possibility of multiple injured persons.
Why did he take the risk, and not someone else?
The doctor, the pilot, and the tec were probably the 3 essential personal.
The two med tecs proably double as nurses. If you have multiple injured persons, you will need them to save as many lives as possible.
In the end, the captain was the most expendable crewmember.
I was hoping for a better explanation found somewhere in the story.
But yours "arvid" - is the most succinct and reflects other's answers; conclusions I also agree with.
As I'm listening to the movie in the background, I hear the remaining of the crew, shortly after the jump, carefully discussing their options and choosing the best logical course of action - just like the captain apparently did.
These folks, the captain and his medical crew, are trained to triage - to use their resources to best advantage - hardcore life and death decisions; its what they do (and playing the percentages is part of decision making).
Leaders sometimes make life and death decisions. They have a responsibility to their mission, their crew and themselves - in that order (of course its more complicated than that for example, they're not likely to sacrifice the crew to complete a mission - just depends). The captain's decision was the best choice - believing the risk was minimal.
Adding to my previous post, the Captain was likely a previous pilot. This would explain why the pilot is the next in line of command. The only other person it could be is the ship tec, but that position seems less like a Star Trek Chief Engineer and more like a techie.
http://www.spittoon.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Charlie-Hebdo.jpg
From what I understand, the captain felt the risk was no greater than riding on a motorcycle without a helmet. The risk (in my opinion from what the captain said) sounded like it was maybe 5% at best...a minor trifle with little chance of danger.
I agree with a former poster, the only reason the pod failed was to show off some cheesy special effects :)
I agree with the others that it didn't make sense whatsoever and seemed to be an excuse to introduce scary music thrills and chills into the first minutes of the film.
For that matter, why wouldn't the computer have known that the pod was malfunctioning before starting the jump sequence? I mean, my laptop warns me about all sorts of things. You'd think a computer's basic function or one task it would have would be to notice whether everything is working on the ship -- especially pods they need to jump to other parts of the galaxy.
And why not just abort the jump if they knew something was wrong? which I repeat they ought to have known. There's a display that indicates that there is a malfunctioning pod but for some reason the computer running the ship isn't tied into this piece of electronics.
I am a leaf on the wind - watch how I soar.
The bigger question? Why were there only enough pods for the crew? Shouldn't a RESCUE ship have a bunch of extra pods for, you know, the people they rescue? Big Stupid Plotting!
shareI thought of that as well. Perhaps it was designed to help sick or injured people on the spot, and if people needed to be transported short distances, they could do that as well.
Remember when someone said, I don't remember who or the exact wording, that they hadn't done a jump in a few missions? Perhaps they rarely use that type of movement, and again, only to get there and treat, not to transport over very long distances. If that is needed, perhaps they call someone else. Or maybe it's even possible that one of the more non essential crew stays behind to make room for the person that is in dire need of extended transport.
In the end, it's just a film that is not all that great. It gives more questions than answers, like why didn't Benjamin fire the gun more than once at Karl's head, or why didn't Kaela use the laser to finish the job on Karl's head instead of just injuring him slightly and then running? It is the type of film that isn't meant to be all that deep. More action and suspense than anything else.
If your nose runs and your feet smell, you were built upside down.
Poor storywriting.
When they resort to this sort of thing you know the rest is going to suck.
Ever seen those movies where the man/woman comes home and finds their spouse dead with a knife or gun there and they pick it up JUST as the cops come in? Same sort of lousy writing.
They could have made it a straight shot there without the idiocy of the pod malfunctioning.
It also reminded me of ALIENS...WHO leaves the command ship unattended? Well who has a huge rescue ship with such a small amount of rescue pods. Besides they looked big enough to hold two people.
The story was very lame.
Basically a rip off of ALIEN.
They who give up liberty to
obtain a temporary safety deserve
neither liberty or safety
I was just going to ask if the captain were psychic. He was apparently having those visions of the actual mining and discovery of that glowing rock. Maybe he had a vision that he should take the broken pod.
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