Which branch of Starfleet?
 

Here's a new (I think :)) idea for a poll. If you were to serve in Starfleet in the late 24th century, all else being equal (including mortality rates :)), which branch would you serve in? Medical, Science, Security, Engineering, or Command?

Yeah, um, I mucked this up before I could add the poll, so this is more of a discussion.

My chosen field (chemistry) would seem to indicate the Sciences, but there actually isn't a lot of fieldwork on the final frontier, except for environmental chemistry, which we won't discuss. It's so hard to get chemicals, equipment and funding when you're under attack every other week.

I'd go with command. I've got delusions of leadership (call it a Hornblower complex), and that centre chair looks rather comfy.

Just every other week? So you're never attacked this week. This isn't any OTHER week, you know.

Whose Line points for anyone who gets the subtle literary reference!

I wonder if Hornblower and Kirk really have any simularities.

So you're a "re not er" fan. I'm on the fence. I'm enough of a twit to say that a place with a stage is a theatre and a place with a screen is a theater. But then again, not so much of a fan of centre and so on.

Which captain's chair? Not Kirks, I hope. The back's too low and I never really did get into leather upholstery. If it's too cold you can feel it all too easily, and if it's too hot it sticks to your thighs.

Hey, I'm sure any field you can major in at Starfleet Academy can have missions associated with it. We just never see them because sloshing chemicals from one flask to another is kinda McCoy's schick, and we don't want to be stepping on his toes, do we? Besides, how dramatic is "boldly going" to the lab? ;)

Well, I've always thought the Ops officer has a cool job. Just make sure the engineers don't fix something they can't bypass and that the sciences share the sensors, and you get a bridge chair and a senior officer role. Not bad.

...Intelligence.

Gatac

I don't think I actually have any talents useful to Starfleet. Unless they need people with a foot in both history and archaeology. Would that indicate sciences?

Ideally, I'd go for Intelligence...

So you'd probably want to hop into the Guardian of Forever, zap over to the Stargate universe, and join Daniel Jackson's team, huh? Hang out with Rothman!

Hornblower shared Kirk's isolation, and he did bed the odd beautiful woman (adulterously, no less), but there weren't any three-breasted green aliens. Hornblower also suffered from a lack of self-confidence and self worth: he achieved great things through his native intelligence and wit, but he never felt he deserved rewards and praise for them, thinking he was only doing his duty.

I'm Canadian. I'm a fan of spelling things properly.

Well, doing research in chemistry can be done much more efficiently from a permanent address, rather than a mobile starship. It's not something that requires access to deep space facilities, and would actually be hampered on a cramped ship with limited space for equipment and storage that routinely gets knocked around "like a bunch of fireflies in a rambunctious toddler's jar."

Oh, a language purist. I suppose you're a proponent of maintaining the use of "ae" as in aether.

Oh, and I define proper spelling as "anything the dictionary says it can be." Ergo, center and theater are just as proper.

Oh, and I don't understand the "Canadian="perfect" spelling" hypothesis. How does that follow?

Oh, and I'm sure that on starships there are labs with independant inertial dampeners, so that even if YOU'RE banging from wall to wall, your chemicals will be just fine.

Intelligence.

(It bears repetition.)

Gatac

I would, but I know next-to-nothing about exo-archaeology (yes, it's spelled "ae" :p), or the Ancients, and his theories on ancient Egypt are harder to swallow than Mt. Rushmore.

We're everywhere!
And "oe". As in oeconomy. And 'connexion', 'reflexion' etc. But *NOT* "crucifiction" - that would mean 'moulding into the shape of a cross'.
So if I become boss-man at the OED, and for the next edition decide that you can spell "centre" as qzhokhtir, you'd agree with that?
Canadian spelling = English spelling. English spelling of English language = correct.
Now answer a simple question: Does the above progression seem logical to you?

;)

You never know. Could come in handy in the event you meet anyone named Khan.

Small joke. My smiley must've gotten eaten.

Combination of the two, actually. Theoretically, either/or is fair game here, but good-naturedly tweaking American sensibilities is also a Canadian past time. *g*

Uh, as long as the Canadian culture contains elements of the French culture, a dollar that is so close to ours, and insists on reaping all of the benefits of being American without paying any of the associated costs, I'll never agree that "Canadian=English."

Hey, I love Canada and it's residents, but Canucks are just as fallable as Yankees in my book.

I could make a joke about how tweaking fun at Americans has to be your only pasttimes because there's "nothing" else to do up there, but enough of you know that I'm Minnesotan that the flaming would bounce back faster than I could say "yah, sure, you betcha."

Minnesotans are really Canadians, anyway, eh?

I suppose in the past that was true, but, at least here in The Cities, that's really no longer the case. We're a major immigration destination, for some reason. Why, I don't know. Didn't their travel agent tell them that Minnesota defines "post-apocalyptic winter weater?" Sheesh, that should be Basic Travel Agent Information 101. I was born and bred here and so were my ancestors going back generations, so I know how to deal with fifty below. I pity these guys who were living in deserts and swampland two years ago.

Go out into the country, though, and yeah, we're still basically good, humble people. I've met them. They're great. They're like Canadians who use the Imperial system.

English spelling of French is just the same as the French spelling of French :p

Indeed.

Dental Hygienist, Baby. I'm so totaly for the Medical carear track. ;) Althought the Character I play on TV is Security.

Oh, another graduate of the Austin Powers School of Speaking. I meet more of you guys every day. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. ;)

Dentists in Starfleet? I thought the Cardassians kidnapped all of those guys years ago. ;)

I'd probably be the one hopping over to Stargate and Daniel Jackson. Writing doesn't have a huge component in anything in Starfleet, I don't think, and I love archaeology. (Plus, mm, Daniel Jackson.)
In Starfleet (if I couldn't get Section 31, that is ;p) I'd probably go for either Security or Command. Why? I'm a blackbelt and I'm good at convincing people. A commander can come from anywhere though, as Janeway and Picard came through Science, Archer through piloting, and I don't know about either Sisko or Kirk but I think Kirk would've been Security.
Or Intelligence. I think any way it went, I'd want something with high risks.

I don't necessarily spell things the Canadian way. I spell them whichever way I am in the mindset of at the time. As much as I hate to say it, sometimes that's the American way.
Hell, I'm not even sure if there is a Canadian way. It's like us using metric for some things and Imperial for others. I just go with what makes sense to me, you know?