Operational Readiness Protocols: This Fine Crew

‘A captain’s only as good as their crew,’ said Lieutenant Dathan.

‘Sentimental nonsense,’ said Admiral Beckett. ‘If a captain cannot extract the necessary performance from their crew, they have no business being a starship commander. And if they will not give their best, those officers have no business being on a starship.’

Dathan paused. ‘How long has it been since you commanded a starship, sir?’

‘Five years,’ said Beckett loftily, with no trace of self-awareness. ‘Why?’

‘Oh,’ said Dathan, thinking of past crews she’d served with and how they’d worked together. ‘No reason, sir.’

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Admiral Beckett is wrong: a captain – and ship – are only as good as their crew. And your primary character, and their ship, all definitely have a crew. Especially a bridge crew, the crack team of senior officers ready to face every crisis the ship will confront.

Perhaps this is the bridge crew of your avatar ship, serving under your captain. Perhaps your primary character is still a junior officer leading runabout missions from your Task Force HQ – they still have a team with them! But who are they, these senior officers? Who’s your primary character’s Spock, who’s their Scotty, who’s their McCoy?

This competition is to assemble a picture/pictures of your ship’s bridge crew, and name and describe them. These pictures can be from anything – photoshopped pictures of them in uniform, or just photos of actors or models you’d cast. Or you can create them in Star Trek Online and screenshot it! Or use something like Trekkietar (and make do with the uniform choices, alas). Or, hell, draw them!

Then name them, and describe them. One sentence will do – ‘The young, ambitious first officer who’s not afraid to tell the captain their mind.’ ‘The cool-headed engineer who handles everything, from a maintenance problem to a warp breach, with endless patience.’ Their tag-line, their character pitch.

It’s important to think about your primary character. It’s important to think about your ship. But both are only as good as the crew.

Criteria

• Entries require one or more images representing your ship’s bridge crew. One group shot is allowed, or multiple images may be linked to in the submission box. It must be made in some way clear which image is which character (or who’s who on a group shot).
• There must be at least 3 bridge crew characters, not including the commanding officer.
• Images can be from a variety of sources including STO or simple generators like Trekkietar, and photos of actors/models do not have to be photoshopped for uniforms. Lee-way will be given on aliens, but effort will be rewarded.
• The characters must be named, and given a brief (one sentence to one paragraph) description.
• Links to BFMS characters will be accepted so long as they include images and the brief description. There are no bonus points for a complete biography.
• Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to Star Trek canon, style, and adherence to the prompt. Grammar and spelling will not be important judging criteria but will be used to break ties.