I’ve made this same argument multiple times. It’s not that he’s inexperienced. He has an incomplete, understaffed ship with celebrities and civilian press on board. He wasn’t skiddish because he didn’t know what to do, but because he knew he didn’t have the tools to properly do it.
He was in an unwinnable situation. If he had said they weren’t prepared for a rescue mission and returned to space dock, the press would have put “Captain Runaway” all over the place. He never would have lived it down.
So instead he never gets to live down being the captain “responsible” for kirk’s death, and has to endure smear campaigns anyway.
I’ve made this same argument multiple times. It’s not that he’s inexperienced. He has an incomplete, understaffed ship with celebrities and civilian press on board. He wasn’t skiddish because he didn’t know what to do, but because he knew he didn’t have the tools to properly do it.
He was in an unwinnable situation. If he had said they weren’t prepared for a rescue mission and returned to space dock, the press would have put “Captain Runaway” all over the place. He never would have lived it down.
So instead he never gets to live down being the captain “responsible” for kirk’s death, and has to endure smear campaigns anyway.