Dal was arrogant and naive. He was a newly-minted Captain who wasn't used to possessing power.
Maybe ... Maybe not.
He had no control over her behavior. Putting her in the brig was the right thing to do at the time.
Spoilers Star Trek: Prodigy 1x04 - "Dream Catcher"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
Dal was arrogant and naive. He was a newly-minted Captain who wasn't used to possessing power.
Maybe ... Maybe not.
He had no control over her behavior. Putting her in the brig was the right thing to do at the time.
Putting her in the brig was the right thing to do before they arrived on the planet, but after that? She was far more of a security risk on the ship, than she would have been with the others on an excursion. Dal could not reasonably be expected to know she could use her weapon to break out the way she did, but he was aware the security of the brig could be breached by a simple power failure and so everything was already hinging on a simple point of failure.
And while Gwyn was antagonistic and he had no direct control over her behaviour, he could at least have attempted to influence her. Given that some time seemed to have passed since the escape from Tars Lamora and the incident with the star after that (since Janeway had time to give quite a lot of instructions to each crew member), he needed to think what they would do with Gwyn. From her perspective, it may have seemed like Dal was planning to keep her in the brig (and otherwise ignore her) for weeks, months or even years. That would only encourage her to plan an escape, plans that could potentially get more desperate and more ruthless as time went on.
In Tars Lamora and during the escape, Dal offered Gwyn the chance to defect several times, and she refused every time, even once she had seen the stars and Drednok wasn't in a position to interfere. I guess Dal was angry because of being rejected (and because she was partially in control of him at Tars Lamora, seemingly enjoying that power to some extent) and he wanted to let her feel that. Even when she repeated his words "could have been friends", indicating there was something to work with.
But for the good of the crew, he should have made his mind up by the time they landed on Murder Planet and chosen a course of action to remove the risk that a hostile Gwyn poses to his crew:
1. Decide that they won't be able to turn Gwyn to their side and offer to let her go at a certain point (by dropping her at a habited planet/space station/ship that would allow her to return to Tars Lamora) in return for her good behaviour. He doesn't even truly need to intent to keep such a promise, as long as it keeps her calm for the time being.
2. Decide that she can be turned, as he believed on Tars Lamora, and work on that by confronting her with the situation on Tars Lamora (as Rok did) and by bringing her in a situation where non-hostile interaction with his crew is possible. The excursion on the surface of a lush planet, which they problably all wanted after all that time on a bleak asteroid and then on a smallish vessel, was a great opportunity for that. If they felt it necessary, they could have hand- and/or legcuffed Gwyn so she couldn't effectively run or fight, so there was no downside as far as security goes.
But of course, taking Gwyn along would have meant that he couldn't drive off on his own, because they would have needed to stay together and he couldn't very well leave the task to guard Gwyn to Rok only. Leaving her on the ship seemed easier.
I don't think Dal would ever have wanted to go for option #1 either. It was ironic that out of all the crew, he was in the greatest hurry to see what had happened to Gwyn in the crashed shuttle, and probably the one most afraid she may not have survived the impact.
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Dal is a teenager. Teenagers live in the now, now, now present moment.
Teenagers aren't known for formulating long-term objectives.
Dal and the others are escapees from a slave-mining colony. They lived their lives focused on just getting through each day.
True. But he did name himself captain, he should be a bit better than that to live up to his claim.
Teenagers, young adults, some older adults...it happens.
Why? Who showed him how to be better?
Why?
Because he claims the lead, implicitly saying he is more suited to lead than the others, and thus he should attempt to live up to his claim (which he does later in the season, just not in Starstruck and most of Dreamcatcher) .
Because it's in his interests to spend some effort in (an) attempt(s) to turn Gwyn from "volatile cargo", as someone else described it, into an ally or at least into a more neutral position. He knows her, he could have done more than he did. Rok did more to influence Gwyn in the right way despite barely knowing her, so she showed him how to be better in spite of being much younger (because Rok is open, direct and holds no grudges). It's not rocket science that would be asked of Dal.
I claim to be smart...doesn't mean a whole lot. The biggest thing with people and their claims is they often have to try, fail, and manage impulses before actually being successful at the thing they claim to be.
It might not be rocket science, but I doubt Dal has much in the way of positive role models of actually being a successful leader.
Or of any number of "it's a trap!" episodes, from "The Cage" to "Dead Stop." Or of Quark, Season [only], episode 5, "Goodbye, Polumbus."Oooohhh .... shades of Shore Leave.
