- Away team
In the "
Star Trek "fictional universe , an away team (also known as a "landing party") is a group of individuals sent off astarship to accomplish a mission, either on a planet's surface or another starship. Starfleet protocol requires away teams to be armed with weapons (usually hand phasers) andtricorder s and some away teams may require environmental suits, depending upon the nature of the mission. The away team may vary in size from two to dozens, although a size of three to six is most common. The demands of storytelling often mean that the Captain is on the mission; however, in Star Trek series set further in the future, the Captain more often remains on the bridge.On , the landing party usually consisted of
Captain Kirk ,Mr. Spock ,Dr. McCoy , plus at least one "redshirt" who would be the victim (often fatally) of the planet's dangers. This occurred less frequently in later series, especially and , where the ship could not easily replenish crewmembers.That original series landing parties often included
Captain Kirk was seen as unrealistic. This was one reason for the creation of the "First Officer" role, occupied byCommander Riker on andChakotay on Voyager, which would allow a central, but more believable, character to go on away missions. Fact|date=February 2007Away teams usually went on missions to explore unknown planets to find resources (especially on Voyager), or for diplomatic and
first contact missions. It was normal for them to travel bytransporter , though it was often necessary due to "atmospheric interference" for the team to make use of ashuttlecraft , which was more than likely to crash.was also a computer game developed by
Activision where the player chose and controlled an away team on a number of missions.Cultural References
Members of the Heaven's Gate cult wore arm patches saying "Heaven's Gate Away Team" when they committed suicide in 1997, believing they were headed for a UFO trailing the
comet Hale-Bopp . [cite web|author= Katherine Ramsland|title = Death Mansion|work = All about Heaven's Gate cult|publisher =CourtTV Crime Library|url = http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/heavens_gate/5.html|accessdate = 2006-09-20]References
External links
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20041205153859/http://www.ship3.fsnet.co.uk/sewg.htm A site on Starfleet environmental suits]
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