@darth_helmet@47_alpha_tango I like Ortegas a lot, but I think it is kinda silly that a huge starship would need (or could use) a hotshot pilot. The ship is like an aircraft carrier, which generally don't make fancy moves.
This is something that’s been a problem with space combat in media forever. It’s the size of an aircraft carrier, but combat is more exciting if we pretend that everything in space maneuvers like a fighter jet.
Pretty much only The Expanse gets that stuff right.
The astronauts in the ISS predominantly conduct science research and maintain the station. The only maneuvering it does is orienting itself for thermal management, orbit raising and occasional collision avoidance. A ship like Dragon 2 is highly automated. Yet a lot of astronauts are still pilots and many from the military.
Nobody would be surprised to travel on a commercial aircraft flown by an ex-military pilot.
Star Trek space combat doesn’t seem very realistic but I can understand the value of having an experienced pilot who can function under pressure. It makes a hell of a lot more sense than handing the helm of the flagship full of families over to an unqualified teenage Wesley Crusher. Picard was fortunate there aren’t more mountains in space or that could have turned out like Aeroflot 593.
100% agree. She’s got a confidence that is often annoying, but I think that’s the point. She thinks she’s hot shit (and maybe she is – she’s at least a competent pilot).
I see her as a kind of version of (early) Tom Paris.
She’s a more seasoned pilot by far than early Tom Paris.
But she’s exactly what I expect and know experienced combat pilots to be like. Some are sober and subdued like Sulu or Detmer, but the in your face types are common and tolerated.
Season 1 Ortegas was hard for me to like. She was far too cocky for a Starfleet officer, talking back and too informally to superior officers. She felt like she didn't belong in Star Trek, or at least in that kind of Starfleet command structure.
Season 2 Ortegas has backed off from that a bit and is now far more enjoyable. She's got spunk, but she doesn't come off as insubordinate or rude.