Teams on Star Command

Did Star Command have teams before TAB, or was that something that was only instituted after Team Lightyear was formed? Because on the one hand, there's no mention of teams before TAB, but on the other hand, it seems odd that they'd just suddenly switch from partners to teams, and it's clear that there are four stations on the bridge of the star cruisers.

My theory: It's a bit of both. Maybe each Ranger has one permanent partner, but when necessary they also take two additional people along as well to form a temporary team. That would explain why we often see background Rangers bouncing from team to team (like the bird Ranger being on both Tundra's team and the Asian Ranger's team). So, like, the captain and the co-pilot would be partners, but their additional team mates are just there temporarily for whatever mission they're on. This would mean that Team Lightyear isn't unusual in having four people, but in the fact that they're all permanent members of the team. Does this make sense?

I do agree with your theory a bit, Ranger. In the case of our heroes, Buzz and Mira are probably the permanent pair, with Booster and XR as secondary. The thing is though we see Mira's position as interchangeable with them on some episodes, despite her slight seniority over them. Though part of me can't picture anyone else working with Buzz and Warp.

I do have one question concerning Ty and his partner/team. He was assigned to guard the facility at Canis Lunus, which was established as critical to the GA, yet his only back-up on the place seemed to be the security bots. I doubt he would have had the option of turning down a partner so that he could work alone, because apparently everyone gets back-up, that's the rule established in TAB. Where was Ty's back-up when NOS-4-A2 showed his fanged face around this top secret secure facility? (Not that I don't have confidence in Ty's ability to handle himself. I'm just curious about how these rules work.)

Rook wrote:In the case of our heroes, Buzz and Mira are probably the permanent pair, with Booster and XR as secondary. The thing is though we see Mira's position as interchangeable with them on some episodes, despite her slight seniority over them.

Of course, in episodes like the Slayer, we see Buzz work with XR alone rather than Mira. Perhaps Mira and Booster were set up as a team to work on some other case during that episode, like when they split up into these two teams during Gravitina (or like when Booster teams up with Buzz and Mira gets XR in other episodes). I think, maybe, if Mira has seniority over Booster and XR, this is the reason why she normally ends up in a team with one of them rather than with Buzz. This way both teams have one "senior" officer with experience as the general leader.

The other cases where Booster and XR do end up on a team together is probably because they need to give one of them (primarily Booster, it seems) more experience being the leading officer, like in Taking of PC-7 when Booster was in charge of transporting Torque.

Rook wrote:
I do have one question concerning Ty and his partner/team. He was assigned to guard the facility at Canis Lunus, which was established as critical to the GA, yet his only back-up on the place seemed to be the security bots. I doubt he would have had the option of turning down a partner so that he could work alone, because apparently everyone gets back-up, that's the rule established in TAB. Where was Ty's back-up when NOS-4-A2 showed his fanged face around this top secret secure facility? (Not that I don't have confidence in Ty's ability to handle himself. I'm just curious about how these rules work.)

Here, I think the fact that it's a guard position rather than a high-risk operation meant that they didn't need to send out more rangers to the facility. Considering that the air is toxic and that there's not much of interest on Canis Lunis, they don't need to worry about much crime and therefore don't need to waste sending two rangers when more rangers are needed to take care of planets like Tradeworld where crime is abundant. One ranger and sentry bots should have been enough, but there was the unforeseen circumstance of the place being a great "NOS-4-A2 buffet".

But, of course, this was an important research facility, so they couldn't send a rookie ranger. Ty, despite being rescued so often, has been a ranger long enough to have the proper experience, so he was probably a good candidate to take this assignment (be it assigned to him without a choice, or if he volunteered to get away from Buzz).