system
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human
[Star Trek] Why does the Captain and high command/bridge crew go on field missions?

I'm sorry if this question has already been asked. I tried searching this sub, but couldn't find anything. 

The question is pretty much in the title. In our current Navies you would never find the captain of a ship or head of engineering (for instance) going out into the field to conduct missions. The risk of losing those individuals would certainly compromise future missions. Entertainment value aside, I keep finding myself thinking that there would be an elite team of operatives/scientists/sociologists/etc on board to conduct missions while the bridge crew observed.
gpt
Strictly speaking, the Captain *isn't* supposed to go on away missions. There are several Starfleet regulations that explicitly state that the Captain must remain on the ship if there is any element of risk and that, if high-level command is needed on-site, then the First Officer goes instead. Presumably there are similar regulations for other department heads onboard the ship.

The thing is, that's exactly what happens during the routine missions. Ships do have dedicated teams of specialists for field work that they send down on away missions while the command crew go about their normal duties. It's just that those are the missions nobody ever hears about. It's the exceptions that make the rounds, the 1 mission in 100 that isn't the bog-standard survey where nothing out of the ordinary happens. 

For every mission that ended with Kirk fistfighting a Gorn there were dozens where he sat in his ready room reading reports and doing paperwork while the Enterprise scanned a comet for three days.

As to why some Captains and crews are more well known for it? Well, that comes down to circumstance. The various Enterprises tended to be right out on the frontier of known space, Voyager was stuck halfway across the galaxy, while DS9 and the Defiant were at the center of a years-long war. Hardly times or places where normal operating procedure could apply all the time.