I haven’t been in ¨he Navy,but I understand most everyone stays on the boat until they dock, and then they’re back on the ship before it leaves again. Whwn the ship gets back to home port, then everyone can take a break.
Otherwise, you have a fragile and intricate web of arrivals and departures around the world to keep a ship fully staffed.
Yeah, but it’s only ever senior staff who gets to that, and the federation ships have an Enterprise rent-a-car full of Warp-4 minivans that apparently need very little skill to pilot or resources to operate over long distances. None of that is much of a match for the tenders, lifeboats, and helicopters on your average Navy ship.
It is only senior staff that we see do that. The Enterprise D is designed to act like a mobile logistics hub for deep space missions and it routinely has Federation staff coming on board and leaving based on the mission profile.
Deep Space 9 showed that runabouts could be operated almost entirely by voice control (Odo was able to pilot one without much difficulty). I’d imagine shuttles would be just as easy or easier to pilot given their more limited equipment loadout.
The crew of a starship can be offered shore leave anytime the ship is docked at a space station or a friendly planet so long as operational requirements allow. Hell, there was an episode where Picard basically forced Riker to take leave along with about half of the crew because they “wouldn’t require a full ship’s complement” for that mission. So it seems to be almost entirely up to the captain. Individuals (at least from senior staff, not sure about the lower decks) could take personal leave at the captain’s discretion as well (worf travelling to his tournament, geordi attempting to attend a symposium on warp fields, etc).
Yes, that is how it works on Star Trek. My question is if it’s a realistic way to run a space fleet, or even if it’s in-universe consistent. Seems like random events happen all the time and you always want to be prepared.
It seems the makers of Star Trek wanted to have a comfortable middle class academic life for its characters, but also the adventure of TOS. There was always a weird tension there. I only resolved it by creating a head cannon where planetary life is so existentially vaccuous, that people would rather risk their lives and the lives of their children on a space ship than live safer lives on the ground.
Keep in mind also that we only see little snippets of time portrayed in the show. Even individual episodes can have gaps of days or weeks between scenes! The show wouldn’t be very exciting if every other episode was just them lazily cruising to their next mission and filling out crew reports or whatever.
Edit: Yeah, I could see planetary life being pretty unfulfilling. Like… what are you gonna figure out that hasn’t already been figured out? Gotta go out into the great unknown to solve a new mystery.
Instead of money, people look to accomplishments for social status and distraction.
That’s basically canon, established in the uhh season 1 finale I think it was? They unfreeze some people from the 21st century and the one rich guy is questioning what the point of it all is if money isn’t around anymore.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: This is the 24th century. Material needs no longer exist.
Ralph Offenhouse: Then what’s the challenge?
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: The challenge, Mr. Offenhouse, is to improve yourself. To enrich yourself. Enjoy it.
It’s not just transportation, it’s coordinating staff assignments. And it doesn’t make sense in a frontier setting, where the Enterprise seems to blip back and forth into and out of.
And also travel time. DS9 to New Orleans has got to take most of a vacation.
I guess it just tends to make the Enterprise more of a floating research university with all the amenities, which always annoyed me. TNG is a great case study for The Burnout Society–buncha overachievers.
In the episode with the worm parasite things, Picard mentions that it’s rare for a deployed starship to return to Earth so maybe their planetary defenses rely on orbital weapons?
I’m guessing they also rely on various in-system defenses such as Luna and Mars as well. Utopia Planetia surely has some ships that could be deployed to Earth in hours or maybe even minutes if needed. What kind of crew complement they’d have available is a different story.
Oh that’s why Admiral Shelby thought that networking a bunch of starships was a good idea. Earth has a ton of ships to throw at a problem but probably only a few with full person-power and sufficient experience to be effective in a surprise conflict in Sol.
I mean it kinda makes sense when the Enterprise is out exploring the far reaches of known space, but nobody else within range of Earth orbit is wild.
They’ll all be back on Tuesday.
I thought it was weird when crew members would take individual vacation. That’s not how ships work.
Leave? That’s exactly how ships work. And they usually take one of the shuttles.
The one [functioning] shuttle
I haven’t been in ¨he Navy,but I understand most everyone stays on the boat until they dock, and then they’re back on the ship before it leaves again. Whwn the ship gets back to home port, then everyone can take a break.
Otherwise, you have a fragile and intricate web of arrivals and departures around the world to keep a ship fully staffed.
Yeah, but it’s only ever senior staff who gets to that, and the federation ships have an Enterprise rent-a-car full of Warp-4 minivans that apparently need very little skill to pilot or resources to operate over long distances. None of that is much of a match for the tenders, lifeboats, and helicopters on your average Navy ship.
It is only senior staff that we see do that. The Enterprise D is designed to act like a mobile logistics hub for deep space missions and it routinely has Federation staff coming on board and leaving based on the mission profile.
Deep Space 9 showed that runabouts could be operated almost entirely by voice control (Odo was able to pilot one without much difficulty). I’d imagine shuttles would be just as easy or easier to pilot given their more limited equipment loadout.
The crew of a starship can be offered shore leave anytime the ship is docked at a space station or a friendly planet so long as operational requirements allow. Hell, there was an episode where Picard basically forced Riker to take leave along with about half of the crew because they “wouldn’t require a full ship’s complement” for that mission. So it seems to be almost entirely up to the captain. Individuals (at least from senior staff, not sure about the lower decks) could take personal leave at the captain’s discretion as well (worf travelling to his tournament, geordi attempting to attend a symposium on warp fields, etc).
Yes, that is how it works on Star Trek. My question is if it’s a realistic way to run a space fleet, or even if it’s in-universe consistent. Seems like random events happen all the time and you always want to be prepared.
It seems the makers of Star Trek wanted to have a comfortable middle class academic life for its characters, but also the adventure of TOS. There was always a weird tension there. I only resolved it by creating a head cannon where planetary life is so existentially vaccuous, that people would rather risk their lives and the lives of their children on a space ship than live safer lives on the ground.
I mean… https://listofdeaths.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation
Keep in mind also that we only see little snippets of time portrayed in the show. Even individual episodes can have gaps of days or weeks between scenes! The show wouldn’t be very exciting if every other episode was just them lazily cruising to their next mission and filling out crew reports or whatever.
Edit: Yeah, I could see planetary life being pretty unfulfilling. Like… what are you gonna figure out that hasn’t already been figured out? Gotta go out into the great unknown to solve a new mystery.
Yeah, basically, I think Star Trek never resolves the existential void that would come at the end of capitalism.
https://magnus919.com/2026/03/the-suppression-engine-what-zapffe-reveals-about-why-post-capitalism-is-hard/
Instead it replaces it with the striving that is depicted in The Burnout Society.
Edit: Actually, that is the answer. Instead of money, people look to accomplishments for social status and distraction.
That’s basically canon, established in the uhh season 1 finale I think it was? They unfreeze some people from the 21st century and the one rich guy is questioning what the point of it all is if money isn’t around anymore.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: This is the 24th century. Material needs no longer exist.
Ralph Offenhouse: Then what’s the challenge?
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: The challenge, Mr. Offenhouse, is to improve yourself. To enrich yourself. Enjoy it.
But we’re taking about Star Trek, not modern-day navies.
Starships don’t have to be at port for someone to get off or on.
It’s not just transportation, it’s coordinating staff assignments. And it doesn’t make sense in a frontier setting, where the Enterprise seems to blip back and forth into and out of.
And also travel time. DS9 to New Orleans has got to take most of a vacation.
I guess it just tends to make the Enterprise more of a floating research university with all the amenities, which always annoyed me. TNG is a great case study for The Burnout Society–buncha overachievers.
In the episode with the worm parasite things, Picard mentions that it’s rare for a deployed starship to return to Earth so maybe their planetary defenses rely on orbital weapons?
Canonically that’s Star Base 1’s job. Although depending on the episode it may be in orbit around Earth or Jupiter.
I’m guessing they also rely on various in-system defenses such as Luna and Mars as well. Utopia Planetia surely has some ships that could be deployed to Earth in hours or maybe even minutes if needed. What kind of crew complement they’d have available is a different story.
Oh that’s why Admiral Shelby thought that networking a bunch of starships was a good idea. Earth has a ton of ships to throw at a problem but probably only a few with full person-power and sufficient experience to be effective in a surprise conflict in Sol.