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.
Yes, though I remember the Futurama episode more clearly. My only regret… is… that I have… boneitis.
But I guess this why I find TNG sort of spiritually hollow for me. It reflected all the attainment-striving of imbued to the 1990s by capitalism but sans the capitalism. Like I think underneath it might be an anxiety, “if nobody works, does it mean people will be lazy? No! Instead they will WORK HARD at being the BEST THEY CAN BE but in the most 1990’s liberal arts way possible.” How different is getting into Star Fleet and getting a commission on a starship really that different than getting into an elite university and getting a job with a major company? TNG-era trek is the same existential treadmill but with a slightly different carrot.
Not quite sure I understand your point but the shows focus on the overarchievers. The average joe has way less exciting goals. For example Siskos dad just ran a small restaurant
Not sure I understand your point. TNG sells continual self-improvement and is constantly showing us continuual self improvement on the part of the crew; and your argument is that I should ignore it because a main character’s dad in a different series striving for greater realism runs a restaurant?
I can’t speak for everyone but if there was no capitalism and I needed for nothing I would seriously just go door to door asking folks if they had any computer/tech problems I could take a look at for them. Can you imagine how absolutely insane O’Brien would go if he had no problems to fix?
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.
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.
Yes, though I remember the Futurama episode more clearly. My only regret… is… that I have… boneitis.
But I guess this why I find TNG sort of spiritually hollow for me. It reflected all the attainment-striving of imbued to the 1990s by capitalism but sans the capitalism. Like I think underneath it might be an anxiety, “if nobody works, does it mean people will be lazy? No! Instead they will WORK HARD at being the BEST THEY CAN BE but in the most 1990’s liberal arts way possible.” How different is getting into Star Fleet and getting a commission on a starship really that different than getting into an elite university and getting a job with a major company? TNG-era trek is the same existential treadmill but with a slightly different carrot.
Not quite sure I understand your point but the shows focus on the overarchievers. The average joe has way less exciting goals. For example Siskos dad just ran a small restaurant
Not sure I understand your point. TNG sells continual self-improvement and is constantly showing us continuual self improvement on the part of the crew; and your argument is that I should ignore it because a main character’s dad in a different series striving for greater realism runs a restaurant?
I can’t speak for everyone but if there was no capitalism and I needed for nothing I would seriously just go door to door asking folks if they had any computer/tech problems I could take a look at for them. Can you imagine how absolutely insane O’Brien would go if he had no problems to fix?
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.