I'm watching the reruns of the early season two episodes that I taped a few weeks ago. In the scene in "The Siege" where Sisko was briefing the Starfleet officers about the plans to remain on board after the evacuation and try to slow down the Bajoran assault force, there were maybe twenty Starfleet officers AT MOST.
Was this supposed to be the entire Starfleet crew complement of DS9 in the first couple of years? Or do you think that just the officers would have been there, with the subordinate crewmen still doing stuff elsewhere?
Posted by EdipisReks (Member # 510) on :
my guess would be that it was just the officers.
Posted by Snay (Member # 411) on :
IIRC, the first few years, there were no more then fifty Starfleet crew at the most.
I'd also imagine quite a few of that were evacuated during "The Siege" ... someone had to pilot those Runabouts, anyway.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
It was supposed to be only a couple dozen - otherwise there'd be nothing for the Bajorans to do. Total station population at that time was supposed to be about 300, not including transients ("Captive Pursuit"). In "The Siege", Sisko was supposed to be addressing all the Starfleet crew on the station - and that was barely more than a dozen extras.
I believe the last time we had a solid look at DS9's complement was in the seventh season's "Field of Fire", whence one section of DS9's habitat ring was quoted as housing (I think) nine hundred Starfleet personel. Of course this was during wartime...
Mark
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Correction: per the series bible for season one, "About two hundred people, mostly Bajorans, still live there. By episode three, there will be about fifty Starfleet officers and crew stationed there."
Mark
[ October 28, 2002, 20:25: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Which would be great, if we lived in crazy madness land where the series bible overrode aired dialogue.
Posted by Snay (Member # 411) on :
When does dialogue override the bible? Perhaps in the later seasons, when there's a war, but at the time of "The Siege", I don't see why DS9 would have any more then 50 or so crew ...
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Because the bible says that there were 200 Bajorans on the station in season 1, and the show says there were 300.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I'm sure there were about 50 Starfleet officers there too. I don't know which episode - but yeah probably something like the Seige. And I reckon after the events of "The Jem'Hadar" the Starfleet population steadily increased, cause before hand the Station was really just an out-post (OK next to the only known stable wormhole - but not a place that needed more starfleet people - when the Bajorans could and did most of the work. I mean Bashir's Nurse was (nearly) always a Bajoran. And O'Brien's assistant was going to be Neela/Anara a Bajoran woman.
Odo's Deputy for like the first 5 seasons was that Bajoran deputy with the dark hair and 'lined' face we always saw. He then disappeared. I don't know why.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Well, let's see:
- 200 Bajorans. That probably includes all of the non-Starfleet crewers, shopkeepers, and other Bajoran permanent residents.
- 50 Starfleet officers. No problem.
(300 crewers seems a bit low for a large station with a mass several times that of a Galaxy-class starship, but it's probably not as maintenance-intensive since there are no engines and other high-input equipment like a starship.)
- 50 other non-Bajoran permanent residents. This would include people like Jake Sisko, Keiko and Molly O'Brien, Morn, Quark and the other Ferengi, and of course Morn.
- And on top of that, there's always likely to be a few other people coming and going even in the early seasons, who would stick around for a few days or weeks doing business.
Posted by CaptainMike XXIII (Member # 709) on :
and the Defiant's crew was rated between 40-50 on the average. i'd wager a host of new officers arrived as of 'The Search' to help crew the vessel. (i doubt they took all the SF personnel with them onship.. there would have been more than a couple of them that were there for purposes other than crewing her).. i recall Eddington was specifically mentioned as coming aboard with the Defiant crew.
and as of the war, all bets are off.. i think that tons of Fleet personnel would be there for servicing ships, tranferring to combat zones. didn't 'Field of Fire' establish some fighter groups had pilots at home aboard DS9?
Posted by Hunter (Member # 611) on :
The only mention of fighter pilots in Field Of Fire is Bashirs toast that Ilario is living proof that the academy produces the best fighter pilots in the galaxy. Also Odo states that there are over 900 Starfleet OFFICERS on DS9. Depending on the Officer to Enlisted ratio, which in Starfleet seem to be riduclous low, there might have been a few thousand Starfleet personal on the station during the War. The number of starfleet uniforms does seem to increase in the promande scenes.
Posted by CaptainMike XXIII (Member # 709) on :
i think that 'officers' is usually used as a catchall for starfleet personnel, commissioned or not. (only because they seem to use the term interchangably)
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I've always used "officers" as a catchall term, too.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"...the Officer to Enlisted ratio, which in Starfleet seem to be riduclous low..."
I was under the impression that modern navies had very low commissioned:non-commissioned ratios, and Starfleet's was unusually high.
Posted by Hunter (Member # 611) on :
"I was under the impression that modern navies had very low commissioned:non-commissioned ratios, and Starfleet's was unusually high"
Sorry what I meant to say was that Starfleet has an unsually low Enlisted to officer ratio, so yes you are correct.A quick look around the net suggest that officers tend to make about 13% to 14% of personnal in Western naval forces or a ratio of aproximatly 1 to 6, whilest Starfleet officers appear to make up anywhere from 20% to 50%! The only forces that I can think of with a similar force structure would be early air forces in the actual combat arms.