It's like that - on almost every Trek PBEM I see there are three duty shifts, and captain commands ship during Alpha shift, first officer commands during Beta shift, and second officer commands during gamma shift.
So, um, ok. But from what I've seen in actual Trek episodes, it's not like that... I mean, in almost every TNG episode we see Picard together with Riker, Data takes double shifts, not to mention Harry Kim commanding Voyager during nightshift...
So, how it is in 'reality'? Also, as I understand, there are people here with Navy experiences, perhaps they could tell how its organized on real ships?
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On a real boat underway they divide the bridge watches into sections on my last ship it was 3 sections and it was a 4 hour watch with an Officer of the Deck (OOD) Junior Officer of the Deck (JOOD) which is his assistant, a Boatswains mate of the Watch which is in charge of all the enlisted watch standers and then there was the helmsman, lee helmsman, Port and Starboard lookouts,and messenger. The OOD is in charge of the bridge when the Captain or XO is not around. Normally the Captain will leave the day to day running of the bridge in the OOD's hands but in certain situations the captain will take command such as when we went through the Suez Canal or during a replishment at sea.
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posted
i think the best examples of this arrangement are TNG "Disaster" and DS9 "Emissary" .. both show that Picard is on duty, but off the bridge with a designated OOD in charge, a lieutenant who is not XO, 2ndO or a department head, simply a command officer who is responsible for the bridge..
the rest of the time i guess we are to assume that on Federation starships, the Captain has a lot more resources to perform his duties from the bridge than off of it, so UFP captains spend a lot more time in the center seat than USN ones might
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Question? What exactly are the Captain's duties on a real Navy vessel? If he's able to leave the command of the bridge in a junior officer's hands, what other things does he do during a duty shift?
I would guess that much of Picard's off-screen time is spent in his ready room with someone else in operational command. We just happen to catch up with him when the action starts. Given the variety of missions the Enterprise is assigned to, alot of his time is probably spent planning and prepping for them... figuring out what to delegate to whom.
posted
As per most of the background info, Data's Day implies that, under normal cicumstances, Picard takes the day shift, Riker the evening one, and Data the night one.
However, that's under normal opperation, and the Enterprise (and other series ships) are very rarely functioning under normal situations. When invesitgating this weeks alien threat/anomoly, it makes sense that the Captain would take charge, and his most important and capable officers would sit with him during the crisis. I guess that they would also abandon the normal shift pattern during those times, since we never saw...
"Reistence if Futile. You will be..."
"Hold that thought. Sorry, but I've finished for the day."
"...assimi...what?"
"Yeah, I'm off. I'm going to read some Shakespear and have a bath. You can deal with Ensign Happydude. Bye."
"But..."
"Hi, guys! This is Ensign Happydude. I'll be taking over from the captain for now. Any questions, queries, I want you to address to me. Anyway, *ahem*, we will not be bullied by you!"
"Bullying is irrelevent. You will be..."
"Sorry, but, was I okay? Was that believable?"
"Okay, we're off."
"Wait! I can do better. Listen. *ahem*. THE LINE MUST BE DRAWN HERE!"
"Bye."
"No, wait! I AM YYOUR FATHER! No, that's wrong. Damnit..."
"See you for the next season finale."
And then after that, we all wonder what the point was.
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A good point. Something tells me the military doesn't operate like your normal day job. When I leave for the day, I'm done. If there's some graphic design emergency... it waits until tomorrow. Aboard ship though, if you're needed on duty, you get your butt on duty. So naturally, in the middle of the story, the main characters and senior officers will be on the bridge.
posted
Another option is that each shift is 10-12 hours long and overlap each other by two hours. data's an exception o the rule and pulls two shifts back to back (being a tireless android and all).
Starfleet personell seem to need less rest than us primitive screwheads (w've seen Riker and co. pull 18 hour shifts before being ordered to get rest).
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Plus there do seem to be people hanging around on the bridge whose sole job seems to be waiting for Data/Wesley/Worf/etc to wander off, so that they can sit in their chair. What do they do while waiting? No-one knows...
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quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Another option is that each shift is 10-12 hours long and overlap each other by two hours.
I get this strange mental image of Riker sitting on Picards lap (and queue of crewmans arguing who gets to sit on counselor Troi lap )
Hm... Is this possible that those extras are actually OODs and JOOD, like Intruder1701 said its being done on RL ships? (thanks for the info, Intruder )
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quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: Plus there do seem to be people hanging around on the bridge whose sole job seems to be waiting for Data/Wesley/Worf/etc to wander off, so that they can sit in their chair. What do they do while waiting? No-one knows...
Hmmmm.... Possibly training, I suppose. From a strictly tactical POV, it makes sense to have extras (literally) waiting to jump in, in case of the old "console explosion" or explosive diherreah from Riker's cooking.
Mabye the extra personnell are summoned to station during Yellow/Red alerts and are down in the C-Deck bowling alley the rest of the time. Otr they're practising with their phasers: these arent stromtroopers, y'know.
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Just as an aside, the duty officer on the bridge is called the "Officer of the Watch" (OOW) in the Royal Navy, which makes slightly more sense than "Officer of the Deck" in my opinion.
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So do they ever say "Mr Blinkyblob, you have the conn/bridge" in the real navy? Or the US one?
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
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