# Staffing rotas on Star Trek star-ships **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [December 12, 2022, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425 "2022-12-12T23:05:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/41 "2022-12-13T22:50:50Z")
In _The Princess Bride_, it was **Westley** In _Star Trek_, it was **Wesley**. In _Blazing Saddles_ it was **Hedley**. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/42 "2022-12-14T00:02:11Z")
Corbomite Maneuver was the first regular (non-pilot) episode filmed - they messed around with the order because the network liked “planet stories” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/43 "2022-12-14T01:28:53Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > _The Corbomite Maneuver_ was the tenth episode, Despite your name, you’re no ST fanatic! 🙂 It was the first episode filmed. You can tell, things aren’t quite right, yet. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.E](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.e/32/8932_2.png) [@Mr.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.E)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/44 "2022-12-14T02:26:24Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Submarines have much less room for personnel. Hot Racking or hot bunking is the norm. You have a bunk bed while the other crew member assigned to the same bunk is on shift working. Speak for yourself, I served aboard a trident missile submarine that had ample racks for everyone, including extra mats that could be put down in out-of-the-way nooks and storage areas. I recall only one time when anyone had to hot-rack when I was aboard and it was a couple of the absolute most junior enlisted guys for a couple days when the boat was up to its neck in inspectors and other visitors. From what I’ve heard, hotracking is more common on fast attack submarines, but even then they try to limit it and as soon as you’re not among the most junior folks aboard you get your own bunk to yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/45 "2022-12-14T03:00:20Z")
> [@Mr.E](#): > > Speak for yourself, I served aboard a trident missile submarine that had ample racks for everyone, including extra mats that could be put down in out-of-the-way nooks and storage areas. Yeah, on my brief sojourn on an _Ohio_ class they actually had bunks designated for tech reps. This was a test cruise of only a few days and probably didn’t have the full crew complement but there was a lot of extra bunk space, and the food was fresh and plentiful if a little bland. While the boat wasn’t absurdly [_SeaQuest_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106126/) large, it wasn’t _Das Boot_, especially in the missile compartment (e.g. “Sherwood Forest”). Stranger ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/46 "2022-12-14T08:41:59Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > [@cochrane](#): > > > > _The Corbomite Maneuver_ was the tenth episode, > > Despite your name, you’re no ST fanatic! 🙂 > > It was the first episode filmed. You can tell, things aren’t quite right, yet. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WUL7q8eyig8/hqdefault.jpg "William Shatner offers sage advice - "Get a life."") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUL7q8eyig8) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/47 "2022-12-14T13:48:47Z")
Whatevs, dude. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/48 "2022-12-14T16:39:49Z")
> [@MrLee](#): > > So, has this been adequately addressed in Star Trek or elsewhere? Or am I missing something obvious about the premise? Yeah, Earth navies have done this very thing for _centuries_. The day is broken up into “watches”, and different officers have “the deck” for each watch, meaning that they’re in charge of the ship during that watch. The Captain is sort of over it all- typically they don’t stand a watch from what I understand. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/49 "2022-12-14T16:42:09Z")
> [@Mr.E](#): > > From what I’ve heard, hotracking is more common on fast attack submarines I toured the USS Blueback in Portland, and unless their crew was like 25 guys, they HAD to hot-rack, and likely for multiple watches, as there were very few bunks, even counting the ones in the forward torpedo room. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/50 "2022-12-14T16:48:38Z")
> [@bump](#): > > USS Blueback That was a diesel submarine built over sixty years ago! The Navy hasn’t run diesels since 1988. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/51 "2022-12-14T18:20:05Z")
There was the TNG episode(s) with captain antagonist where he wanted to switch from a 3 shift rotation to a (IIRC) 4 shift. Brian ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/52 "2022-12-14T18:23:42Z")
There are FOUR SHIFTS! ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/53 "2022-12-14T18:28:32Z")
More info if duty shifts in Star trek: > **[Duty shift](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Duty_shift)** > > A duty shift, duty watch, or watch rotation, was the portion of the day that various scheduled personnel aboard a starship or space station were on duty. Officers were expected to report on time for their duty shifts and those that failed to do so,... Brian ---
**Author:** ![MrLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@MrLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrLee)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/54 "2022-12-14T18:46:46Z")
Thanks, Brian: a quote from this: > The day shift or day watch was the first duty period which theoretically occurred during whatever would be considered day in space. The day shift was presumably preceded by the night watch, which was a time of limited activity. (TNG: “Data’s Day”, “Lessons”) This gets back to one of my original qualms, which is that in space _there is no objective night and day_; rather, there are subjectively ascribed periods of time to which humans cycle between ‘asleep’, ‘awake but time off’ and ‘awake and on duty’ - and these, by necessity, must be staggered in a shift-pattern so that the ship itself is always in ‘day mode’. How, therefore, could night watch be a period of ‘limited activity’, when asteroids, Klingons and metaphysical demigods could appear and commit mischief at literally any time? I suppose that the ship’s captain could plan its trajectory and activities such that when it comes time for night shift you ‘set anchor’ in a quiet bit of space with not-much-happening, with the hope and expectation that the A-listers can all sleep while a skeleton crew of B-list, junior officers oversee things. But, surely, this isn’t really the Star-ship Enterprise’s MO. I realise that most people are in this thread for the submarine-chat, so to steer things in that direction… Do submarines which regularly chug across time zones (and are, therefore, unbeholden to the geographical time zones which they temporarily inhabit) do anything similar? Does the _main_ captain say, when hanging up his/her hat for the day, “Let’s just chill here for now so the night shift doesn’t have to do much and we’ll pick things up tomorrow after my shower?”. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/55 "2022-12-14T19:30:32Z")
> [@MrLee](#): > > Do submarines which regularly chug across time zones (and are, therefore, unbeholden to the geographical time zones which they temporarily inhabit) do anything similar? Does the _main_ captain say, when hanging up his/her hat for the day, “Let’s just chill here for now so the night shift doesn’t have to do much and we’ll pick things up tomorrow after my shower?”. Not exactly. As has been mentioned previously, most US submarines operate on a three-watch rotation, with six hour watches (no, eighteen hour days are _not_ a good way to live your life). At least on my boat, the midwatch (from 0000 to 0600) was low activity, but the boat was still going somewhere and doing something (clearing baffles, shooting trash, picking up the broadcast, doing maintenance, …). About the only thing we usually didn’t do on midwatch was run drills. If something happened (fire, flooding, incoming torpedo, launch orders…), off-duty personnel could be racked out and on station in minutes. Because my XO was insane, our midwatch was neither home-port time, local time, nor Zulu time. No, our midnight was when it was light outside. ---
**Author:** ![MrLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@MrLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrLee)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/56 "2022-12-14T19:50:38Z")
Without wanting to seem in any sense cavalier or disrespectful towards those such as yourself who have served in submarines, I hope it’s not too bold of me to surmise that _being in a militarily-equipped submarine during peacetime isn’t quite as interesting or eventful as being on the Star-ship Enterprise_. You could, therefore, make luxuriously indulgent decisions like scheduling drills for certain times of ‘day’, therefore maintaining some semblance of low-activity (night) and high-activity (day) shifts. But what about a full-on apocalypse scenario, where your nuclear sub has to regularly whizz around the planet, destroying cities, firing missiles at super-sized radioactive lizards and nuking invading alien warships (which are, surely, the principle purposes of any modern navy)? This would strike me as more of an _Enterprise_ context, whereby the ship on the whole has to be on high alert all the time, and any concept of ‘day’ and ‘night’ shift is dangerously inappropriate. Or, to get a bit more real for a moment, when the US and Japan were going at it in WWII, were any time zones/day-night patterns really adhered to? ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/57 "2022-12-14T19:57:27Z")
We could hit any radioactive lizards we needed to from home port. We went to sea so that the radioactive lizards couldn’t find us. ☢ 🦎 We spent the bulk of our patrol on “alert” status, with very tight constraints on how quickly we needed to be able to let missiles fly. That said, you can’t maintain an on-edge status forever. Things need repair and people need rest, precisely so they can respond when you need them to. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/58 "2022-12-14T20:04:36Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Despite your name, you’re no ST fanatic! 🙂 > > It was the first episode filmed. You can tell, things aren’t quite right, yet. _The Cage_ and _Where No Man Has Gone Before_ were filmed before \*The Corbomite Maneuver.” ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/59 "2022-12-14T20:11:01Z")
Do you think even during WWII a ship would be at [General Quarters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_quarters) _all_ of the time? Like everything else in the military it would be weeks of boredom punctuated by minutes of terror. ---
**Author:** ![MrLee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@MrLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrLee)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425/60 "2022-12-14T20:15:42Z")
Well, yeah, but those minutes of terror wouldn’t happen according to a pre-determined (and agreed) time schedule so arranged that both sides can get their beauty sleep. Would they? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/staffing-rotas-on-star-trek-star-ships/976425.md?page=4)