# The USS Enterprise's bowling alley **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 29, 2016, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220 "2016-09-29T17:17:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [September 30, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/41 "2016-09-30T00:07:58Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > He doesn’t like the “No 7-10 pickup” scenario. Referred to as a “Kobayashi Maru” in his honor. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/42 "2016-09-30T00:11:44Z")
I should have said he doesn’t _believe_ in the “No 7-10 pickup” scenario, I belatedly realize, but no matter. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2016, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/43 "2016-09-30T00:15:23Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > That’s because you were the only one at the drive in! Didn’t you notice the lack of cars? And lack of a movie?🙂 > > Does Scotty have a dedicated engineer on his staff that just services the pin setters? Those things are maintenance hogs. What pin setters? They just beam out the toppled pins and beam in a fresh set of pins for the next frame. 😃 > [@terentii](#): > > Yes, I would prefer not to rely on anecdotal evidence, thank you. > \*\* > EDIT:\*\* According to the article, “Despite a drop in league numbers in recent years, bowling remains the No. 1 participatory sport in America – with 50 million people bowling at least once per year in a $10 billion industry.” Sounds like it’s not doing all that bad. There’s a local bowling alley that is constantly running commercials on TV. They advertise themselves as family-friendly and are always running special events. They seem to be doing pretty good business. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/44 "2016-09-30T01:26:39Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I should have said he doesn’t _believe_ in the “No 7-10 pickup” scenario, I belatedly realize, but no matter. Well, he likes the ‘pickup’ part of it. ---
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/45 "2016-09-30T01:27:06Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Nothing wrong with being blue collar. And even though I’m not, I like bowling. **But the Enterprise “crew” is (per Roddenberry) all _officers_**. There isn’t the equivalent of enlisted personnel per se. One of my favorite characters, albeit in Next Generation and DS9 was Miles O’Brien. He was always called Chief and the only rank in the water navy using ‘Chief’ would be a Chief Petty Officer. In fact, in the Wikipedia article on him they refer to him as a Senior Chief Petty Officer. That would make him (it the above quote is true) the only elisted man on the entire ship. Granted, he was not in TOS, however, there is little indication that there are any other enlisted personnel on any of the ships, so he would be a unique individual. Bob ---
**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:** [September 30, 2016, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/46 "2016-09-30T01:38:09Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > I think this is something that has continually evolved over the course of the years in television SF. Twilight Zone astronauts were almost hilariously blue collar – just working class guys from Brooklyn who happened to crew starships. Haikeeba! — [https://youtu.be/p2O5g6yYqB0](https://youtu.be/p2O5g6yYqB0) ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/47 "2016-09-30T01:39:41Z")
The “all officers” thing was only canon for the first little bit of Next Generation. It was never canon in TOS, and was never respected by Berman/Braga. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/48 "2016-09-30T02:38:51Z")
Riley may have been making a joke about holding a dance in the bowling alley because it would be a \*small \*bowling alley. But of course the pop culture reference is to dances/hops actually happening at bowling alleys in the 50s and early 60s and assuming they would still be that way in Earth of the mid-2200s. > [@Lemur866](#): > > The “all officers” thing was only canon for the first little bit of Next Generation. It was never canon in TOS Though never given explicit script exposition, it has been reported as Word Of G(od/ene) even in the TOS age, if we are to go by _Making of Star Trek_ and _World of Star Trek_. However, what it does say in the TOS [“Show Bible” (writers’ guidelines)](https://www.bu.edu/clarion/guides/Star_Trek_Writers_Guide.pdf)[pdf], on page 27 is: _For example, we are not aware of “officers” and “enlisted men” categories._ This could be interpreted as that in the TOS starfleet there is not _the “class” distinction_ of commissioned/warrant/chiefs/ratings/nonrates of the 1960s with their segregated messes, prohibition against social fraternization, some being on fixed time contracts while others may resign at will, etc. though distinct career tracks and the hierarchy of authority still exist – maybe resembling more the structure in a police force, come to think of it. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/49 "2016-09-30T02:49:54Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > This was basically my point; that in 1966, it seemed reasonable that on a starship several centuries in the future, people would still be bowling. But today, not so much. (What was the last show that showed people bowling?) Perhaps today, we might expect that starship residents would be playing the 23th century version of paintball. Who’s to that that by the 23rd century bowling doesn’t come back into fashion as some highbrow activity. Look at all the weird crap popular with hipsters. Or it could be 3 dimensional bowling that makes use of variable artificial gravity generator settings. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/50 "2016-09-30T02:53:19Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > In the 50s and 60s, bowling was tremendously popular in the U.S.; it was something that crossed social boundaries. > > My parents were solidly upper-middle-class in the 1960s (my father was a sales executive, and my mother became a real-estate agent once the kids were a little older). They were both avid bowlers, as were most of their friends (nearly all of whom were similarly white-collar types). My parents were in a couples bowling league, and then each of them also participated in solo leagues. > > I would imagine that serious intellectuals (“longhairs” in that era’s parlance) might not have been into bowling, but it was definitely more than a pastime for blue-collar workers. Serious intellectuals in the 60s also liked bowling, if you can take the existing of a 14 lane setup at Stanford. They had a bowling alley in the student center that existed until they took the space to build the first computer cluster of WYSE terminals hooked up to the 4 mainframes (code named the Tragedies - Hamlet, Lear, Othello and one other I forget). > [@](#): > > Bowling was near its national peak of popularity in 1962, and Tresidder’s 14 lanes hosted league play. Eighteen years later, when pranksters from the Hammer & Coffin Society slipped a hoax photo and caption about a plane crash into the Stanford Daily—one mock-up read, “Tragedy Strikes Bowling Team . . . None Spared”—many students were surprised to learn the campus still had a bowling team. In the mid '80s, the bowling alley became a LOTS (Low-Overhead Time-Sharing) Computer Cluster. It makes total sense for the Enterprise to have a bowling alley. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/51 "2016-09-30T04:52:33Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > Serious intellectuals in the 60s also liked bowling, if you can take the existing of a 14 lane setup at Stanford. They had a bowling alley in the student center that existed until they took the space to build the first computer cluster of WYSE terminals hooked up to the 4 mainframes (code named the Tragedies - Hamlet, Lear, Othello and one other I forget). > . It wasn’t just Stanford. Several of the universities I visited in the late 70’s had (still had?) bowling alleys in the basements of the student areas. Cing from overseas may be the reason, but in the late 70’s it already seemed a bit surprising to me. I live in a much milder climate, so I wondered if there just wasn’t much to do outside in the winter. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/52 "2016-09-30T05:17:29Z")
If we go by The Animated Series, which is now canon, the Enterprise had a rec room that is basically a proto-holodeck. It only seemed to do locations and scenery, and not people. And it didn’t extend infinitely in any direction. But the objects in it did seem real. Now, this may have been new to the ship in the fifth year, but it definitely suggests that the rec rooms were designed to repurposed for whatever was needed. I can’t imagine that bowling would be that hard to set up. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/53 "2016-09-30T12:44:43Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > I don’t know why you’d need a bowling alley when you’ve got holodecks, but that’s hardly the oddest thing supposedly on the D. Apparently, according to some materials and references, they also have tanks with live dolphins on board. Not just for transporting somewhere as a one time thing, just part of the ship. James Blish had intelligent dolphins being sent to a water world in ‘mission to the heart stars’. He did some work on novelising the star trek scripts, so that may be where it came from. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2016, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/54 "2016-09-30T14:20:15Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > It wasn’t just Stanford. Several of the universities I visited in the late 70’s had (still had?) bowling alleys in the basements of the student areas. We had one in our student center in the 1980s, but then again, we were in Wisconsin. “Let’s go down to the sout side to da bowlero der hey and suck some brewskis.” ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/55 "2016-09-30T15:28:32Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I imagine in 1960-whatever, it seemed obvious that people would still be bowling in the future, since they were doing so then, but now fifty years later, it’s not a very popular sport. It’s not as popular as it was back in the 60s and 70s, but it’s still a $6 billion a year industry. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/56 "2016-09-30T15:34:52Z")
I gave up bowling for sex. The balls are lighter and you don’t have to change your shoes. I’ll be here all week. Try the veal, and always remember to tip your waitress. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/57 "2016-09-30T15:53:18Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > …and always remember to tip your waitress. Is that like cow tipping? because I don’t think the waitresses like it. At least, not in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/58 "2016-09-30T19:32:46Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I gave up bowling for sex. The balls are lighter and you don’t have to change your shoes. > > I’ll be here all week. Try the veal, and always remember to tip your waitress. You get no respect, I tell ya! ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/59 "2016-09-30T19:41:40Z")
in one of the novels they have what would be called a fun center ala dave and busters style it even had a spacewar/combat simulator where one ship was federation and the other was klingon I think …me and the kid I borrowed the book from wondered where it would all fit and they still had Atari in the future? … ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220/60 "2016-09-30T19:43:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **cochrane** : > > There’s a local bowling alley that is constantly running commercials on TV. They advertise themselves as family-friendly and are always running special events. They seem to be doing pretty good business. Oh, sure, the sport isn’t extinct. But sixty years ago, you might have had a half-dozen bowling alleys in your area doing pretty good business. And Montana State University (another cold-climate school) still has a few lanes in the basement of the student union, or at least did as of 2013. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uss-enterprises-bowling-alley/767220.md?page=4)