Why didn't Picard know Sito Jaxa ['Lower Decks'] was on his ship?

[DostoyevskyClone]

Picard says something like, 'I don't know how you made it onto the Enterprise...' which got me thinking: who had the final say in her getting the Enterprise assignment? Obviously it wasn't Picard. Does Riker get to approve most of the transfers, etc? How does this process work exactly? Does a division head make a submission and Riker (or other senior officer) gets final approval?

[Takeru]

He knew, he wanted her on the ship.

[DostoyevskyClone]

Yeah, stupid question. I forgot about what he said later. I saw a clip on YouTube that only had the quote I posted. Thanks.

[Takeru]

It wasn't a stupid question, no one can remember every detail of every episode all the time.

[Tiberius]

Takeru wrote:

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It wasn't a stupid question, no one can remember every detail of every episode all the time.

I can!

[Mojochi]

Takeru wrote:

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It wasn't a stupid question, no one can remember every detail of every episode all the time.

yeah, you'd be surprised

[Melakon]

My memory for Star Trek trivia was much better when there were only 3 years of episodes and 2 pilots.

[Trekker4747]

Takeru wrote:

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He knew, he wanted her on the ship.

Furthermore, he mislead her as part of the overall test of her character for the mission.

The use of her in that episode was very, very well done. Lower Decks is one of TNG's better episodes. (Though one wonders how she graduated and got a commission on the Enterprise before Wesley did. )

[trekker670]

I believe Riker (and Troi, for whatever reason) often oversaw the actual crew as seen by the crew evaluations and such that are seen throughout the series, which Picard isn't involved in. I would imagine this is relatively consistent with how it would operate in the real world as well.

[Finn]

^I assumed they were different years.

[Trekker4747]

Finngle Bells wrote:

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^I assumed they were different years.

IIRC they were the same year and both held back a year following the incident in "The First Duty."

[Borjis]

Trekker4747 wrote:

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IIRC they were the same year and both held back a year following the incident in "The First Duty."

another gem of an episode and one of my all time favorites.

[J. Allen]

Melakon wrote:

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My memory for Star Trek trivia was much better when there were only 3 years of episodes and 2 pilots.

Yeah, I'm good from TOS all the way up until the end of DS9, and then my knowledge goes all "bits and piecey" on me.

[Gary Mitchell]

Trekker4747 wrote:

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(Though one wonders how she graduated and got a commission on the Enterprise before Wesley did. )

She was less annoying than Wes.

[Unicron]

Trekker4747 wrote:

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The use of her in that episode was very, very well done. Lower Decks is one of TNG's better episodes. (Though one wonders how she graduated and got a commission on the Enterprise before Wesley did. )

I've always kind of felt the opposite myself. The first part of Sito's story, about her finding redemption, is indeed very good (especially since she's one of the only two LD crewmembers who will ultimately matter - Ogawa being the other ). But I think the way the mission was handled and that she was apparently killed was poorly done, because it pretty much ruined the development they had going IMO. One could always argue that it proved she had what it took to be a good officer, but I don't see why that would necessitate her sacrifice.

I also found it puzzling that Picard would mention her death to the crew when the mission was classified and presumably would have had strong repercussions for the politics between the Federation and the Cardassians. If she'd survived, it's likely that neither she nor the senior staff would have been able to give a lot of details, so why would they toss the secrecy away when it seemed Sito had been lost? Many real clandestine missions don't work that way.