Does Star Fleet not run psychiatric examinations on its recruits?

When I saw the thread title I thought for sure it was about all those corrupt admirals and captains. But Barclay? He seems able to do his job well enough. Better than most, really.

 

^Well, with him it's all the other stuff.

--Sran

 

Why wouldn't Barcalay pass a psychiatric exam?

If social disorders prevented you from working important jobs we wouldn't have any software engineers. His social phobias don't interfere with his job. Or rather, they did for a while in Hollow Pursuits but then he fixed the situation. The people who would fail psychiatric exams are the people with aggression problems.

 

I dunno, I could easily see him as a Naval Base Commander equivalent.

As for psychological exams, I believe the ship's counselor is always on the bridge in TNG era because they realize that with the body horror-mutation-mad gods they need someone to make sure the Captains don't go insane at any moment.

 

In TOS we saw Flag Officers who wore Red and Blue if I'm not mistaken. A Flag Rank is a rank like any other, so perhaps person performed well enough in their duties to be promoted time and again.

And didn't Stocker wear a Red Uniform implying a career path in operations/engineering? So perhaps he spent his tenure in the lower ranks onbaord starbases/planet side facilities/ship yards etc.. Starfleet is made up of more than just starships

 

Sorry, I didn't mean that it was unrealistic that he could reach that rank without serving on a ship. As others have pointed out, it's possible for non-crew officers (such as medical doctors, chaplains, etc) to reach Captain or above without having commanded or served on a ship.

Stocker was written to be completely clueless as to the abilities of starships (and to regard the violating of the Romulan Neutral Zone to not be a big deal!), yet he was a Starbase Commander.

Starbase 10 was the major Federation facility on the Romulan Border, so Stocker should not only have been fully briefed on the Romulans and the Neutral Zone (in fact, any ships in the sector would have had to go through Stocker to request permission to enter the Zone), he would also be responsible for the deployment of Starfleet forces throughout the sector.

The problem being, had he been written as competently as Stocker should have been, the episode would have been a hell of a lot more dull!

He just fits in the standard pattern seen in several episodes.

"Kirk, I've been put in charge, so do as I say!"

"That's a bad idea!"

"Do it anyway Kirk!"

"See, told you it was a bad idea!"

"Quick Kirk, get us out of this!"

"Okay, done, sorted!"

"Great Kirk, you're really brilliant and I'm an ass!"

Makes good drama, but also makes the Starfleet brass appear to be incompetent in their recruiting/promotion process.

Back to Barclay though, as I said, he's had a few performance issues, but his competence when he gets his mind on the tasks easily outweighs these issues.

Did Finney from Court-Martial regularly pass his psych evaluations? I can't remember if it was mentioned, not seen the episode in a while.

 

[GRUNT TALK]You should see upper management where I work![/GRUNT TALK]

 

Well the fact that fool get high ranks seems no diffrent than today.

Its not what you know its who you know.

 

psychiatry is evil.

hopefully the Federation would have realised that.

 

Sure, the holodecks are just for recreation. That doesn't mean that one cannot abuse recreational things...

He obviously has an unhealthy addiction to the holodeck, when prevents him from being able to relate to real members of the crew. And for the intents and purposes that the crew relies on each other to be healthy, both physically and mentally, I find it hard to believe that a captain wouldn't restrict his access to the holodeck.

And OF COURSE he would fail a psychiatric examination! Working on a star ship requires both working in and living in a social situation, constantly. You don't get many chances to be alone and your ability to not only devise solutions but to convince your coworkers to trust your judgement with their lives is vitally important.

I feel terrible for anyone who's ever had to work with that guy. What a loser...

 

Evil based on what? Where's the evidence to support your claim?

--Sran

 

Erm.... Psyc test anyone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47NFTkAxeeY

One assumes Barclay passed.

 

He doesn't have an addiction to the holodeck so much as he uses it to rag on the crew. Also, insulting the Captain and First Officer via musketeer fights seem less troubling than making Captain Picard so you can phaser him or sleeping with Troi/Crusher (which might be firing offenses).

Having met many Navy nerds, I'd disagree.

 

As would I. I don't know many in the military, but I've met plenty of people in my line of work who've given me more than enough reason to question their sanity. Barclay may have been weird, but no more so than anyone else aboard Enterprise. I think he was just another victim of not being a part of Picard's inner-circle. We've seen how the Enterprise senior staff treats outsiders they don't like.

--Sran

 

Barclay stutters and avoids people, which is hardly a firing offense. Look at Odo.

Really, I'd be more upset about his chronic lateness, which is intolerable.

 

Most of the times we say Barclay he was able to perform his duties, so I can't see an issue there.

I found social situtations difficult, doesn't mean I can't interact for as long as I need to. As for alone time, it would appear that he has his own quarters to goto at the end of the day and be alone if he wishes.

As for your last comment, if a co-worker gives off the impression that someone is a loser it can re-enforce the other person can pick up on and it becomes a self fufulling thing. For those with low self confidence and/or esteem or have suffered from them, the thought that others thing you are a loser/not worthy etc.. can nag away at the bag of the mind lowering even further what little of those they have.

 

Well, Odo almost was fired after Starfleet decided they'd rather have Eddington in charge of security than him. But I digress...

Seems Dax had that problem, too. Of course, how would anyone fire someone who looks like Jadzia?

--Sran

 

I'm sure there are restrictions, mostly related to people booking holodeck time, eg the computer probably won't let someone use it if someone else has it booked. The only reason anyone would have to step in is if Barclay spent so much time in there it interfered with his duties, in which case it's up to Geordi as his superior to deal with it, and if things aren't resolved Riker steps in. At no point does Security need to get involved, unless it can somehow be proven that Barclay was endangering the ship and crew. And a holographic representation of Wesley Crusher stuffing his face with pie doesn't fit the criteria.

Teamwork works both ways. Yes, Barclay's withdrawn attitude and antisocial behaviour make him the weak link among the engineering staff, but at the same time his co-workers could try working with him, drawing him out of his reclusiveness and encourage him to give his input, to make him part of the team. Isn't that basically the point of Hollow Pursuits?

 

I worked in a government department for almost 25 years, so I hear you there!

Barclay was in a downward spiral.

He felt awkward in social situations, so retreated to the holodeck. But, because he found refuge there, he found it more awkward to deal with social situations, so, he spends more time in the holodeck!

Fortunately, rather than just leaving it unchecked, which would have probably let to poor performance reviews and disciplinary action, his superiors and Troi addressed the problem.

Okay, so the guy isn't going to be dancing on tables at parties, but he can deal with people much better than before Hollow Pursuits.

 

Didn't TOS have one guy who DID fail a Psych test do he couldn't be a Starfleet Officer? That guy from the "Roman Planet" episode?