No privacy curtains in sickbay?
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
- Start date
Starfleet personnel receive a special training for these situations.
FWIW, the sick bay set consisted of four rooms (as labeled in the original set diagrams reproduced in The Making of Star Trek): Characters walked in to the Sick Bay Exam Room (the one with the single bed); to their right was Dr. McCoy's Office...past that, McCoy's Lab. To their left was the Sick Bay Ward, which had the extra beds. Offscreen sources usually speculated more sick bay facilities than that...those are just the only areas we usually needed to see. It would certainly be fair to imagine more wards that were used on an as-needed basis. And M'Benga probably had his own office space somewhere.
We never see casual nudity in Star Trek, off duty we did see people in casual dress, but not walking around naked. The same on various planets, including Earth.
Social customs concerning dress and modesty are in place.
If privacy curtains were needed they would probably drop down from the ceiling. We never saw the ceiling, so that's where they must have been. 
^ Da winner!
If privacy curtains were needed they would probably drop down from the ceiling. We never saw the ceiling, so that's where they must have been.
I remember being quite surprised when Neelix started saying how ugly the infirmary's ceiling looked. It's true though that the ceiling is normally the great unseen.
People will always be concerned with their dignity, and will want control over whether they're seen in this or that personal situation. People will have different ideas as to what's a bit too personal. Being given NO choice takes away dignity, even if your choice would have been to have everything show.
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Announcing that no one should mind nudity therefore no one will, in unison, seems awfully presumptuous, and has nothing to do with not wanting to be witnessed defecating, say.
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Doctors need easy access to each patient at a moment's notice. However, 24th century sickbays take this too far, putting beds out in the middle of the room. That feels a hell of a lot more exposed.
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Announcing that no one should mind nudity therefore no one will, in unison, seems awfully presumptuous, and has nothing to do with not wanting to be witnessed defecating, say.
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Doctors need easy access to each patient at a moment's notice. However, 24th century sickbays take this too far, putting beds out in the middle of the room. That feels a hell of a lot more exposed.
Perhaps unseen long-term care wards have more accommodations for privacy. The main sickbay could be more like an army field hospital...just a bunch of cots sharing a tent.
I read a short story (non-Star Trek) some years ago about a ship that had a floor that absorbed and recycled any contaminant that came in contact with it - skin cells, dirt, hair... or human waste. One of the bridge crew was from a planet with absolutely no concept of privacy concerning biological functions. When he decided to urinate or defecate, he just pulled down his pants and did so, on the floor, in front of everybody.And if there were any bathrooms, they wouldn't have separate partitions, either. Just a bunch of toilets and a urinal trough all out in plain view.
In fact, it wouldn't even be a separate room. It would just be a completely open area adjacent to the corridor.
It ended up causing some visiting aliens a great deal of offense, and an interstellar incident ensued...
I've been having x-rays of my knees taken for over a decade. Used to have to strip off and put on one of those bizarre hospital gowns that seem to be designed for a thinner species with three arms. Lately, I can get x-rayed with my pants still on.
I'd hope that in 300 years, they can diagnose you with all your clothes on.
I'd hope that in 300 years, they can diagnose you with all your clothes on.
And if there were any bathrooms, they wouldn't have separate partitions, either. Just a bunch of toilets and a urinal trough all out in plain view.
In fact, it wouldn't even be a separate room. It would just be a completely open area adjacent to the corridor.
Kor
Just like prison! Then the Enterprise was really a prison barge!
NO! The answer is really simple, folks. We all know that much of what accented the sets on Star Trek came from the dumpsters on the Desilu (later Paramount) lot. Obviously, no one threw away curtains that John Dwyer et. al. could then fish out of a dumpster.
I guess that pretty much settles that.
I'm picturing Picard unhitching and letting flow mid negotiations. It has to be Picard, with Kirk it seems just a little too feasible.....
If Kirk did it then Chekov would say that the Russians invented that decades before.
