Enterprise D should not be the flagship

[valkyrie013]

Well, I've opinned on this subject a few times, Here's a reasonable explanation I've come up with ( and of course litteral IRL reason of.. Money for makeup on a TV budget)
Starfleet is a mostly human show because.. "Drumroll" Humans are the most adventurus and risk taking speices in the Federation.. So in my mind, humans join starfleet by the boat load, as compared to say andorians or vulcans etc. and so make up the bulk of federation crew..
May also be that alot of the other speices just dont have a reason to serve in starfleet.. Maybe a pacifist spieces, or they concentrate more at home, or they join the local Home Fleet, or there incapbable of operating comfortably in a Earth type environment, without an environmental suit of some kind. example, Homeworld gravity is low so hurts to serve in 1G, or gravity is high and has other detremental effects, or aquatic or gas cloud, or to small, to big for the decks.. whole slew of reasons.
Now, we see mainly human ships, but there are ships that cater to a single species, say the vulcans and the intrepid, or a water ship for aquatics, or a larger ships for a 3 meter tall speices.. etc. Weve only seen a handful of ships..

 

[Marc]

That was hinted at in the episode 'Yesterday's Enterprise' as well, there was a mention of "Cetacean Ops" over the intercom.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Cetacean_Ops

Thought I one saw mention in the TNG technical manual about cetaceans aboard the Enterprise but I must have imagined it as I could never find it again.

 

[Tuskin38]

Thought I one saw mention in the TNG technical manual about cetaceans aboard the Enterprise but I must have imagined it as I could never find it again.

I believe Cetacean Ops is in the blueprints.

 

[Marsden]

I also remember reading about the Dolphins, they are part of the navigation department.

But it doesn't help the OP, they're still Terran!

 

[Timo]

<optional Homer Simpson voice>Or ARE they?</oHSv>

Seriously, spoons, there's something going on between humpback whales and superpowerful space aliens. Who can really tell about the dolphins? I say, never trust a species that smiles by anatomic default!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Spectre Of The Fun]

I am on season three of TNG, from what I can remember the Enterprise D is the flagship of the fleet, apart from real life, restricted TV budget reasons, this so called flagship representing a multispecies Federation has a crew complement of around 1000 personnel and yet apart from Worf, Selar and Troi every other crew person is entirely human. Now if one is the lead ship of Starfleet at least have a diverse crew and a more diverse senior staff to represent the UFP or better yet remove the tag 'flagship' and just be another Galaxy class ship exploring the stars. They might as well have the USS T'Kumbra as the flagship with its Vulcan personnel.

I am also rewatching and I am on season two. I think I discovered why humans still seem to dominate Federation ships and outposts decades and decades after TOS (you must not have watched close enough).

In Manhunt no less than Ambassador Lwaxana Troi tells Captain Picard "A toast to Earthmen, who despite their many faults, have that unique ability to charm women of all races in all corners of the galaxy."

So speaking as an Earthman I have to say that yeah despite our many faults I can see why all Federation species decided Earthmen should be on Federation ships and installations in large numbers. And with our "unique ability" to charm women of all races where we go our Earthwomen naturally follow. Hence lots of humans to be seen.

Truly we make the best representatives of the Federation. Put your best people forward. You want nasty Tellarites pissing off everyone they make contact with? So you see it is all very simple. And who could argue with a daughter of the Fifth House, holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx and heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed? Not Picard. Not me.

Jokes aside I liked your post but thought others offered some plausible answers to your question and didn't have anything to say. When I rewatched Manhunt and got to the Lwaxana quote I thought of your post and could not resist a light response. No animals were harmed testing my lame jokes.

 

[Kor]

It shouldn't be the flagship because it doesn't regularly have a flag officer (Admiral) aboard.

Kor

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

I've sometimes wondered if Picard is actually an "officer of flag rank" (eligible but not appointed to a flag billet) and wears the duty uniform (but not dress uniform) of a captain because that's his preferred and current billet. While there is no precedence for this in the US Navy, this has been the recent precedence for COs of Royal Navy flagships (especially the current HMS Queen Elizabeth) and was IIRC historically true for the CO of the Royal Yacht.

 

[Nyotarules]

Of course, episodes like "The Enemy" verbally establish that the ship is teeming with aliens; at the very least, there are more Vulcans there than meets the eye.

Ok I will look out for that episode

Then again, why should Starfleet or the Federation go for reverse racial discrimination? If one attempts a mathematically exact balance, one is making a fundamentally racist choice: "You can't come, we have too many Bolians already!". Or worse still: "You! You there! Come here and join the crew, we need a Tellarite!". The 24th century folks might simply have outgrown such injustice.
Timo Saloniemi

So no one at Federation HQ notices after 200 years of its existence that Starfleet and the USS Enterprise are still teeming with humans and most of the admirals running the show are humans?
In universe is there an unconcious bias against non humans, if in ENT under Earth Starfleet the first human ship to go out into deep space, The Enterprise with a crew complement of 70 something people had 90% of the crew being white, human males from mainly North America there would be talk in the Earth Parliament.
The ship would never leave the system.

 

[gakelly]

I also remember reading about the Dolphins, they are part of the navigation department.

But it doesn't help the OP, they're still Terran!

Well, the Guild Navigators are hidden in engineering. There is a large supply of the spice melange in cargo bay 6.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'm pretty sure there's a Next Gen episode where they say there are 13 species represented on the Enterprise.

Human
Betazoid
Klingon
Android(?)
Bolian
Bajoran

Umm... anyone remember any others?

 

[Timo]

Well, in "The Chase" there are seventeen people aboard who come from non-UFP planets. Seems the ship is supposed to be quite inclusive, even if all seventeen are Bajorans...

Species actually seen aboard also include Vulcans, Benzars (temping only, but still), half-Napeans, part-Romulans, and assorted unidentified bumpheads. Species mentioned... That was more DS9's gig, but anybody remember any juicy bits for the E-D?

The "thirteen" thing is from "Reunion", BTW:

Picard: "Mister Worf, the Enterprise crew currently includes representatives from thirteen planets. They each have their individual beliefs and values and I respect them all. But they have all chosen to serve Starfleet."

So, actual crew from 13 planets, all of which may be 100% human Earth colonies for all we know. And that's specifically excluding visiting Klingons, and probably excluding Worf, too. Pretty narrow, compared with the other data. But the crew complement changes with time...

Or is Picard saying that there are 13 onboard clerics from 13 planets for representing 13 faiths, and the rest of the crew can choose from among those?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Phoenix219]

Well, I've opinned on this subject a few times, Here's a reasonable explanation I've come up with ( and of course litteral IRL reason of.. Money for makeup on a TV budget)
Starfleet is a mostly human show because.. "Drumroll" Humans are the most adventurus and risk taking speices in the Federation.. So in my mind, humans join starfleet by the boat load, as compared to say andorians or vulcans etc. and so make up the bulk of federation crew..
May also be that alot of the other speices just dont have a reason to serve in starfleet.. Maybe a pacifist spieces, or they concentrate more at home, or they join the local Home Fleet, or there incapbable of operating comfortably in a Earth type environment, without an environmental suit of some kind. example, Homeworld gravity is low so hurts to serve in 1G, or gravity is high and has other detremental effects, or aquatic or gas cloud, or to small, to big for the decks.. whole slew of reasons.
Now, we see mainly human ships, but there are ships that cater to a single species, say the vulcans and the intrepid, or a water ship for aquatics, or a larger ships for a 3 meter tall speices.. etc. Weve only seen a handful of ships..

Reminded me of this....

https://imgur.com/gallery/wpZ4w

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

DS9 almost seemed to make a joke out of mentioning distinctive alien features without actually showing them - transparent skulls, 3 eyes, males pregnant with tons of eggs and needing time off.

 

[J.T.B.]

I've sometimes wondered if Picard is actually an "officer of flag rank" (eligible but not appointed to a flag billet) and wears the duty uniform (but not dress uniform) of a captain because that's his preferred and current billet. While there is no precedence for this in the US Navy, this has been the recent precedence for COs of Royal Navy flagships (especially the current HMS Queen Elizabeth) and was IIRC historically true for the CO of the Royal Yacht.

Picard does wear a captain's dress uniform.

The captain of HM Yacht was usually a commodore (or commodore 2nd class before 1958) and wore that uniform. The case of Jerry Kyd was somewhat unique; he was more of a senior executive to manage the massive project of building and running-up the first aircraft carrier built in Britain in almost 40 years. I don't know why it was necessary to reduce his nominal grade, but in any case, in operation with the fleet Queen Elizabeth will be commanded by a captain.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Picard does wear a captain's dress uniform.

The captain of HM Yacht was usually a commodore (or commodore 2nd class before 1958) and wore that uniform. The case of Jerry Kyd was somewhat unique; he was more of a senior executive to manage the massive project of building and running-up the first aircraft carrier built in Britain in almost 40 years. I don't know why it was necessary to reduce his nominal grade, but in any case, in operation with the fleet Queen Elizabeth will be commanded by a captain.

You may be right about Britannia, I admit that I'm having trouble locating the source for them typically being Rear Admirals, however I'd be interested in your source that the QE CO will hold the substantive rank of Captain, as the first "sea trials" CO Nick Cooke-Priest was also a substantive Commodore (but titled Captain), although it's unclear which substantive rank his replacement Steve Moorhouse holds.

 

[Qonundrum]

Humanity has evolved to the point mainstream sci-fi can throw in 6-digit figures to make a far more "balanced" crew of a dozen species for a 30 episode season... oh, wait... for a 10 episode season they can barely do more than one or two aliens caked in synthetic materials, some of which cause allergic reactions and leaving them out (aka Dax), never mind the actors spending 4 hour shifts getting into all that latex and stickygloo. Odo didn't often shift shape and Yaphit showed up even less. And those shows up to now with their meager budgets did a lot of work to get people today to be more expansive.

But the show is taking enough time and money to show alien-like appearances, the spirit is willing but audiences have to do their part too. I'd rather see money spent on better things after a point. Pretend some of them aren't humanoid? Some episodes hint or state offscreen crewmmbers, it's not due to species-ism, it's due to production costs. Where's the PO Box, I'll donate.

 

[BillJ]

Gonna file this under “Who Cares?”, it is a TV show not a glimpse at a realistic future.

 

[J.T.B.]

You may be right about Britannia, I admit that I'm having trouble locating the source for them typically being Rear Admirals, however I'd be interested in your source that the QE CO will hold the substantive rank of Captain, as the first "sea trials" CO Nick Cooke-Priest was also a substantive Commodore (but titled Captain), although it's unclear which substantive rank his replacement Steve Moorhouse holds.

Sorry, I have to withdraw that, that was something I read years ago and can't find it now. Moorhouse is also a commodore, actually senior to Cooke-Priest. So the same pattern is being followed. Now I have even less idea of why the grade reduction is necessary.

As for the royal yacht, the commander royal yachts or flag officer royal yachts has been as high as a vice admiral. The position was more of a high level aide to the king/queen or naval courtier, and I believe the commander aboard handled most of the running of the vessel. But I am not aware of any royal yacht commander wearing the uniform of a lower rank.

Sir Archibald Berkeley-Milne as a commodore first class on Victoria and Albert:
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw250571/Sir-Archibald-Berkeley-Milne-2nd-Bt

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Sorry, I have to withdraw that, that was something I read years ago and can't find it now. Moorhouse is also a commodore, actually senior to Cooke-Priest. So the same pattern is being followed. Now I have even less idea of why the grade reduction is necessary.

As I understand it, their paygrade is unchanged (they are still paid as commodores), however they wear the uniform of a captain because that is their billet. Interestingly, RN captains also wear the same mess dress uniform as commodores and admirals, which may be the inspiration for Picard wearing the same "dress white" style as admirals (also worn by Ross in DS9's IASL), rather than the grey-faced "senior officers" style.