Hey, I never noticed that before....

[Ssosmcin]

I don't think a sub makes for a good analogy.

Now, that I've looked at the Bridge stations more closely. There is a good deal of room besides all the buttons. (Why are all the surfaces at an angle? Does this prevent carpal tunnel?) Maybe there's some kind of lip just high enough to keep a clipboard from sliding off.

Though it's hilarious to picture Uhura picking up her chair, and moving it a few feet to the right, to get a better angle.

Maybe certain rec rooms are time-portioned out. What room was the meeting in Balance of Terror and Where No Man Has Gone Before held in? A rec room?

Whether or not a sub is a good analogy, the point is, it's still kind of a silly question. Who specifically does this YouTuber think needs an office? McCoy had one (we saw him sitting in it), Scotty had one (he mentioned it). They had theirs where they did their work. Kirk had his stateroom with a desk and workstation and any damned place on the ship he wanted, honestly. He did most of his work on the bridge. Spock had the same and again, did most of his work on the bridge. Who else among the regulars needed an office? Sulu? Nope. Chekov? Nope. Uhura? Nope. They had duty watches where they did their work. Sulu wasn't writing reports, he was steering the ship. Chekov was plotting courses and probably doing extra credit study under Spock afterwards - in his quarters on the library computer they all had access to, judging by the monitors that everyone had. Uhura answered the phones. What would she need an office for?

As Maurice pointed out, they had briefing rooms to do their conferences. The question is a non-starter because the person who posed it apparently watched only one episode. All Our Yesterdays or something...

 

[Warped9]

Think about this a minute.

Kirk and the other offers don’t write out their logs—they dictate them to the computer system.

To that end it’s quite possible they need only dictate their reports and other administrative correspondence. Printouts could be made available as needed or desired—we saw that in “The Cage” and “The Conscience Of The King.” It’s possible a TOS era datatape is analogous to what we know as a USB stick if you need your data to be physically mobile.

We never actually saw the face of one of those wedge shaped datapads so maybe they’re essentially similar to a tablet and the writing instruments we saw them using were just styluses.

Once again by TOS not getting too specific and showing us just enough but not too much we have room to rationalize what we’re seeing.

Kirk and Spock might well have had offices available to them if they wished, but possibly they just don’t feel the need given they can perform their administrative tasks easily enough without them.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'm pretty sure there was one episode Kirk or someone had this enormous thing that looked like some kind of electronic clipboard but it just looked awkward and bulky.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm pretty sure there was one episode Kirk or someone had this enormous thing that looked like some kind of electronic clipboard but it just looked awkward and bulky.

More than one episode. For the 1960s it was a pretty compact device.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

More than one episode. For the 1960s it was a pretty compact device.

For the time yes. But they only used it a few times and then dropped the whole idea. Tried to find a pic online of it but nothing decent.

 

[Henoch]

To that end it’s quite possible they need only dictate their reports and other administrative correspondence. Printouts could be made available as needed or desired—we saw that in “The Cage” and “The Conscience Of The King.”

Two things here for "Hey, I never noticed that before..."
1. From a SF point of view, it is embarrassing that The Cage used that big, flip-top, paper clipboard strait out the 1950's.
2. I know that the guy at the turbolift is a Cadet, but so it the guy pushing paper onto to Pike. Two Cadets standing around doing menial duties. "What are we running here, a cadet ship, Number One?" Ahh, yep.

 

[Nerys Myk]

For the time yes. But they only used it a few times and then dropped the whole idea. Tried to find a pic online of it but nothing decent.

Your google fu is weak
Electronic Clipboard
ETA And it was being used in season 2 (Mirror Mirror)

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Your google fu is weak
Electronic Clipboard

That's the one I found pics but no really good hi res ones that could use. I like the modern replicas of that prop.

 

[FormerLurker]

It’s possible a TOS era datatape is analogous to what we know as a USB stick if you need your data to be physically mobile.

The advent of the 1.44 Mb 3.5 inch floppy disk made Star Trek fans around the world gasp "Oh My God!"

 

[Dale Sams]

This partially illustrates what I was talking about. There's no room for that thing! There are almost no flat surfaces on the Bridge! If Uhura needs to do something real quick she has to set that on the ground. There may be just enough room between the two sets of buttons.

 

[Nerys Myk]

That's the one I found pics but no really good hi res ones that could use. I like the modern replicas of that prop.

They were using the prop in Season 3 as well.

 

[Warped9]

If magnetic it might just stick to the console.

 

[Henoch]

They were using the prop in Season 3 as well.

She's not taking dictation, is she?

 

[Nerys Myk]

She's not taking dictation, is she?

She's working on her screenplay.

 

[Dale Sams]

Q: IRL, ship Captains have less administrative work to do then XO's, yes?

Also...I know the deconstruction/trope is that "A ship captain wouldn't be going on all these away missions!!" But I posit:

1. TOS is more styled on The Exploration Era, and ships Captain certainly went ashore.

2. Here's where I put up some chicken wire to block the rotten veggies and beer bottles to be thrown at me. Spock was NOT a good XO. An XO is to communicate the needs and desires of the Captain. Spock often had trouble communicating with the crew and was often met with open xenophobia and hostility. Even as late as Turnabout Intruder there's a security guard calling him crazy and telling him to leave.

Hell if Galileo 7 had been made in TNG era. there would have been someone along to pull Spock aside and tell him it was time to put on his bigboy pants and stop tolerating the insubordination. These arn't your friends.

 

[Dale Sams]

If magnetic it might just stick to the console.

That would actually be really efficient. It's really the communications officer and the XO (except for McCoy and Scotty who have offices or at least desks) I think need some kind of work space.

And thinking about what crew members do in their offtimes got me thinking about McGivers:

Kirk: "Here's a chance for that historian to do something for a change"

That's hilarious. But she really doesn't just sit around in her quarters for weeks on end does she? Does she go over ship mission logs and write historical theses to send to some institute? Does she write for a ship newspaper?? If you're on a five year mission there should be a ship paper!!

But seriously, surely she would serve some sort of double duty wouldn't she? Security? Do extra duty on ship watches?

 

[Warped9]

Kirk could well have been referring to McGivers doing something actually relevant to being a historian as opposed to her other duties. She wears a red uniform so her other duties likely involve ship’s support services.

 

[Push The Button]

Your google fu is weak
Electronic Clipboard
ETA And it was being used in season 2 (Mirror Mirror)

I always thought the prop had one of those Magic Slate toys for a writing surface. You wrote on those things with a plastic stylus and “erased” it by peeling up the plastic sheet on top. Or, maybe it was just a sheet of paper.

 

[Henoch]

Kirk could well have been referring to McGivers doing something actually relevant to being a historian as opposed to her other duties. She wears a red uniform so her other duties likely involve ship’s support services.

You just beat me to that point; she's a Lieutenant and she wears a red uniform. Since Kirk doesn't know her name, I doubt she spends any time on the bridge. Her only other technical skills she does during the episode is use the transporter (normally a red shirt job) and hypospray a guy (I assume this suggests minimal medical training but no clue as to wearing a red uniform.) With no more info and her knowledge of the transporter operation, I'd say she was in "engineering" perhaps maintenance but not a transporter operator since Kirk uses the thing so often he would know her.

 

[Dale Sams]

Ohhh...I see. Her main duties are something else and 'historian' is the side duty that rarely gets used. Like there's probably a 'ship archaeologist' somewhere. In other news:

WHNMHGB: Watching tonight, I noticed when the go into orbit around Delta Vega...the nav station is so EFFED up it takes two guys to take the ship into orbit and Kelso had some kind of special equipment he uses to help the navigator do it. That's a fairly ingenious bit.

When Dehner goes off on some kind of 'better human being rant'...everyone looks at her like she went off on some sort of racist rant. This further reinforces my head-canon on how the Feds have this serious bias over eugenics. Maybe well-founded but I'm not here to debate that.

To clarify, its still going on in DS9 times. We've seen that the Feds can overreact when fields of study go awry like in PIC.