That's what happens after they do it the way DS9 did it. But Jellico added it in with a deadly combination of overwork and lack of shakedown time.
Did Picard switch it back to a 3 Shift Rotation?
- Thread starter Guy Gardener
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You're assuming more than just the watch rotation. He's having the watch switched to 6 hour shifts. Those people on watch are being rotated out more frequently for battle readiness/alertness purposes (Those guys he ordered to run battle drills for each) & those assigned to specifically that are probably not those who are having to work "Round the clock" as fully.
Maintenance personnel, engineering crews, whoever got reassigned away from the shut down sciences etc... Those people are being asked to work overtime during the ramp-up before negotiations began, to realign the ship's fit to more of a battle tack. Also note, that by the time negotiations did begin, all the talk of that was over, because they were ordered to be ready in advance, and likely were. So even those people were likely given downtime for rest afterward.
Everyone acts like he personally decided that there'd be a time shortage. Why can no one presume that his mission was just as difficult, time sensitive & potentially impossible an assigned task as Picard's was? It's a big crap sandwich that got dumped in both their laps. All of this is on Nechayev's call. Assigning a seasoned captain away from the same ship that she wants to be the spear's head of a likely battle situation, & putting in another captain to handle that, on no notice, & knowing full well it's not currently on battle assignment.
Did no one see Picard's "Battle Enterprise" in Yesterday's Enterprise? It's different, isn't it? Now imagine you have to take Picard's exploration Enterprise, make it into that, literally while enroute to the beginning of the thing. Sounds shitty doesn't it? I imagine no captain comes of as a good guy ordering that.
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It's quite possible Jellico's 4-shift rotation was the right thing to do in this particular situation even though he does give the crew little time to adapt.
Probably there was no reason for keeping it after everything returned to normal, since the old 3-shift apparently was working fine under normal circumstances.
Probably there was no reason for keeping it after everything returned to normal, since the old 3-shift apparently was working fine under normal circumstances.
If Picard was still Captain of the Enterprise during %100 of Chain of Command, then the USS Cairo would have been assigned to chair the peace talks, because they wanted Jellico's experience, not whichever ship he incidentally happened to be standing on.
Although after spending 3 days with Madred, Picard is now an expert on Cardassians too.
Madred is definitely on Picard's Christmas Card list, and he sends that kid presents too, passively aggressive as %%%k.
Madred burns everything, expecting treachery, but it puts him on an unpopular list with Obsidian Order.
Madred became a changed man too.
He installed a 5th light and now coerces his subjects to say there are four.
He installed a 5th light and now coerces his subjects to say there are four.
Considering the Enterprise was going to be the lead ship of that sector if war broke out, Jellico was a better choice as captain because of his extensive experience with the Cardassians. And he was a more battle captain than Picard.
Young Picard had to step over the corpse of his beloved Captain, and Push Jack Crusher out of the way who had exactly the same idea, to assume command during the hurly burly of full scale war...
In a latter day do-over, Riker would be giving Picard CPR for 3 hours while Data assumed Command.
That doesn't align with what Nechayev said. The negotiation was to be specifically done by the "flagship" Enterprise, commanding officer notwithstanding, as a tactic to give them a sense of how seriously the UFP was taking this... which admittedly is kind of a stupid tactic, but honestly this whole mess comes down to major miscalculations on Nechayev's part imho.
It's a miracle it all worked out as well as it did, in no small part due to the will of both captains. Picard (Who was specifically targeted) was meant to fall into a trap that got his whole team captured, but that it was only him, made the situation less difficult, and the Enterprise was meant to take the bait & try to stage a rescue, causing a diplomatic incident, (Which dummy Riker was chomping at the bit to do)
Necvhayev failed to see through a pretty blatant trap set up for Picard, OR she did figure it could be a trap, but figured it was a potential risk enough to merit him being expendable, & sent him knowing he'd never come back. She then chose the Enterprise to still be the negotiating envoy, but with a new captain on absurdly short notice.
I think the only thing she did get right was in not letting Riker command it (Who was planning to make a bad call), & picking Jellico instead, which might've been the only thing at all that saved everyone's bacon.
What if Necheyev knew it was a Trap?
She sacrificed Picard, and tapped Jellico because no one has faith in Riker.
Nechayev can be stern, but I never found her to be a badmiral. It's very possible she was simply wrong... she's human, too, and just as fallible as the rest of us.
If Picard blew up the complex it would have started a war immediately and the Federation would have lost.
If Picard ignored the Trap, the war would have started a week earlier, if the Cardassians gave up on gathering intelligence form Picard, and the Federation would have lost.
Picard's capture and dehumanization gave Jellico the extra week he needed to win the war, without firing a shot.
Nechayev is not bad, she's a winner.
I will say it's not all her. She keeps saying "We" so there's others in high command in her corner, but she's spearheading it for sure. I never quite considered her a baddie admiral. She has good intentions I think, (to pave the road to hell).
I don't think she knew it was a trap. I think her & others largely suspected it was a trap, & if Picard didn't, he was being rather naive, because how odd/suspicious is it that only 3 captains are on record having experience with the thetaband wave whatsits? & of those 3, TWO are out of service now. If suddenly you're in a position where there's only one guy in the fleet you can turn to, for a mysterious development... trap.
In that sense, yeah, I think she was either dumb as rocks or she was intentionally sacrificing Picard for the "Greater Good" in that everyone was duped pretty hard about that metagenic weapon business & weren't going to sit by & do nothing. Jellico himself comes off as a dick by telling Picard he likely won't be returning from the mission, but I honestly think he was trying to do him a solid by warning him.
Jellico is maybe the only guy with all the puzzle pieces at hand, to know none of this was suppose to work out, & that there was a very slim margin of success, that involved walking a tightrope with BS negotiations, managing a spurned crew, (Which he knew would be the case all along) & figuring out the play to flank it all. Thank god he had Geordi & Data working for him.
Any way you slice it, Nechayev got manipulated nearly as badly by the Cardassians here, as Kennelly did in Ensign Ro.