Do you think a lot of the civilians on board Enterprise requested to leave?

In the very first episode (or it might've been the second one) Picard openly questions Starfleet's decision to let the families of officers live on the Enterprise. He was completely against the idea and it's not hard to see why.

I mean, after all of the dangerous and weird things they encounter in space (viruses, evil aliens, things that transform crew members into other creatures), I'd have to believe that a lot of them would want to get the hell out off the Enterprise and simply live on whatever their home planet is after the first couple of incidents. Especially the children!

 

Given the dangers you mentioned, the question could be expanded to would a lot of the Starfleet personnel request to leave?

 

Well, they knew what they were signing up for. They learned about everything past crews (particularly the past Enterprises) went through in their adventures. I'm betting though that a lot of the very first Starfleet personnel got cold feet and turned tail and ran!

 

I wouldn't let my kid on a starship. That's just bad parenting right there.

 

I know right?

 

The officers had families and they apparently wanted to be together, even on a starsip.

 

Then what?

From what we've seen people aren't just on a starship for a six month deployment and then back home for months or years. They live on the starship for years and apparently in some cases decades.

Essentually ditching your children to be raised by others while you explore the galaxy would be the bad parenting. The potential for your kid to be kidnapped, injuries, killed, is there. But it doesn't seem to be common.

Your (modern day) child is probably at greater risk traveling in the family car. But you don't leave them home do you?

Space is the frontier, people have always took their children with them to frontiers, off load starfleet-dependants in specific case of unusal danger (war, some explorations) but if you want your people to be capable of having families and still serve on a starship, the families have to go too.

 

Doesn't seem to be too major a concern to anyone. As late as Season 4 you have two children being left on board by BOTH parents in Brothers. Worked out wonderfully for them too, as I recall.

 

"Kids, your father and i have decided that life aboard the Enterprise is just too dangerous. I know you both have made a lot of friends on board and you like the school, but you'll still be able to communicate with them via subspace and your datapadds.

"and things won't change too much. Our new family quarters will look exactly the same, it will just be safer. We're taking a new assignment to USS Odyssey. Yay!"

 

I mean, for all that some people say having families on the E-D is bad, if the ship wasn't going to return to the planet the kids were on for several years, would leaving them there be better?

 

I might be misremembering, but didn't the Odssey off load it's civilian population to DS9 prior to going on a unusually dangerios mission, the one the destroyed it?

 

Having families on a remote deployed exploration ship where (Not knowing you are in a TV program) danger beyond the usual risks is not expected makes some sense. Having families on a ship that is considered the go to option for military operations does not.

I think any civilian who chose to be on the Enterprise to begin with would not ask to leave unless full on war broke out.

 

I think they probably should have mentioned evacuating the civilians more often, but in a BoBW-type situation (which was thankfully rare), it's probably reasonable to ask whether it would make any difference where the civilians were if the battle was lost.

 

Depends.

Lots of planets get blown up, invaded, eaten by doomsday weapons, infested by parasites, hit with plagues...

The ship seems like the safe choice to me. It comes out every time.

 

The USS Yamato would like to speak to you.

 

It was no accident the Enterprise was packed with families facing the unknown. Gene wanted it that way.

 

Record numbers of families requested to leave after Jellico took the joy out of everything

 

It did because of the nature of the rescue mission into the Gamma Quadrant.

 

I dunno, Worf is a terrible parent and he kicked Alexander off the ship. Though, that wasn't for Alex's safety so much as Worf's convenience. Hmm.

 

Worf is a terrible person in general. He couldn't even stop his kid from suffering an accelerated aging illness. That's just neglect. Plus he's kind of rude.