Families on a STARSHIP

[Phantassm]

Yeah-space travel is much too dangerous to take kids along. I don't care how "protected" certain areas of the ship was/is. Taking kids along is just stupid and it really amazed me that Troi didn't spend more of her time discussing their problems in adjusting to all those phaser hits, unauthorized aliens, violent situations, etc.

 

[Gotham Central]

I think that what most people forget is that the original intention of the concept was that the families would NEVER be put in combat situations. That was the purpose of the saucer seperation in the Pilot. They originally intended for the ship to seperate whenever it found itself in a dangerous situation. Of course that proved too costly and time consuming so it was rarely done.

 

[Forbin]

Given that the ships at Wolf 359 were (probably) NOT on long-term exploration missions, since they were so freakin close to Earth at the time, there's really no reason they should have had crew's families aboard.

 

[Crewman47]

Couldn't the Saucer be seperated off-screen, like having Picard give the order, proceed to the Battle Bridge and then hear the Sepration complete confirmationm then if they want to they can show a stock video of the Saucer leaving the area.

 

[Apogeal Alpha01]

It might have resulted in a smaller, more manueverable fighting ship, but also made the saucer a great big, slow (relatively) moving target.

 

[Redshirts_Widow]

I look at having your family onboard as being bad practice just from the point of view that it provides a distraction to ANY crewmember.

The constantly bickering O'Briens are a classic example. If you have a barn-stormer of an arguement with your better half the night before, when you report to duty, you will, on some level, be taking all that stress with you to your place of work. Kid in sickbay? Wife accidentely deleted your Klingon opera? Anything that ticks you off will degrade your work efficiency.

An interesting parallel comes from todays Navy (though i only speak from Royal Navy experience. Everyone now pretty much has a mobile/cell phone. If you're within range of land and it's tactically allowed, you can ring home with impunity. Email means that even if you can't speak to your family at home, you can still communicate on a daily basis as is your whim. You need never miss out on anything bar actually being there.

Now lets go back 20 odd years where you were relyingon mail and to a lesser extent long-range radiotelephony for a few minutes a week to keep in touch if you were lucky! The rarity of having this communication meant that you usually only mentioned the really important stuff, time was important.

Now Seaman Jack Tar can know the same day that his girlfriend had a crap day at work, or that his car insurance has gone up, or that the wallpaper is peeling in his study. Now i know from experience that for some of your personnel, it makes the seperation more difficult because they're far away when their family needs a hug or somesuch.

Imagine how much worse that is when your family is onboard with you!

 

[JoeZhang]

The constantly bickering O'Briens are a classic example. If you have a barn-stormer of an arguement with your better half the night before, when you report to duty, you will, on some level, be taking all that stress with you to your place of work. Kid in sickbay? Wife accidentely deleted your Klingon opera? Anything that ticks you off will degrade your work efficiency.

 

[Redshirts_Widow]

Genius! Nicely done! Though in honesty, if I were the female crewmember at the CONN, I'd be more worried why my husband was cross-dressing and wearing knee-high boots.... Now THAT is taking it to work with you...

 

[TremblingBluStar]

Gotham Central said:
I think that what most people forget is that the original intention of the concept was that the families would NEVER be put in combat situations. That was the purpose of the saucer seperation in the Pilot. They originally intended for the ship to seperate whenever it found itself in a dangerous situation. Of course that proved too costly and time consuming so it was rarely done.

Right. And I'm not sure if this has been pointed out, but originally the ship was to be far in unexplored space. Not within reach of the Federation every time they need to get back. If you recall the first season, it was a huge deal to have the Enterprise travel all the way back to Earth.

Later seasons featured far more stories within Federation space.

 

[Timo]

Taking kids along is just stupid and it really amazed me that Troi didn't spend more of her time discussing their problems in adjusting to all those phaser hits, unauthorized aliens, violent situations, etc.

That's why she's aboard in the first place, isn't it?

Although she wouldn't be treating just the kids. Why would adults be any less vulnerable to the psychological trauma of combat? From practical experience in any of the recent wars where (near-)adults from high-comfort industrialized nations were suddenly thrust to bloody battlefields, it seems they cope less well with it than malleable youngsters do.

Starfleet kids would grow up with the knowledge that life can be short and painful. Their parents might delight in that idea, as the less fortunate masses back on Earth would be living a very different life, one that the parents shunned as unsatisfactory when joining the Fleet.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Forbin]

Redshirts_Widow said:
I look at having your family onboard as being bad practice just from the point of view that it provides a distraction to ANY crewmember.

The constantly bickering O'Briens are a classic example. If you have a barn-stormer of an arguement with your better half the night before, when you report to duty, you will, on some level, be taking all that stress with you to your place of work. Kid in sickbay? Wife accidentely deleted your Klingon opera? Anything that ticks you off will degrade your work efficiency.

How is that different from any normal person's job?

To counter the argument - how many couples live every day of their lives arguing and with a kid in sickbay? The default condition would be stress relief and joy at having your family with you after you knock off work. Otherwise, you have a whle shift off to sit alone in your quarters missing your family, and then you sleep alone.

 

[anti-matter]

Except for warships I can see many benefits for families on starships. For one thing if you want to attract the best science teams available these people may not want to leave the comforts of academia and their families for extended periods. For another if you come across a xenophobic species the on board families would help validate peaceful intentions.Also the experience of traveling and mingling with different cultures have been proven to benefit youth.

 

[Timo]

How is that different from any normal person's job?

Indeed, how is that different from the job of a person who isn't married with children?

A single crewperson in an all-male or all-female crew of uniform age, or a crew carefully neutered for the greater good and medicated to forget they ever had parents or siblings, would still get into arguments with roommates, would worry about his or her social standing, and so forth.

Timo Saloniemi