How difficult (or easy) it is to operate a starship?

[xvicente]

Khan came straight from the 20th century and promptly commandeered the Enterprise and then the Reliant - the later in combat no less.

Mirror Archer and a few of his men just found the Defiant lying around and put her to use immediately. Later Mirror Hoshi felt confident to take on Earth.

So it must be super easy to operate a 23rd century starship.

(Coming to think of it it's unfair to single blame Deanna for crashing the E-D. That was a team job, from the Commanding officer's strategy not including actually firing at the enemy ship, to the Chief Engineer literally transmitting the secret code to them and after some hits just yelling "there's nothing I can do".)

OTOH Sulu and Riker were credited as being great experts at piloting (shuttles at least), topping everyone around.

 

[Kor]

Khan studied the ship specs when he was in sickbay. Having a superior intellect, he was probably able to figure out how to operate a starship on his own with this study.

The mirror ENT crew were already familiar with starship operations. The basic principals probably didn't change much.

Kor

 

[Captain Rob]

Maybe Starfleet ships need to have keys. Like nuBSG had. It had a U-shaped key with a neon glowy bit that they inserted before making a jump.

 

[xvicente]

Khan studied the ship specs when he was in sickbay. Having a superior intellect, he was probably able to figure out how to operate a starship on his own with this study.

The mirror ENT crew were already familiar with starship operations. The basic principals probably didn't change much.

Kor

Yeah those are the good classic explanations. But are they enough? Take a WWI biplane pilot and put him in a F-35 cockpit, I bet he won't do as well as Mirror Archer and co.

Khan, for all the RTFM he did, didn't learn to think in 3D. Joachim and the others probably didn't even read the books.

The ships must be super easy to run. But they dont look like it. Now I'm confused.

 

[Amaraen]

In the Voyager episode "Message in a Bottle", the EMH's are completely unable to do even the most simple tasks on the Prometheus, since they have no training.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Have you seen those consoles? Basically a lot of undistinguished shaded buttons with unreadably tiny print. When Worf was in a parallel universe where the configuration changed he couldn't figure out how to use it.

In the 24th century, basic maintenance functions are probably largely automated so when you know the basics you can perform basic functions. But when you're in a situation where very specific things need to be done it probably takes a year's study to know what you're doing.

 

[The Wormhole]

Half the time you have to wonder why the ships have such large crews, given how often we see the ships successfully operated by a handful of people. There's TFSF where five people operate the Enterprise (although that has a line about setting up specialized equipment to allow automation). But we see the Enterprise D only operated by two people, or Voyager operated by Tom Paris and a handful of Talaxians after it was liberated from the Kazon.

In the Voyager episode "Message in a Bottle", the EMH's are completely unable to do even the most simple tasks on the Prometheus, since they have no training.

The Prometheus is just weird to begin with. According to EMH2 it's so complex a ship only four people in all Starfleet are qualified to operate it. Which would mean the ship could only have had a crew of four. Possible, I guess given we only see corpses for two Starfleet officers. Yet the Romulans who commandeer the ship have no problem figuring out how to operate it at all. Come to think of it, we only see four Romulans aboard the ship as well. So maybe it only needs a crew of four?

EDIT: Never mind, just checked the episode's transcripts and the computer says there's twenty-seven Romulans aboard the Prometheus. There goes that nice theory. Still, there are more Romulans who know how to operate the Prometheus than Starfleet officers. Weird.

 

[NOVE9]

They were talking about being able to fly it. So only 4 people could operate the helm in all of star fleet.

 

[Drone]

Half the time you have to wonder why the ships have such large crews, given how often we see the ships successfully operated by a handful of people. There's TFSF where five people operate the Enterprise (although that has a line about setting up specialized equipment to allow automation). But we see the Enterprise D only operated by two people, or Voyager operated by Tom Paris and a handful of Talaxians after it was liberated from the Kazon.

In the Voyager episode "Message in a Bottle", the EMH's are completely unable to do even the most simple tasks on the Prometheus, since they have no training.

The Prometheus is just weird to begin with. According to EMH2 it's so complex a ship only four people in all Starfleet are qualified to operate it. Which would mean the ship could only have had a crew of four. Possible, I guess given we only see corpses for two Starfleet officers. Yet the Romulans who commandeer the ship have no problem figuring out how to operate it at all. Come to think of it, we only see four Romulans aboard the ship as well. So maybe it only needs a crew of four?

EDIT: Never mind, just checked the episode's transcripts and the computer says there's twenty-seven Romulans aboard the Prometheus. There goes that nice theory. Still, there are more Romulans who know how to operate the Prometheus than Starfleet officers. Weird.

Maybe it's just the four Romulans on the bridge that actually know what they're doing and the rest are just there to rip off Starfleet swag.

 

[The Wormhole]

They were talking about being able to fly it. So only 4 people could operate the helm in all of star fleet.

But that doesn't explain why there are so few Starfleet corpses on the ship. Were the others vaporized? If so, why weren't the two we see in sickbay? And again, the Romulans certainly had no problem figuring out the complex helm.

 

[Drone]

Since the two we see weren't vaporized, there really isn't any reason to think that any others of the crew were either. We just may not see any more because the ones that were on the bridge were just dumped somewhere rather than just left lying around while the Romulans were working, and the remainder were perhaps in parts of the ship we just didn't see.

 

[Timo]

Take a WWI biplane pilot and put him in a F-35 cockpit, I bet he won't do as well as Mirror Archer and co.

On the other hand, take a home computer operator from the 1980s and give him a "PADD" from today, and he'll figure it out in no time flat (or ask his three-year-old for help). Take the guy from today back to the 1980s and see him achieve nothing much.

It could well be assumed that machinery gets easier to operate with time - if for no other reason, then because labor costs keep increasing and fewer people will have to do more tasks, thus needing all the help they can get.

The ships must be super easy to run. But they dont look like it

Oh? Their controls aren't even labeled. So even illiterate people can operate them!

Half the time you have to wonder why the ships have such large crews, given how often we see the ships successfully operated by a handful of people.

That's how it works ITRW, too. I could sail a giant car ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm single-handed with an hour's training, once I got about a hundred people to "prime" it for me. And if anything went the slightest bit wrong (say, I had to dodge crossing traffic or there was wind or I forgot to click the right marker on the navigation screen in time), either a dozen people would need to rush to my help, or the ship would brown out, be solidly parked on an idyllic shore, or perhaps sink.

There's a difference between operating and keeping operational. And the flexibility of manpower is key to the latter.

Yet the Romulans who commandeer the ship have no problem figuring out how to operate it at all.

The guy standing next to the back stations did complain he didn't know what he was doing. And got killed for that.

The other three were sitting on the three seats available, suggesting a bridge crew of four indeed was what the designers had intended...

One wonders if any of the Starfleet crew, or the Romulan boarders, were in the sections that were separated from the "command wedge" to do battle. If this thing is a drone control center plus two optionally crewed drones, then it does make sense that the as such easy to fly vessel would feature unique controls not found in any other vessel, Starfleet or Romulan - and that those controls would be concentrated on the bridge, to be initially operated / tested in great secrecy by an elite team of four (or two, plus two backups, or whatever).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[Jedman67]

The romulans probably had spies in the federation so they could steal the Prometheus, and were able to get their hands on a RTFM. They may have also threatened the computer for one.
A starship could, apparently be run with only one person, albeit with computer support. In order to run efficiently it needs a whole crew.
And shuttles are obviously flown by magic, nothing else makes sense.

 

[stardream]

In the Voyager episode "Message in a Bottle", the EMH's are completely unable to do even the most simple tasks on the Prometheus, since they have no training.

I was going to ask if the EMH ever learned to pilot Voyager. Did he learn when he became the 'Command' Emergency Hologram?

I seem to remember a line of dialogue somewhere that he had 'rudimentary' piloting skills which I assumed at the time meant he could maybe fly a shuttlecraft.

Speaking of Voyager, I think all of the Senior staff could pilot it. Besides Paris (and his relief Pilots) we have seen the Captain, Chakotay, and Tuvok at the helm. I don't remember seeing B'Elanna fly it but she said she could in a line of dialogue and Harry apparently could because Janeway ordered him to take the helm after Paris refused to obey her orders in 'Night'.

 

[Cyke101]

I'd love to think that the only reason why we see so much typing in the TNG-era shows is because everyone keeps making typos, but at the beginning of the command.

*backspacebackspacebackspacebackspacebackspace*

 

[Drone]

Have you seen those consoles? Basically a lot of undistinguished shaded buttons with unreadably tiny print. When Worf was in a parallel universe where the configuration changed he couldn't figure out how to use it.

In the 24th century, basic maintenance functions are probably largely automated so when you know the basics you can perform basic functions. But when you're in a situation where very specific things need to be done it probably takes a year's study to know what you're doing.

Forget the buttons with tiny print. I find it very interesting that in Voyager we see a number of instances that various crew members are able to almost immediately manipulate command and control consoles of alien ships whose script is in that native language, which doesn't seem to be any impediment to understanding their function. I'm not necessarily speaking about piloting a ship, although that happened as well. An instance occurs in Displaced where Janeway and Tuvok are able to break down the workings of the matrix of the various bio-environments in the Nyrians ship. It almost seems that there's a commonality inherent in computer interfaces that allows fairly straightforward understanding of what needs to be done to elicit any requisite response. Maybe there's an implication that, at least among the humanoid type species, there would be a symmetry on certain controls pretty uniformly being in the same orientation because the various species have such a similar physiology.

In the Voyager episode "Message in a Bottle", the EMH's are completely unable to do even the most simple tasks on the Prometheus, since they have no training.

I was going to ask if the EMH ever learned to pilot Voyager. Did he learn when he became the 'Command' Emergency Hologram?

I seem to remember a line of dialogue somewhere that he had 'rudimentary' piloting skills which I assumed at the time meant he could maybe fly a shuttlecraft.

Speaking of Voyager, I think all of the Senior staff could pilot it. Besides Paris (and his relief Pilots) we have seen the Captain, Chakotay, and Tuvok at the helm. I don't remember seeing B'Elanna fly it but she said she could in a line of dialogue and Harry apparently could because Janeway ordered him to take the helm after Paris refused to obey her orders in 'Night'.

The Doctor did fly one in Renaissance Man at least. Kes could obviously fly one, given Paris's early tutelage. I don't doubt that with her eidetic memeory and highly advanced learning abilities, she might very well have been able to navigate Voyager as well with a relative minimum of direct instruction.

 

[The Wormhole]

Forget the buttons with tiny print. I find it very interesting that in Voyager we see a number of instances that various crew members are able to almost immediately manipulate command and control consoles of alien ships whose script is in that native language, which doesn't seem to be any impediment to understanding their function. I'm not necessarily speaking about piloting a ship, although that happened as well. An instance occurs in Displaced where Janeway and Tuvok are able to break down the workings of the matrix of the various bio-environments in the Nyrians ship. It almost seems that there's a commonality inherent in computer interfaces that allows fairly straightforward understanding of what needs to be done to elicit any requisite response. Maybe there's an implication that, at least among the humanoid type species, there would be a symmetry on certain controls pretty uniformly being in the same orientation because the various species have such a similar physiology.

Never mind Voyager, it's even more impressive they could do that on Enterprise, where UTs weren't standard equipment. Hell, it's no wonder the Mirror crew were able to figure the Defiant out so quickly. Sure it's from 100 years into the future of a different universe, but at least it's in English.

 

[Timo]

Yup, if the UT is something we could classify as "technology", rather than a magical potion one drinks at youth, then it makes sense to use the technology in computer interfaces as well, and buttons ought to be no more an obstacle to communication than words.

Perhaps five years ago, shuttles that can be flown by utterly unskilled people might have sounded unrealistic. Today, we finally have cars that drive themselves; the next (current?) generation of viewers shouldn't have any problem with vehicles that don't need piloting skills. Similarly, a decade ago, creating a perfect replica of Kirk's ship for the needs of the Gideonites sounded silly; today, it could already be seen that creating anything short of perfection would be an unrealistic, purely drama-driven conceit and misuse of realistic everyday technologies...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Scotchy]

In Remember Me Beverly Crusher ends up running the Enterprise by herself using voice command. I suppose that was her own pocket universe, though.
In Brothers Data pretty much does the same thing. No one is helping him (quite the opposite, they're trying to stop him) and he gets the Enterprise to Soong's planet and is able to have the Enterprise itself help him escape using voice command.
In The Search For Spock Scotty rigs the Enterprise-A to run primarily on automation with only a bridge crew (although this does fail when they engage in combat.)