How Does Starfleet Justify an All-Vulcan Crew?

[Clark Terrell]

I've never understood this given that the Federation seems to be a melting-pot of several different species and that Vulcan culture emphasizes infinite diversity in infinite combinations. How does Starfleet justify having vessels with only Vulcan crewmembers? Would an all-human crew be allowed?

 

[Ensign Ro]

The only time I recall a all Vulcan crew was one time with TOS. The ship was destroyed and some reason Spock had this Jedi feeling of Vulcan's being dead. Other then that, I cannot recall. If you are thinking of Enterprise, they were not members of Star Trek at that time.

Now, I recall time to time about a science ship with a bunch of Vulcan's. Never recalled it was all Vulcan's. And, those ships only had a crew less then 30. If their was a all human science ship, I would not call it unnatural.

So, can you tell me what ship we are talking about. If it is the one from TOS, that was really to make a point for a plot not a real ship and crew. Second, that was also from the 1960's, and that is really back dating.

 

[BigJake]

It was the Intrepid, and yes it was always a bit odd. My general sense is that Starfleet in TOS is basically Earth's space service (the primary strength of the Federation in the same way that the US Navy is the primary strength of NATO), and that the ship was for some reason loaned to Vulcan's (smaller) space service which crewed it. But that's completely ex recto.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The only time I recall a all Vulcan crew was one time with TOS. The ship was destroyed and some reason Spock had this Jedi feeling of Vulcan's being dead. Other then that, I cannot recall.

The USS T'Kumbra from DS9's "Take Me Out To The Holosuite" was also crewed entirely by Vulcans.

 

[Warped9]

Well the TOS Enterprise had an all human crew except for Spock. In TAS we saw Arex and Mress so maybe that can be retconned to TOS.

In TOS we heard of the Intrepid having an all Vulcan crew. And this gels with the reference in TMOST that starship crews were likely to be predominantly of one species. I suppose this could be expanded to include species that can comfortably co-exist. If there are widely divergent environmental conditions required than that could interfere with operational efficiency.

So a crew could be predominantly human, predominantly Vulcan, predominantly Andorian and so on.

That said I have a hard time envisioning a Starfleet vessel with a predominantly Tellarite crew. No one would want to join the Federation if the Tellarites are representatives. The UFP diplomatic core would be overworked putting out diplomatic snafus.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Unbridled Pon Farr?

 

[C.E. Evans]

I always just chalked it up that some ships are crewed by whoever is on hand when they launch on various missions. If both the Intrepid and the T'Kumbra were at Vulcan at the time of their respective deployments, it doesn't seem too unreasonable that they might have all-Vulcan crews. I think ships with single-species crews are rare among the fleet, but they do happen now and then.

But I also think that those ships won't have single-species crews throughout their entire service lives. Eventually there will be crew rotations that will bring in representatives from other Federation worlds. For all we know, the original Enterprise may have started off with an all-Human crew until Spock came aboard.

 

[HIjol]

Unbridled Pon Farr?

Deeper than it has ever been?

<HIjol fearing Star Trek XXX, Wrath of Mods>

 

[Hartzilla2007]

It was the Intrepid, and yes it was always a bit odd. My general sense is that Starfleet in TOS is basically Earth's space service (the primary strength of the Federation in the same way that the US Navy is the primary strength of NATO), and that the ship was for some reason loaned to Vulcan's (smaller) space service which crewed it. But that's completely ex recto.

That or Earth either gave Vulcan the ship as a gift or sold it to them.

 

[Ro_Laren]

The only reasons I can imagine Starfleet saying an all-Vulcan crew was justifiable / needed is if 1) the ship is going to a region of space where only those with Vulcan physiology can survive or 2) the ship is going on a mission where they have to deal with a race that hates everyone in the Federation except Vulcans.

 

[HIjol]

The only reasons I can imagine Starfleet saying an all-Vulcan crew was justifiable / needed is if 1) the ship is going to a region of space where only those with Vulcan physiology can survive or 2) the ship is going on a mission where they have to deal with a race that hates everyone in the Federation except Vulcans.

Hmmm...two good thoughts, especially the second...a mission to, say, Romulus?...

 

[Nerys Myk]

My take is that the Intrepid crew was mostly Vulcan, just as the Enterprise crew was mostly human. Kirk and McCoy ares the ones who comment that the Intrepid is manned by Vulcans, as humans they're allowed to be imprecise. Spock only mentions the Vulcan crew in reference to their "psychic death scream".

I always just chalked it up that some ships are crewed by whoever is on hand when they launch on various missions. If both the Intrepid and the T'Kumbra were at Vulcan at the time of their respective deployments, it doesn't seem too unreasonable that they might have all-Vulcan crews. I think ships with single-species crews are rare among the fleet, but they do happen now and then.

Would the ships be totally devoid of a crew until they're assigned a mission? The crew wouldn't change that drastically from mission to mission. Even on a ship's first mission the crew would have been drawn from the entire fleet not just from the planet from which it's launched,

 

[C.E. Evans]

My take is that the Intrepid crew was mostly Vulcan, just as the Enterprise crew was mostly human. Kirk and McCoy ares the ones who comment that the Intrepid is manned by Vulcans, as humans they're allowed to be imprecise. Spock only mentions the Vulcan crew in reference to their "psychic death scream".

I always just chalked it up that some ships are crewed by whoever is on hand when they launch on various missions. If both the Intrepid and the T'Kumbra were at Vulcan at the time of their respective deployments, it doesn't seem too unreasonable that they might have all-Vulcan crews. I think ships with single-species crews are rare among the fleet, but they do happen now and then.

Would the ships be totally devoid of a crew until they're assigned a mission?

I think it's more rare to have the same captain and crew stay on the same ship for years and years. Ships like the Enterprise may be more the exception than the norm, IMO.

The crew wouldn't change that drastically from mission to mission. Even on a ship's first mission the crew would have been drawn from the entire fleet not just from the planet from which it's launched,

I don't think that's necessarily the case with all ships.

 

[Runetouch]

The only reasons I can imagine Starfleet saying an all-Vulcan crew was justifiable / needed is if 1) the ship is going to a region of space where only those with Vulcan physiology can survive or 2) the ship is going on a mission where they have to deal with a race that hates everyone in the Federation except Vulcans.

This.

 

[BigJake]

The crew wouldn't change that drastically from mission to mission. Even on a ship's first mission the crew would have been drawn from the entire fleet not just from the planet from which it's launched,

I don't think that's necessarily the case with all ships.

I think Nerys Myk's instinct is correct. It wouldn't be practicable for ships to recrew from scratch every time they went out. Something really extraordinary would have to happen to necessitate that. (Which, okay, with all the salt monsters and space amoebae apparently running around the galaxy at this point in time, totally could have happened. So there's that.)

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

How does Starfleet justify predominantly human crews?

TOS we only saw one half-alien crewmember without any hints or suggestions that there were any Andorians, Tellarites or others onboard.

TNG stated that 13 species were represented onboard the E-D. Kinda shocking for a ship of over 1000, especially when most are human (or human-looking).

DS9 had the most balanced crew complement, though did have a lot of humans on the Defiant at times.

VOY stated in "Workforce" that of the 150ish crew most were human. But then again seeing as how a small ship away from support never had a pinned down crew number, or even continuity for the number of Vulcans onboard, we have to take it with a pinch of salt.

ENT is exempt, it was an Earth ship after all.

I hope the next series we gets invests in alien extras, since there are 150 member worlds out there and humans only make up a small percentage of the Federation population.

 

[C.E. Evans]

The crew wouldn't change that drastically from mission to mission. Even on a ship's first mission the crew would have been drawn from the entire fleet not just from the planet from which it's launched,

I don't think that's necessarily the case with all ships.

I think Nerys Myk's instinct is correct. It wouldn't be practicable for ships to recrew from scratch every time they went out.

And nor was that actually said (at least not by me).

What was said, though was that it was possible for the crew composition of some ships (not all or even most) to be dependent on where that particular ship happens to be at the start of a mission (deployment, tour of duty, or whatever term works best for you), and that it was also possible that composition won't be the case during the entire service life of that vessel.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I think maybe a degree of this...

Unbridled Pon Farr?

Combined with this...

the ship was for some reason loaned to Vulcan's (smaller) space service which crewed it.

Because you have to remember that Vulcans aren't *entirely* logical - there are some traditional and biological exceptions. Spock didn't want to talk to even Kirk about his Pon Farr, and T'Pau seemed kinda pissed that he had brought Kirk and McCoy in on it. A five-year mission (assuming the Intrepid was on one) would almost certainly mean that at least a certain number of the crew would experience Pon Farr and need to deal with it while onboard, and Vulcan probably had no desire to explain to humans why they had married couples and probably at least one member of the Vulcan priesthood on the ship.

 

[Warped9]

Where is it established that Spock was the first Vulcan in Starfleet? His notoriety could come from simply having a high ranking Ambassador marry an Earth woman and having a son. Next add in that said son (Spock) elects not to follow in the steps of his well known father to join the human centric Starfleet.

This is pure media and tabloid fodder or the 23rd century equivalent on Vulcan.

 

[BillJ]

I think it makes sense for species-only starships. Putting humans on a Vulcan-crewed starship would put them at a disadvantage both culturally and physically (higher temperatures/gravity).

If we ever find advanced life elsewhere, it will be unlikely that we would have close enough requirements to share communal living/work spaces for long periods of time.

Spock ran away from Vulcan and simply had nowhere else to go but the human-centric Starfleet. The fact that he was half-human likely helped him deal with the environmental/cultural differences.