Night shift captain and crew

[F. King Daniel]

Looking through the IMDB page on Star Trek Beyond, I spotted the role of "night watch captain", whom Kirk takes over command of during the intro monologue (and is on screen for a second or two). It got me thinking about duty shifts in Star Trek, what everyone actually does (I remember a graphic detailing Kirk's day in STVI, but cannot for the life of me find it now) and just who ran the various Trek hero ships when the main crew was asleep. Memory alpha says Starfleet usually operates three 8-hour shifts on starships.

I imagine Spock, being Vulcan and not requiring as much sleep as humans, commanded at least one shift on the Enterprise after Kirk went off duty. Data commanded night watch on the Enterprise-D in "Data's Day". Harry Kim commanded night watch on Voyager. The Enterprise novels introduced a new character who was night shift captain of the NX-01.

So who commanded the Enteprises when Spock or Data were asleep? Or Voyager when Janeway and Harry slept?

 

[retroenzo]

Data didn't sleep (or attempt to sleep) until late into TNG's run (Phantasms I believe), and I seem to remember Data's Day showing Data in command during the night shifts.

It always makes me wonder though why things always happen on the main crew's shift and you hardly ever see them have to get Kirk or Picard out of bed (other than for Q I mean).

 

[The Wormhole]

Presumably Starfleet operates on a Watch System in which there is a duty officer in charge of each watch, and the watches rotate to different times a day each day, eventually cycling back to where they started in the schedule. The captain and XO do not follow the watches, but rather work fixed shifts every day, giving them a chance to eventually work with crew of each watch.

And there is no such thing as "night watch captain." A ship only has one captain, and despite what the Abrams movies try to depict being placed in command of the bridge in the captain's absence does not entitle you to be addressed as "Captain." And before anyone tries to say DS9 did this with Dax, it did not. Dax was at one point actually assigned as the Defiant's official commanding officer, and that entitled her to be addressed as "Captain" despite her actual rank being Lt. Commander at the time.

 

[Spot261]

Data didn't sleep (or attempt to sleep) until late into TNG's run (Phantasms I believe), and I seem to remember Data's Day showing Data in command during the night shifts.

It always makes me wonder though why things always happen on the main crew's shift and you hardly ever see them have to get Kirk or Picard out of bed (other than for Q I mean).

Maybe they had other adventures we didn't see, conveniently resolved after eight hours?

Actually, I've often wondered about the concept of a "night shift" in space. I get the idea people need circadian rhythms, yadda yadda, i work nights often enough myself, but why should the entire ship be effectively crewed by the "b team" once per day? Surely there should be a fairly even split of talent throughout the day given that various space borne monsters and subspace oddities hardly wait till office hours to strike?

 

[cultcross]

I seem to vaguely recall dialogue from Chain of Command about the rota. Five shift rota??

 

[retroenzo]

I seem to vaguely recall dialogue from Chain of Command about the rota. Five shift rota??

How does that split up over 24 hours, assuming the Enterprise works to Earth time? I know that DS9 operates over a 26 hour day based on Bajor's rotation, but that makes it more confusing.

Four shift rota I can understand. Even six, or three shift rota. But five? You work 4 hours 48 minutes a day?

 

[Spot261]

unless one allows for 48 minute handover periods...

 

[cultcross]

We run a five shift rotation - you haven't taken into account rest periods, all five teams don't work each day. One will do earlies, one lates, one nights, with two on days off.

 

[retroenzo]

We run a five shift rotation - you haven't taken into account rest periods, all five teams don't work each day. One will do earlies, one lates, one nights, with two on days off.

Ahhhhh now I get it. Guess it's an example of how they differ in terminology between the US and the UK. I work a 14 week rota personally but that's how we tend to think of them here. So you're talking about three days on shift, then two days off.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'm really curious if anyone can point me to the full version of url]this graphic from STVI? I know it's out there in it's entirety somewhere. I'm curious how many breaks Kirk gets

 

[cultcross]

Ahhhhh now I get it. Guess it's an example of how they differ in terminology between the US and the UK. I work a 14 week rota personally but that's how we tend to think of them here. So you're talking about three days on shift, then two days off.

Well we do six on, four off. Early, early, late, late, night, night, rest, rest, rest, rest. It has a number of effects, one that you're absolutely shattered on your first day off, and one that you don't always do the same shift on the same day of the week, but you always know in advance what shift you're on. Years in advance if you want.

 

[Cyfa]

I'm really curious if anyone can point me to the full version of url]this graphic from STVI? I know it's out there in it's entirety somewhere. I'm curious how many breaks Kirk gets

- It's bugging me too. I know I've seen it, but I can't remember where. There is this Spock schedule (from Ex Astris Scientia) though - It looks like it's similar to Kirk's...

 

[F. King Daniel]

- It's bugging me too. I know I've seen it, but I can't remember where. There is this Spock schedule (from Ex Astris Scientia) though - It looks like it's similar to Kirk's...

Thank you! Very curious how Kirk's differs. It looks like Spock gets a meal break from 12:30 to 14:45!

 

[Cyfa]

It looks like Spock gets a meal break from 12:30 to 14:45!

- And his breakfast looks like it's from 06:00 to 07:30! Whatever is he eating to warrant such long breaks?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

It is illogical to rush and risk negatively affecting one's digestive system.

 

[retroenzo]

Maybe it's a guide to when it starts. They know they've got to take, say, half hour for their meal break so they start at 6am/12.30pm and then return to work half hour later. I can imagine the hectic nature of running a starship means they probably won't get to take their breaks on time.

 

[galad2003]

You know they did a Robot chicken skit making fun of this right?

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[F. King Daniel]

Is that Chris Pine as the night watch captain?

 

[milo bloom]

You mentioned Harry in your first post, so in addition to alpha shift watches, the bridge officers sometimes take bridge rotations. On TNG, we see Dr. Crusher and then later Troi volunteering to take a night shift in order to keep their skills up to date. It's not a stretch to think there's tons of other Lieutenants and even a few LT Cmdrs that are doing the night shifts.

As for why things happen mainly to the stars of the series, well - A: they'll intentionally schedule known events to happen when the senior staff is on duty and B: when something big happens, the senior staff comes to the bridge and relieves the night crew.

 

[The Wormhole]

On TNG, we see Dr. Crusher and then later Troi volunteering to take a night shift in order to keep their skills up to date.

Of course, as medical officers they shouldn't have been eligible to do so. Even if they passed a test on the holodeck by ordering Geordi to his death.