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Picard's use of the Enterprise as his own taxi

Well, "Gambit" opens with the heroes indicating that this very thing happened...

Timo Saloniemi
 
Well, "Gambit" opens with the heroes indicating that this very thing happened...

Timo Saloniemi

I don't think so. It simply means that Picard took a vacation and used it to do some archeological stuff and didn't come back when he was expected to.
 
Perhaps I might try decaf on the espresso machine...

I wonder about this personal use thing from the opposite angle: the all-ship shore leave seems to have been part of the Starfleet concept in early TNG still, but disappears soon after "Justice". Why would that be? Starfleet unhappy with crippling a starship for the duration of a massed leave? About the mess the crew tends to leave on the planet visited? The hero ship just sticking closer to starbases so that personal trips (including official leave) can be made by shuttlecraft?

Timo Saloniemi
 
Perhaps I might try decaf on the espresso machine...

I wonder about this personal use thing from the opposite angle: the all-ship shore leave seems to have been part of the Starfleet concept in early TNG still, but disappears soon after "Justice". Why would that be? Starfleet unhappy with crippling a starship for the duration of a massed leave? About the mess the crew tends to leave on the planet visited? The hero ship just sticking closer to starbases so that personal trips (including official leave) can be made by shuttlecraft?

Timo Saloniemi

I imagine that with only a handful of shuttlecrafts at their disposal it would be impossible to accommodate one thousand people that way. I think only the senior staff gets to take a shuttlecraft to go on vacation where they want. Starfleet is about rank privileges.The bulk of the crew though may have to be contented with shore leave.
 
But the question is, why doesn't the ship do such shore leave any more? Why does Picard suddenly take personal rather than collective vacations? (Or, rather, Riker et al., since Picard didn't seem to believe in captain's vacations before the titular episode.)

The ship can shuttle to holiday resorts easily enough: in "Conspiracy", she is in the process of doing so, and can adjust her schedule/speed at total whim. Did Starfleet decide to allocate traveling resources differently, or did something else change - or did nothing change, and the camera later on just kept missing the instances when the ship went to Pacifica or Wrigley's?

Timo Saloniemi
 
But the question is, why doesn't the ship do such shore leave any more? Why does Picard suddenly take personal rather than collective vacations? (Or, rather, Riker et al., since Picard didn't seem to believe in captain's vacations before the titular episode.)

The ship can shuttle to holiday resorts easily enough: in "Conspiracy", she is in the process of doing so, and can adjust her schedule/speed at total whim. Did Starfleet decide to allocate traveling resources differently, or did something else change - or did nothing change, and the camera later on just kept missing the instances when the ship went to Pacifica or Wrigley's?

Timo Saloniemi

I am guessing that these shore leaves happen off camera and that we're not told about them for the reason that nothing went wrong during any of them. Imagine an entire episode where nothing goes wrong! That would surely put the audience to sleep.
 
Imagine an entire episode where nothing goes wrong! That would surely put the audience to sleep.

Not me. Who says that only bad events, big problems, are interesting? A whole episode spent on some amazing resort planet where fantastic sights and events take place would be great.
 
If Picard were truly using the Enterprise as his personal taxi he would stop at planets to chew the fat with some friends while the ship would be waiting for him in orbit. As far as I know he never did that.
He only did that when the ship was in the repair shop (Family) :)
 
Not me. Who says that only bad events, big problems, are interesting? A whole episode spent on some amazing resort planet where fantastic sights and events take place would be great.
Like Risa, the pleasure planet? TNG spent one ep there, and so did DS9 although they rained on everyone's fun in that one.
 
Well, Picard often seems like he thinks he should let planets die for the sake of the smallest Prime Directive concern...

In Next Gen it really seems they aren't restricted by any schedule. I'd be satisfied if they at least had shown Picard having to clear these things before darting off, as Kirk had to.
Kirk didn't care about the prime directive or even the temporal prime directive. According to Temporal investigations, the man was menace. :)
 
Except in cases where there is a pressing need to be elsewhere I don't see the problem.
Right. He's the captain - it's his ship, and he can use it as he sees fit. Sure he has to answer for his actions, but as things usually go, the ends justify the means.
 
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