Question about operating the Prometheus

[at Quark's]

Just rewatched Message in a bottle. Great fun. But I noticed something I never really thought about before.

The Prometheus has this multi-vector assault mode. In the episode, we see them enter tactile commands to activate it, either on purpose (Romulans) or accidentally (the EMH's near the end of the episode). But then, the interface becomes voice interactive. First the computer tells them how far the decoupling has proceeded, then it asks for which target(s) to engage, in both cases and accepts voice commands at this point. To end the multi-vector assault mode and reassemble the ship, apparently once again tactile commands are needed (though this isn't certain).

So, what would be the reasoning behind this? Why not just make use of tactile commands or voice interface all the way?

 

[F. King Daniel]

The same reason I can type in my Google search or do the "okay, Google..." voice thing?

My biggest issue with the Prometheus is that hundreds of people had to be involved in her design and construction, yet only 6 people in all of Starfleet are properly trained on how to operate it.

 

[at Quark's]

The same reason I can type in my Google search or do the "okay, Google..." voice thing?
.

For me, that would rather be an argument against the crew randomly switching between these interfaces than in support of it. When I am working with a computer, and already typing in google, why would I then suddenly change to "okay, google" mode ? Or the other way around? Unless it was something very specific that could be accomplished much more conveniently in that other "mode" ... though in this case, I must admit that it seems to be the computer "offering" to go to voice command.

My biggest issue with the Prometheus is that hundreds of people had to be involved in her design and construction, yet only 6 people in all of Starfleet are properly trained on how to operate it.

Now now, don't exaggarate ... it's four people, actually . Or so the EMH mark 2 says.

 

[Timo]

Isn't that pretty standard, though? Thousands may build a fighter jet, but only four people may be able to fly the thing at the prototyping stage.

The Prometheus has lots of portholes, and a sickbay that's far away from the bridge, but it's made very clear that four people can operate her through combat engagements. It's furthermore abundantly clear that all of them can remain on the bridge of the "command section", while the bigger things with the bigger engines are pure drones. Apparently, the whole idea is that with ships like this, Starfleet no longer need send hundreds of humanoids to risk death. Why train more, then, especially at this stage?

When I am working with a computer, and already typing in google, why would I then suddenly change to "okay, google" mode ? Or the other way around?

Yet if you did, surely you would wish the computer to cope? What's wrong with it coping?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[at Quark's]

Isn't that pretty standard, though? Thousands may build a fighter jet, but only four people may be able to fly the thing at the prototyping stage.

The Prometheus has lots of portholes, and a sickbay that's far away from the bridge, but it's made very clear that four people can operate her through combat engagements. It's furthermore abundantly clear that all of them can remain on the bridge of the "command section", while the bigger things with the bigger engines are pure drones. Apparently, the whole idea is that with ships like this, Starfleet no longer need send hundreds of humanoids to risk death. Why train more, then, especially at this stage?

Even for the jet example you give, that's more than actually needed. Usually (I suppose) a jet is flown with one pilot (2 perhaps in some cases), so there is at least 100% 'redundancy', perhaps as much as 300%. It seems like the Prometheus needs those 4 crewmen (which would already be an extraordinarily low number), and that's exactly how many were trained. No spare capacity at all.

Yet if you did, surely you would wish the computer to cope? What's wrong with it coping?
Timo Saloniemi

Nothing at all, I'm just saying I would see no reason to suddenly change. But them Romulans are shifty ones

 

[Timo]

Seemed to me four would be nicely redundant - one of the Romulans was just giving orders, while one died, to no ill effect. And the ship was eventually flown by two EMHs anyway.

I guess the ship would need and get an operating crew ultimately, perhaps in the hundreds as implied by the lifeboats and portholes; these people would keep the ship up and running in deep space for years at an end, and would perform all the usual missions the ship would facilitate, visiting planets, saving civilizations, destroying priceless ancient artifacts, whatever. It's just that when Turquoise Alert or whatever was sounded, everybody but one or two would become surplus and would quickly abandon the drone parts, to go play Tetris in big dormitories in the command part while the drones fought and a couple of specialists kept watch over them.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[at Quark's]

Seemed to me four would be nicely redundant - one of the Romulans was just giving orders, while one died, to no ill effect. And the ship was eventually flown by two EMHs anyway.

That last one is a good point, though of course they only did some kind of 'emergency' operations. But I'll agree that if they could do this stuff between them, probably a trained duo could do a whole lot more.

It's an interesting idea though since it would imply that on Starfleet ships, only a very select few are needed for actual ship operations. Or would the Prometheus be unusual in this respect ? There's the Chakotay line from 37's " In fact I don't think we could operate the ship with fewer than one hundred.". (i.e. about 2/3rd of their standard crew complement). Granted, that's probably probably long-term sustainability in mind (including major maintenance and such). On the other hand, I'd suspect Chakotay is cutting out all the 'unnecessary' stuff here (missions that aren't vital in helping Voyager returning home, science-related stuff and so on). However you look at it, it's still a huge difference with these 4 (or less) from Prometheus.

 

[Timo]

Four specialists plus plenty of non-specialists would also fit the dialogue just fine. On the E-D, probably every Janitor's Mate 7th Rate can fire the phasers, what with the controls being intuitive enough for Worf to grasp. The drone control hijinks of the Prometheus might be trickier, at least initially.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Prax]

The Prometheus would probably have a crew compliment similar to Voyager (140). The Prometheus might even be a larger ship.

It wasn't yet manned and was stolen. It just had to get from point A to point B(but tried to go to point C).

Remember when 2 Binars(that's 4 aliens) stole the Enterprise D? They also just had to get it from one point, to another.

 

[Tenacity]

In terms of only four people being trained to operate the ship, if you put four random Starfleet officers qualified in bridge operaions, a captain, tactical, ops, helm, and put them in the appropreate positions on the Prometheus' bridge, they wouldn't have been able to operate the ship?

The read outs wouldn't be basically the same? The lay-out of the controls? Yes there might be some systems that were somewhat different, but most of the system would be the same or the next generation of the systems that were standard on all starfleet vessels. Warp drive, impulse life support, sensors, etc.

The newest versions, but not completely out of no-where.

One person could run the Enterprise D if needed, and the Enterprise D could separate into two hulls that could operate independently. The drone feature is new, but that shouldn't stop a standard trained crew from operating the ship.