Realistic vs Luxury Crew Quarters

[ZapBrannigan]

The pioneering fan art of Franz Joseph's Star Trek Blueprints (1975) depicted nearly the entire Enterprise crew sleeping in one-bed or two-bed staterooms. In keeping with Roddenberry's comments in The Making of Star Trek, comfort is king.

But what if the ship required more internal machinery and equipment, leaving less interior space for individual privacy? What do you think the arrangements would be?

I think the captain and first officer would each have a private room. Maybe the next six senior officers would double up in three two-bed cabins.

The remaining officers might bunk in a room with a dozen or more beds in it, and the non-commissioned crew would bunk in similar large rooms.

I think if you made this change, and did away with the horizontal turbo-shafts altogether to open up the decks, and got rid of FJ's bowling alley (just a joke by Kevin Riley) and the swimming pool, the ship's interior would be freed up for a more realistic set of plans.

 

[Melakon]

. . .and got rid of FJ's bowling alley (just a joke by Kevin Riley). . .

Your attitude is all wrong. Bowling tones the muscle, sharpens the eye, improves the posture.

I'm willing to believe a bowling alley actually exists, though it might only be one lane. Riley's disappointment of the cancelled dance suggests he might have selected an actual location at random.

Regarding the sleeping arrangements, it does seem like some quarters would have been dormitory style of 6 or 8 bunks for enlisteds, and perhaps even ensigns.

 

[Metryq]

KOLOTH: Captain, we Klingons are not as luxury-minded as you Earthers.

Klingons sleep standing up, packed together like sardines. This makes them eternally short-tempered and ready to fight.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Klingons sleep standing up, packed together like sardines.

The D7 battle cruiser is so slender, they'd have to.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure real astronauts aboard the ISS sleep upright, in sacks Velcroed to the wall. In zero G, it isn't such a hardship.

 

[Ithekro]

I would imagine the accommodations would be similar to present day conditions on a Naval destroyer or carrier. or slightly better since a Kirk's ship has less crew than a carrier and only a hundred or so more than a modern destroyer.

 

[GNDN18]

On page 27 of the Writer's Guide (3d Ed), it is suggested that the distinction between officers and enlisted personnel should be discarded, as well as other "annoying" aspects of the present day military. Earlier in the guide, it is noted that life aboard the Enterprise is hardly all work and no play. (http://www.bu.edu/clarion/guides/Star_Trek_Writers_Guide.pdf)

With this in mind, it might well be that the crew, in a sense, telecommutes. Fourteen science labs ("Operation: Annhilate!), is an impressive number, but many professionals could practice their disciplines in their quarters. Something similar to this was seen in "The Way to Eden," when Spock and Chekov coordinated their research between to locations.

A lot of living space is not necessarily contrary to the mission. It seems to me that the crew was the greatest single asset of the ship and reasonable accommodations for them would be of the first moment.

A starship, after all, is a city in space.

 

[trekshark]

I'd be surprised if there were no multi-person rooms on the original enterprise seeing how in TUC there were three high bunks (I don't remember if that was Excelsior or the Ent-A) and the D had ensigns sharing rooms.
I would be surprised if Starfleet went backwards from only single rooms to sharing

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I'm trying to think who was the lowest-ranked person whose quarters we saw. Probably Yeoman Rand. And she didn't seem to be sharing quarters, so... I'm guessing that everyone had their own in the TOS era.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I'm willing to believe a bowling alley actually exists, though it might only be one lane.

Awww, come on. Give 'em room for at least two so teams can bowl concurrently. That way there can be fights whenever someone doesn't show proper Bowler's Etiquette.

 

[Melakon]

I'm willing to believe a bowling alley actually exists, though it might only be one lane.

Awww, come on. Give 'em room for at least two so teams can bowl concurrently. That way there can be fights whenever someone doesn't show proper Bowler's Etiquette.

Okay, we'll give 'em two lanes. I was in a church basement once that had its own 2-lane alley with AMF/Brunswick equipment.

 

[PCz911]

(http://www.bu.edu/clarion/guides/Star_Trek_Writers_Guide.pdf)

.

Off topic (sorry)... Thank you for the link. This is the first time I've read the writers guide. There is quite a bit of humor in it. I assume justman's influence?

 

[Ithekro]

Starfleet ship architect: "I give two lanes to you and your gallant crew."

 

[Mytran]

I'm trying to think who was the lowest-ranked person whose quarters we saw. Probably Yeoman Rand. And she didn't seem to be sharing quarters, so... I'm guessing that everyone had their own in the TOS era.

Both Yeoman Rand and Ensign Garrovick (we never saw Chekov's cabin) were arguably special cases though; Rand was the Captain's "personal Yeoman" (and required extra administrative duties, hence the extra space) and Garrovick had just received a Dead Man's Boots promotion to some sort of security chief.

IOW, we know nothing about how the ordinary crewmen were accommodated. We do see them congregating and socialising in the corridors a lot in Season One as well as making full use of the Rec Rooms. This might indicate that their private rooms were not very spacious (as well as justifying the 8' wide corridors as something of a multi-use space)

If nothing else, thanks to FJ's deck plans we know exactly what an Enterprise where everyone gets their own cabin would look like - a massive proportion of the ship is given over to bedrooms, leaving very little room for workspace and machinery.

So, while it may have been GR's intention that his futuristic crew didn't have to suffer the inconveniences of present day military, the limitations of making the ship only 947' long do present a hurdle to that: Either the ship is significantly larger, or most of the crew have to bunk up after all.

 

[Timo]

I'm also of the camp saying that when you want any crew aboard a starship at all, you dedicate a lot of the ship to the well-being of that crew.

ST:TMP shows us a gigantic recreation hall. But "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" also describes such a facility - apparently three decks high, somewhere between the Bridge and the nearest Transporter Room. While the actual quarters are rather large in terms of navies that have their personnel at sea for mere months at a stretch, it may well be that a starship is mostly communal spaces, with a smattering of machinery thrown in so that those spaces can be turned into whatever asset is needed. Holodecks would be the ultimate expression of that, but the Rec Decks might also serve as think tanks, training facilities, or possibly seven out of the fourteen labs for all we know...

Packing 430 crew aboard wouldn't take a saucer, not if they were packed three high as in ST6. Various blueprint artists have shown that even stateroom accommodation wouldn't take up the entire saucer. Starfleet ships have those saucers nevertheless, while Klingon ones don't. Sounds like good solid grounds for establishing the percentages of "crew spaces" and "machinery spaces" aboard starships of the respective eras and tech levels.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Metryq]

Starfleet ship architect: "I give two lanes to you and your gallant crew."

Thank you, architect Rev. Jim.

 

[Mytran]

I'm also of the camp saying that when you want any crew aboard a starship at all, you dedicate a lot of the ship to the well-being of that crew.

Oh, I agree absolutely. But it makes a lot more sense (in terms of space) to have as much of that well-being space be communal as possible, rather than private. If most of the crew's cabins are little more than bunks to sleep in then that frees up space to make the recreation room(s) larger and more luxurious. You can also build in smaller privacy chambers throughout the the ship (as per the TMP novelisation) but since no one crewman will be using such a room all the time, it makes sense to share. Just make sure it's clean before you leave

 

[SchwEnt]

I'd suggest that what is considered realistic vs. luxury will change according to the standards of the time.

Two hundred years ago or even one hundred years ago, the crew living conditions aboard naval vessels would be unacceptable by today's standards.

Even though crews today are packed in by the thousands aboard a carrier, a seaman from the 1800s might consider their accommodations and facilities luxury.

Similarly, the 23rd century single-person stateroom seems like luxury to us. Perhaps in two hundred years, it'd be realistic and quite normal.

 

[Mytran]

For me, it's less a question of what seems "luxurious" and more a matter of what will practically fit within the spaceframe of the vessel!

However, I seem to remember from an early edition of the writer's bible that the ship was once considered a good deal larger than 947' long - if that is the case it might explain GR's opinion that everyone gets the same quarters (regardless of rank) since there was that much extra room! I'll try and dig out my copy later to check.

 

[Mytran]

Found it!
http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Star_Trek/1_Original_Series/Star_Trek_TOS_Writer's_Guide.pdf

On PDF page 48 (the second p.15) there is the following passage:

WHAT ABOUT THE SHIP'S MAIN SAUCER-LIKE SECTION?

This is the portion of the shop in which we will be and which we will use most. It contains at the very top the ship's bridge and general operation facilities. This "saucer" is approximately twenty stories thick at its widest spot, containing also primary ship's departments, living accommodations, recreational facilities, laboratories, and is in fact a completely self-sustaining unit which can detach itself from the galaxy drive units and operate on atomic impulse power for short-range solar system exploration.

Bear in mind that this is an earlier version of the series bible (the later one is PDF pages 1-33). It would also indicate that the ship was originally imagined as nearly twice as long as the "official" 947 feet (the length is not mentioned, just the crew compliment). Other dialogue in this early bible would suggest that the weekly action would be confined entirely to the saucer, with the secondary hull just dealing with engineering and cargo (presumably left behind as the saucer flies off into their adventure of the week). It would have been a different show indeed.

 

[T'Girl]

This "saucer" is approximately twenty stories thick at its widest spot

Oh my!