Spoilers The thing in bay 12

[The Old Mixer]

But the outside-the-forum limit of six months applies to thread titles, which can be seen on the front page of the board.

 

[Dukhat]

But the outside-the-forum limit of six months applies to thread titles, which can be seen on the front page of the board.

Ah, I stand corrected.

 

[Macintosh]

Why take the D when the Defiant, a much smaller ship when you've only got 7 people to man it, with better armor/weapons, and designed specifically to fight the borg, is right there? Are they saying that all the other fleet museum ships are also tied in? That just seems odd.

And the idea of taking any ship meant for 1000 people into battle with a crew of less than a dozen seems hopeless. I always imagine that during the series, when the ship is engaged in a battle, there is an army of engineers manning consoles, rerouting power, and running around doing damage control... and to go in without any of that available, you've got about 15 minutes to live.

But awesome feel good moment nonetheless.

The Defiant was designed to fight the Borg, yes – but as part of a squadron. She cannot solo a Borg cube. While powerful for her size she is comparatively tiny. We see her struggle to match a refit Excelsior-class in a one-on-one fight and the one time she actually encounters the Borg during the Battle of Sector 001 she is left adrift, without power or weapons, and is only saved from certain destruction from colliding with the cube by the timely intervention of the Enterprise-E. Besides, apart from Worf how many of Picard's crew do you think know anything about Defiant-class operations? Some of them haven't been on active duty in years. Much better to stick with the ship they all know backwards and can operate in their sleep.

Regarding the Enterprise-D's large crew size, the original intent was that the ship would be highly automated and the bridge would only need to be permanently manned by three people (command, conn, and ops) with the other stations only being occupied when necessary. We might assume the large crew size reflects the various mission profiles of the Enterprise-D – diplomatic, scientific, historical, cultural, and crew support/service – rather than the need to continually perform maintenance or make manual adjustments. We see the Enterprise be successfully operated by very small groups of people throughout the course of TNG during times where the crew is either confined or not aboard. While the Enterprise-D crew is bigger than Kirk's Enterprise's crew in absolute terms, the population density is far smaller. Besides, we already know Geordi has drones aboard the Enterprise, which are presumably operating independently of the Enterprise's own systems.

 

[LongHauler]

Regarding the Enterprise-D's large crew size, the original intent was that the ship would be highly automated and the bridge would only need to be permanently manned by three people (command, conn, and ops) with the other stations only being occupied when necessary. We might assume the large crew size reflects the various mission profiles of the Enterprise-D – diplomatic, scientific, historical, cultural, and crew support/service – rather than the need to continually perform maintenance or make manual adjustments. We see the Enterprise be successfully operated by very small groups of people throughout the course of TNG during times where the crew is either confined or not aboard. While the Enterprise-D crew is bigger than Kirk's Enterprise's crew in absolute terms, the population density is far smaller.

According to Andrew Probert:

"Roddenberry already liked the direction in which the Enterprise design was going and I took the opportunity to propose that we double the ship's length to 2,000 feet. Roddenberry thought that was rather large but after we talked about the extra personnel, families, holodecks, larger shuttles, longer missions, etc., he agreed. I added a series of visible lifeboat covers (as opposed to graphic markings on the movie Enterprise) to the ship which alluded to the ship's capacity of 3,500. He felt that too many extras (people) would be needed to reflect a complement of that many, so he established it as 1,100. Later on 1,012 became the official ship's complement." (Starlog photo guidebook Special Effects, Vol.5, 1996, pp. 107-108)

 

[David cgc]

Ironic that the thought would be that too many extras would be required; even at 3,500, most of the decks of the ship would be empty. You could roam deck 10 alone for hours going through miles of identical corridors without seeing another soul.

 

[Racefuel]

At density levels like the TOS Enterprise...the crew would be something like 4,000

 

[TRON JA307020]

The minimum spoiler tag time is two weeks. Plus the fact that you clearly knew about the other thread topic, pretended that you didn’t, and chose to post your own anyway.

I forgot I even posted on that thread. Didn't even realize it was specifically for the D or forgot. Please quit harassing me about it. I didn't know about the two week minimum.

 

[Dukhat]

Believe me, I have nothing more to say about it than I already have.

 

[A Chimpanzee & 2 Trainees]

Regarding the Enterprise-D's large crew size, the original intent was that the ship would be highly automated and the bridge would only need to be permanently manned by three people (command, conn, and ops) with the other stations only being occupied when necessary. We might assume the large crew size reflects the various mission profiles of the Enterprise-D – diplomatic, scientific, historical, cultural, and crew support/service – rather than the need to continually perform maintenance ...

I humbly stand corrected on the Defiant.

On the D...
Of course she can be flown with fewer people. We see Picard and Riker fly her back to Starbase after recovering the ship from the Binars by themselves, but I think battle is much different. Who's going to repair the technobabble when it goes offline? The enemy is trying to actively disable your ship as quickly as possible, and while I'm sure some damage can be dealt with by automated rerouting of the A to the B, there's a limit before you need hands on.
Ultimately, it comes down to 2 questions. How big was Geordi's staff and how much did they have to do in a fight?

 

[NCC-73515]

Thread's here:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-thing-in-bay-12.313808/
Could do with a rename though.

With P+ showing it everywhere, including Times Square, it's not a big spoiler anymore XD
Sounds mysterious though...

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

While the Enterprise-D crew is bigger than Kirk's Enterprise's crew in absolute terms, the population density is far smaller. Besides, we already know Geordi has drones aboard the Enterprise, which are presumably operating independently of the Enterprise's own systems.

Indeed.

I did a bit of digging around for an old thread that I posted on the topic:

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/crew-complement-of-starships.293464/

But basically, as standard the E-D operated with as much as an order of magnitude less crew density (relative to her capacity) compared to other designs, in fact the "Battleship Enterprise" from Yesterday's Enterprise with her crew of ~7,000 would actually be more inline with the others.

 

[NCC-73515]

 

[Macintosh]

They did VERY well by the Enterprise-D in this, I must say. She looked fantastic.

 

[Racefuel]

This series really made the Enterprise-D feel epic, historic and very powerful, even in her diminished state

 

[Macintosh]

At density levels like the TOS Enterprise...the crew would be something like 4,000

Actually somewhere between 11,000 and 12,000.

 

[NCC-73515]

Syracuse pylon registry...

Equal shuttlebays (not during the closeup flyby from the preview though

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Syracuse pylon registry...

Equal shuttlebays (not during the closeup flyby from the preview though

And yet.....

Though they're a little more tapered on the sides here. I could see some differences due to being a different ship

 

[Caeruleus]

Classic warp effect omg omg omg. So happy.

 

[Tomalak]

They did the D proud, and handed over to the next generation.

I'm happy.

 

[Tuskin38]

Google street view tour of the set
https://twitter.com/StarTrekOnPPlus/status/1649110693960876034