Workforce...

[cyph]

So I'm watching Workforce, and the only thing on my mind is, what the hell does Voyager need the 150+ ppl on their ship, when a commander, an engineer, a cook, and a holographic doctor can repair, operate, and carry out missions on a ship as large as Voyager?!

btw. Gotta love that straight-edge Tuvok humor

 

[Hermiod]

At least they didn't end the episode with Janeway handing over the technology that allows them to run the ship in such an automated fashion to solve the labour shortage.

This isn't anything new, however. Scotty rigged the Enterprise in Star Trek III so that Kirk and McCoy could run it on their own. Even after Scotty, Sulu and Chekov decided to stick with Kirk that's still only a crew of five running the Enterprise.

 

[Crewman47]

Didn't they also have another episode where Seven was left in charge of the ship while the crew had to go into stasis. Running a ship designed to hold around 150 people with only one person must be some job to take on, even Phlox had to do the same thing in Enterprise and that ship required around 80 people to run it and should've required more attention due to it being older than Voyager.

 

[Hermiod]

^Yes, Seven did run the ship mostly on her own in "One".

 

[Picard Alpha]

Not only that, but the ship began falling apart on Seven without regular maintenance to it's systems. In "The Haunting of Deck 12" Janeway tells the alien that the crew is needed on the ship to constantly maintain and repair systems; ship systems need daily if not hourly maintenance just to keep the status quo. In a crisis such as "Workforce" I imagine the crew only concentrated on the ships critical systems and said to hell with the secondary..

 

[2 of 10]

In Workforce the several crewmembers only had to maintain Voyager for a short period of time, I don't think only a few people could have done this for a long period of time, also, when you only have a few people you don't really need many other people to provide support the few. In Year of Hell, only the senior staff remained on board and they managed to hold the ship together, for a while. Wheather, they could have done this for the long term is doubtful...

 

[Guy Gardener]

was Voyager on a three or four shift rotation? I'll assume 3, since Enterprise was on a 3 shift rotation until jelico stuck his nose into it and DS9 didn't start using four shifts till season 5 (the Ship.)...

So a third of the crew is always sleeping, a third of the crew is always off duty waiting in line for the holodeck, and a third of the crew is always on duty.

So if they're only replacing 50 people, well that's not too bad.

I gotta assume that the comment about not being able to run the ship with less than a hundred people in the 37s means that they'd been considering reducing the turnover to two shifts?

 

[Hermiod]

^Two shifts would be very hard. People would be working 12 hours a day, every day. If I thought I'd be asked to do that, I would have settled with the 37's!

 

[Guy Gardener]

Remember TNG Eye of the Beholder? This guys only job was to watch a gas light flicker in the background.

The alternative to 2 shifts from a hundred people per day would be 2 shifts per half day, which would really just mean 6 hours on, and 6 hours off, which would just mean that they would have to chose whether they slept or played dyring their off time rather than... Do you think that sleep is mandatory in the three shift cycle? There would be some seiuos congestion problems on the ships facilities if everyone was awake at the same time?

These people could really damage themselves if they can't budget their time well.

Though, all this reasonable guess work doesn't really match up to the scenes of the night shift which we've seen where Harry get's command... 2 people on the bridge and half lighting? As if their is a period of "Night" where the bulk of the crew does go to sleep together and Voyager is unprepared for people respecing different timezones?

 

[TheGodBen]

Though, all this reasonable guess work doesn't really match up to the scenes of the night shift which we've seen where Harry get's command... 2 people on the bridge and half lighting? As if their is a period of "Night" where the bulk of the crew does go to sleep together and Voyager is unprepared for people respecing different timezones?

This goes back to TOS, The Conscience of the King where Kirk says that they simulate night by lowering the light levels on the ship during certain hours. I think that TNG, Data's Day was similar, wasn't it? Data had command on the night shift, but I'm not sure if the lights were turned down on the bridge before Riker showed up to relieve him.

 

[Hermiod]

^That's correct - the lights were turned up when Riker arrived.

 

[cyph]

I also was wondering what happened to Naomi and Icheb during this whole thing...

 

[Guy Gardener]

Remember Shindler's speech about: How of course he needed child labour to polish the insides of bullet casings?



Icheb was Borg. He had his uses. Naomi was just about useless. Odds are she was given to a rich couple with no children?

 

[2 of 10]

I also was wondering what happened to Naomi and Icheb during this whole thing...

They were hiding with the Borg Baby in the warp core

 

[Lucy of Nine]

Guy Gardener, the way you think astounds me, I enjoy your posts so much, although I do get a headache after reading them... but thats ok, I pop a few magical nanoprobe pills and I'm finnnnnnne...

 

[Guy Gardener]

Thank-you.

I'm curious about how this situation was too different from the killing game, that Janeway didn't think about giving these people a holographic workforce? If Janeway had discovered a cure to the phage, she might have given it to the Vidiians, and they were basically doing the same humanoid trafficking gig. Then of course they could have refused Voyagers advanced technology just like the Malon did, or they could have gone off the deep end like the Hirogen did and turn a labour shortage into a labour surplus as it becomes obvious that they don't need people anymore at all when they can have ten holograms doing sophisticated and detailed work perfectly for the same price it takes to power a lightbulb.

I still find it funny that this story is about being too ungifted or lazy to do your own work so you appro[riate someoneelse to be your donkey, when this script was pretty much a doover of an episode of Stargate right down to the fact that they figure out their memories are wrong because Teal'c isn't human and is having adverse reactions from ignoring his kalnoreem cycle, just like Tuvok went mental fom being forced to be emotional.

Simpsons did it.

 

[freak]

Yeah, I've always wondered about that myself. I didn't think that Voyager was big enough to hold 150 + crewmembers. But I guess it is. I think Voyager has two shifts but I'm not for sure. I certainly wouldn't mind being a crewmember.

 

[Deks]

Voyager is likely big enough to hold well over 150 people.

The Doctor was barely able to make some minor repairs on his own and 4 people are apparently enough to do repairs on critical systems ... but in the long run, it wouldn't be nearly enough for daily operations.

Voyager also underwent numerous upgrades over those 7 years, and it's possible the upgrades in question increased automation which also reduced the need for maintenance as far as the crew is concerned.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Well that's the only way that "one" could be possible isn't it?

What about in afterimage was it? When Janeway altered the Doctors memories because he couldn't function productively? I wonder if this would have been an option for Lon Suder or Seska if janeway really had to consider keeping a prisoner for 70 years?

Maybe that's why young Kes couldn't recall attacking the ship as an old lady, by the time she became and old lady, because kathryn cut the portents out of her consciousness if it was too large a burden for the little girl to carry?