spaceship crews

[Dr. Whom]

That is another mystery. Why do these ships have sundry superfluous crewmen (cooks etc), but only one pilot/helmsman/whatever. Even airliners have two!

[Flangepart]

Well, on a big ship, they have shifts. We diden't always see it, but on long searchs, Kirk's crew would do shift changes. Like in the navy, shifts help keep the sensor watchers awake.

[LH-C]

<>

Yeah, after Dr. Crusher became a full commander, she worked one of the shifts so Riker could go do whatever he needed/wanted to do. (I haven't even watched the show in over over 7 years and I still remember this crap!)

[LilCerberus]

Janitors!
You ever notice how ships with crews of less than ten tend to look a little dinjy, whereas The Enterprize & star destroyers have all this fancy decor that always looks spotless?

And considering how fast Kirk goes through those redshirts, as well as how seriously Darth Vader takes poor job performance, I'd assume that they'd need a lot of replacements handy.

Having been a janitor a few times in my rather pathetic career, I should know. It can be pretty thankless.

[Dr. Whom]

lilcerberus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Janitors!
> You ever notice how ships with crews of less than
> ten tend to look a little dinjy, whereas The
> Enterprize & star destroyers have all this
> fancy decor that always looks spotless?
>
> And considering how fast Kirk goes through those
> redshirts, as well as how seriously Darth Vader
> takes poor job performance, I'd assume that they'd
> need a lot of replacements handy.
>
> Having been a janitor a few times in my rather
> pathetic career, I should know. It can be pretty
> thankless.
>
> Normal is what people are until you get to know
> them.

Finally it all makes sense!

[AndyC]

I suppose the difference between the Millennium Falcon and a Star Destroyer is that one is a mobile army in itself and the other is basically a spacegoing eighteen wheeler.

Han and Chewy can load up a bunch of whatever and fly it wherever without too much trouble. Star Destroyers carry troops, vehicles, fighters, probes, etc., along with everyone needed to maintain all that. Then you have many, many guns, with gunners in goofy helmets at each. And then you need some way of looking after the nutritional, sanitary and sleeping and recreational needs of all these people. By this time, you have a very big ship, and you need even more engineers, maintenance personnel, and people to simply monitor everything and coordinate everybody, which means the ship and its command centre need to be even bigger. It's like comparing an aircraft carrier with a small freighter.

[Shadowphile]

Oh, sure, bring reality into this....

[AndyC]

Oops, sorry. Don't know what I was thinking.

Star Destroyers are bigger, because the Emperor is obviously compensating for something. Like SUVs. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[Dr. Whom]

It is also a question of good tactics. Considering the shooting skills of your average stormtrooper, and the fact thet are shot down in droves, you need a lot of them to accomplish anything.

And keep everything cleaned, of course.

[Just Plain Horse]

AndyC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oops, sorry. Don't know what I was thinking.
>
> Star Destroyers are bigger, because the Emperor is
> obviously compensating for something. Like SUVs.
> Yeah, that's the ticket.

I'm inclined to agree... he's a very lonely man. Vader being permanently stuck in a suit of armor, I can understand, but the emporer... He's C. Montgomery Burns in space.