spaceship crews

[Dr. Whom]

Now just how many people does it take to man a spaceship? 'Historical' estimates vary from several hundred to just one. Even in the same universe! Or the same ship, for that matter. Voyager, for instance could be operated by Janeway all by herself, yet had a crew of 150 or so. What did all these people do? Likewise, did the Entreprise of TOS stock up with extra redshirts for each mission, on the assumption that many of them would get vaporized anyway?

If Han Solo and Chewbacca can cross the galaxy on their own, what are all the people doing on a Star Destroyer?

Just wondering

[Ash]

The bigger the ship, the more people it takes to run it.  That is unless it has an extremely sophisticated computer like Voyager did.

Maybe Star Destroyers have crappy main computer systems.

And Spaceball 1 had a mall and a three ring circus!

[Dr. Whom]

ASHTHECAT Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The bigger the ship, the more people it takes to
> run it.  That is unless it has an extremely
> sophisticated computer like Voyager did.
>
> Maybe Star Destroyers have crappy main computer
> systems.
>
> And Spaceball 1 had a mall and a three ring
> circus!

My point exactly, with the droid technology of the Star Wars universe, you'd expect far less crew.

[akiratubo]

The Empire likes to shove its inefficient excess in everyone's faces.

As far as Star Trek, I don't really care.  I spit in the face of Star Trek, kick it in the balls, and urinate on it as it writhes on the ground in agony.

[daveblackeye15]

Well, a Star Destroyer would need a lot of bright women scientists to serve the men fresh coffee.

[odinn7]

daveblackeye15 Wrote:
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> > Well, a Star Destroyer would need a lot of
> bright women scientists to serve the men fresh
> coffee.

Whoa Dave, I like the way you think.

[peter johnson]

Oh, absolutely:
The essential starship crew is composed of seven people --
     One Dr. Girl, ready to take a ribbing at all times, but also prepared to sew buttons and prepare comestables for the woefully inept menfolk.  
     A baseball-hat wearing tough-guy, suspicious of dames, but willing to give Dr. Girl the benefit of the doubt, as long as she listens to his objections.
      An ancient geezer Dr. Man type, with grey hair & some facial hair, content to smoke his pipe in a bottled-oxygen environment.
     A Dirk Dashing Commander Man, who may not fully understand what's going on, but essential to exist for the delivery of Ominous Speech.
     Bud Slug, maintainance man, covered in grease, though this be a modern spaceship, arrgh!
     Adolescent Boy.  Bob Bunny to Firesign Fans.  Perpetually amazed at everything.  Capable of giving vast insight to problems stumping Dr. Man.
     Gumbo the Mechanical Chimp.  Animal or mechaniod or combination of both.  Essential for end of film, when all stand around and say:  "Look what Gumbo's doing!!", then laugh laugh laugh at nothing.  
      End of film . . .
peter johnson/denny crane

[trekgeezer]

On Star Trek shows the ships are filled with a lot of scientific types, because they do a lot of exploring and research.  I never have figured out why they had to have a navigator (a position they did away with on the modern shows).

In Star Wars, I don't know why they needed so many people except maybe to replace all the ones Lord Vader is dissatified with.

[ulthar]

trek_geezer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> In Star Wars, I don't know why they needed so many
> people except maybe to replace all the ones Lord
> Vader is dissatified with.
>

Cannon Fodder.

[Flangepart]

peter johnson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oh, absolutely:
> The essential starship crew is composed of seven
> people --
>      One Dr. Girl, ready to take a ribbing at all
> times, but also prepared to sew buttons and
> prepare comestables for the woefully inept
> menfolk.  
>      A baseball-hat wearing tough-guy, suspicious
> of dames, but willing to give Dr. Girl the benefit
> of the doubt, as long as she listens to his
> objections.
>       An ancient geezer Dr. Man type, with grey
> hair & some facial hair, content to smoke his
> pipe in a bottled-oxygen environment.
>      A Dirk Dashing Commander Man, who may not
> fully understand what's going on, but essential to
> exist for the delivery of Ominous Speech.
>      Bud Slug, maintainance man, covered in
> grease, though this be a modern spaceship, arrgh!
>      Adolescent Boy.  Bob Bunny to Firesign Fans.
> Perpetually amazed at everything.  Capable of
> giving vast insight to problems stumping Dr. Man.
>      Gumbo the Mechanical Chimp.  Animal or
> mechaniod or combination of both.  Essential for
> end of film, when all stand around and say:  "Look
> what Gumbo's doing!!", then laugh laugh laugh at
> nothing.  
>       End of film . . .
> peter johnson/denny crane

Quite Logical, Captain.
The basic list can be played with, but...yeah, its inevitable.
Like in MISSLE TO THE MOON, we got Dr. Girl, Dr. Man, Dirk Dashing,Adolesent boy and ...one i would add to the list..Dr. SMITHOID! The useless guy who takes up space in space, and causes no end of trouble for the crew with his greed and lazyness. Often used for "Komedy Relief."

[LH-C]

<>

Geordi (LeVar Burton) was the navigator early on on TNG.

[raj]

Typical.  Have a blind navigator.  I know his visor was just as good as eyeballs, but I just couldn't stand the PC crap in TNG.  "Let's make sure that we send out the message that handicapped people are just as able as nonhandicapped"  "Great idea, why don't we have a blind guy in the job of seeing where the ship is going."

Oops, sorry.  I didn't realize I'd wandered onto a soapbox.

Comic relief guy -- the cook in Forbidden Planet.

[LH-C]

Hey I thought the same exact thing back in '87.

[dean]

The original question sounds like a joke.

'Q. How many people does it take to run a Star Destroyer?  A. 600.  Two to fly it and 598 to boast about how much better they fly it than the wimps from Star Trek.'

[trekgeezer]

Actually Geordi was the helmsman (the pilot). The other position that Data filled was the ships operations.

Chekov was the navigator on TOS and Sulu was the helmsman. Other ships like Voyager and the Defiant only had positions for the helmsman.