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It also seems to be how Starfleet does operate. Given that we've seen....what, a grand total of one enlisted guy?

There were one or two "crewmen" referred to in TOS, although most of the redshirts seemed to be ensigns, and the TOS TM (which is good as a source of Roddenberry's thinking at the time, if not as a canon source) splits the ships' compliments into "officers (command)" and "crew (ensign grade)". The Movies had a good few crewmen (complete with proper rank insignia) including Dax in TUC. In the TNG era we had Simon Tarses from "The Drumhead", O'Brien (from "Realm of Fear" onwards), the crew of the Defiant, and a few mentions in Voyager (most of whom seemed to be ex-Maquis or ex-Equinox).

ya, so we've seen a grand total of ten enlisted crew...surely that's enough to balence out a couple thousand officers

I think there probably are more enlisted crew we just don't see them...part of plot conflicts as the plot almost alway occures on the bridge, or in other restricted areas where enlisted crew wouldn't be present in large numbers.

Lt. Staplic wrote:I think there probably are more enlisted crew we just don't see them...part of plot conflicts as the plot almost alway occures on the bridge, or in other restricted areas where enlisted crew wouldn't be present in large numbers.

The key areas we see are the bridge, engineering, sickbay, and random planets. All of which should be crawling with other ranks.

Bridge: should have an Officer of the Watch (OOW, Lt, possibly Lt Cdr), possibly a 2iC, and the rest of the posts (helm, sensors, weapons, etc) filled by other ranks. At Action Stations the OOW would be the CO, supported by the Navigator and Warfare Officer, but most of the stations would still be manned by other ranks, supervised by officers who's do any reporting to the CO.

Engineering: Engineering OOW, 2iC, and the rest would by other ranks. At Action Stations, again, most of the work would be done by other ranks, with officers supervising and reporting.

Sickbay: as above. The CMO and any qualified doctors would be officers, but first aiders and other low-skilled posts would be filled by other ranks.

Random planets: landing parties should be led by junior officers (Ensigns and Lts) with security, medical support, engineers, etc, being other ranks.

Captain Seafort wrote:Random planets: landing parties should be led by junior officers (Ensigns and Lts) with security, medical support, engineers, etc, being other ranks.

Nonsense! When exploring new and dangerous planets, you're supposed to send down all of your most valuable officers in one lightly armed landing party.

Lazar wrote:Nonsense! When exploring new and dangerous planets, you're supposed to send down all of your most highly paid actors in one lightly armed landing party.

Fixed.

Ok, maybe they don't want Lt. Lewie botching up first contact or some such, but I have to agree with the rest.

I don't I think the bridge is and should be an officers only area.

and theirs no reason to think that the landing parties and engineering arent enlisted if we don't know the person as a mc.

I don't I think the bridge is and should be an officers only area.

Why? Why spend years training in an officer's academy, only to be sadled with a job that any idiot can do? It's a far better alocation of resources if a highly trained person is doing a job that requires that training.

Lt. Staplic wrote:I don't I think the bridge is and should be an officers only area.

No it isn't. The role of an officer is not to do every job that requires the slightest degree of intelligence - it's to command. On modern warships sensors, helm and weapons are controlled by other ranks, supervised by junior officers - this allows the bloke looking at the sensors, controlling weapons, etc, to keep doing his job while the officer keeps the CO informed of what's going on.

and theirs no reason to think that the landing parties and engineering arent enlisted if we don't know the person as a mc.

Yes there is, at least in the TNG era - their rank pips.

ah, true, I've never paid close enough attention to see their pips.