Sickbays on the Prommie

[Captain Peabody]

That, my good children, is what is known as "thinking things through," and is a method of behaviour completely unknown to the average Star Trek writer

...but, in all fairness, who but the insanely obsessive would ever think enough about a "ship of the week" that appears once and is gone next episode that they'd notice the disparity?

Why, we would, of course!

[Mikey]

It's almost as ridiculous to have one sickbay for a single ship with a complement of the GCS, separation ability or no.

[Jordanis]

Well, Starfleet Medical seems to less dumb than Starfleet Engineering in the 24th century. Presumably they would dictate what medical facilities are needed given x or y crew compliment. There are probably rules and regulations about travel times and maximum distance to sickbay from certain dangerous sections, and all that sort of thing.

[Tiberius]

You are a very clumsy scriptwriter. Allow me to demonstrate in one minute of thought using your own example.

"Captain, there was an accident in engineering, Geordi was badly hurt. We got him to the secondary sick-bay, but it doesn't look good."

For the triage, you could make a line that runs like so: "There's too many even if we stack them in the secondary sick-bays. We'll have to convert a cargo bay into a triage facility."

This is known as 'Heinleining', after Robert Heinlein, who was very good at slipping the information the reader needed to know into casual description and dialog without resorting to Infodumps or As You Know Bob.

When you make strawman arguments, you victimize yourself.

(terms described here: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/turkeycity.html )

And how exactly does your version explain to the viewers that there are dedicated medical facilities in the Engineering hull? You said secondary sickbay, but that doesn't indicate where it is.

It doesn't, mine does. And that was the point.

Yes, I know mine was a little clumsy, but I still think the point it makes is valid.

[Jordanis]

It doesn't need to say 'it's in the engineering hull'. It's implied two things: there is more than one sickbay, and one is closer to engineering than main sickbay. No, this doesn't give us deck and corridor number, but it does mean we can reasonably assume that there's one in the engineering hull without having to guess.

My point is that there is more subtlety to writing than you are implying. You did indeed get your point across, and it was a ridiculous straw-man argument that more or less boiled down to 'no that's dumb, look how dumb I can make it sound'.

[Sionnach Glic]

Well, Starfleet Medical seems to less dumb than Starfleet Engineering in the 24th century.

They use forcefields to quarantine infected people.
Still sure they're that smart?

[D. Sergez]

Crusher: Captain, there was an accident in Engineering, and I took Geordi to the medical bay on Deck 36. As you know, we have such facilities on the Enterprise in addition to the main sickbay in the Saucer.
Picard: Yes I do know, doctor, so why are you telling me something I'm already awayre of instead of saving Geordi's life?
Crusher: Oh, he died while I was explaining it to you.

mind if i sig that...???

[Tiberius]

It doesn't need to say 'it's in the engineering hull'. It's implied two things: there is more than one sickbay, and one is closer to engineering than main sickbay. No, this doesn't give us deck and corridor number, but it does mean we can reasonably assume that there's one in the engineering hull without having to guess.

My point is that there is more subtlety to writing than you are implying. You did indeed get your point across, and it was a ridiculous straw-man argument that more or less boiled down to 'no that's dumb, look how dumb I can make it sound'.

And it doesn't say that Geordi wasn't working in the saucer engineering section either. Maybe he was working in the Saucer's impulse engines when he got hurt? You're idea only lets us speculate that there are medical facilities in the Eng hull, it doesn't tell us.

D. Sergez, sure, as long as you're not going to make fun of me. :p

[Jim]

I would think it would make sence for their to be only one REAL sickbay. You would have one medical crew and only have to worry about having one office staffed. Plus, it makes sence to have one main office period. You would then have satalite bays that would onlt come online when needed (battle). They would not be normally powered up and running as it would be extremely redundant.

[Jordanis]

It doesn't need to say 'it's in the engineering hull'. It's implied two things: there is more than one sickbay, and one is closer to engineering than main sickbay. No, this doesn't give us deck and corridor number, but it does mean we can reasonably assume that there's one in the engineering hull without having to guess.

My point is that there is more subtlety to writing than you are implying. You did indeed get your point across, and it was a ridiculous straw-man argument that more or less boiled down to 'no that's dumb, look how dumb I can make it sound'.

And it doesn't say that Geordi wasn't working in the saucer engineering section either. Maybe he was working in the Saucer's impulse engines when he got hurt? You're idea only lets us speculate that there are medical facilities in the Eng hull, it doesn't tell us.

D. Sergez, sure, as long as you're not going to make fun of me. :p

Saucer engineering section? How much TNG have you watched? When someone says 'in Engineering' they invariably mean main engineering. If they mean the impulse engines, they say 'Geordi was working on the impulse engines'. You're really, really reaching.