Question: Does anyone know what is the order of replacement for the captain on the Bridge? All I know is that Riker is the first, but is it the captain's choice after that?
Grumpy Scot
18th Nov 2006
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
6th Jul 2004
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
Question: This actually applies to every Star Trek series but it features most prominently here: Exactly what purpose do the little dots seen moving across the bottom of every bridge main viewer serve? There's no mention of them in any technical manual or website that I've seen yet they seem to be a fairly standard feature of Federation starships from any era.
Answer: According to Micheal Okuda (technical supervisor of Trek) they are the future's version of a computer monitor's "refresh rate".
21st Jun 2004
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
Question: Whenever anyone wants to contact someone else from another part of the ship, they hit their badge and say (for example), "Picard to Engineering." In no episode ever is there an instance where we hear somebody call someone else who is not involved in the current scene. We should assume, therefore, that when communication like this is initiated, it is only heard by the recipient of the page. So the question is, how can the ship's communication system know ahead of time who the person is paging? In other words, if Picard says, "Picard to Engineering," what keeps sickbay from hearing his call? There can't be a time-delay (i.e., the computer does not make the page until it hears the entire page, and then directs it only to the intended recipient) because in many episodes we hear the reply right away. Can anyone explain this? Are we simply "lucky," in that we only hear pages made by or sent to people in the scene we're watching?
Chosen answer: Enterprise's computer directs the call to the aforementioned department. It is then answered by the ranking member of the department. For instance, if Engineering was contacted, and Geordi was in sickbay or off duty, the call would be answered by whoever was "officer of the watch" in Engineering. Mainly, it wouldn't do much for the show to say, "Picard to engineering", "This is engineering, go ahead." "Yes, I'd like to speak to Geordi about some more phaser power, please", "One moment, I'll transfer you."
There is a episode of Voyager where someone calls someone on their combadge and it gets rerouted to another station and someone else answers. Due to a communications error being fixed. The comm signal was rerouted.
9th Feb 2004
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
Question: Who can use the holodecks at their discretion? I've never seen a holodeck numbered higher than five. Lieutenant Barclay can obviously use them whenever he likes, though he got in trouble for it. Are they just for officers? Does an ensign have to surrender a holodeck if a Commander want to use it?
Answer: I'm sure there are more than 5 holodecks. Also, judging from DS9, you generally would schedule use on a holodeck. Finally, though incredibly cool to us, that's pretty routine for the TNG crew. They read, play instruments, take fighting classes, dance lessons, put on plays, do personal research projects, etc to fill their off-duty time. Getting in holodeck time might be pretty easy! We never see average crewmen using the holodecks as the stories just aren't about them. I'm sure they use them too. I imagine the only way someone has to surrender a holodeck is if the officers need it for research (like the episode where the subspace aliens were kidnapping them or Geordi turned into one of those glowing blue aliens) or when using it in conflict with accepted StarFleet conduct (as Barclay did by using the crew in his fantasies).
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Answer: According to rank and seniority, the chain of command is: Picard, Riker, Data, LaForge, Troi and Worf as of the series finale. Troi was added when she took command school, Tasha Yar would have been between Geordi and Worf, and Wesley or Ro Laren would have been after Worf had they not left the Enterprise.
Grumpy Scot
This has changed over the series but it all depends on who is available and rank has little to do with it. When Worf became the Security chief after Tasha died, he essentially became the fourth in Command (with some exceptions IE: Commander Shelby in The Best of Both Worlds) from then on. Even though Crusher, Geordi, and Troi all outrank him, Worf is a Bridge Officer, so that apparently elevates him in the chain of command over higher ranking Officers.