The Ship's Lounge

[APW 0]

I was thinking about the lounges on Starfleet vessels.

Wouldn't it make more sense to nix the living lounge staff and replace them with holographic waiters, bar tenders, etc? Especially post-Dominion War/post-Voyager returning home, since holographic technology has adanced so rapidly.

 

One of my friends online writes his own fan fiction, and the ship he writes about (USS Cassini, Sabre Class) has a lounge staffed by holograms. When I read his latest short story, the holo-lounge just made sense to me and I started wondering why Starfleet wastes valuable resources on living staff (usually civilians) on starships when its no longer necessary. :lol:

 

Anyhoo, just a thought.

[Takara_Soong 4]

Maybe that is something for the future. In the Voyager episode Message in a Bottle when the Doctor was sent via datastream to the USS Prometheus that ship had holo-emitters located all over the ship so the EMH2 would be able to go anywhere. That ship was a prototype. It is possible that ships built later could have the emitters installed in other areas as well but to retrofit every ship in the fleet with holo-emitters would be quite time consuming.

Edited March 29, 2006 by Takara_Soong

[trekz 7]

While living staff might not be considered necessary, the value of real people listening to one's problems or just conversing with you might be worth a lot, psychologically. Can empathy and sympathy and a shoulder to cry on be downloaded into a hologram? Maybe the shoulder, but I'm not sure about the emotions. A good listening bartender might be able to observe problems and pass potential clients on to the ship's counselor. If it was a ship like the Enterprise D with family living aboard, some family members might serve as staff. The value of talking with a real person and not someone in Starfleet might be worth quite a bit imo.

[Krissy Phaserman 0]

And, also, those civilians can be a beneficial part of the ship's crews in other ways. Sure, Danny is a bartender, but to qualify for the job on that Starship, he has to be certified to conduct CPR and first aide. Medical staffs on those ships aren't terribly big, so having civilians who can help some, even if it's just slapping a bandage on, or nowing how to set a broken bone, or to do CPR, or whatever, could be usefull. It frees up the Doctors, Nurses and Corpsmen to do other jobs if Danny and Jenny from the Bar can take care of minor injuries.

[Charface 0]

What's to stop anyone from creating a whole ship run by holographic crewmembers controlled by the main computer.

[Odie 0]

Civilians will never leave the ship. There are benfits to have them on board ship. First benfit they are not part of the chain of command. If a person has to vent to someone they can go to that civilian without worry about breaking that chain of command.

[APW 0]

Good points all.

 

In my buddy's fiction, it's sort of funny as the holographic barkeep is modeled after Lando Calrissian in Star Wars. He's even visualized as Billy Dee Williams. Like the EMH (and the doctors he was based on), the barkeep's program was based on hundreds of bartenders from across the Federation, including Guinan. He has some hilarious interactions with the crew. So, because of the actual people he's based on, he can simulate empathy, flirt with female crew, spot problems that may need to be reported to someone (like the ship's counselor). but I guess he really can't feel it.

 

But, I am starting to see where it's somewhat impractical to have a totally automated lounge.

[ussacclaim 0]

Also, some people want to see the galaxy, but don't want to go to the Academy to be an officer or enlist, or can't afford their own ship. Instead, if they can do something they enjoy, while still seeing the galaxy (and what better view than 10-Forward?) and getting to be on the forefront of adventure or events without having to rely on the news to tell them everything, they can just be there. Besides, with replicators, no one is really wasting resources.