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You never see anyone on the bridge with a Commodore Matt Decker 5 o'clock shadow, rumpled uniform and a Thermos of coffee, so the shifts must run smoothly...

Mark wrote:But 90% of everything seems to happen on the "Alpha" shift.....unless the staff gets called to the bridge

Most likely what happens.

I don't remember were I read it but it was suggested that normally the Captain would be the leading officer on the bridge on Alpha shift, the 1st officer on Beta, and then a non senior command officer on Theta. The rest of the senior officers for Ops, Tactical, and Helm would be on Alpha or Beta.

But we see Riker on the bridge along with Picard most of the time, so it's doubtfull he commands a seperate shift.

And why "theta shift"? Why not go alphabeticaly? It should be Gamma Shift.

Mikey wrote:Every single panel anywhere on board is conceivable a clock.

Bottom right corner?

Rochey wrote:But we see Riker on the bridge along with Picard most of the time, so it's doubtfull he commands a seperate shift.

And why "theta shift"? Why not go alphabeticaly? It should be Gamma Shift.

Your right Gamma.

Yes we see Riker, but most of the time it is because there was something going on. They had arrived, or soon would, to a destination, or had pickup some type of distress call, or some other thing which most likely got all the senior staff called to the bridge.

Then again knowing Picard he could have stayed pasted his shift to work in his ready room as well.

Three eight hour shifts seven days a week seems the most likely answer to me. People are capable of putting up with far harsher workloads for quite a long time. Hell, I've worked twelve hour shifts seven days a week for ten weeks before. I was beat to hell at the end of it but I did it. With only eight hour shifts and the rec facilities of a Federation starship I'd imagine the crews can sustain that work pace for months. Given a few days leave every month or two the crew should be fine.

Yeah, if I knew I could leave after only 8 hours each day, working 7 days wouldn't seem so bad.

I only sleep about 6 hours - 10 hours downtime a day would do me.

Overlap schedules would also account for it.

Each department could have it's own schedule.

Command runs 0001-0800,0800-1600,1600-2400.

Tactical runs 0400-1200,1200-1800,1800-0400.

Ops runs 0600-1400,1400-2200,2200-0600.

That would have certain advantages you know. It would promote greater teamwork, as you'd be working with a larger number of people, you'd always have fresh people coming on shift, and you'd always have someone on the bridge that knows whats been going on.


As for Picards command shift, I'd theorise that Riker is actually in command of "alpha" shift, but as Captain, Picard comes up and keeps an eye on things at his discression. Most of the shift is LIKELY spent in his ready room anyway.

But Data is what I don't understand. He spends a full shift at Ops, and another full shift as the commander of the "nightwatch". That only leave eight hours a day for all of his other "activities". And that time was seriously curtailed when he started "sleeping". How did he find the time?

He's Data!

Do we know how long he actually slept for? Given his statements in First Contact about 0.63 seconds or whatever it was being a very long time for him he might have just slept for 15 minutes or so.

Well, we know that he OVERSLEPT once. I don't remember how long he was sleeping for normally, though.

Mark wrote:Overlap schedules would also account for it.

Each department could have it's own schedule.

Command runs 0001-0800,0800-1600,1600-2400.

Tactical runs 0400-1200,1200-1800,1800-0400.

Ops runs 0600-1400,1400-2200,2200-0600.

That would have certain advantages you know. It would promote greater teamwork, as you'd be working with a larger number of people, you'd always have fresh people coming on shift, and you'd always have someone on the bridge that knows whats been going on.


As for Picards command shift, I'd theorise that Riker is actually in command of "alpha" shift, but as Captain, Picard comes up and keeps an eye on things at his discression. Most of the shift is LIKELY spent in his ready room anyway.

But Data is what I don't understand. He spends a full shift at Ops, and another full shift as the commander of the "nightwatch". That only leave eight hours a day for all of his other "activities". And that time was seriously curtailed when he started "sleeping". How did he find the time?

I generally like this idea.