Star Trek: The Next Generation Rewatch (oh god no)

[Das Reboot]

Fair points. I just think it seems daft that for eight hours [nb]Presuming we're operating Riker's standard three shift rotation, not Jellicoe's four[/nb] that the bridge is crewed by one senior officer (helpfully the android who doesn't need sleep) and a handful of frontzip ensigns.

How do they do it on real-world maritime naval vessels?

I did ponder this, presumably they adopt local time zones?

Paging Buzby to thread

What I do know is that the International Space Station is aligned to GMT, which is interesting.

[Lemming]

S04E12 - The Wounded

A rogue Federation captain threatens the peace between the Federation and Cardassia.

- Cardassians introduced! Picard apparently got his ass kicked by them in the Shitgazer. The war between the two powers ended under one year ago. So Cardies and Feds were blasting the shit out of each other while we were playing around in The Royale and all that.

- MARITAL BLISS: O'Brien and the Keikinator are sharing each other's disgusting culture-specific foods with each other. O'Brien gets some weird naff vegetable thing and Keiko gets offered shitty potatoes and cabbage.

- The Cardassian ship they were meant to meet has opened fire on them, massively overestimating its ability to take on a Galaxy-class. The Enterprise disables them and they finally respond to hails. The Cardie commander, Gul Macet, says he fired on the Enterprise because he believed he was under attack, as a Federation starship massacred a Cardassian space station a couple days ago. It's a DIPLOMATIC EMERGENCY, so Picard and Macet agree to investigate to find out what's gone on.

- Starfleet gets off its arse and realises that aha, yes, a starship has gone missing. It's the Phoenix, commanded by Benjamin Maxwell, and it's still flying aboot Cardassian space posing a threat.

- Prickard briefs the bridge crew that some of the Cardassians will be coming aboard, and they're to be given the FIVE STAR FLOATING SPACE HOTEL TREATMENT. Data finds out that O'Brien used to serve under Maxwell.

- The Cardies beam aboard and Troi senses mega-racism from O'Brien. O'Brien ends up stuck in a turbolift with two Cardassians about five seconds later, one of whom tries to befriend him, but O'Brien hits him with a shockwave of race hate.

- The Phoenix has been located. It'll take 50000 years for the Enterprise to get there, so Macet asks for some beyond-top-secret codes to allow closer Cardassian ships to intercept, but Picard refuses. O'Brien decides to cheer up by making some shit potato thing and forcing Keiko to eat it. Cringe reaches agonising levels as O'Brien starts singing an old song about "war and glory".

- The Phoenix is closing in to attack a supply ship! Picard's not fucking about - he hits the Phoenix HARD, FAST and MERCILESSLY by sending a "p-please don't attack!!" message, which is totally ignored. Macet urges Picard to give him the Fed transponder codes so the nearby Cardassian ships can destroy the Phoenix. Picard finally agrees.

- The Phoenix destroys the warship and then fires on the nigh-unarmed supply ship. Grand total of 650 more people for Maxwell's kill count! Picard decides to increase to Warp 9, which we WEREN'T ALREADY GOING AT FOR SOME REASON

- Picard goes to visit O'Brien and decides to play a practical joke on him - he asks him what he thinks about Maxwell, not telling him what's just happened. O'Brien lays it on thick by saying that Maxwell's the best of the best, the second coming of Christ, walks on water, etc. After all this, Picard springs the fact that Maxwell just killed 650 on O'Brien and makes him look like a dork. Pranked!

- O'Brien's having a Racist Drink in Ten Forward. The nice Cardassian from earlier sits nearby and O'Brien decides to conquer his racism by going over and chatting about Cardassian war crimes. We're treated to SARGENT O'BRIEN'S TALES OF COMBAT. He was sent with a SQUAD to REINFORCE a position. WOMEN AND CHILDREN (no men) were huddled in a house, with Miles "MegaBalls" O'Brien defending them. He started getting his ass kicked in every direction, and one of the civilians tossed him a phaser set on ultrakill, which he fired at one of the soldiers. O'Brien concludes that "it's not you I hate, Cardassian. I hate what I became becauase of you." Honestly a lot of this bit just feels wrong and out of place to me, but I do like the idea that war in the 24th century is so unrecognisable, due to future technology, that actually killing an enemy combatant would only ever happen by accident.

- Macet and Picard have a Moment together in their quarters over how much they both like peace. It's ruined when the Phoenix reappears. Maxwell stands down and agrees to come aboard. In my view, this is the exact moment the episode turns into a massive fucking farce.

- Do we need security in the transporter room with this guy who's killed several hundred people beaming aboard? Nah, let's just have an unarmed Riker there. "Welcome aboard, Sir!" Riker chirps at the mass-murderer. Why isn't he immediately taken to the brig? Why wasn't he beamed straight there? Instead, Riker shakes his hand, and O'Brien cheerfully greets him. O'Brien and Maxwell nauseatingly suck each other off for a minute, and then Maxwell invites himself to meet Picard. "Yes, SIR!" Riker chirps. Is it just me or is everything about this completely fucked?

- Picard shakes Maxwell's hand and offers him a seat. Picard finally gets around to asking Maxwell why he's attacking people. Maxwell assures Picard that the Cardies are arming for war, because "I know what they're doing... I can smell it." He didn't notify Starfleet, because Starfleet consists of PEN-PUSHNG BUREAUCRATS, who SIT AROUND READING REPORTS. Picard asks Maxwell what the hell's wrong with him, and Maxwell labels Picard a BUREAUCRAT and deems that the ready room has the MUSTY SMELL of a BUREAUCRAT'S OFFICE. This entire scene is absolutely fucking hysterical. It's impossible to take seriously. He's like a joke character from an episode of SLEDGE HAMMER!. The entire build-up over the first 25 minutes of the episode is pissed away over the course of three or four unintentionally hilarious minutes.

- Alright, we've got him, we've got the guy who's gone rogue and just killed hundreds of people this morning. What shall we do with him? Brig? Nah. Picard is returning him to the Phoenix, where he is ordered to voluntarily follow the Enterprise back to Federation space. This has to be a joke. I don't have a lot of faith in Picard at the best of times, and even I'm staggered by this latest fuckup. Why is he being returned to his ship? Picard says it's because "I will permit you the dignity of retaining your command during the voyage. The only alternative is to put you in the brig and to tow your ship back to starbase in disgrace". Uh, yeah, throw him in the fucking brig and tow his ship back to starbase in disgrace. Please do.

- Because it'd be mean to arrest him, Maxwell is put back on his bridge with no precautions. What could go wr OH MY GOD HE'S FLYING OFF AGAIN! Picard, who is probably one of the biggest dunces ever to exist, sits there trying to hail him. Maxwell ignores it, so Picard takes decisive action - he bumps it up to a priority-one hail! Try ignoring that one, Maxwell! Oh, he is ignoring it.

- Now's as good a time as any to mention it - where the flying fuck are Maxwell's crew? Why haven't his First Officer and CMO declared him unfit for duty and brig'd him?

- LOOK AT THIS! Did Maxwell go into the video call options menu and select "extreme close-up to show that you've gone insane" mode?


- Maxwell wants Prickard to board a nearby supply ship to discover that everything he's saying about Cardies is true. Picard refuses and says he'll take "whatever action is necessary" to stop Maxwell, presumably meaning another priority-one hail.

- O'Brien wants to beam over to talk Maxwell down. "We served together a long time. When you've been through what we have, you tend to get inside someone." Phwoaaaar

- O'Brien can BEAM THROUGH SHIELDS. I know it's just a silly plot contrivance to get O'Brien aboard the Phoenix, but since the episode's already devolved into pure comedy, this shit made me laugh like a lunatic. O'Brien can beam through shields. He can beam through the fucking shields. He can do the impossible. He can do what's been impossible in like every previous episode of Star Trek.

- So O'Brien turns into atoms and flies through the shields. In Maxwell's ready room, which has a permanent WAR MAP in the background, O'Brien tells Maxwell to stop being a cunt. Maxwell breaks down because his children got fatally shot in the dicks by Cardies or something like that. O'Brien and Maxwell enjoy some banter about the good old days (before Maxwell went fucking mental) and sing the War And Glory song together. Maxwell stands down after realising he's fucked.

- Picard and O'Brien, in a moment of incredible tone-deafness, talk about how cool Maxwell is in front of Macet. Picard also says that he reckons the supply ships really are moving weapons. Cardassians are moving weapons around their own space, this is unacceptable for some reason. The Federation can build as much shit at it wants at its borders and across the edge of the Neutral Zone, and is allowed to fly planet-destroying battleships around like nobody's business, but Cardies moving transport ships within their borders is verboten. Picard makes a pathetic limpdicked "we'll be watching" threat to Macet. This scene feels so arse-backwards to me - the Cardassians are obviously militaristic bastards, but a Federation captain just committed a string of murders and we end with the Federation representative (Picard) being the one to talk down and threaten the Cardassian representative? Eh? We're fucking lucky the Cardassians don't bother to push the matter any further. I don't think the moving around of weapons or the construction of armed outposts is even implied at any point to be forbidden by the treaty. Picard just thinks he can dictate what the Cardassians do in their own borders, for some reason.

The first 25 minutes build towards something interesting, but then it turns into a laugh-a-minute joke at the halfway point. I can't express how bad the second half is, it's so crap. Maxwell is an insurmountably shit character who elicits absolutely zero sympathy, which is a disaster because the plot desperately wants you to feel something other than contempt for him. Picard's incompetence is beyond measure, fucking Riker would do better in command. As a piece of unintentional comedy, it's one of Star Trek's best -  I dare you not to laugh when Maxwell pops up on the viewscreen in Insane Closeup Mode, or when he pivots from "YOU'LL UNDERSTAND PICARD, YOU'VE BEEN UNDER FIRE" to "SMELLS LIKE A BUREAUCRAT'S OFFICE" over the course of three seconds. But I'm not sure if the revered, highly-respected, watertight-consistent rating system should rate highly for accidental comedy. 4/10



Oh, by the way - Marc Alaimo! Who does a great job imbuing Gul Macet with real depth. He was born to play Cardassians.

[mothman]

Bob Gunton is always good value, but he dies the best he can with what he's given here (even if it is just this week's iteration of Everyone Else In Starfleet Are Assholes).

This would have been a year or two before his biggest role, in Shawshank (and in which I think he features in the 100 Most Evil Bastards thread in the Film forum, or bloody should do).

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

"What - what is it?"

god I wanted Keiko to say "It's shit, Miles. I made you shit for dinner. Now eat it."

Ma O'Brien not doing with these new-fangled replicators tracks.

Are ya watching these at all by the way because you didn't mention Picard arming weapons and preparing to attack the Phoenix. I suppose it fits the narrative better if you insist he didn't do anything except impotently call after him. Same if you skip the technobabble reason for O'Brien being able to beam through the shields. Haha who cares if it ties in with O'Brien's actual job as transporter chief, this show is stupid and full of plotholes.

Will "Stompie" Kayden was either Irish, Irish-American or an Orange bastard if he knew The Minstrel Boy. Oh wait no more Orange bastards since 2024.

Picard's remarks on Ben Maxwell's war record I read as social commentary on military vets who come back from combat all fucked up and get treated like shit by the US government. Idk maybe that's something Star Trek used to be known for.

[daf]

085 | "The Wounded"



The Fight of the Phoenix

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Highlights :
• Cardassian Side-spine Spoon-heads
• O'Brien Turbo-lift Pop-off
• Minstrel Boy Dodgy Duet
• Hunt's Gone Bananas
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Other Bits :
• Foul Seaweed Salad vs. Foul Caper Casserole
• I hear you're a racist now, O'Brien?
• Brown Boxy Bodysuits
• Good Old Stompy!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Score :

[Wonderful Butternut]

Picard letting Maxwell back onto the Phoenix was indeed a bit thick, the man was obviously not receiving what Picard was saying to him in the ready room. It's also a weakness of this scene that Maxwell resorts to spewing slogans after only four or five lines that are actually specific to his current situation.

But other than that I don't see a whole lot wrong with Picard in this episode. He's within his rights to give Macet a telling off over their military build up, we'll see a season or so later that Maxwell was absolutely right when the Cardassians

Spoiler alert

orchestrate Picard's capture because they assume he's heading the defense of a border sector that they want to invade

[close]

. Leaving aside that there may be stipulations in the treaty around how military build up is permitted on the border, Picard doesn't actually say "you're not allowed do that Macet.", he just lets Macet know that the Federation is neither unaware of what the Cardassians are doing, or toothless. He's hardly supposed to tip his hand that the Feds cannot afford another war as the admiral tells him at the start. If the Cardies were going to go to war over Picard being a bit mean, they'd have gone to war over Maxwell in the first place.

The opening battle is one of the few times where the Enterprise D seems powerful. They give Macet about four free hits, show no real concern about being attacked, and then effortlessly ruin his shit. Between this and the Phoenix defeating one despite having no shields, one can assume that Cardie ships got a major upgrade by DS9.

Finally, O'Brien fails as an Irishman by not serving Keiko the greatest Irish culinary delicacy known: The Chicken Fillet Roll. Can just imagine him setting up a full deli counter for the authentic experience: "Spicy, Plain or Southern Fried?"

[Lemming]

Are ya watching these at all by the way because you didn't mention Picard arming weapons and preparing to attack the Phoenix. I suppose it fits the narrative better if you insist he didn't do anything except impotently call after him. Same if you skip the technobabble reason for O'Brien being able to beam through the shields. Haha who cares if it ties in with O'Brien's actual job as transporter chief, this show is stupid and full of plotholes.

I'm just taking the piss out of Picard because it's funny that he dramatically bumps the hail up to PRIORITY ONE as if Maxwell's going to stop his rampage in order to honour the Starfleet hailing code system. "Nothing's going to stop me from taking out the Cardie bastards, especially not a mere PRIORTY TWO HAIL from Picard! It's time to- oh, he's made it a PRIORITY ONE HAIL? All stop, put it through." He does it on two separate occasions as well! Doubly funny when taken with the extreme kid-gloves treatment Maxwell generally receives from Picard from the moment he beams aboard.

The O'Brien thing made me laugh too because of all the times that the can't-beam-through-shields limitation has come up and placed people's lives in jeopardy before. Enlisted Man Chief O'Brien has cracked it though, he can do it! Again, it's a silly plot contrivance to get him aboard the ship, not a plothole or something I'm criticising the episode for, it's just funny. It's like when Paris discovers the way to get to Warp 10, or Geordi (?) discovers the way to cure aging with the transporter, it's amusing that some random dork on the crew knows of a totally game-changing innovation that nobody else does, which typically never comes up again. It doesn't bother me when Star Trek messes with the rules of the setting a bit for the sake of a plot, especially if it's a good plot - a lot of my favourite TOS episodes in particular just totally change/ignore the established rules and logic of the world - but it's still funny. Nobody has done this before, but local potato-and-cabbage-enthusiast Miles O'Brien can BEAM THROUGH SHIELDS. Maybe even just handily these specific shields on this specific ship for this exact specific occurrence!

You should join in the reviews/ratings if you'd like to. Me and daf seem to tend to broadly agree when it comes to the ratings (although less so since the start of season three, interestingly), so if you want to throw your ratings in I'll add them to the end of season roundups, and it should give a more interesting spread of opinion if you're consistently rating higher than both of us. Same goes for anyone else reading this!

The opening battle is one of the few times where the Enterprise D seems powerful. They give Macet about four free hits, show no real concern about being attacked, and then effortlessly ruin his shit. Between this and the Phoenix defeating one despite having no shields, one can assume that Cardie ships got a major upgrade by DS9.

That stood out to me too, the Cardie-Fed war must have been pretty one-sided, to the point where it's a wonder how it went on so long. It's interesting how later Star Trek material depicts it - I seem to remember there's an episode of Voyager where Janeway relates an experience of being deployed as infantry at some point during the war. Maybe the Cardassians somehow force you into leaving your ships and engaging in ground combat, where everything goes horribly wrong and O'Brien winds up with PTSD.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Picard letting Maxwell back onto the Phoenix was indeed a bit thick, the man was obviously not receiving what Picard was saying to him in the ready room.

True, but it's what Picard would do. I've seen criticism of Picard crop up in the thread because he did something that objectively wasn't a good idea, and the people saying as such don't seem to judge whether Picard is behaving in character or not. Jean-Luc Picard is on for talking.[nb]The action scenes he gets in the movies never rang true to me because my overriding impression of him from the series is of a thinker, a talker, a diplomat.[/nb] Even at the start of the episode, his first instinct is not to return fire right away but to try and talk to Gul Macet. He talks to Chief O'Brien about Maxwell earlier in the episode to try and understand what's going on with him. He gives Maxwell a chance to explain himself just in case he has actual proof that the Cardassians are up to no good. He sincerely believes that if he tells Captain Maxwell "Your orders are to accompany us to Starbase" that Captain Maxwell will behave rationally and obey the order.

There's also the issue of Maxwell's crew, who are clearly willing to go along with him and might not co-operate with the Enterprise if they just placed Maxwell under arrest. But that's not explicitly stated in the episode.

[daf]

Me and daf seem to tend to broadly agree when it comes to the ratings (although less so since the start of season three, interestingly), so if you want to throw your ratings in I'll add them to the end of season roundups, and it should give a more interesting spread of opinion if you're consistently rating higher than both of us. Same goes for anyone else reading this!

Yeah, we've diverged hugely on the recent episodes for some reason. I've no idea what's supposed to be a classic or stinker (other than 'Shades of Grey' and 'Best of Both Worlds') - so it'd be interesting to get a wider pool of scores to compare.

[Wonderful Butternut]

That stood out to me too, the Cardie-Fed war must have been pretty one-sided, to the point where it's a wonder how it went on so long. It's interesting how later Star Trek material depicts it - I seem to remember there's an episode of Voyager where Janeway relates an experience of being deployed as infantry at some point during the war. Maybe the Cardassians somehow force you into leaving your ships and engaging in ground combat, where everything goes horribly wrong and O'Brien winds up with PTSD.

There's enough to fan theory craft a bit on the Cardassian War.

The Galaxy class is a new design, presumably the Nebula class is too, being a re-arrangement of the same parts with a rear spoiler thrown on for extra downforce and street cred. I think with the exception of this episode, 'Yesterday's Enteprise' the Wolf 359 "graveyard" and 'Redemption' other Fed ships we see in TNG are late 23rd century designs[nb]Of course the in universe explanation is the high quality Excelsior and Miranda models left over from the TOS movies. But that's boring[/nb], and we still see quite a lot of them in the Dominion War nearly 10 years later, despite the introduction of First Contact era ships like the Akira class. It's a good bet the bulk of Starfleet in the TNG era is older ships, and the Cardassian War started at lease 10 years before TNG given Picard's tale of running away from the border whilst still in command of the Stargazer. Mirandas and Excelsiors are probably less OP compared to a Cardassian ship than the Enterprise or the Phoenix.

To back this up, 'Yesterday's Enterprise' suggests that Starfleet is inferior to the Klingon Defence Forces in the mid 24th century (themselves lacking visible 24th century designs until the Vor'cha), so maybe they had a period of insufficient shipbuilding or a lot of their new designs up to the 2340s and 50s were non-combat vessels, or were just failures.

Also, the Cardassian government is a military dictatorship that falls within about 5 in universe years of this episode. And their state is teetering on the brink of oblivion before Dukat invites the Dominion in. Maybe they chucked every resource they had at the war, completely gimping their economy and society, whilst in all likelihood the Federation didn't, and thus were able to commit a relatively smaller portion of their resources to it.

True, but it's what Picard would do. I've seen criticism of Picard crop up in the thread because he did something that objectively wasn't a good idea, and the people saying as such don't seem to judge whether Picard is behaving in character or not. Jean-Luc Picard is on for talking.[nb]The action scenes he gets in the movies never rang true to me because my overriding impression of him from the series is of a thinker, a talker, a diplomat.[/nb] Even at the start of the episode, his first instinct is not to return fire right away but to try and talk to Gul Macet. He talks to Chief O'Brien about Maxwell earlier in the episode to try and understand what's going on with him. He gives Maxwell a chance to explain himself just in case he has actual proof that the Cardassians are up to no good. He sincerely believes that if he tells Captain Maxwell "Your orders are to accompany us to Starbase" that Captain Maxwell will behave rationally and obey the order.

There's also the issue of Maxwell's crew, who are clearly willing to go along with him and might not co-operate with the Enterprise if they just placed Maxwell under arrest. But that's not explicitly stated in the episode.

This seems reasonable.

[Endicott]

As for nighttime, well, how else could they do it? How do they do it on real-world maritime naval vessels? On a starship in deep space, it likely helps to maintain a diurnal cycle for crew health and morale reasons. And I guess if stuff starts happening, they would all need to get dressed and up to the Bridge in a hurry!

You could have three 8 hour shifts all on their own staggered diurnal cycle. So two other bridge crews although their function is to keep doing whatever they are doing, you wake up the captain when something bad happens. The limits of TV mean you always concentrate on the 'main' crew. It's like how weird things only ever happened to Buffy on Tuesdays.

I'd always assumed that was what they did, notwithstanding what's seen in this episode.

[Wonderful Butternut]

You could have three 8 hour shifts all on their own staggered diurnal cycle. So two other bridge crews although their function is to keep doing whatever they are doing, you wake up the captain when something bad happens. The limits of TV mean you always concentrate on the 'main' crew. It's like how weird things only ever happened to Buffy on Tuesdays.

I'd always assumed that was what they did, notwithstanding what's seen in this episode.

Crusher takes the command chair on night shifts sometimes, we see it in season 7 and the dialogue implies she does it semi-regularly to keep her command skills sharp. There's also an episode where Picard tells Riker he'll relieve him from the command chair at a specific time. Maybe they rotate, so outside of crisis situations (ie. all the episodes), Riker might spend a month holding the fort on an evening or night shift with Worf as backup and they're not there with Picard, Data et. al on day shift, unless there's an episode crisis that the full command crew are required for. Then they might move around so Data has command of a shift and Riker is back on the same shift as Picard.

On Voyager, Kim has night shifts and has to wake Chakotay or Janeway if something good happens.

[Lemming]

Yeah, we've diverged hugely on the recent episodes for some reason. I've no idea what's supposed to be a classic or stinker (other than 'Shades of Grey' and 'Best of Both Worlds') - so it'd be interesting to get a wider pool of scores to compare.

I've been reading a few other review sites to compare our scores to: the Tor rewatch and the Jammer's Reviews site tend to reflect wider popular opinion, I think, with a few exceptions. Ex Astris Scientia is the only review site I can think of that regularly tends to break from the crowd and thrash well-loved episodes while bigging up more poorly-regarded ones. I think our scores in this thread are generally trending towards being a bit outlier-y.

Speaking of which, two of my favourite episodes in the whole show are coming up, Devil's Due and Night Terrors. Everyone seems to absolutely hate both of them for some reason!

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Speaking of which, two of my favourite episodes in the whole show are coming up, Devil's Due and Night Terrors. Everyone seems to absolutely hate both of them for some reason!

There are people who hate Night Terrors?! It's creepy and brilliant.

"First officer Brink and his men were behind it. They got to the engines. They don't work any more. Had to eliminate Brink. The ship is out of... out of... we're running out! Too dangerous! Out of Brink... and his men!"

[Wonderful Butternut]

Suspect Night Terrors gets hate cos of the Troi dream scenes. I don't mind them tbh.

[Mr_Simnock]

Crusher takes the command chair on night shifts sometimes, we see it in season 7 and the dialogue implies she does it semi-regularly to keep her command skills sharp. There's also an episode where Picard tells Riker he'll relieve him from the command chair at a specific time. Maybe they rotate, so outside of crisis situations (ie. all the episodes), Riker might spend a month holding the fort on an evening or night shift with Worf as backup and they're not there with Picard, Data et. al on day shift, unless there's an episode crisis that the full command crew are required for. Then they might move around so Data has command of a shift and Riker is back on the same shift as Picard.

On Voyager, Kim has night shifts and has to wake Chakotay or Janeway if something good happens.

I always found that bonkers, you would need a full crew 24 hrs with no let up on all ships like the enterprise. The idea there is a quiet period in space is just great, "Right everyone no one attacks after 8p till about 9am tomoz so lets get some sleep". I think it is implied in other episodes that Data also runs the ship for many hours at a time too.

[The Culture Bunker]

I think it is implied in other episodes that Data also runs the ship for many hours at a time too.

I can remember episodes where Riker/Picard turn up for the start of their shift and relieve Data from command, though not if our android chum then went and sat at his usual seat or took off for a doss about somewhere. Later on, at least it's shown he enjoys a bit of a kip in his free time.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

...I mean, space is fucking huge. There are probably shittons of quiet periods in space. Also, at least in TNG, the Federation is at peace with the Klingons and an uneasy truce between the Federation and the Romulans is in place. Voyager's different as they're traversing hostile territory, and presumably during the Dominion War the command officers were more evenly distributed on the duty rosters.

[The Culture Bunker]

...I mean, space is fucking huge. There are probably shittons of quiet periods in space.

I always thought that a large chunk of working on the Enterprise must be really boring. I mean, you're zipping through space, so not much to gawp out of the window at. However, given about once a week some crisis seems to occur, they probably appreciate the tedium as a chance to repair their shattered nerves (Data aside). Most of the jobs appear to be to stare at some screen until something unusual pops up.

[Wonderful Butternut]

I always found that bonkers, you would need a full crew 24 hrs with no let up on all ships like the enterprise. The idea there is a quiet period in space is just great, "Right everyone no one attacks after 8p till about 9am tomoz so lets get some sleep". I think it is implied in other episodes that Data also runs the ship for many hours at a time too.

I'm sure whoever's on duty at any time is sufficiently qualified to at least stall whatever's going on until Picard can be summoned if they can't deal with it themselves. If a Romulan Warbird suddenly appears and starts shooting, presumably Crusher knows how to order the relief tactical officer to raise shields and shoot back. Here in Voyager, we can see Kim summon Janeway at 2am to deal with some giant subspace ravioli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrKUXIessEY&ab_channel=April5%2C2063

I always thought that a large chunk of working on the Enterprise must be really boring. I mean, you're zipping through space, so not much to gawp out of the window at. However, given about once a week some crisis seems to occur, they probably appreciate the tedium as a chance to repair their shattered nerves (Data aside). Most of the jobs appear to be to stare at some screen until something unusual pops up.

In addition, I've said it a couple of times, the Enterprise is insanely big for something with 1000 people in it and entire sections must be deserted most of the time.

[MojoJojo]

I always found that bonkers, you would need a full crew 24 hrs with no let up on all ships like the enterprise. The idea there is a quiet period in space is just great, "Right everyone no one attacks after 8p till about 9am tomoz so lets get some sleep". I think it is implied in other episodes that Data also runs the ship for many hours at a time too.

While you'd always need someone on watch, you'd schedule all the elective stuff - maintenance, science experiments, nursery lessons, training, cleaning and etc... to the "day" shifts so most people are awake at the same time, then you'd just have those absolutely necessary awake during the night shift.

[mothman]

In addition, I've said it a couple of times, the Enterprise is insanely big for something with 1000 people in it and entire sections must be deserted most of the time.

It was hypothesised that some of the Galaxy-classes seen in the DS9 battles has lots of empty space inside, because of this throwaway line in the TNG Technical Manual that said given these ships' size, there would probably be only 12 built. And six hulls would be mothballed for future use. If they were brought out of storage - which they must have been, given how many we saw in DS9 in certain battles, if the twelve-hulls thing is "true" - the theory goes that they wouldn't have been fitted out with all the living quarters and laboratories etc. just engines, weapons, shields, sensors etc.

[The Culture Bunker]

Is it ever said how many holodecks there are on the Enterprise? As there never seems much entertainment going on, bar the odd bit of classical music or Riker's trombone-bothering (fnarr) - we never see anyone in their quarters vegging out with some crisps watching the footy or some terrible weekly drama, so I always presumed there must be about 200 holodecks to give everyone a fair turn.

[mothman]

A page on Reddit says 16.

https://amp.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/3aajfy/how_much_holodeck_time_can_i_have_on_the/

Whereas Memory Alpha hedges its bets with "at least seven," referencing a line from "The Perfect Mate."

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Holodeck

[Mr Trumpet]

A while ago there was a team that were trying to create the Enterprise in a FPS engine so that you could walk around it. They based it all on the designer's plans etc, and I remember it was chock full of bars like Ten Forward. The project sadly fell foul of an IP notice but it seemed like the ship was well set up for a pub crawl.

[Blumf]

...it seemed like the ship was well set up for a pub crawl.

Yet no curry houses on board.

[mothman]

You wouldn't want to live down the corridor from the curry house though would you? Because of all the cooking curry smells. Might as well just have the best curry house ever programmed into the holodeck. Then all the smells will be holographic and will evaporate just outside the entrance, like Cyrus Redpath.

I will now lie awake all night trying to think of THE best name for a curry house on a Star Trek starship. Beam Me Up Basmati?

[Wentworth Smith]

Deep Space Naan.

[kalowski]

Kormanda Data.

[Camp Tramp]

The later Cardassian ships get upgraded by the Dominion, so they are indeed more formidable.

My general impression is that Starfleet either lacked the will to fight all-out or were inhibited by the Federation Council. Als, I have seen very little to indicate that 24th century Starfleet were good at fighting wars.

There is a good non-canon series on Youtube that gives an overview of the Cardassian War. Seems plausible to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5UKVY6SZSk&list=PLjNbxX7w4eoimvVR5l2FsQtl92v3ds4pR&index=4&t=6s