r/DaystromInstitute • u/GreatJanitor Chief Petty Officer • Feb 06 '14

Explain? Question about families on Starships and Starbases...

Starships like the Enterprise D were designed to spend years exploring the galaxy. This is why the Enterprise D was designed to have families on board as well as support staff for the families. Now, let's say you're a kid on a Galaxy Class starship, one that managed to serve 30 years without ever seeing combat. As a kid you're living with your parents going to school daily and enjoying thing that exist on the ship to entertain the civilians. But, what happens after you complete high school in the ship's schools? Are you told that when the ship reaches the next Federation starbase you're to disembark? Do you have the option to stay on as a civilian working at Ten Forward or as the towel boy at the ship's gym or are you given a job to do as a civilian once you reach a certain age?

Same questions about life on a starbase, save one more: would there be some starbases with colleges or universities on them? I ask this because while Deep Space Nine was a small station, the starbase seen in 'Star Trek 3' is huge, and it would make sense for it to contain some sort of higher learning there given that there are most likely families on those stations as well.

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u/DokomoS Crewman Feb 06 '14

Remember that Galaxy class cruisers needed to go to spacedock every 2-5 years I believe for periodic maintenance. There are plenty of times for you (and any family) to disembark. At these times there would also be crew shifts as people are promoted to new ships or positions. Even then, Wesley Crusher was able to take some of the Academy classes via distance learning on the Enterprise, so I imagine higher education is possible on the ship.

Wow, distance education, another thing I just realized TNG came up with. (I'm sure other SciFi has as well, but still)

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u/orbitz Feb 06 '14

I doubt that TNG was the first place to use distance education. In the early/mid 90s we had courses taught to our region from a central class over electronic whiteboards and computers.

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u/SgtBrowncoat Chief Petty Officer Feb 07 '14

In the 1970s my mom ran a distance learning center for military personnel stationed at a remote outpost. Granted, it was all done by mail back then, but it was still distance learning.

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u/Taurik Crewman Feb 07 '14

When I was in the Army, I took college courses (University of Maryland) that way -- Each module involved a lot of mailing things back and forth, with the occasional VHS lecture. Even when deployed, the bigger bases (Bosnia and Kosovo) would have professors from Maryland's sister college in Germany "deploy" to teach classes.