One thing I never understood about Star Trek: The Next Generation…

@JeremyMallin

Having two crews might be more difficult socially? The crew with the captain would attract other "important people" and you'd end up with a needless divide. Maybe "bridge" vs. "engineering" or something.

By having "night" and only a smaller staff the majority are all part of one group.

@futurebird
Or even just overlapping shifts that keep the entire 24 hours/day crewed.

@JeremyMallin

It would be so annoying to set things up though.

Also, on a big ship you'd have spaces with plants, UV lights, those would need to cycle for the plants people and insects to thrive.

I guess you could have different rooms with different lights, but ideally you'd have ambient light that suggested sunlight and nobody wants that on their skin if your body thinks it's night.

@futurebird @JeremyMallin there's a night shift because even in the future, some people are night owls.

i think the real failure was to only have one person with the rank of captain instead of a second "night captain", because COME ON, how cool would it be to have someone referred to as the night captain

@phooky @JeremyMallin

Night serves an important social function. Sometimes some people get overwhelmed with "people everywhere" and if you could sign up for the nightshift for a bit and walk some empty halls. Have some quiet. Listen to the ship sounds. That's a good space to have for overall mental health.

Managing mental health is one of the greatest challenges of a community ship. You'd need high levels of social alignment and shared values. But if you have that you also need outlets.