Are there really no surveillance cameras on the Enterprise?

shane_solo · 1 year

Data removed the security cameras after the Natasha Yar sex tape was leaked.

ungoogleable · 1 year

Fuck security cameras, where are the security guards? Worf's supposed to be the head of a whole department, right? Shouldn't there be some guys stationed throughout the ship? Noooo, Worf has to leave the bridge and attend to every single security matter personally.

SuperSumoYakuza · 1 year

There are cameras that capture footage into video logs. These logs have been used in a number of episodes in most every incarnation of Trek cannon. As far as the episode in question, if "some systems" were disabled and footage was unavailable, then one would rightly assume that the ubiquitous visual log system was compromised.

This system is not "motion activated" either, as some mundane footage has been shown of empty hallways and so forth without any humans in shot (usually right before a hull breach or some other cataclysmic event).

Not that I'm a nerd or anything...

snookums · 1 year

Apparently, the Goa'uld hired the same guy for their security.

msiekkinen · 1 year

The same reason they spend time running through corridors instead of using site to site transport in times of emergency

bringitbiatch · 1 year

this thread is fantastic. i just want you all to know.

silence_hr · 1 year

It's all about tachyons. The flux capacitors prevent cameras from functioning inside the warp field because of the dilithium omega-radiation. This was adequately explained in ST:TOS S1E7, ST:TNG S3E2 and S4E5, ST:E S1E8 and ST:POS S3E4.

*Snort* I can't believe you didn't know that.

Starstryker · 1 year

I always assumed that the sensors replaced conventional cameras. They always seemed to be able to get visuals outside the ship at ranges and resolutions that cameras can't handle. the only time I can recall anyone using anything like cameras at all was for holo-images.

Tunk · 1 year

A common problem in sci-fi.
Once someone has infiltrated a spacecraft or facility all security and sensory equipment automatically shuts off in the vicinity of the infiltrator(s) as part of standard security.

Willravel · 1 year

Maybe it's about privacy?

david · 1 year

More to the point, no post-it notes stuck all over the place? Really? I know this is the future, but...

Wurm42 · 1 year

It's Next Gen. The ship will have no cameras until there's an episode with a plot driven by improbably advanced technobabble-driven cameras. Then by the next episode, everyone will have forgotten they exist.

plucas1 · 1 year

Two things, if you want to No-Prize this little plot glitch away:

The Federation actually is serious about respecting a person's individual rights, even their right to privacy, so cameras in every corridor would kind of violate that.
The sensor technology in Star Trek is so insanely powerful (in one episode they were able to detect a person's DNA while they were in orbit and that person was a mile underground; in another they were able to detect life forms on a ship a number of light years away) they probably just assume that if they do need surveillance of a particular part of the ship, their sensors technology would provide it easily. And except for plot-induced stupidity induced by sloppy screenwriters, they'd mostly be right.

thePicardManeuver · 1 year

(Stands up, tugs on tunic.) Listen, I will run my ship how I damn well please.

whoami9 · 1 year

It's always futile to analyze these things. You could argue that not only should there be cameras everywhere, but that there should also be phaser turrets in the corridors that can be controlled from the bridge. It would make dealing with intruders much simpler.

Also you could argue that dimensional shifters should be strapped onto photon torpedoes so they can go straight through enemy shields.

The problem with all these things is that they make one side too powerful, or take away possible directions for the plot to go.

asimovs_engineer · 1 year

Probably cause there is minimal need for cameras. Everyone has there communicator badge which tells the computer where they are anyways, so it's only for rare occasions would cameras serve any purpose.

Plus I believe the computer can track people normally, it just doesn't know who you are right off the bat. Since people aren't normally bioengineered or whatever to block the tracking system, it's an even rarer situation.

Petrarch1603 · 1 year

and what's the deal with using humans as batteries, wouldn't cows work just as well?

Vidyadhara · 1 year

Allegedly it's an enlightened society, so maybe they don't need to that stuff. :p

ynohoo · 1 year

They were all vandalized in the first week after the ship was launched.

NoMoreNicksLeft · 1 year

Star Trek was always bad about these things. Forgivable in the original... but there are no robots at all, except one really fugly stupid tupperware looking thing in one episode. Computer science is hit and miss... when Riker needs a Deus Ex Machina, they're able to generate the face of a women hidden in an old photograph, but even simple machine vision tasks like you hint at are apparently impossible.

HerrDoktor · 1 year

We need Wil in here to explain this

Torquemada1970 · 1 year

This is like the first ST movie, where at the beginning the guy says "I have an exterior visual".

From where?

Hypersapien · 1 year

If common sense has to be sacrificed for the sake of the plot, then there is something wrong with the plot.

Swinly · 1 year

It's pretty realistic, humanity's infatuation with itself grows so strong that people see themselves as such superior creatures to the point where surveillance is considered unnecessary, despite the, almost daily, occurrence of workplace accidents.

bewarethetreebadger · 1 year

The one with the Borg (The Best of Both Worlds?) has some recordings from the Enterprise's first encounter. They were watching it in the conference room.

lightspeed23 · 1 year

Obviously they figured out in the late 21st century that security cameras are not only a violation of human rights but they are also mainly useless as their image quality is too crappy and they can catch people anyway without them.

jonsayer · 1 year

Are there CCD cameras on real warships, like aircraft carriers and whatnot? Never been on one.

Chyndonax · 1 year

This is the big picture explanation. On a Starfleet vessel they're not really needed in most parts of the ship since all Starfleet personnel wear communicators which allows them to be tracked individually. Those not in uniform but still on the ship can still be located at will by the computer. So tracking anyone not enhanced like Danar isn't a problem at all. Add to this that video cameras are somewhat invasive and make people feel like criminals and the fact that the society were talking about is enlightened and values privacy and individual responsibility and it's easy to see why they would forgo the tiny bit of extra monitoring they offer in exchange for not alienating the crew.

There are also probably societal moral prohibitions against it by that time. Possibly legal ones as well.

insomniac84 · 1 year

It's all done for story. Burn Notice does the same thing. Many times he does things that should have been recorded by security cameras, but there is no mention, because clearly they don't want to have to talk about security cameras every single time. Despite the fact that every office building would have many of them.

archant · 1 year

It was a Libertarian ship, dammit!

Hookhand · 1 year

No point. The only black guy on there can't see.

stevetac · 1 year

The cameras only appear when absolutely necessary to the story. This began during STIII, when the engine room suddenly had a camera aimed at Spock and McCoy to catch just the right moment when Spock makes the meld. Forget about the actual state of the ENGINES.

Rugil · 1 year

"Danar does not show up on the ship censors" Camera = Optical sensor.

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