Fraternization in Starfleet

[Gorn Captain]

In TOS, Captain Kirk shies away from Yeoman Rand because he is her superior officer. I vaguely remember an episode of TNG where Picard, well, doesn't shy away from one of his crew. Not being a devotee of the other shows, does anyone know if the issue has ever been directly addressed? Is this something that is against the rules, or just considered not cool, or has it evolved between the 23rd and 24th centuries?

 

[Kaziarl]

In TOS, Captain Kirk shies away from Yeoman Rand because he is her superior officer. I vaguely remember an episode of TNG where Picard, well, doesn't shy away from one of his crew. Not being a devotee of the other shows, does anyone know if the issue has ever been directly addressed? Is this something that is against the rules, or just considered not cool, or has it evolved between the 23rd and 24th centuries?

Current military has the same rule. A superior officer cannot fraternize with a lower ranked individual in the same unit. And its for the same reason that was shown in the TNG episode you mention.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

I think the TNG episode you're referring to is Lessons from season 6. It was stated in the episode that it wasn't against the rules for Picard to go out with Commander Daren, but in practice there were problems.

 

[Kaziarl]

Its been so long that I honestly can't remember. I honestly couldn't imagine the strain of being the captain and just having civilians on the ship, let alone anyone I care for. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I don't think Starfleet has a policy on fraternization as long as it doesn't interfere with a mission or with the morale of a crew. Tradition might keep officers and enlisted from mixing up, but I don't think there is really anything on the Starfleet books really prohibiting that. It's one of the differences between Starfleet and today's militaries, IMO...

 

[sbk1234]

He wasn't captain, but in Balance of Terror, an officer was supposed to marry one of his subordinants, but ultimately didn't because he came down with a case of dead.

McCoy even comented in Space Seed that there were no regulations against romance.

 

[hellsgate]

"Lessons" (Season 6) - Lt. Commander Nella Daren, Stellar Cartography.

 

[nx1701g]

In Voyager's Workforce episodes this issue came up again. Janeway offered her 'boyfriend' while she was under the influence of the mental reprogramming a position on Voyager and he asked if they could continue their relationship. She said no because the Captain couldn't be involved with a member of the crew.

 

[captcalhoun]

yet, post Nemesis, Riker's married to one of his crew...

 

[Nick Ryder]

Yeah that's a sticky one. I mean on one hand, even in today's military, you can't really be in a romantic relationship with someone in your direct command, but you can sorta with someone that's not really in your direct command or the same rank as yourself.. I think. I mean, I've known military couples, but usually they are from different parts of the unit. Like say a nurse dating a gunnery sergeant or something.

Of course when it comes to the commanders... that's the tricky part, because on that ship, the CO, XO and 2nd Officer ARE the higher ups on the ship and are in charge of the whole bloody ship.

But Riker and Troi have worked together for many many years and even IF Starfleet did have a problem with it, their records would speak for themselves, Will has given Troi orders that would have put her in harm's way many a time and both know the risks and all. So really, I suppose the assumption that she'd get special treatment simply because she's ridin' the Captain's mast... is hardly an issue, he's shown in the past that he probably expects her to prove herself, same as any officer.

That and well... let's face it sometimes Troi could get a bit ditzy from time to time.

Now with Chuckles and Janeway, he wasn't a "Real" officer anymore, granted in their ad hoc "Starfleet through and through crew" it may not have worked, but hell if they were going to really be stuck there for the rest of their lives or most of it, I wouldn't worry about "what is starfleet going to think?! I'm sleeping with my xo..." they were more worried about "holy shit Janeway! You've got a rogue starfleet officer, a Maquis no less as your XO... are you out of your fuckin' gourd!?!?" Who cared if they slept together?

Now with Picard... he really was one sorry bastard in that he was not only a Captain, but a Captain in charge of the Fleet Flagship. So his actions would be monitored so tightly, he can't breathe. I mean if he WANTED to have a gal from Astrophysics be his bed buddy and heck even known among the crew that "she's the captain's girlfriend", then Starfleet would come down on him like a ton of bricks. With Voyager, who gave two craps... it wasn't the flagship.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

I don't think it's not allowed; it probably has more to do with their personal fear of attachments getting in the way of the fairness of their commands. Both Janeway and Picard are quite aloof; they don't really mix well with the crews, not like Riker, for example. Perhaps they see fraternization between a Captain and a crewmember as an emotional threat to their command, so they'd rather not deal with it at all?

 

[bluedana]

It also may have changed over time. In ENT, Archer and T'Pol (captain and SIC) both acknowledge that they could not act on any hypothetical attraction while on board (A Night in Sickbay). But in response to a fourth grader's question (I forget which episode in S1), Archer says that the regs did not prohibit fraternization at the lower levels, and that there were plenty of places "to look at the stars" if people so chose. And in Home, Archer says that he had broken up with Erika Hernandez because he became her superior officer and "it wouldn't be appropriate." (They got back together in that episode (kind of), as Hernandez has been promoted to captain.)

 

[DevilEyes]

In other words, the rules change depending on what the writers need in the episode.

 

[Dingo]

I agree with Devil Eyes.

On Voyager, however, in the episode Investigations it was stated that a Lieutenant was dating a Crewman and no one seemed to bat an eye at it, which leads me to believe that enlisted/officer mixing seems to be kosher by the rules. Now how said officer is viewed by his peers might be affected, but the romantic in me sayeth love knows no bounds.

The ramifications of such a relationship could make a nice fanfiction all by themselves.

 

[barnaclelapse]

I don't think Starfleet has a policy on fraternization as long as it doesn't interfere with a mission or with the morale of a crew. Tradition might keep officers and enlisted from mixing up, but I don't think there is really anything on the Starfleet books really prohibiting that. It's one of the differences between Starfleet and today's militaries, IMO...

That's always what I thought. It doesn't seem to be a specifically addressed issue, but it can be frowned upon if it's a superior officer and a lower-class officer.

 

[JustKate]

My impression, based on many years of Trek watching, is that the only rule is, "Will it make a good story?" If it will, it's allowed (although usually only for an episode or so, because we viewers have such short and immature attention spans ), and if it doesn't, it isn't.

The in-universe rule is that there don't seem to be any rules - at least not really strict ones. People in the command structure seem to generally hold back, but there are notable exceptions, of course.

This is one of my biggest Trek peeves, in fact. I know it's fiction, I know such a thing as Starfleet doesn't exist, but why not have at least some rules to give this fictional world a much-needed dose of reality? Because the plain fact is that captains and first officers, at the minimum, should not be involved with someone under their command. Humans may, I supposed, eventually evolve beyond the need for such a rule, but it's going to take a lot longer than 300 or 400 years, I can promise you that.

 

[Timo]

But that's not the only aspect of human psyche (or social mores) that has changed by the 24th century. They do have an utopia of sorts, and something has happened to make it possible; either humans have changed, or then there is a new policy/religion that says that humans have changed, quite regardless of the actual state of affairs.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JustKate]

All I can say is, they still act just like humans to me - in matters of the heart and in lots of other ways, too.

And from a dramatic standpoint, they'd have to, wouldn't they? A society in which humans never were conflicted about their relationships would be very, very, very boring to watch.

 

[Dingo]

Well, as I stated in a previous post in this thread:

The ramifications of such a relationship could make a nice fanfiction all by themselves.

A senior/subordinate relationship has already made a rather nice Trek episode in the form of Lessons in The Next Generation and has proven JustKate's point, humans haven't evolved beyond the 'of course she gets what her department wants, look who she's dating' mentality. This can be seen in Lessons where Riker is uncomfortable at denying a request of Neela Darren's because she's Picard's lover.

 

[kes7]

I think it's allowed. There are a lot of married couples in Starfleet and they had to start somewhere. I think at some point during the run of five different series, we'd have heard about someone actually facing disciplinary action if it were truly prohibited. Certain officers may hold themselves to a more traditional standard, but that's their choice, and a perfectly understandable one considering the ill will something like that can generate when people start looking for evidence of favoritism.