Sound General Quarters

[Wingsley]

The term general quarters seems to be sprinkled through the various Star Trek series, especially TOS and TNG. But what does it mean there?

In "The Trouble with Tribbles", Lt. Uhura sounded "Red Alert" upon receiving the OK from Capt. Kirk after Space Station K-7 issued a "Priority One" signal. Upon arriving at K-7, Kirk called Enterprise on his communicator and ordered the ship to "secure from General Quarters", which sounded like he was effectively canceling the earlier Red Alert.

IIRC, in TNG's "The Hunted", Roga Danar escapes captivity in the Enterprise-D's brig, and Picard ordered General Quarters; there is no indication, though, that the ship is on Red Alert.

I supposed it is possible that these terms, and the reactions of the ship and crew as a result of them, would evolve throughout the history of the Federation. It's also worth noting that the Enterprise-D is supposed to have eight times the total volume of the TOS Enterprise, and the D also supposed to typically have almost four times the personnel on-board, with emergency capacity for several times more.

Would it be reasonable to assume, based on what we see in TOS, that "General Quarters" and "Red Alert" are the same, or somehow parallel?

And what did Picard mean by General Quarters in "The Hunted"?

 

[StarCruiser]

Very traditional alert term used in the US and UK navies...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_quarters

 

[Wingsley]

Yes, and there's no doubt that Star Trek's naval references can be traced to American and British naval traditions and terms. That's what makes it even more puzzling.

 

[Timo]

The obvious distinction (were we to summon one, rather than simply declaring "Synonym!") would be to say that General Quarters means getting the people physically to their action stations, while Red Alert (or any other color) may encompass a broader range of actions, especially relating to machinery and automation rather than to people.

That is, General Quarters means Ensign Example has to be at Phaser Control, ready for action. But Red Alert means that phasers have to be at Firing Status A, and Yellow Alert means that they have to be at Preheat B. If Ensign Example can achieve that without physically going to Phaser Control, fine... However, he isn't expected to preheat the guns at mere General Quarters yet, he's merely to stand at readiness to do so.

OTOH, the order to Secure from General Quarters may or may not involve cooling down the phasers. Given the overall level of automation aboard starships, leaving the phasers hot may be practicable, and Sulu can then cool them down with a single keypress from the bridge, this action requiring no close supervision of the Primary Weapons Transformer and the Master Overheat Gauge down at Phaser Control.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wingsley]

Funny thing is, in modern naval terms (which TOS and TNG supposedly derive from), "General Quarters" and "Battlestations" are the same thing. Timo's take is an interesting possibility, though.