Well back in the day it'd be every important officer plus the captain. So that's progress I suppose.

That's just alpha shift. We only ever see Star Trek shows from their viewpoint (with some episodes and lower decks as exceptions). AFAIK there's three or four shifts on board those vessels?

Well, at least we know they will return. Imagine the transporter was full of uncredited redshirts...

"Hey now, they didn't send Troi down! She'll be able to do something to help on the ship... probably."

"The away mission is to save Troi."

"Well shit."

Given that the transporter guy is still wearing the first version of the uniform, it's safe to assume that the Enterprise's yet-undiscovered MVP, Miles O'Brien is still on board. He'll be able to fix whatever pops up in the absence of the senior staff.

Honestly that’s one of the reasons I like Lower Decks. The bridge crew is all “fuck that, we got peons… I’ll just go manage some of them”

I mean, there were clearly only 20, maybe 30 people on the ship. So it makes sense.

Amateur. Kirk would also go himself.

Picard will be fine manning the ship alone.

Remember the Star Gazer and Wolf 359?

How many officers died during those dangerous missions? Maybe this decision isn't that stupid?

We want to ensure maximum chaos should something go wrong

I was sure that title was going to be about contemporary politics.

Contributes to my theory that Star Trek is in reality an existentialist dystopia with everyone on the Enterprise competing to get onboard for the chance at a meaningful death.

Yeah, but when a red shirt dies in TNG, it's a more impactful loss since red shirts went from "expendable nobody" to "commanding officers."

Well yeah, have you seen how small their budget for extras is???