Why Are There No I.T. Managers on Star Trek?

There aren't you know. It occurred to me the other day that given the huge amount of computer-based technology on board the Enterprise, it's pretty surprising that no IT Manager has ever featured among the crews of any of the series. Just take a look inside one of those spaceships. You can't turn around without bumping into some kind of data input or output peripheral. There's computer screens covering practically every bit of wallspace and everyone's carrying 'round a wireless device of some kind or another; PDA's, tablet PC's etc, but I couldn't remember ever hearing about a crew member whose job had anything to do with computers (apart from using them of course). To make sure of this I perused a few of the huge number of Star Trek sites out there, and put together a complete manifest of the featured crew members and their jobs ... here it is:

THE ORIGINAL SERIES
Kirk: Captain
Spock: Science Officer
McCoy: Medical Officer
Scott: Chief Engineer
Sulu: Helmsman
Uhura: Communications Officer
Chekov: Navigator, Tactical Officer
Chapel: Nurse
Rand: Yeoman

THE NEXT GENERATION
Picard: Captain
Riker: First Officer
Troi: Counselor
Yar: Chief Tactical Officer
Crusher: Doctor
Data: Operations Officer
LaForge: Helmsman

DEEP SPACE 9
Sisko: Commander
Nerys: First Officer
Dax: Science Officer
Worf: Various incl Chief Tactical Officer
Obrien: Chief of Operations
Bashir: Doctor
Odo: Chief of Security

VOYAGER
Janeway: Commanding Officer
Chakotay: First Officer
Tuvok: Chief Tactical Officer
Torres: Chief Engineer
Paris: Helmsman
Kim: Operations Officer
7 of 9: Astrometricist
Neelix: Guide, Cook, Morale Officer, Journalist
EMH: Emergency Doctor
Kes: Airponics Officer and Trainee Nurse

ENTERPRISE
Archer: Captain
Tucker: Chief Engineer
T'Pol: Science Officer
Reed: Weapons Officer
Mayweather: Helmsman
Sato: Linguist
Phlox: Doctor

... no IT Manager. Not even any help desk guy!! What're they going to do when the system goes blue screen? How do they make sure they've bought enough software licenses? Who's going to help them install the next Windows upgrade, and how do they expect to keep on top of their spam? Dear Lord, they've got everything else there, they've got a Linguist, a Counselor, 5 Doctors, even an Astrometricist (whatever the hell that is!!). There must be some rational explanation for this, because the fans of Star Trek are so concerned about how it's all supposed to make sense and adhere to Star Trek "Canon" and stuff.

I know all this because I crossed paths with Trekkies. I'm prepared to admit it. After 3 decades of hurriedly switching the channel whenever it inadvertently landed on a Star Trek episode, I finally got sucked into the latest series - "Star Trek - Enterprise" I like it. I look forward to Sunday nights so I can watch this weeks episode on Sci-Fi Channel.

Anyway, during an idle weekend half-hour I checked out Star Trek sites on the web, went to one and read the forums. Trekkies hate Star-Trek Enterprise. They think it's a sacreligious abomination because it deviated from "the Canon", Because Kirk was supposed to have been the first one to have made contact with Romulans but "Enterprise" has Archer doing it 100 years earlier etc. etc. I'm sure you get the drift, so I wrote in one of those forums that "Enterprise" is the best series and all the other Star Trek series' suck!! I'll admit I was waving a bit of a red flag, but you should have seen the crazies come out from behind the furniture ... Inside 1 minute they were calling for my blood. Telling me I'm insane and they're going to search me down and kill me.

But getting back to why there's no IT Manager on Star Trek ... well it's a TV show isn't it? I mean, that's why there's no IT staff on it, because no-one wants to watch IT staff on TV! Who cares if it doesn't all make sense, it's just a stupid TV show.

I'm with the rest of society on this, the silent majority who disdain Trekkies because Trekkies get all worked up about something that's essentially meaningless. You don't see everyone else doing that do you? You don't see Joe Average getting all worked up about something as stupid and meaningless as sports, religion, politics or patriotism, do you?