History TheMainCharactersDoEverything / LiveActionTV

** This trope is still [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in "Ripple Effect" when Dr. Lee asks why all of the teams from alternate realities are strictly [=SG1s=]. Sam justifies it by saying that, since they're only letting in teams who are under fire, it makes sense that the front line team would show up with more frequency.
** All said though, the vast majority of the time even when any other SG team is in a given episode they do nothing useful except [[RedshirtArmy die in droves]] so the actual main characters don't have to, and that's if they do anything at all.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', however, follows the trope more closely. Only Sheppard's team + whoever is in charge of Atlantis that season + the doctor of the season ever get to do ANYTHING or are ever SHOWN to do anything. In fact, it gets silly as they will treat Rodney [=McKay=] being disabled as their entire science crew - save Zelenka - being disabled, despite the existence of 20 or so other scientists on his team who are some of the most brilliant ones alive.

** Sinclair pretty much out of survivor guilt and seeking out a heroic death. Garibaldi actually calls him out on this during the closing scenes of the episode ''Infection''.
** Sheridan, always having served on an Earth Alliance ship, gets the feeling of being trapped when too long on the space station, so he takes every opportunity he can. However, Sheriden does mention that if he ''doesn't'' do at least some time in a Starfury he will lose his flight pay. Thus the tendency of the senior officers to go out probably has to do with the mundane issue of salary.
** Ivanova goes in place of her commanding officer once because she hasn't piloted a 'fury in a long, long time. Then stuff happens with enemies making a visit and well... she and her craft barely survived. Ivanova considered it a hell of a fun ride though, not understanding all the fuss about her 'fury basically being in repairs for a long while. Mostly because, well, you should have seen the other guy (she tore apart a dozen or so raider ships off-screen).
** Garibaldi, well... he is the odd one out in this case. But seeing as B5 barely surviving without him, and him being able to arrange ''everything'' it comes as no surprise that he gets spaceborne once in a while. He even got his own custom paint job on his ''own'' Starfury. Last time he went out though, he ran into a bit of a problem
*** [[Creator/JMichaelStraczynski JMS]] [[Main/WordOfGod has said]] that this is partly due to the command officers needing to maintain a certain number of flight-hours in Starfuries in order to remain qualified to operate them. He also had Ivanova state in [[Recap/BabylonFiveS03E10SeveredDreams one episode]] that it's important for morale for the command staff to be seen to lead from the front, especially as they often know a lot more about what's going on than the rank-and-file station crew.
* Either averted or justified in the ''Series/{{Crusade}}'' spin-off, although Gideon will still put himself in danger, despite being TheCaptain. Given that he only has 4 years to cure the population of Earth, his willingness to put his life on the line may be a necessity. Matheson mostly sticks to being his NumberTwo (despite the fact that he's a lieutenant not a commander) and rarely uses his telepathic abilities (mostly due to much stricter regulations in the post-Telepathic War world). Chambers pretty much sticks to medicine, and Eilerson (although he's a civilian) sticks to archaeology and linguistics). Dureena and Galen aren't really members of the crew (or even [=EarthForce=]), so they don't count. Dureena is a thief, and Galen just comes and goes as he pleases, and hardly anyone questions a technomage.
* Everything, literally everything, in ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' is handled by one of the eight characters (only six of whom ever serve concurrently). Justified in the first season where there are only six characters on board the eponymous ship, with no hope of back-up. However after they succeed in creating the Commonwealth, they bring on a crew of over 1000 people; and yet the non-commissioned random people that Dylan picked up serve as department heads, go on all the dangerous away missions, and generally forget about all the extra crew whenever the script requires it.

** SG-1 actually averts this trope to an extent, which is impressive given that the four main characters are the focus of 90% of every episode. The term SG-1 refers to their primary FirstContact crew that they send first through an established stargate connection and is composed of the main characters, and is just '''one''' team of many. While it does seem like SG-1 does everything, this is because their team is designed to be generalist - it always [[CommandRoster has a military leader, scientist, archeologist, and alien warrior]]. We frequently hear of or see other teams which have more specialist duties (the original SG-3 led by Colonel Makepeace is an all Marines unit charged with high risk missions or providing armed backup to other teams, for example). A lot of episodes start with SG-1 following up on some other team's work.

** O'Neill is big offender through whole show. He leads foot-based squad of people fighting with assault rifles. But when the new experimental fighter jet is built? O'Neill with Teal'c go test it. (Teal'c is fully justified in this one as the fighter was a retro-engineered Death Glider and he's the only person on Earth who's flown a Death Glider before, whereas O'Neill is trained as a pilot, but not a regular test pilot and isn't trained in piloting ''spacecraft''.) When the next prototype is built and is needed for saving the world? O'Neill and Carter. Attacking on Anubis flagship Star Wars style? You can guess. Also when there is some conspiracy back on Earth, it's [=SG1=] who investigates...
** Stargate Command also has a dedicated team of scientists and medical staff who will work on tasks in the background, like studying alien technology that SG-1 have brought back, or finding a cure to a disease. This trope still occurs however, as aside from recurring character Dr. Frasier it's extremely rare that anyone besides Carter and Daniel can actually find the solution to any given problem that these background characters are supposed to be trying to solve.

*** Commander Adama also went down to Kobol in "Home" part 2. After major surgery.

** They avert in some areas, though. Adama goes on an "away mission" once in the whole series (when he checks out the munitions at Ragnar Anchorage - not a situation where they expecting danger) and if you ever see him in a Viper fighting the Cylons himself, it's only in a flashback to his own days as a pilot.
*** Adama also went down to Kobol in "Home" part 2. After major surgery.

** It's equally bad with the Cylons, except they have no excuse. Despite having a society where there are millions of every model of Cylon, making them practically interchangeable, the story features the same handful of Cylon ''individuals'' in all key positions.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' also delves into this, though it's partially justified what with the near-extinction of humanity at the hands of the Cylons leaving fewer people left who are trained in all the necessary disciplines. Still, with thousands of people in the fleet, it seems that the same dozen characters are responsible for pretty much everything that goes on. This is especially blatant with Pilot/Rebel/Commando/Vigilante/Criminal Investigator/Starship Captain/Lawyer/Politician/President Lee Adama - sometimes all in the same episode! The series would really have benefitted from at least one marine main character.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' also delves into this, though it's partially justified what with having so few people left who are trained in all the necessary disciplines. Still, with thousands of people in the fleet, it seems that the same dozen characters are responsible for pretty much everything that goes on. This is especially blatant with Pilot/Rebel/Commando/Vigilante/Criminal Investigator/Starship Captain/Lawyer/Politician/President Lee Adama - sometimes all in the same episode! The series would really have benefitted from at least one marine main character.

*** This particular aspect seems to be more of a factor of the show itself being Starfleet-centric. The shows, movies, and books mention things like Federation Security, the Diplomatic Corps, the Science Council and others. Starfleet itself seems to have a separate, and likely smaller, matching division. Starfleet is also the way that the Federation officials move around the galaxy, so even then Starfleet is central to how they operate.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' always has the valuable profilers arresting the violent, dangerous psychopaths. Also, the characters deal with everything from serial killers to the mob to terrorists to child abductors. In real life, the FBI has different departments for each of these and would not send the same team on all the cases they get. Justified to some extent as they do need episodes. It is brought ''occasionally'' that the individual members ''do'' in fact specialise in certain crimes, but this rarely comes up and when it does, it is often incidental (for instance, Morgan was once asked by Rossi to consult on an obsessive killer as his speciality is Obsessions, but it was a coincidence that he was with Rossi at the time to consult at all).

** Perhaps the worst and most confusing is episode "Cementing Relationships". Despite a camp full of lower ranking soldiers with a great deal more experience with manual labor and less to lose from a hand injury, three surgeons, the head nurse, and the camp chaplain are the ones who put the new cement floor in the OR. Unsurprisingly, they screw up their first try. In "MASH Olympics", when an ambulance is overturned, two of the three surgeons, the head nurse and the camp chaplain are tasked with righting it. In the episode ''Out of Sight, Out of Mind'', Hawkeye was "the only one" who could light the heater in the nurse's tent. Resulting in the explosion that left him blind for the episode.

** WebSite/SFDebris points out the astounding number of times where Ensign Harry Kim does something well out of his element simply because the writers wanted to give him something to do. In spite of the incredibly open-ended nature of his job description, poor Harry suffered from LimitedAdvancementOpportunities and remained an ensign for the entirety of ''Voyager's'' sojourn in the Delta Quadrant!
** It's even worse in the case of Tom Paris, who is apparently knowledgable in everything from piloting, engineering, commando tactics, etc. And he's an ''ex-con''. WebSite/SFDebris even points out a particularly ridiculous instance of this in "Year Of Hell" where within the space of 30 seconds he is describing modifications he made to ''Voyager's'' hull (engineering) inspired by the ''Titanic'' (history) when he is suddenly called to perform field medicine and, to quote Debris, "none of these things ''are even his '''job'''''." (piloting) Debris quickly comes to the conclusion that Paris was held in a prison for savants.

*** In the first few episodes they had it this was explicitly because the ''Defiant'' had so many problems that nobody but Sisko could keep the damn thing running (it's basically an overclocked set of guns strapped to an overclocked engine). They pulled it out of mothballs to let the crew use it. By the time the crew had got the bugs worked out and the Federation started building more of them the war was going on and it was basically just a cheap escort from Starfleet's perspective.

** Interestingly, perhaps because they have not yet reached the egalitarian utopianism of the later series, the NX-01 has room for personnel such as stewards! Archer usually takes his meals in a private dining room with only T'Pol and Trip (second and third in command respectively), waited on by steward-cum-TimePolice Agent Daniels! So, essentially, waiters are considered higher-priority personnel than, for example, a transporter specialist! Likewise, Phlox does not even have a nurse practitioner to assist him!

[[folder:Space Opera]]

!!MedicalDrama

!!PoliceProcedural / ForensicDrama

!! Medical, Police & Forensic Aversions

!!SpaceOpera

!!Other Live Action

*** The problem with the ''Defiant'' might be explained by the fact that the ship is permanently assigned to DS9, and as such its crew is drawn from the station's crew (rather than a crew being specifically assigned to the ship) and is entirely at the discretion of the station's administrators; the ship can be considered an extension of the station.

* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' is supposed to have the titular Division, a joint task force comprising dozens to hundreds of agents, of which our protagonists are only a few. By season 2, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Fringe Division was headquartered in Walter's lab and was comprised of three FBI agents, two civilian consultants and a cow. Well, Walter is segregated from most of the rest of the division intentionally due to his ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder frequently crossing the line into the "experiment on whatever human is handy" phase or outright omnicidal mania. I think the viewer is supposed to assume that when the assistant was asked a question and then wasn't around for a few scenes she was off liaising with the department proper. Similarly, they keep Walter's son away from sensitive files and personnel because he's a career criminal and Olivia stays out of contact to maintain the isolation. They're essentially a semi-independent 'cell' of the division kept apart because they're, well, a cancer cell.

* Lampshaded in Series/{{Lost}} by Arzt, who is annoyed by the main characters always trekking off on important missions together.
---> '''Arzt:''' I know a clique when I see it. I teach high school, pal-y. You know, you people think you're the only ones on this Island doing anything of value. I've got news for you. '''There were 40 other survivors of this plane crash. And we are all people, too.'''

* While not as bad as it's spiritual predecessor ''Series/{{House}}'', ''Series/{{The Good Doctor}}'' does stray into this. The surgical team spends a lot of time diagnosing issues that other doctors would do before referring the patient to surgery. In one episode, the ER is short-staffed so Shaun and Morgan cover, but there are no other doctors to be seen and the attending is Lim, a surgeon. When an independent review panel was needed to approve a procedure, it was made up of three main characters, including Melendez who is part of the surgery.

** Kira Nerys is a major in the Bajoran Militia, and the liaison officer between Bajor and the Federation. She's also the first officer of Deep Space Nine, which makes sense because [=DS9=] is a Bajoran station which is simply under Federation administration. However, once the ''Defiant'' is introduced, in at least one episode Kira is stated to be the first officer of it, and is even in command on occasion. Bajor is not a member of the Federation—half the story revolves around this point—but the Federation apparently has no problem with an officer from a semi-allied foreign military assigned to one of the highest positions on a cutting-edge (and top-secret!) Federation starship, nor does Kira herself have any apparent issue working with Federation starship technology despite her backstory being an underground freedom fighter and terrorist. It's like making a member of the French Resistance the XO of a Russian warship towards the end of World War II.

** Odo was chief of Security and nothing more; he was not a soldier, pilot, officer, diplomat, or any such thing - neither for the Bajorans nor the Federation. He was simply the station's top cop. Yet they would bring him along on the Defiant pretty often, sometimes having him ''sitting on the bridge doing stuff''. This would be like putting an NYPD Detective on the bridge of an aircraft carrier. At least Odo could be justified on occasion, when the Defiant was near Dominion space, as Odo's species are considered gods to the Jem'Hadar, the footsoldiers of the Dominion. Run into trouble with the Dominion, you want them to see that one of their gods is on the ship when you hail them. It doesn't cover situations in the Alpha Quadrant, however.

** After a while, they brought Worf in, and transferred him to Command rather than Security so they could at least avoid some of this trope when they took the Defiant out.
** Kira Nerys is a major in the Bajoran Militia, and the liaison officer between Bajor and the Federation. She's also the first officer of Deep Space Nine. which makes sense because [=DS9=] is a Bajoran station which is simply under Federation administration. However, once the ''Defiant'' is introduced, in at least one episode Kira is stated to be the first officer of it, and is even in command on occasion. Bajor is not a member of the Federation—half the story revolves around this point—but the Federation apparently has no problem with an officer from a semi-allied foreign military assigned to one of the highest positions on a cutting-edge (and top-secret!) Federation starship, nor does Kira herself have any apparent issue working with Federation starship technology despite her backstory being an underground freedom fighter and terrorist. It's like making a member of the French Resistance the XO of a Russian warship towards the end of World War II.

* ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' sits on the edge of this trope. Easy Company is always in the thick of things, in every major battle on every front. Of course, this is a case of RealityIsUnrealistic since that's actually the company actually did during the invasion of Europe. However it also delves into cases of TheOnlyOne, thanks to Easy being apparently the only company that doesn't screw up on a regular basis. According to the book, Easy company had the finest performance record out of every company in the 101st, so they got picked to do everything.

* ''Series/TheOrville'', being an AffectionateParody of ''Franchise/StarTrek'', follows the trope closely in almost every way described above. This includes the higher officers having multiple duties on board the ship, going on away-missions (usually with no RedShirt guards whatsoever), and flaunting fleet authority on a whim with no repercussions.

** In a twist on the "who's left to command the ship when all the other officers go gallivanting?" problem often seen in ''Star Trek'', The ''USS Orville'' has a Second Officer, Bortus, whose only job is to command the ship when they're gone (and sometimes do other stuff on the bridge).
** One episode had Chief of Security Alara take command when no one else was available. Not only is she not involved in command at all, she's also stated to be 25, making her remarkably young to be head of a whole department. The episode shows that she's way overwhelmed and has trouble dealing with the authority thrust upon her.

*** It should be noted that O'Brien was actually something of an aversion during the rest of his run on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. As a chief transporter specialist aboard ''Enterprise''--implied, in fact, to be the department head--the main characters usually turned to him to deal with any issues that happened to arise with the ship's transporters. And after the pilot episode, it was extremely rare to see him preform any duties that ''weren't'' in some way related to the transporter systems.

** The bridge of the Enterprise is ''never'' seen completely staffed by a backup crew. They must exist for the times when you see the main characters in a meeting or in the holodeck, but if there's a scene on the bridge, at least a few of the principals are always on duty.

** The performs countless procedures and tests that they are not qualified to do.

Pretty much every medical show that doesn't have nurses as main characters features doctors doing nurses' jobs.
* The doctors on ''Series/{{House}}'' often perform all sorts of duties that should've been departmentalized - everything from radiology to surgery. Somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]] given that House's boss - the person who runs the hospital - has the hots for him, so he and his team get away with a lot of stuff they really shouldn't.

** What's problematic is that the team performs countless procedures and tests that they are not qualified to do, unless all of them are really in their fifties or so and have spent years upon years training [[SuperDoc for a large variety of professions and sub-specialties]]. Also, the show seems to confuse [=RNs=] with [=CNAs=], with nurses basically existing merely to clean the patients.