Starfleet Jedi

What was Roddenberry thinking? A conference table in the middle of the bridge, and couches in front of the viewscreen? This resembles a cafe more than a bridge of a major warship/explorer.

Yeah, that's pretty bad. I dread to think of what TNG would have been like if Roddenberry had done with it exactly what he wanted to...

Socar wrote:Yeah, that's pretty bad. I dread to think of what TNG would have been like if Roddenberry had done with it exactly what he wanted to...

I'm not aware of Rodenberry's entire ream of ideas for TNG but from what made it into TNG I'm not impressed. A boy wonder on the bridge? A midshipman I could buy, but the doctors kid is just pushing the limits of my acceptance. It was cool when I was 15 but now that I'm an adult and have served in a real military I know that crap just doesn't fly.

It makes me think Roddenberry was going for the luxury cruise liner vein, the kind Picard thought was an insulting comparison.

GStone wrote:It makes me think Roddenberry was going for the luxury cruise liner vein, the kind Picard thought was an insulting comparison.

I think Patrick Stewart compared the E-D to a shabby Hilton once. My biggest problem with all of this extra carpet and plush crap they had one board was that it's a fire hazard. Modern warships don't have carpet and extranous fancy plush fittings for the crew because:

1. it costs money
2. it's a warship
3. it's a major fire hazard

Fire is death on a ship and I would think it would be doubly so for a space ship who can't use sea water to fight it.

Worf mentioned in early TNG with either the bringloidy or mariposey (are these taken from names of flowers?) that force fields smother fires till they're out, but we don't see it on the bridge for localized areas. But, I guess there's a reason for that, maybe because of access to the control consoles, but I guess force fields are used in many other places. But, interior fires do show up on the E-D's tactical console, I think it was when Worf was trying to have a vision or something and he kept sitting in front of that fire, as well as in this zoo exhibit that Alexander wandered into.

I like the look of that bridge myself. That's the sort of bridge a researcher would design for an exploration vessel. Well, maybe except for the little corner booth, that is very cafe-ish, but you always have situations where two or three specialists need to wrangle something out that nobody else really needs or wants to listen to.

I don't really have a problem with the concept. In a totally Roddenberry-idealized society . . . one full of people who do not exist (or who we cannot trust to exist), in other words . . . you could quite readily have such a bridge and there would be no issue.

However, that's not the Trek that Roddenberry ended up making, if even simply for the fact that such a thing would be absurdly dull.

But in any case, I don't have a problem with the concept sketch. They wanted to make the bridge significantly different than what had been seen before, and that rather nicely qualifies. As with all concept sketches, it was refined, and (in the best case) the best qualities were retained.

Actually, it looks pretty cool.
I'd love to have such a bridge at home, really.
Very 60s.

Not very space efficient. You should see some of the other concept designs for TNG stuff from The Art of Star Trek, I'll just say that you'll stop complaining about the jumpsuits once you see the all in one unisex miniskirts.

Didn't we already see it during one of the evacuations in the early years?

I could have lived with a bridge concept like this, if TNG stuck to the original premise of the E-D being truely gone on a mission of exploration for years on end without ever having any contact with the rest of the Federation. Ironically, Voyager being stuck in the Delta quadrent fullfilled some of that early TNG premise, only the ship and crew were not really willing participants in the journey.
-Mike

AnonymousRedShirtEnsign wrote:Not very space efficient. You should see some of the other concept designs for TNG stuff from The Art of Star Trek, I'll just say that you'll stop complaining about the jumpsuits once you see the all in one unisex miniskirts.

Faster sex!
Any pics? :)

Hey, that's kinda... hm, well, funny. :D

So many millenia ago, some of the most powerful civilisations on Earth had no issues with the idea of men wearing skirts. I bet it was actually very confortable and probably perfect to walk/run/jump...