STVI: Torpedo Buttons

[Jeyl]

I'm currently taking a continued education course in Industrial Maintenance and one of the classes we had recently was all about buttons, switches and selectors. Oooo! Wonder if I can spot any buttons from Star Trek in this course! Turns out, one type of button that sprang immediately to mind was the 'Flush Button' used for the torpedo button on the Klingon Bird-of-Prey. It wasn't until I read the description that I realized that something seemed off...

A flush button operator has a pushbutton that sits at the same level as its guard ring. A guard ring prevents unintentional machine startup because its design makes accidentally pressing the pushbutton difficult. Flush button operators are used in applications where accidental startup is dangerous.
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Makes perfect sense to me! Why would anyone want to have their torpedo button be easily pressed? Not only is it a flush button, it's also stationed in a position that the user must reach for it. These Klingons may love battle, but at least they take safety seriously!

Now let's talk about the Enterprise's torpedo button... or would the term 'key' be more appropriate? Not only is the firing key for the torpedo not flushed, it's sitting at the very end of a row of other keys. One moment you're moving you hand across the console or trying to input other commands through the keys until suddenly, *PEW!* Whoa! I just pressed the firing key by mistake! And don't pretend that firing key cannot be accidentally pressed. In this one post alone, I've already had to re-type 30 words because my fingers kept slipping/mis-typing on my own keyboard I've been using for years!

So when it comes to weapon system safety, Klingons are WAY ahead of the game. Wonder why Starfleet engineers thought that isolating the torpedo firing button in a sealed alcove wasn't a method worth pursuing.

Anywho, just thought that was a cute realization.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It's been ages since I saw it, but wasn't the Enterprise's torpedo fire button marked "mode select"?

It's like they never actually planned to have fire buttons and just used one at random. The I-III movie bridge had a ton of dedicated phaser and torpedo controls at its defence/weapons station.

 

[DonIago]

I can see the Klingons not being overly-concerned about accidental weapons discharge.

As for the Enterprise, I do miss the dedicated weapons/defense console from a design standpoint, and I'm not sure a lot of thought was given to the insert shot in TUC.

 

[tharpdevenport]

I can see the Klingons not being overly-concerned about accidental weapons discharge.

Klingons do not suffer from pre-mature discharge!

;-)



All discharges are intentional and glorious.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Before he fires, Chang makes a forward pointing motion with his hand, which to me suggests he's asking for control of the torpedoes from a weapons officer. So, there may be another unsafe torpedo control elsewhere!

Vis-a-vis the Enterprise's control, TMP had it right with the joystick control locked away in a cabinet. Certainly no unexpected discharges there.

In TUC, when Kirk says "We haven't fired!", perhaps they edited out the scene where Chekov says "My bad, keptin!", and slinks out of the room.

 

[Jeyl]

In TUC, when Kirk says "We haven't fired!", perhaps they edited out the scene where Chekov says "My bad, keptin!", and slinks out of the room.

To TUC's credit, they kind of do 'something' to check their systems involving that key. When Chekov reports that he is unable to confirm or deny the firing of the two photon torpedoes, you can actually see Valeris press a few keys on her station and then press the red firing key which gives her a kind of 'error' sound. Always interpreted that visual moment as a 'We couldn't have fired. I'm pressing the key right now and all I get is an error beep!'.

 

[Maurice]

That's some piece of equipment the stuck of set, not anything designed. The refit fire control panel has big FIRE pads which you could easily hit by accident.

 

[FormerLurker]

That moment is when Valeris engaged the computer virus that told it to say it had fired two torpedoes, and then erase the command code that told it to say that.

 

[David cgc]

Before he fires, Chang makes a forward pointing motion with his hand, which to me suggests he's asking for control of the torpedoes from a weapons officer. So, there may be another unsafe torpedo control elsewhere!

I always read that as him miming pressing the button/pointing at the Enterprise or Excelsior. Sort of a cousin to Picard's famous "engage!" finger-point.

As for the fairly innocuous buttons on both (well, all; the TOS and TNG ships also had firing buttons that weren't particularly locked out, except the torpedo joystick added for TWOK) bridges, the could be an indication that the safeties on the Federation ships are more comprehensive, and it's harder to arm and ready the weapons, but actually firing is on a hair-trigger, while Klingon philosophy might be to have weapons hot more often, pointing to a need for a control that's less likely to be pushed accidentally. Plus, that big light-up button with the safety ring has to be pushed, deliberately and satisfyingly. Much more decisive, even, dare I say, honorable, than programming a firing sequence into the computer than hitting the "Run" key.

 

[Timo]

As for the Mode Select thing, I could well see the torpedo system being locked on some mode or other that utterly prevents firing - as long as Spock and McCoy are sitting inside the launcher! That is, the heroes do not trust any "safety", no matter how supposedly safe, to protect their friends, but instead perform a maneuver that stops just barely short of a shutdown.

An actual shutdown might in turn be too slow to reverse, with machines going "cold". Putting the thing on Simulation mode or Maintenance mode or whatnot could be more quickly undone - indeed, a smart weapons officer would preset the system so that when Firing mode was reselected, it would immediately launch the torpedo without asking for further instructions.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[tharpdevenport]

How about this for a "The Orville" parody?

A similar scene, only when the Trill (or some other species) reaches up and presses it, we hear a toilet flush and everybody looks over at the bathroom door on the side of the Bridge.

 

[DonIago]

That lends an entirely different meaning to Mode Select.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Commode select

 

[Maurice]

Commode select

You never want to put the COMM MODE SELECT button near the COMMODE SELECT one, because that's potty training with a Vengeance.