Were rooms too small on the Enterprise-D?
- Thread starter The Rock
- Start date
Reminds me of this video I saw a few years ago.
Geordi's "office" is just a tiny cubby hole near the warp core.
IIRC, the console on the second level of Voyager's engineering is supposed to be the Chief's command post. Making it as much an office as Geordi's was.
IDK that's an accurate description, given that it corresponded to a significant fraction of that level of the department.
Agreed.
Geordi's actual office, based on his dialogue in "Galaxy's Child" and where Leah walked to (around the corner in that area near the warp core), we never actually saw it. We know it's there, but we never saw it. As far as we see, though, I do agree that where we almost always see him is functionally probably his office... though I still have my doubts, since where senior officers' posts are and where there office is can be in entirely different locations. (Chakotay and Tuvok's office vs. their posts on the bridge, for example.)
As for B'Elanna, good point about that spot in the second level. And like Geordi, maybe that can functionally be her office without it actually being it.
I suppose the big reason why neither qualify as an office because an office by its very nature is private... a small room where one on one meetings can take place in private. Neither of the stated locations can really be called private when its completely in the open.
I would argue that we never Geordi or B'Elanna's actual office, because we never really see them doing much in the way of Chief Engineer stuff rather than just Engineering Officer of the Watch/Engineering Duty Officer at best and that "office" is far more credibly "open door" and at best semi-private (IIRC it's possible to isolate that area via forcefield if needed).
https://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season1/1x03/nakednow_hd_215.jpg
https://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season1/1x03/nakednow_hd_228.jpg
Now, IIRC this was originally done via a discrete device, but I imagine that it would be possible to do it with a forcefield later?
Not sure I agree.
I work in what could be termed a "factory floor" environment and most of the first-line supervisors either work at desks out in the open or at most in "pods" that have windows on at least three sides but do have a closable door for confidential conversations.
You made my point for me regarding private conversations.
Even with a force field up, you can still see and hear people within the field. Now, I don't know about open floor supervisors, but there certainly have to be locations they go to that have a closed door where confidential conversations can happen. (Medical issues, private family problems, pay discussions, etc.)
And as far as acting as 'Chief Engineer'... you can say that about ALL lead characters in the franchise. For example, there is no way the captain, XO, security chief, and Ops/Second Officer will have the same shift together all the time, like we see in TNG. That's simply a thing we accept simply because it's a tv show and those are the lead actors/characters.
(Now that I mention this, I just realized that DS9 did not actually do this anywhere near as often as TNG or VOY... at least, in later seasons. In emergencies, they obviously did. But quite a lot of the routine times, we see only part of the senior staff working in Ops at the same time. Adds realism.)
By default, yes. Though I imagine that an opaque, sound-proof forcefield could be erected if needed. I can't recall any scenario where one should have been used and wasn't.
There's no reason why this couldn't be the case on both the Enterprise and Voyager given that the Engineering Department on both ships is a good chunk of at least two decks. We just don't see them because showing the Chief Engineers doing actual manager stuff would be "boring".
Agreed. Even taking into consideration the fact that the "bridge" is basically a hybrid of two different IRL major surface ship* spaces (broadly the "navigation bridge" and the "combat information center" (broadly Voyager's Stellar Cartography or the NX-01's Command Center, but with primary weapons control), which would have one of the senior chain-of-command present in each during hish-risk and combat operations.
* AFAICT, submarines and patrol ships are typically closer to the Starfleet model.
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