This is a weird question, maybe, but can anyone remember a Star Trek episode, any series, in which the thousands of windows on a Federation starship were darkened or sealed so no one could look in or out? I know there's ablative armor tech, but any other instances?
Sealed or darkened windows?
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I would imagine they could make them darker if they wanted to, but who knows, may be they can be sealed as well
We seem to see darkening effects in ST:GEN where raw starlight becomes a soft yellow glow through 10-Fwd and Picard's cabin windows.
However, I don't think we ever see effects as explicit as the "curtain" that falls over the lounge window in Blade Runner, for example.
We see conventional shutters every now and then. In "Mark of Gideon", Kirk's ship has those on some corridor windows. In DS9, the runabout side windows are frequently seen shuttered by mechanical hatches after the first few seasons - allowing TPTB to leave out the costly starfield effect. Presumably, then, if there was a shipwide desire to prevent the use of windows for viewing purposes, such hatches would slam shut, instead of a darkening effect kicking in.
Presumably the hatches aren't markedly stronger than the windows, though, or else we'd see the shutters slam more often in various crises. The hatches are apparently only for blocking the passing of radiation, perhaps chiefly in situations where the ship tries to hide her emissions from an enemy.
(Also, a tiny little hobby foal here: the hatch we see in ST:FC doesn't look like it would close a window. Rather, it closes a hole blocked by a forcefield, in a room apparently dedicated to operating that hole somehow, with assorted consoles and whatnot. It's probably some sort of an access hole for when the ship is docked to a starbase.)
Timo Saloniemi
However, I don't think we ever see effects as explicit as the "curtain" that falls over the lounge window in Blade Runner, for example.
We see conventional shutters every now and then. In "Mark of Gideon", Kirk's ship has those on some corridor windows. In DS9, the runabout side windows are frequently seen shuttered by mechanical hatches after the first few seasons - allowing TPTB to leave out the costly starfield effect. Presumably, then, if there was a shipwide desire to prevent the use of windows for viewing purposes, such hatches would slam shut, instead of a darkening effect kicking in.
Presumably the hatches aren't markedly stronger than the windows, though, or else we'd see the shutters slam more often in various crises. The hatches are apparently only for blocking the passing of radiation, perhaps chiefly in situations where the ship tries to hide her emissions from an enemy.
(Also, a tiny little hobby foal here: the hatch we see in ST:FC doesn't look like it would close a window. Rather, it closes a hole blocked by a forcefield, in a room apparently dedicated to operating that hole somehow, with assorted consoles and whatnot. It's probably some sort of an access hole for when the ship is docked to a starbase.)
Timo Saloniemi
I think that's a room from which they take space walks.
Hmh? The hole that Picard opens is rather low down on the wall, allowing people to step out of it pretty easily. Although it seems there wouldn't be anything to step onto, beyond the hole...
Or do you mean internal doors? Just because Picard and Lily arrived through a crawlway is no proof that there aren't several more or less standard doors on other walls of that room. The set appears to have a full four walls:
1) the one with the crawlway
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/firstcontact/ch16/firstcontact0724.jpg
2) the one with the exterior hole - note how there's almost no step if Picard decided to step out
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/firstcontact/ch16/firstcontact0733.jpg
3) the one opposite the crawlway, apparently with another crawlway in it - note also the angled hole wall showing to the right
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/firstcontact/ch16/firstcontact0741.jpg
4) and then this one...
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/firstcontact/ch16/firstcontact0735.jpg
Doesn't that look like a big door behind Lily's shaking phaser? That's the wild wall they use for shooting the scene - and since it's easily movable, it only makes sense to treat it as movable within the Trek universe as well...
Timo Saloniemi
Or do you mean internal doors? Just because Picard and Lily arrived through a crawlway is no proof that there aren't several more or less standard doors on other walls of that room. The set appears to have a full four walls:
1) the one with the crawlway
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/firstcontact/ch16/firstcontact0724.jpg
2) the one with the exterior hole - note how there's almost no step if Picard decided to step out
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/firstcontact/ch16/firstcontact0733.jpg
3) the one opposite the crawlway, apparently with another crawlway in it - note also the angled hole wall showing to the right
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/firstcontact/ch16/firstcontact0741.jpg
4) and then this one...
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/firstcontact/ch16/firstcontact0735.jpg
Doesn't that look like a big door behind Lily's shaking phaser? That's the wild wall they use for shooting the scene - and since it's easily movable, it only makes sense to treat it as movable within the Trek universe as well...
Timo Saloniemi
It recently occurred to me that a bunch of windows isn't necessarily the best idea. Wouldn't it be possible for flashes of light from pho-torps and such could cause spontaneous combustion inside the ship?
One might suppose that the windows only let through a certain band of the spectrum to being with - and have a "safety belt tightener" installed for bright flashes in that spectrum, darkening the windows just like it darkens the viewscreen.
It shouldn't be difficult to rapidly increase the opaqueness of a window, say, through a reactive chemical on the inner surface, so that the window is no more prone to light leakage than the rest of the hull. And as far as we know, the windows aren't weak points in any other sense, either: they aren't known to shatter, except for the bridge skylight in ST:GEN - and that was a thin, curved piece that might plausibly have shattered even if it were made of hull metal.
I thought I was just dreaming that. Any ideas on what ep it might have been?
They darken the viewscreen on a couple of occasions, but windows...? Damn this early age Alzberger!
Timo Saloniemi
It shouldn't be difficult to rapidly increase the opaqueness of a window, say, through a reactive chemical on the inner surface, so that the window is no more prone to light leakage than the rest of the hull. And as far as we know, the windows aren't weak points in any other sense, either: they aren't known to shatter, except for the bridge skylight in ST:GEN - and that was a thin, curved piece that might plausibly have shattered even if it were made of hull metal.
I thought I was just dreaming that. Any ideas on what ep it might have been?
They darken the viewscreen on a couple of occasions, but windows...? Damn this early age Alzberger!
Timo Saloniemi
THE CHILD is the episode. Troi hit a button and a "shutter" covered the window, descending from the top to the bottom.
Since we have the technology now to darken and lighten windows with a push of a button, I like to think they have mastered this in Star Trek's time. Therefore, I like to think they can darken the windows to complete opaque to complete transparent with the controls in their rooms. The default setting is obviously transparent, and the transparent aluminum is probably tuned to block out certain wavelengths by default.
May be including that technology on a starship compromises the structural integrity of the ship. May be the transparent material that they use can't use it. That "glass" has to withstand a great amount of stress after all.
Thanks. I thought that was the episode but I wasn't sure.
In the episode where Neelix is suffering from 'fear of nothingness', somebody suggests he put curtains up in his quarters as the lack of starfield out of his window was scaring him.
Although that doesn't completely preclude the possibility of windows being able to darken as I guess that would look the same as a lack of stars.
Although that doesn't completely preclude the possibility of windows being able to darken as I guess that would look the same as a lack of stars.
As long as they didn't show him an MRI of his head he should have been safe from complete nothingness.
I always assumed that the quarters of Neelix and Kes did have windows, but they were hidden behind shutters. There were some rooms that had panels that didn't match the standard wall panels after all.
Or perhaps the darkening effect merely spreads across the window in that particular manner? (That is, in the Trek universe, not on the shooting set.)
Perhaps "putting up curtains" is the correct expression for pushing the button that turns the window from transparent to flower-patterned-opaque?
(Just checked the script of "Night": Neelix himself decides to replicate some curtains for his window. Doesn't mean the window wouldn't have a shutter or an opaqueness button, though: perhaps Neelix just isn't used to thinking in those terms, since his old Talaxian ship had no such comforts but did have physical curtains?)
Neelix could simply have shuttered the thing up again, then... But what we saw in "Night" was a small vertical oval that didn't look as if it would have been there before at all.
Timo Saloniemi
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