Ah OK, thanks Your solution looks great. I know it's in the original sketch, but I can't stop thinking what a nightmare it would be to have to fly the ship with someone say in front of you on one of those benches lmao dJE
You're not driving a car. Just look at your panel displays for where you're headed, and ignore that guy's dandruff and bad haircut. Unless it's really long. Then complain that it's getting on your controls and he needs to pull it forward.
@The Librarian: Thanks! Oh, don't worry, the seats will certainly get caps, it's very much unfinished right now. @BorgMan: I'm not sure how much I can actually say, but let's leave it at "VR is a big NO", and "Hero ships are a big NO". Then again we offered to remove those things and still got shut down... Maybe something smaller, without VR, and without "the Enterprise" attached would be tolerated... In the back of my mind I always had the fantasy of turning my Potemkin sets into something of the sort, (though I'd never release it, just to have my own virtual zen space). Then again, I'll probably never do such thing and do a "Potemkin Technical Manual" instead, I'd be able to share that freely... @Csalem: That's a good point, I never though about it. Adds to the idea of the ready room being up there, as grumpy season 1 Picard would make it as hard as possible for people to bother him when he's having his tea. @batboy853: They're modeled in, with a procedural gradient as the base for an emissive material, so that they cast more light at the center than they do on the edges. @danellis: I'd imagine the person seating wouldn't be bothersome because of their presence, but rather because of their noise. Imagine Riker and Troi talking about their past relationship there, with an ensign just awkwardly trying to set a course behind them. Then again, that begs the question, who the heck would go to the bridge to "relax"?! Just go to one of the other 647 lounges on board! I've kept working on the shape of those forward couches, they're a bit smaller now. I've also extended the viewscreen outward some more, and added in a temporary captain's chair just to get a sense of the space. I've also swapped the floor for a polished wood one. This was my client's idea, as it's actually a better match for the way the floor looks on the concept, given the marker strokes. Might be further tweaked or replaced later down the line. Spoiler: Images
I had the memory of several more sketches from Probert's concept bridges than the ones that are on the Art of Star Trek book, and I've been trying to find them ever since I took this commission. Today I finally did, thanks to a blog by Eric Wilkerson. First off, those images show just how bizarre the very first bridge concepts were, they look more like something out of a Star Destroyer to me. But more importantly, there's a lot of further detail about the forward consoles and about the "table" that sits between them. Now, it appears as if on the version of the bridge I'm recreating, it was just a table between the couches. In the latter versions however, it was also a pod where the Captain's chair could be stored when it wasn't needed. I'll probably go with the table interpretation, as it seems it's just that on the original concept. As ever, if someone has any further images or info about all of this, it would be greatly appreciated.
Apologies if this has been explained in the previous posts, but has there been discussion on the 'In Canon' reason or explanation behind this type of bridge design? I know that the TNG-era vessels all shared a common architecture/style guides, as well as ships are known to have modular bridge units that are interchangeable. My point is that could this be on a smaller class of vessel used primarily as Diplomatic Envoys or VIP's, not sized like a Galaxy class, but more like a Challenger or Niagara. Keen to know people's thoughts on where this fits in the lore, because it is a beautiful design!
These are early concept designs for the Enterprise-D bridge done by Andrew Probert during the pre-production phase of TNG, so they would have been intended to be on a Galaxy-class ship. While various elements of these concepts would find their way into the final design (a floor-to-ceiling viewscreen, the tactical horseshoe), none of them ever made it on screen so they aren't canon.
I am extremely grateful they never went with these designs (although, there are some aspects that were clearly preserved in the final production version). The E-D was already enough of a flying hotel. IMO, lounge benches were not necessary, particularly on the bridge. One envisions Picard exiting the turbo-lift wearing his monogrammed bathrobe, bunny slippers and sipping on a cup of Earl Grey with a pipe hanging out of his mouth. To top it off, a holographic animation of a roaring fireplace in the corner next to the life support control systems. This is, of course, hyperbole on my part, but I think it just would have conveyed the wrong message in the long run, only serving to justify the disregard other alien species had for the coddled and privileged 24th century Federation. Thank God for budget constraints!
No chairs for the "riker manuever"?? well maybe this is the bridge for a Starfleet 1 el presidente ship..?? Seems like a luxury ship, maybe still galaxy class?
Love your ship interiors! Been following you on DeviantArt, also the former Stage9 Enterprise interiors. Looking forward to your take on Probert's TNG concept bridge. Star Trek: Webcomic writer-illustrator @Mark 2000 and I chose that design for the ship in our co-written TNG-era tale. See the rest of the story here. Can't wait to see your finished 3D model!
For this particular commission, we're assuming this was the TNG bridge, so the LCARS will display the usual Galaxy-Class shape, the dedication plaque will be the Enterprise's, etc. @Ryan Thomas Riddle: Thank you very much! Indeed, I'm a regular reader of the site, I loved the jump to the Probert/TNG era. I've tweaked the shape of the forward consoles a bit more, and created the second "sofa" for the bridge, behind the command table. As with the forward ones, it's just the basic shape for now, I'll have to modify it some more, specially where it meets the walls. Spoiler: Images On another topic, I've unfortunately still to hear back from my client for the Astraeus commission, it's been almost a month now and I can't carry forward without their feedback on several issues. Because of that (and because I need to keep things moving, as I need to eat and do stuff like that) I've decided to leave that commission "on hold" until I hear back from them, and moved forward with a pending, smaller commission while I keep working on the concept bridge. This one's a canon design and, fittingly, another alternate Enterprise-D bridge. Spoiler: Images Yes, the second alternate bridge from Parallels. I have most stuff already in place for this one, the only big new element will be the glass MSD, which I look forward to doing.
Looks great. They did love building those flat angular platforms and dropping them in the most rounded off of rooms didn't they.
Oh looking good! Just thinking that the helm and ops stations, the long wavy control panel .. Can the chairs be on a rail to move along the panel? Like the voyager bridge helm station?
@ashefivekay: Haha, yeah. I guess it's a consequence of replacing Probert, who loved curves, with Sternbach, who loved straight lines. It certainly creates a clear contrast with the sets created for season 1 vs those created for late TNG. @valkyrie013: Interesting thought! It would certainly make sense if it's all one console, but as seen on the concepts above, only the front section of the conn/ops, the back has two separate consoles with their own extendable chair. I've modeled the new circuitry access panels, which while similar to the 'Future Imperfect' have the bottom details inverted, with the 45° angled elements swapped to the outside of each panel. I've also finished the command area and tweaked the material for the frosted glass panels. The changes to the whole command area are very weird, but it makes sense I guess as they wanted to make it blatantly obvious that it was a different Enterprise. The captain's chair moved a good half a meter forward (and with the stand mounted backwards) is very... unique. Finally, I've started work on the MSD thing. Most of the details and more importantly its size were easy to find out given the other uses of this panel. Specifically the ones on 'The Quality of Life'; and as the Ent-A engineering on 'Star Trek VI'. This last one shows the panel being nearly as tall as the engineering set, so knowing how tall that is, makes it easy to scale the prop to its real size. The prop itself has three rails for the glass panels to fit in, but the three were only used concurrently on the original appearence of the prop, 'Booby Trap'. The two forward rails had movable graphics, while the one on the back had a static darkned glass. As far as I can see, this wasn't used afterwards, so only two panels are percent on Parallels. Their shape is really cool and intricate though, so it'll be fun to do. Anyway, here are the renders of the new bits: Spoiler: Images
Catching up on this thread and I'm really loving all the progress you're making, @Rekkert! Especially finally getting to see that Probert concept bridge come to life. Keep it up (pretty please)!
I'm not sure about that middle couch, it feels like it blocks off access between the front of the bridge and the rear, forcing people to go around, and it would be awkward once chairs for the table are added in. As for the boxy thing, I bet it has a lot more to do with budget than Sternbach. The additions for Generations had a fair amount of new curves.
Now there's an OSHA violation just waiting to happen, as often as people get flung around the bridge during combat situations. It's bad enough that plastic rocks fly out of the consoles when they explode, but hey, let's also put giant sheets of glass behind the tactical officer.