Any logic to pressing the buttons at helm & navigation?

[MarsWeeps]

One thing I've always wondered about was all the different colored buttons at helm and navigation (not to mention the other stations.)

At times we see the the helmsman & navigator sit there and push buttons at random. Has anyone ever attempted to try and make heads or tails out of such a system?

Since nothing is labeled, what can all of those random button presses mean?

 

[Nerys Myk]

I recall hearing a story that Takei pushed certain buttons to perform certain tasks and corrected a director who asked him to push the "wrong" button.

 

[cblmc1296]

Once in a while, for the purpose of realism, switches and buttons on the consoles were actually tied to displays and such - for example, in The Ultimate Computer when Spock asks Chekov to examine the G95 systems and he flicks a switch to light up an indicator. However, most of the panel controls were there for the same reason as in any other sci-fi spaceship - to make it look complex and futuristic. Helmsman and navigator are just more believable if they're actually working some controls every so often.

 

[MacLeod]

^I've heard that story as well

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Mike McMaster was incredibly detailed in his bridge blueprints. Although his plans are widely regarded as quite authentic visually, I've not heard of an evaluation for how well founded his detailed descriptions of the controls are, say based on the buttons pushed in particular episodes, nor do I know how he worked that all out. He did really geek out on it though.

 

[scotpens]

Mike McMaster was incredibly detailed in his bridge blueprints. Although his plans are widely regarded as quite authentic visually, I've not heard of an evaluation for how well founded his detailed descriptions of the controls are, say based on the buttons pushed in particular episodes, nor do I know how he worked that all out. He did really geek out on it though.

Indeed he did.

 

[Scrambo]

Yes i heard that story about george too. Something about a director telling him to press a certain sequence but george said im sorry if i do that i'll cause the ship to explode. Apparently Walter was also the same.

 

[MarsWeeps]

Mike McMaster was incredibly detailed in his bridge blueprints. Although his plans are widely regarded as quite authentic visually, I've not heard of an evaluation for how well founded his detailed descriptions of the controls are, say based on the buttons pushed in particular episodes, nor do I know how he worked that all out. He did really geek out on it though.

Indeed he did.

That's very interesting. I notice that it lists Sulu's pop up viewer as a "weapon targeting scope" - was it really used for that? I know there was at least one scene where it's showed popping up out of the console....very, very slowly. I'd hate to be in battle and have to wait on that thing. Plus, there were many times the weapons were fired without it.

Also, I think I remember Sulu using it for things other than weapons.

Still, that's a great blueprint of the helm & navigator station.

 

[spooky spice]

I recall hearing a story that Takei pushed certain buttons to perform certain tasks and corrected a director who asked him to push the "wrong" button.

Yes i heard that story about george too. Something about a director telling him to press a certain sequence but george said im sorry if i do that i'll cause the ship to explode. Apparently Walter was also the same.

I love it!

 

[CaptainStoner]

They dispense different flavored jelly beans. Press a combination of buttons and you get hybrids like watermelon, etc.

 

[Maurice]

I believe Walter Koenig related in his book Chekov's Enterprise that he'd push button colors that fit his mood: blue when he was blue, red when he was angry, etc.

The helm is seriously the silliest console on the bridge because it's the one that has no readouts other than the pop-up scope...and in order to install that they removed a bunch of buttons from Sulu's station.

 

[Gary7]

^ Agreed. When you think of all the trouble they went to with everything else, wouldn't they have defined clusters of buttons devoted to certain ship functions? It's effect would be "subconscious consistency". They didn't do that... so the actors decided to create their own "patterns". You obviously need to make it look like you're doing something legitimate, not just pressing random buttons, otherwise it looks a bit silly.

There was a scene... can't remember which episode, where Sulu starts rapping in a mostly linear fashion a whole bunch of buttons, with no sound effects. It looked so silly, because the task he was supposed to be doing didn't seem to "match up" with the script dialog. But that was more of an exception.

It's interesting to look at this in TNG. Of course there you see "touch" controls laid out in some kind of operational fashion. And there's a certain head, eye, hand movement the actors follow to make it look like they're really doing something. If you pay attention, it sometimes look like there's a predefined set of movements.

 

[Neutral Zone]

I think they did most of the time to just look impressive and to give an air that they knew what they were doing. It was that or they had invented a new type of Simon Says game.

 

[Captain Robert April]

I believe Walter Koenig related in his book Chekov's Enterprise that he'd push button colors that fit his mood: blue when he was blue, red when he was angry, etc.

I heard him say the same thing at StarCon Denver in 1980.

 

[David cgc]

It's interesting to look at this in TNG. Of course there you see "touch" controls laid out in some kind of operational fashion. And there's a certain head, eye, hand movement the actors follow to make it look like they're really doing something. If you pay attention, it sometimes look like there's a predefined set of movements.

I believe that tradition started up with TMP, where an effort was made to lay out all the control panels realistically, complete with detailed manuals calling out which part of the consoles did what (IIRC, a young Rick Sternbach was once called onto the set as they were filming the travel pod sequence so he could tell James Doohan which buttons he was supposed to push). The Okuda-era consoles had more of a theory about how the interface worked (you tapped buttons, dragged your finger along sliders, that sort of thing).

 

[A beaker full of death]

^ Correct -- it was entirely random until TMP.

 

[Timo]

To retroactively give it a realistic flair, we could say that the buttons were indeed generic - and user-configurable!

No need for labeling or clustering when each of the buttons could quite conceivably feature its own, adjustable label. When Sulu sits at the helm station, he simply inserts his personal keycard or key combination, and suddenly the buttons in the upper left hand corner gain labels indicating they are for weapons control, while the lower right becomes helm directional control. When it's Lieutenant Lemlieway's turn, he inserts a different keycard or combo, and gets a different keyboard.

Basically the same as the flat panels of TNG, then, only with tactile feedback because the buttons are raised.

"Self-labeling keys" are a common feature in desktop phones or "phone exchanges" today, although these typically involve ordinary buttons next to a separate display. However, buttons with tiny built-in text displays are also on the market, and are considered more reliable than touchscreens and other such complex and heavily software-reliant user-customizable interfaces.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[DrBashir]

As I recalled, and just confirmed on the blueprint, the helm buttons change function depending on which overlay is currently active. As it says on the bottom of the sheet "As you push the 6 buttons along the bottom of the helm function panel (numbers 31-36) the functions of the other 30 buttons above them change as noted.

So, you don't have 1 panel with 36 buttons. You have 6 panels with 30 buttons each for a total of 180 different buttons. Sounds like Timo's self labelling buttons would be a good idea.

 

[Timo]

It's something that we could plausibly "fail to see" even if it "really" were there...

Similarly, those nice little data cartridges might well have labels that become visible when one squeezes the cartridge, or slides one's finger along the side, etc. The seemingly least high-tech bits of TOS technology might in fact be the most futuristic.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[paudemge]

I'm probably misremembering, but I remember Gary Mitchell doing what appeared to be touch screen action.