Captain's ready roomm: too much Luxury!

[BlastHardcheese]

I always liked Picard's private office in TNG. It was a decent size, very businesslike and not too extravagant.

So what the heck is up with Janeway's ready room (and Picard's on the Enterprise E)?

Voyager was roughly the size of a Constitution class ship with a similar mission scope if I remember correctly. Why was Starfleet happy to invest in so much luxury for its bridge officers that the captain gets a ready room with as many square feet as Kirk had in his old quarters on the TOS Connie?

Picard's quarters on the Ent-E weren't much better, but at least he was commanding the Federation flagship, in charge of 600-700 officers and crew and deserved the perks of his station (not that he placed much emphasis on perks).

I don't agree with the idea of Captains in a military/scientific organization being given a second living quarters so they can have chats over coffee(Tea, Earl Grey?).

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

O RLY?

 

[BlastHardcheese]

O RLY?

The grand cabin on old sailing ships were also the captain's BEDROOM. Nowhere does that article say the captain got two big comfy rooms.

Plus the captain's cabins as described on modern warships seem to be for functionality reasons so the captain can be available at either the bridge or ops room. It also describes at least one cabin being sparse and functional, not some big enormous lounge.

I know what this is. It's because Janeway was a woman and starfleet pandered to her need for comforts!

 

[Deks]

I don't think Janeway's ready room was anymore luxurious compared to the others we've seen.
Different most certainly and slightly larger ... but then again Voyager is a newer class compared to the Galaxy ... therefore more advanced.
Also ... we don't know if SF decided to expand the captains ready room on the Galaxy classes prior or just after the Dominion war.
I would say all ships in the same class come with an identical internal layout ... with changes occuring after time has passed of course.

Have you noticed the internal layout of the Nova class for example?
It seemed very spacious for a ship of that size.
It's possible SF decided not to be skimpish on the ready room and main areas in smaller ships, since most of the necessary technology was already fitted into other areas.

 

[kv1at3485]

Voyager was roughly the size of a Constitution class ship...

Intrepids have 2.5 times the internal volume of a Constitution.

As for comparative luxury of the "ready room", it's a Starfleet "standard" I just shrug my shoulders at. The nice thing about being on "top" of the ship is it can be as big as they want, so long as it doesn't make the model look weird.

 

[SonicRanger]

The "sofa" in Picard's Ready Room on the E-D was designed and built to be a slide-out bed, but we never saw it actually do that.

 

[Timo]

Intrepids have 2.5 times the internal volume of a Constitution.

Yet only one-third the crew.

So it would be wasteful NOT to "waste" internal space on luxuries, so to say. The crew is rattling in there like two and a half beans in a maraca anyway.

Besides, for all we know, Kirk also had numerous cabins. In the early episodes, Kirk resides on Deck 12, while later on he was said and shown to reside in the saucer, more specifically on Deck 5 in "Journey to Babel" - and the movies had Captain Spock reside on Deck. Either he was moving around a lot, or then we could postulate he had a living space down below in the saucer (Deck 5), a ready room in the superstructure just below the bridge (Deck 3, possibly also where his TMP/ST2 office lay as per the zoom-in at the end of ST2, and where Chris Pike took to drinking in "The Cage"), and could move onto alternate quarters for redecoration or de-facehuggerizing of his Deck 5 quarters any time he wanted.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

O RLY?

The grand cabin on old sailing ships were also the captain's BEDROOM. Nowhere does that article say the captain got two big comfy rooms.

Plus the captain's cabins as described on modern warships seem to be for functionality reasons so the captain can be available at either the bridge or ops room. It also describes at least one cabin being sparse and functional, not some big enormous lounge.

If we're going to compare Starfleet ships to modern naval vessels, then not only is the Captain's Ready Room excessive, but every living space on the ship is.

Carpet? Everyone has their own bed?

The Galaxy-Class is huge, and especially with its proportionally-sparse crew, there is assloads of room. Starfleet ships seem to have a lot of space to spare thanks to their super tech, space which is given to crew comfort. The ready rooms we've seen could hardly be described as opulent anyways - they have a desk, a replicator, seating, a washroom and accomodations for the skipper to take a nap.

 

[USS KG5]

Voyager was roughly the size of a Constitution class ship with a similar mission scope if I remember correctly. Why was Starfleet happy to invest in so much luxury for its bridge officers that the captain gets a ready room with as many square feet as Kirk had in his old quarters on the TOS Connie?

Why not? Space is hardly at a premium, Voyager has far more volume than a Nimitz-class carrier, which accomodates 6000, and at a generous peak in crew size accomodates 300 - Starfleet ships are amazingly spacious in the 24th century.

Picard's quarters on the Ent-E weren't much better, but at least he was commanding the Federation flagship, in charge of 600-700 officers and crew and deserved the perks of his station (not that he placed much emphasis on perks).

A Captain is a Captain is a Captain - one might have seniority over another but ultimately they take the same pay, the same insignia, the same level of responsibility.

In the modern US Navy and Royal Navy, lower-level less prestigious commands are given to Commanders or Lt. Cmdrs, not somehow "inferior" Captains - it is a very senior rank.

I don't agree with the idea of Captains in a military/scientific organization being given a second living quarters so they can have chats over coffee(Tea, Earl Grey?).

On HMS Belfast the Captain has two sets of quarters, and she was a WW2-era cruiser.

Crikey the poor sods are responsible for every life on the ship and you don't want them to have a day cabin!!

 

[T'Girl]

I always liked Picard's private office in TNG. It was a decent size, very businesslike and not too extravagant.

So what the heck is up with Janeway's ready room (and Picard's on the Enterprise E)?.

I don't agree with the idea of Captains in a military/scientific organization being given a second living quarters so they can have chats over coffee(Tea, Earl Grey?).

With american aircraft carriers and the bigger crusiers, the commanding office has two quarters, a smaller cabin near the control areas and a fairly large "in port" cabin. It is possible that the other door we saw in Janeways' ready room lead not just to a private head but also to a sleeping area, remember she did original have a private dining room too.

 

[C.E. Evans]

To me, the captain's ready room is more than just an office, it's also where the captain has private meetings with visiting dignitaries and other officials as well, so it should be rather luxurious, IMO...

 

[JarodRussell]

What's the problem with the Ready Room on the Enterprise-E?

 

[EmperorTiberius]

What's the problem with the Ready Room on the Enterprise-E?

I was about to ask the same thing. People simply don't understand how massive these ships are. Why would you compare Starfleet to crap we have today?

Galaxy class' saucer section alone is the size of Pentagon

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I agree with the OP, actually. It would have made more sense to simply have Janeway LIVE in her ready room. You live on a starship, Kat, it's not like you have to commute back and forth to the office every morning. My slightly bigger gripe is why the CONFERENCE room is so huge. Do you really need a space the size of a five-car garage so that eight officers can sit at an awkward table and lob technobabble at each other?

Archer's ready room makes a bit more sense, being sort of the Captain's Office adjacent to the bridge. The only problem is NX-01 is such a puny vessel that it would probably be more efficient to put the office in Archer's QUARTERS.

 

[Red Ranger]

There was a captain's mess on Enterprise-D, too, wasn't there? Think we saw it in Sins of the Father, when Picard and his officers dined with Kurn. I don't recall Janeway having that. -- RR

 

[Mike Farley]

There was a captain's mess on Enterprise-D, too, wasn't there? Think we saw it in Sins of the Father, when Picard and his officers dined with Kurn. I don't recall Janeway having that. -- RR

Janeway's private dining room was converted into Neelix's kitchen wasn't it?

 

[Red Ranger]

There was a captain's mess on Enterprise-D, too, wasn't there? Think we saw it in Sins of the Father, when Picard and his officers dined with Kurn. I don't recall Janeway having that. -- RR

Janeway's private dining room was converted into Neelix's kitchen wasn't it?

You got me. I do recall that in almost any movie about modern naval vessels, there is an officers' mess, where they dine apart from the crew. See The Hunt for Red October, for example. -- RR

 

[Deks]

In any event ... I don't think Janeway's ready room was anymore luxurious compared to the rest of the ships quarters.
In fact ... I think we are forgetting something.
Picard's ready room had a separate compartment with a replicator behind the fish tank wall, did it not?
It's possible there were other amenities there as well that were not present in Janeway's ready room.
If you noticed, private quarters on Voyager only have a bulkhead that separates the 'main room (containing the bed/couch/replicator/table and whatnot)' from the toilet/bathroom/sonic shower.
I think once you remove any walls, the internal space gets to look bigger than before.
Plus in Voyager, it was actually sensible to show a bathroom/sonic shower area as separate ... when compared to the Enterprise-D, you'd question the existence of those amenities.
Unless they used transporters for those things ... which we know thed didn't.

 

[sojourner]

There was a captain's mess on Enterprise-D, too, wasn't there? Think we saw it in Sins of the Father, when Picard and his officers dined with Kurn. I don't recall Janeway having that. -- RR

Janeway's private dining room was converted into Neelix's kitchen wasn't it?

You got me. I do recall that in almost any movie about modern naval vessels, there is an officers' mess, where they dine apart from the crew. See The Hunt for Red October, for example. -- RR

In real life too. I ate in the officer's mess everyday for the 7 years I worked on cruiseships. (System Admin position onboard was a 3 stripe officer)

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Janeway's private dining room was converted into Neelix's kitchen wasn't it?

You got me. I do recall that in almost any movie about modern naval vessels, there is an officers' mess, where they dine apart from the crew. See The Hunt for Red October, for example. -- RR

In real life too. I ate in the officer's mess everyday for the 7 years I worked on cruiseships. (System Admin position onboard was a 3 stripe officer)

Very true. It's probably worth pointing out that while "cruise ships" aren't military vessels, and not subject to military per-se, their internal structure is still somewhat "paramilitary" in nature, and all the basic maritime law issues still apply. You just also got to have Julie, our cruise director, along for the ride.