Enterprise-D Bridge Concept Large Version

[A Chimpanzee & 2 Trainees]

You're not going to flying the ship using the viewscreen, you're going to use your console. So as long as the visitor isn't sitting in your lap then you should be fine.

Good point. It did seem like that's how it was played though - especially the helmsman during a battle or other tense situation. He/she always seemed to watch the main viewer, look down and tap some buttons when they got an order, then watch the viewer again to see what happened.
About the only time they really did ignore the viewer was when <plot device> made the viewer useless, or they were told to set course for some place that would take hours to get to.

 

[Takeru]

I'm not the biggest fan of this design as the bridge, it looks more like a lounge, it reminds me more of a fancier ten forward, put more couches in the front, tables and seating on the upper level and a bar where the consoles in the back are and you're done.

I get that they didn't want a militaristic looking bridge and a "it almost runs itself" feel for the ship but potted plants and couches?

And if that had become the bridge, where would they put all the characters? Picard obviously gets the center seat, the two consoles in the front would either be conn and ops or conn and tactical but the others? Either Data or Yar would have been stuck in the back behind the table and the plant divider thing. Where would Riker be? Sit on a sofa next to some visitor enjoying the view? This bridge really only has three spots that could be assigned to a specific character.

Although I guess O'Brien would have loved being in that transporter room. Seating, people to talk to, a nice view, he could have been Riker's couch buddy most of the time.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

IIRC, one of the reasons this sort of design got nixed was because it was too many things happening in the same place. They wanted the crew to have to walk to places for dramatic effect.

Nothings more dramatic than walking! Will Worf sprain his ankle running to the transporter room? Will Troi slip on a wet floor as she heads to the briefing room?

IIRC a lot of the ship functions were to be carried out with voice control, little pushing of buttons, but that was nixed because it was seen as being too advanced/unbelievable for audiences in the 80s.

 

[Takeru]

I guess it would have been quite boring to see the same set half of the episode, this bridge set would have combined the bridge, observation lounge, transporter room and arguably Ten Forward so a lot of the walking and talking scenes would have been lost, those were often used for expository dialog and to make the scene look more dynamic. There would have been a lot of standing and talking or turning and talking in those scenes, all on the same set and if the ship had been mostly controlled by voice commands that would have added to that, even more talking and less doing something (even if it's just pressing buttons).

They also originally didn't plan to include an engineering set, so what's left? Crew quarters and sickbay? They would have had a gigantic ship and not much to show of it.

 

[urbandefault]

Why even consider building a bridge set that big when they already had all those other standing sets?

 

[Takeru]

Despite me not being a fan of it as the bridge I still like the space, it is interesting with the second level and the turbo lifts in the columns in the middle.

I'm looking forward to the finished version.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

It would've been great had they made that the Ten Forward set instead, would've given the ship's bar a far grander appearance.

 

[Michael]

Why even consider building a bridge set that big when they already had all those other standing sets?

What do you mean, “when they already had all those other standing sets”? This Probert sketch is from way back in the development of the show. There were no sets and I guess Probert had free rein to conceptualize anything that looked cool.

 

[Takeru]

What do you mean, “when they already had all those other standing sets”? This Probert sketch is from way back in the development of the show. There were no sets and I guess Probert had free rein to conceptualize anything that looked cool.

They're referring to the TOS movie sets which were used for TNG. Corridors, sickbay, transporter room, junior officers quarters, engineering, battle bridge and the cargo/shuttlebay/holodeck space were all existing sets. The only things they initially build new for TNG were the bridge and the senior officer's quarters (the obervation lounge was a redress of sickbay in the first season).

 

[urbandefault]

They're referring to the TOS movie sets which were used for TNG. Corridors, sickbay, transporter room, junior officers quarters, engineering, battle bridge and the cargo/shuttlebay/holodeck space were all existing sets. The only things they initially build new for TNG were the bridge and the senior officer's quarters (the obervation lounge was a redress of sickbay in the first season).

Bingo.

 

[Michael]

Ah, good point. I forgot about those sets from the movies. Thanks for clarifying!

 

[danellis]

They're referring to the TOS movie sets which were used for TNG. ... battle bridge....

I've never been able to get my head round that: the Battle Bridge always feels about half the size of the Ent-A bridge to me.

dJE

 

[Mudd]

It reminds me a little of the Orville bridge, mainly for being huge, relatively empty and having a wrap-around main viewer.

 

[Takeru]

I've never been able to get my head round that: the Battle Bridge always feels about half the size of the Ent-A bridge to me.

Probably the result of how it was filmed, the D bridge was the same size as the TOS bridge for example but looked much larger due to the layout and lenses they used. The battle bridge had most likely a similar size but was intentionally filmed to look smaller.

 

[publiusr]

I'd call this a liner

 

[uniderth]

Ironically enough my view screen installation happened on Tuesday. It's still pretty rough right now, but this sucker is massive.

Another reason why this bridge doesn't work so well, there's no good way to light it above where the command area.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Another reason why this bridge doesn't work so well, there's no good way to light it above where the command area.

Disco ball!

 

[uniderth]

I've got some new images for you all. Looking at the original drawing a thing I had the bridge just a smidge too big so I resized it. I've also added some color. Another big change is that I added those lights above the command area. I know they don't seem to be there in the concept drawing but they have to be there for lighting, so I'm going to fudge it a little bit.

Here's the classic view:

And the view from the upper level:

Here's the conference area:

Here's the science station area:

Lastly, here's the view from the Captains chair:

Man, can you imagine the effects that would be required to utilize that viewscreen?

 

[SCE2Aux]

looking great . I understand why people aren't a fan of the design, bit I'm really digging this.

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Great work