Lights underneath view screen

[konitzlee]

Hi everybody.

I've always wondered, what do you think those lights converging in the center of the main view screen are for?

Voyager had one on the lower part, on on the upper part. Was it simply part of scenography or was it suppose to serve a function in the ship?

Thanks

 

[nightwind1]

I've always thought of them as lights to show that the sensors were functioning. But I don't think it's ever been explained on-screen.

 

[T'Girl]

The modem that connects my cable to my computer has blinking lights indicating that different aspects of the device are functioning. My interpretation is that the lights under the screen serve a similar purpose.

From a production point of view however, they're just more cool blinking lights.

 

[Go-Captain]

It's too bad they never change frequency or sequence. They must be status lights for something so basic it never fails, but which is if it did fail it would be catastrophic. After all, it's right there in everyone's face on the bridge. Or, it's a mind altering device which forces officers to focus more deeply on their tasks, like opposite of how in Vegas casinos carpets are designed to discourage people from looking down.

My fave screen is the one in First Contact, where it is just an upholstered wall until the screen is made to look at something other than streaking space dust.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I've never read or seen anything definitive or authoritative describing what they're for, but I always imagined that they indicated the pattern of the sensor sweep cycle. There were basically two patterns that I recall: one is an in-order sweep from left to right, the other was a kind of alternating pattern. The in-order sweep pattern makes sense, if you think of a rotating radar antenna, although a starship would need a two-dimensional pattern instead of just the one-dimensional pattern of an antenna rotating on a single axis, assuming the sensor beam is relatively narrow. (Recall that the term "sensor beam" was used onscreen, in "Where No Man Has Gone Before.") The alternating pattern makes sense for keeping a more even distribution of sensors around the ship.

It would make an interesting webpage to see all the patterns cataloged.

 

[konitzlee]

Interesting explanations, thank you all.

If those lights do represent sensors, it shouldn't be hard to find an episode where sensors are offline (albeit temporarily) and see if they had the shrewdness of turning them off.

 

[Saturn0660]

Thats what I always thought they were..
Simply "sensor" lights.

 

[Richard Baker]

I also think they were intended to show a standard sensor sweep at the beginning, being 60's television I doubt they would have altered them much to follow a particular story line.
They are iconic however and something that designers tried to include on every starship since.

 

[B.J.]

In First Contact, those lights on the Phoenix slowed down when they came out of warp.

 

[Richard Baker]

In First Contact, those lights on the Phoenix slowed down when they came out of warp.

Nice touch!
I missed that, going to have to watch for that next time

 

[wildstar]

In the Mcmaster bridge blueprints, they're marked as "sensor scan display".

 

[konitzlee]

In the Mcmaster bridge blueprints, they're marked as "sensor scan display".

Thanks Wildstar!

 

[bbjeg]

I always assumed it was a way to process time passing. For example, if an opposing force used some kind of mind altering weapon and people noticed the lights jump or speed up or slow down, they'll know that they were effected.

 

[publiusr]

I thought it was showing where a scanning beam way. You don't really need to see the line on your weather radar showing the beam refresh--but it is nice to have.

 

[Nebusj]

It's too bad they never change frequency or sequence.

... except in the original series or the cartoon, when they sometimes blink in a curious alternating left-side/ride-side pattern.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Hi everybody.

I've always wondered, what do you think those lights converging in the center of the main view screen are for?

It's the download bar for the Captain's porn.

Voyager had one on the lower part, on on the upper part. Was it simply part of scenography or was it suppose to serve a function in the ship?

Voyager was an advanced design. The captain and first officer both had their own porn streams.

 

[Ithekro]

So it was a Five Year mission because it would take that long to download Vulcan Love Slave off a pirated site from outside Federation space back then? Didn't know where the site was from, but "Grand Nagus Bay" was popular back in the 2260s.

And With Voyager they were picking up 70+ year old transmissions that caught their fancy? Janeway didn't want to come home faster because if they jumped too far they'd miss a decades worth by being too close to the source.

 

[JES]

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^ This is why I think this site should have a like button!