The Defiant's Helm

[Caesar753]

After watching some DS9 recently, I thought about how the Defiant has the maneuverability almost on par with a fighter craft. I think it would have been cool if the Defiant's helm was set up more like a fighter cockpit, which would have reflected the hot rod feel of the ship. The helm station could have been located in the same spot, but have more fighter plane controls like a control stick and throttle. I'm not sure if anyone else thinks this would have been cool, but I think it would have been something different and set the Defiant apart as a more agile "attack" ship.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It was actually a few of the original concepts for the Defiant back when it was conceived as a "hot rod" ship.
http://www.starshipdatalink.net/art/images/dd-4.jpg

http://www.starshipdatalink.net/art/images/dd-6.jpg

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I'm going back through my DS9 boxsets (man it was some great TV!).

Watching the Defiant in action, you do get the feeling that the helm is far more responsive and visceral that on the E-D, that every touch of a control makes the ship move instantly (something I never got the impression of on the E-D, it always came off as lumbering to me). So for me I don't think that the ship needed joysticks and buttons, VOY wound up doing it for the Flyer, and INS had one pop out of nowhere (which made it seem really pointless).

I think the designers got the feel of the ship just right, with the highly practical layout and cramped feeling. If definately does make the Defiant a ship of action.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Having used touchscreen smartphones for years, I seriously doubt you'd be able to get the kind of manueverability we saw out of the Defiant with those little circular joypad-style panels on the helm station - especially when the ship is shaking apart around you! Most of that fancy flying was probably the pilot pressing the wrong direction by accident

 

[starburst]

They kind of used that idea with the NX-01, similar placement but they had a steering wheel (and I think a joystick too but that may have been for the grappler).

The difference between the Defiant and ships like the E-D in handling are likely down to the design and size, a speedboat handles faster than an aircraft carrier for example. I think something like that could have worked if done right, if done wrong it would have been terrible!

Something like the controls on the Stargate Puddle Jumpers could possibly have worked. One plus with the idea of giving the helm this sort of control on a ship like that would be they could give optional control of the forward weapons to the pilot.

 

[G2309]

CEevans the links didn't work do you have others. I read the ds9 handbook years ago but I din't realise it was in the original concept

 

[Timo]

a speedboat handles faster than an aircraft carrier for example.

Yet somewhat counterintuitively, a giant bomber plane may be far more agile than a small fighter at altitude, where wing area means a lot.

The TNG shuttles had these trackball-like devices that I imagine could be far more versatile and useful than joysticks. Various user-definable areas to press, rather than fixed buttons; palm-shape recognition so that even if your hand slips, it doesn't matter as the control surface compensates; all sorts of intuitive degrees of freedom. (Nothing like that in studio reality, of course, but that's not really relevant because the trackballs were covered by the actors' hands anyway and thus could literally have "hidden" functionalities!).

In late TNG, that got superseded by flat panels with round cursor key areas. Doesn't mean the functionalities would necessarily have been lost, though: a flat interface would be, uh, handy if it had the ability to follow the hand and always be there even when the hand slips.

The upside of joysticks and the like would be that they offer something to give you a grip when the ship shakes. But that's actually a major downside, too - if you use a control as a grip, you inadvertently input commands!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[R. Star]

Having used touchscreen smartphones for years, I seriously doubt you'd be able to get the kind of manueverability we saw out of the Defiant with those little circular joypad-style panels on the helm station - especially when the ship is shaking apart around you! Most of that fancy flying was probably the pilot pressing the wrong direction by accident

It was even worse in Voyager with that chair on the sliding thing that moved back and forth. So if the ship was REALLY shaking enough to knock him out of that chair, it'd be hitting him too while he's trying to pilot the ship from the floor as Paris so often does.

But really, you can't hold it against a series set in the future that times and technology soar past it. Star Trek did get the cell phone and iPad right!

 

[Tosk]

CEevans the links didn't work do you have others. I read the ds9 handbook years ago but I din't realise it was in the original concept

Copy/paste 'em and they work fine.

 

[NebulaClassGuy]

The helm station could have been located in the same spot, but have more fighter plane controls like a control stick and throttle.

I'm so glad they were smart enough to never even try this... the last thing I want to see on smooth 24th century computer consoles, is knobs, joysticks, and levers. When Tom Paris put all that garbage on the Delta Flyer, it made me want to vomit and then kill him in slow and perversely horrible ways. And when Cmdr. Riker used the manual steering column in "Insurrection", I kept expecting to see Super Mario Brothers being played on the main viewscreen, in full 8-bit graphic and sound glory.

No... knobs, joysticks, and levers need to be left wholly out of 24th century technology.

 

[Use of Time]

The only question I had about the helm was, why was Jadzia always sitting there? Shouldn't she be at...you know, the science station.

 

[Peacemaker]

I'd say that would be due to a combination of her own skill and that of Torias Dax.

 

[Use of Time]

I'd say that would be due to a combination of her own skill and that of Torias Dax.

Well Data would be the best pilot on the ENT-D right or maybe Riker but at the end of the day it wasn't their job.

 

[MacLeod]

The helm station could have been located in the same spot, but have more fighter plane controls like a control stick and throttle.

I'm so glad they were smart enough to never even try this... the last thing I want to see on smooth 24th century computer consoles, is knobs, joysticks, and levers. When Tom Paris put all that garbage on the Delta Flyer, it made me want to vomit and then kill him in slow and perversely horrible ways. And when Cmdr. Riker used the manual steering column in "Insurrection", I kept expecting to see Super Mario Brothers being played on the main viewscreen, in full 8-bit graphic and sound glory.

No... knobs, joysticks, and levers need to be left wholly out of 24th century technology.

I have only one thing to say regarding that

"Computer, engage the manual steering column"

Terrible line, terrible idea.

 

[Use of Time]

The helm station could have been located in the same spot, but have more fighter plane controls like a control stick and throttle.

I'm so glad they were smart enough to never even try this... the last thing I want to see on smooth 24th century computer consoles, is knobs, joysticks, and levers. When Tom Paris put all that garbage on the Delta Flyer, it made me want to vomit and then kill him in slow and perversely horrible ways. And when Cmdr. Riker used the manual steering column in "Insurrection", I kept expecting to see Super Mario Brothers being played on the main viewscreen, in full 8-bit graphic and sound glory.

No... knobs, joysticks, and levers need to be left wholly out of 24th century technology.

I have only one thing to say regarding that

"Computer, engage the manual steering column"

Terrible line, terrible idea.

I halfway expected to see a stick shift appear with that joystick thing.