The Enterprise-A in PIC

[Lord Garth]

I've been looking up online ships in real life that have been restored and put in museums. Here's one such link. https://britishheritage.com/britains-most-impressive-museum-ships

There are others but I have things to do and am not going fishing for them at this time (maybe later). But here's a thing that interested me: the Enterprise-D's bridge was restored to the configuration it was most associated with and the configuring it had for most of its lifetime.

Which brought me to the Enterprise-A. I wonder if the Enterprise-A was restored to the TMP version of the Enterprise? "It wasn't the same ship in TMP!" Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But hear me out. We all know the Enterprise-A was meant to be a literal replacement for the Refit Enterprise in TVH, except with a new paint job. It was effectively a Reset Button. Had the Refit Enterprise not been damaged in TWOK, and not intended to be decommissioned as a result in TSFS, I think it would've eventually looked the way the A did in TUC.

With that type of thinking in mind, do you think inside of the Enterprise-A might've been "restored" to look like the Refit Enterprise? Not that I don't like the inside of the Enterprise-A, especially in TUC, but a lot of the sets were recycled from TNG.

I think TMP interiors make the Enterprise-A look different enough from the Enterprise-D that it wouldn't feel like the same ship. If I'm a tourist in Star Trek, and I'm visiting the Fleet Museum, I'd think it was really odd that so much of the A and D look so similar.

 

[Racefuel]

If I had to bet, if we had seen it on screen, it would have been in TUC arrangement because thats where it "earned its place in history"..at Khitomer.

As for the TNG bridge, there's two possibilities:
1: Geordi really did totally undo all the Generations refit work
2: This is the TNG series bridge module that was removed during the refit between TNG S7 and Generations.

I suspect the latter is more likely than the former.

 

[El Maestro]

I think it’s kind of tough from both an in- and out of-universe perspective to decide…in-universe is tough because almost all of the the exploits we saw were super consequential…and the bridge was changed so frequently. Out of universe it’s tough because the set was rebuilt each time.

If had to choose I think I would choose TUC because that bridge was where one of the most seminal events in the history of the quadrant happened. I also like it a lot! But they’re all neat looking. Oddly enough, TFF had the most futuristic looking one to me.

 

[El Maestro]

And now that I think about it, wasn’t there a big change in the bridge from the 45 seconds of it we saw at the end of TVH and TFF?

 

[Lord Garth]

And now that I think about it, wasn’t there a big change in the bridge from the 45 seconds of it we saw at the end of TVH and TFF?

It was painted white, the chairs were navy blue, and all the controls were touch-screen instead of tactile.

 

[C.E. Evans]

The Enterprise-A had a different bridge each time we saw her, which would support the long-held fan idea that bridge modules were swappable plug-in units. Being atop the saucer section, I imaging they could be relatively easily to swap-out during a dockyard layover...

 

[Lord Garth]

If I had to bet, if we had seen it on screen, it would have been in TUC arrangement because thats where it "earned its place in history"..at Khitomer.

That makes sense. In TMP, the Refit Enterprise saved Earth, but then Kirk would save Earth again in TVH without the Enterprise. But what happened in TUC, and the Enterprise-A's role, was larger scale than just Earth. In Star Trek, the beginning of peace between the Federation and Klingons is a Huge Deal on a Galactic Scale.

Plus, if PIC Season 3 is "TNG's Star Trek VI", then Jack's looking at the actual ship from Star Trek VI as it was in that movie.

I still like the Main Engineering from the early movies better, and the corridors, and the Transporter Room, and the Sickbay, all the stuff that doesn't look like it was re-dressed from TNG. So, in my head-canon, they have the TUC bridge and everything else is a mix-and-match. Why not? The interior of the ship(s) kept changing, so give them a little bit of everything. Take the best parts to make the Ultimate Enterprise-A.

 

[El Maestro]

I still like the Main Engineering from the early movies better, and the corridors, and the Transporter Room, and the Sickbay, all the stuff that doesn't look like it was re-dressed from TNG. So, in my head-canon, they have the TUC bridge and everything else is a mix-and-match. Why not? The interior of the ship(s) kept changing, so give them a little bit of everything. Take the best parts to make the Ultimate Enterprise-A.

I’m pretty sure the TNG corridors are re-used/re-dressed TMP/TWOK/TSFS ones?

 

[El Maestro]

Although outside of the bridge, TFF might as well take place on the E-D lol

 

[Lord Garth]

I’m pretty sure the TNG corridors are re-used/re-dressed TMP/TWOK/TSFS ones?

They are. The TMP Corridors are the originals, TNG's were the modified, then TFF/TUC stuck with the modified. This is what I have the least problem with.

The Transporter Room in TUC and Engineering take me right out of it whenever I see them. It's like, "Come on! That's the TNG Set! They didn't even try to hide it!" With Sickbay, it's either blackened out (TUC) or the shots are ultra-tight (TFF). So it's like the Sickbay is no Sickbay.

Although outside of the bridge, TFF might as well take place on the E-D lol

Exactly my point.

 

[Macintosh]

The Transporter Room in TUC and Engineering take me right out of it whenever I see them. It's like, "Come on! That's the TNG Set! They didn't even try to hide it!"

They painted engineering to be grey rather than TNG-beige... also, I have a theory that they deliberately shot the warp core to only show one power transfer conduit extending aft, to suggest that it was halfway between the TMP/TWOK-style core and the later TNG core.

The interesting thing about the transporter room is they kept a lot of the STVI:TUC modifications for TNG because they thought it looked better, which unintentionally increased the resemblance. Most notably they kept the hexagonal pattern added to the lower transporter platform.

But in STVI:TUC they changed the lighting and added an enclosed TMP-style control booth rather than the freestanding console in TNG. How many variations can you have for a transporter room anyway? Voyager's transporter room is also the same set again, also with a different console and altered lighting.

 

[Paul755]

My guess would be they just left it as The Undiscovered Country version. If I recall right, the bridge was beat up after the battle but not totally wrecked like the 1701-D. So just a simple (relatively speaking) repair job was all that would be needed. Not a total rebuild.

then again, considering we saw a different bridge each time we saw the 1701-A maybe it’s a 4th, totally different version.

 

[Dukhat]

The Enterprise-A had a different bridge each time we saw her, which would support the long-held fan idea that bridge modules were swappable plug-in units. Being atop the saucer section, I imaging they could be relatively easily to swap-out during a dockyard layover...

I think the only difference between the TFF bridge and the TUC bridge was a darker paint job for the latter.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think the only difference between the TFF bridge and the TUC bridge was a darker paint job for the latter.

That's what I mean. It was another change from the last time.

 

[Dukhat]

That's what I mean. It was another change from the last time.

Actually, I was incorrect. The TFF bridge has touchscreens but they were replaced by tactile buttons for TUC.

 

[Racefuel]

TFF had touch screens, carpeted floors, was generally more TNG-like.

TUC reverted to tacticle buttons, no carpets and was back to the more hard-edged TWOK style which is to be expected given Nick Meyer running the show.

 

[drt]

Although outside of the bridge, TFF might as well take place on the E-D lol

They at least tried to hide it for TFF, TUC was the worse offender.

I think the only difference between the TFF bridge and the TUC bridge was a darker paint job for the latter.

The TUC bridge was considerably different. The biggest difference is that the turbo lifts were now almost 180 degrees apart and probably wouldn't fit into the bridge bubble of the model.

TFF: https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/Starfleet-Bridge-Variations/Page_22.jpg

TUC: https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/Starfleet-Bridge-Variations/Page_23.jpg

for reference, TVH: https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/Starfleet-Bridge-Variations/Page_21.jpg

 

[Ithekro]

I would think they have sections of the ship redresses like her predecessor was in both the 2270s and 2280s. Plus a section dedicated to the other ships of her class.

One wonders if the USS New Jersey has a bunch of stuff on it about April, Pike, and Kirk's Enterprise, or of they kept that on the NCC-1701-A? Or would they do that sort of thing inside the station itself?

 

[Macintosh]

They at least tried to hide it for TFF, TUC was the worse offender.

I always thought it was the other way round. These are the Enterprise-A's corridors in TFF:

Versus the Enterprise-A's corridors in TUC:

Combined with the very TNG-beige colour scheme and carpeted bridge, TFF has a VERY TNG feel to the Enterprise-A interior.

 

[drt]

I always thought it was the other way round. These are the Enterprise-A's corridors in TFF:

Versus the Enterprise-A's corridors in TUC:

Combined with the very TNG-beige colour scheme and carpeted bridge, TFF has a VERY TNG feel to the Enterprise-A interior.

I was thinking more of how TUC uses Engineering, Sickbay and the Conference room essentially unchanged. The last is probably the worst since the 1701-D's windows obviously won't be on the exterior model of the refit.