The Ops Station

[JoeD80]

right down to deciding that he "looked better in gold than blue."

I think it was to match his makeup better.

 

[Praetor]

I know that was the excuse, but I don't see it. To me, he looks better in blue. I mean, gold and blue contrast nicely. I think the blue makes him look more alienish.

 

[blueshirt]

I always understood the importance of demonstrating to the audience that Data "is not Spock."
However, I thought the writers handled that concern quite well through his behavior and character arc.

It seemed odd to me not to have a dedicated science officer and large science station on the bridge, with Data as the chief science officer.
The Ops station, with the duties of allocating ship's power (sounds like an engineering station task) and performing maintainence functions, seemed better suited for a position along the back row with stations such as environmental control.

And of course, I think Data would have looked great in blue.

 

[flemm]

I always understood the importance of demonstrating to the audience that Data "is not Spock."

I do, too, but that takes some time to establish. I don't think it's surprising that the producers opted to create some superficial distinctions as well.

Data was certainly inspired by Spock, but has a character arc that is the opposite of Spock. Where the Vulvan is capable of, and even prone to, intense emotion, he aspires to be ruled by logic. Data is logical without effort, but aspires to understand emotion.

 

[milo bloom]

Regarding the "Data is not the new Spock" feeling that we were supposed to get when TNG was first made, I'm pretty sure I remember reading something a long time ago about how they even made the bridge so radically different in order to make the difference between the two shows stand out even more. Part of this was even making sure the senior staff wasn't made up of the same functions (kinda why we had rotating Chief Eng.'s in the first season).

So in that regards, I can kinda accept that the OPS station was created as an "information central" station. In-universe I can see starship captains learning that the science officer always seemed to be on top of things and made for a good bridge position to have someone well qualified for. Over time Starfleet bridge designers would come up with the OPS station to represent that type of "information central" position, while still having the dedicated aft science stations.

So while I can see what they were getting at, a part of me thinks it would have been just as well to have the exact same bridge stations for TNG (or fairly close), but let the differences in personality of the characters show how things had evolved over the 70 some years. I also think Data looks fine in blue, so take that how you will.

 

[Praetor]

Regarding the "Data is not the new Spock" feeling that we were supposed to get when TNG was first made, I'm pretty sure I remember reading something a long time ago about how they even made the bridge so radically different in order to make the difference between the two shows stand out even more. Part of this was even making sure the senior staff wasn't made up of the same functions (kinda why we had rotating Chief Eng.'s in the first season).

So in that regards, I can kinda accept that the OPS station was created as an "information central" station. In-universe I can see starship captains learning that the science officer always seemed to be on top of things and made for a good bridge position to have someone well qualified for. Over time Starfleet bridge designers would come up with the OPS station to represent that type of "information central" position, while still having the dedicated aft science stations.

So while I can see what they were getting at, a part of me thinks it would have been just as well to have the exact same bridge stations for TNG (or fairly close), but let the differences in personality of the characters show how things had evolved over the 70 some years. I also think Data looks fine in blue, so take that how you will.

Totally agreed, there.

 

[AdmiralSteven]

Regarding the "Data is not the new Spock" feeling that we were supposed to get when TNG was first made, I'm pretty sure I remember reading something a long time ago about how they even made the bridge so radically different in order to make the difference between the two shows stand out even more. Part of this was even making sure the senior staff wasn't made up of the same functions (kinda why we had rotating Chief Eng.'s in the first season).

So in that regards, I can kinda accept that the OPS station was created as an "information central" station. In-universe I can see starship captains learning that the science officer always seemed to be on top of things and made for a good bridge position to have someone well qualified for. Over time Starfleet bridge designers would come up with the OPS station to represent that type of "information central" position, while still having the dedicated aft science stations.

So while I can see what they were getting at, a part of me thinks it would have been just as well to have the exact same bridge stations for TNG (or fairly close), but let the differences in personality of the characters show how things had evolved over the 70 some years. I also think Data looks fine in blue, so take that how you will.

Totally agreed, there.

I agree with this; Ops being the information central station. A station where all the information is gathered in one spot. Oh, and I just can't see Data in blue...that's just not right for me.

 

[Galactic Alignment]

Come to think of it, wasn't Chekov basically used as an Ops officer in STXI?

 

[Praetor]

It was a little strange that he seemed to be doing... non-navigator stuff. Like the broadcast. I'd have expected the comm officer to do that. (And I don't mean TOSy Chekov-goes-to-the-science-station stuff.)