the ready room...

[Timo]

Likewise, the Captain's Yacht should have been the Captain's Gig.

Since the thing never saw use in TNG, we might just as well decide it was indeed the Captain's very own civilian yacht, docked to his starship because rank hath its privileges.

Heck, the E-E yacht had a dedication plaque identifying Picard by name - an unlikely feature in a craft supposed to be part of the permanent complement of a starship where commanding officers come and go, but quite to be expected aboard a private craft belonging to a single person!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Likewise, the Captain's Yacht should have been the Captain's Gig.

Since the thing never saw use in TNG, we might just as well decide it was indeed the Captain's very own civilian yacht, docked to his starship because rank hath its privileges.

Heck, the E-E yacht had a dedication plaque identifying Picard by name - an unlikely feature in a craft supposed to be part of the permanent complement of a starship where commanding officers come and go, but quite to be expected aboard a private craft belonging to a single person!

Timo Saloniemi

The full text of the Cousteau dedication plaque is, according to Memory Alpha:

Cousteau
USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-E
Jean-Luc Picard, captain
"The future is in the hands of those who explore... and from all the beauty they discover while crossing perpetually receding frontiers, they develop for nature and for humankind an infinite love." – Capt. Jacques-Yves Cousteau​

If the yacht were a private craft, then why would its plaque have the registry number of the Enterprise-E on it?

In the age of replicators, what's the big deal about having personalized engravings hanging about? The TOS Enterprise had personalized signs outside crew quarters, for instance. Those would have to be changed whenever quarters were reassigned.

 

[Gaith]

The NX ready room was a must because everyone had seen them before, seen the scenes in them and expected to have it in the stories.

Which is exactly why the show sunk like a stone. It was indicative of a larger pattern of being unable to let go of the 24th century. From the 'ready room' to phase pistols to photonic torpedoes to hull plating that acted exactly like shields to the proto-Prime Directive to the Klingons to the Borg to the Ferengi and so on...

That's hardly a fair comparison. The ready room is a valuable dramatic tool, providing a space for private (and sometimes heated) duty-related talk. Not including one solely because Kirk didn't have one would have been silly. Should Columbia not have had a female captain, either?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ Kirk's quarters, and the briefing room, served that role perfectly in TOS.

 

[BillJ]

The NX ready room was a must because everyone had seen them before, seen the scenes in them and expected to have it in the stories.

Which is exactly why the show sunk like a stone. It was indicative of a larger pattern of being unable to let go of the 24th century. From the 'ready room' to phase pistols to photonic torpedoes to hull plating that acted exactly like shields to the proto-Prime Directive to the Klingons to the Borg to the Ferengi and so on...

That's hardly a fair comparison. The ready room is a valuable dramatic tool, providing a space for private (and sometimes heated) duty-related talk. Not including one solely because Kirk didn't have one would have been silly. Should Columbia not have had a female captain, either?

You're talking apples and oranges. One was a line that didn't even make sense within the context of the show (and the true meaning of the rambling was debatable at best) vs. a standing set.

They simply didn't do anything that set Enterprise apart from the other series.

 

[RandyS]

Daniels came back from the future and stole it.

 

[Lance]

The sticking point, continuity-wise, is that the producers of Enterprise opted to include a ready room in their sets. With good reason, because it is a sensible narrative device for the captain to have an office right next to the nerve center.

My theory is that (for whatever reason) the original Constitution classes simply weren't built with this in mind. Maybe there was a change of attitudes on the matter of captain's being nearer the bridge compared to Archer's day, which was later reversed?

The updated bridge set seen in The Animated Series has of course got an extra door to the left of it, which Roddenberry always said led to another Turbolift. But I've always liked to imagine that it led to an airlock area including an emergency Turbolift and maybe a ready room for the captain (even though we never actually see him use it). Of course, this doesn't cover why the bridge sets in the movies don't have such a door...

 

[Gary7]

Yeah, I think they just overlooked the need for it in TOS. If private conversations were needed, they were done in the turbo-lift, conference room, sick bay, or personal quarters. So, they may not have even considered it. Even if they did, it was probably axed because it would've required yet another set piece and added to the costs.

We do see in TNG, VOY, and ENT that the ready-room can be an essential place of business, for carrying on interactions in private. I'm certainly glad they were present in those series.

 

[T'Girl]

^ Kirk's quarters, and the briefing room, served that role perfectly in TOS.

True enough, still McCoy got to have an office, and we once heard of Scotty having one as well.

The sticking point, continuity-wise, is that the producers of Enterprise opted to include a ready room in their sets. With good reason, because it is a sensible narrative device for the captain to have an office right next to the nerve center.

From a "in-universe" point of view, it would have been impossible for Kirk to have had a office on the same deck as the bridge. While there a degree of disagreement as to the exact layout of a Connie's top deck, most would agree that there is simply no room for a office in the area surrounding the bridge.

 

[Timo]

...But neither is there such a location next to the E-E bridge, and that never stopped Starfleet!

Just have the ready room something like five steps down from the (lower) floor level of Kirk's bridge and it can be included in the superstructure nicely enough, even when taking into account the visuals of "Where No Man" in TOS ad TOS-R.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[sbk1234]

They actually only had 79 episodes of TOS, as opposed to 7 seasons of TNG, DS9, and VOY. I'd imagine there were at least 79 episodes of each of these that didn't show the ready room. As far as I'm concerned, there was one on Kirk's Enterprise, but we just never saw him use it.
Just like they never showed Kirk take a dump, but I'm sure he did at some point during that five-year mission.

 

[FormerLurker]

We did ultimately see a "Captain's Ready Room" on the 1701. Kirk, Spock and McCoy went there to have an exposition-fest during TMP. It happens to be at the aft of Deck 2.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

We did ultimately see a "Captain's Ready Room" on the 1701. Kirk, Spock and McCoy went there to have an exposition-fest during TMP. It happens to be at the aft of Deck 2.

No, that's not a "ready room". That's the officer's lounge, and it's on the refit, not the original TOS ship [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Constitution_class#Officers.27_lounge].

 

[bryce]

We did ultimately see a "Captain's Ready Room" on the 1701. Kirk, Spock and McCoy went there to have an exposition-fest during TMP. It happens to be at the aft of Deck 2.

No, that's not a "ready room". That's the officer's lounge, and it's on the refit, not the original TOS ship [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Constitution_class#Officers.27_lounge].

Very true, but Kirk did have a "Office" connected to his quarters that we saw him use like a Ready Room in both TMP and TWOK!

Just like Pike had a cabin with a Ready Room like location and features in "The Cage"

I do agree that the production, real-world explanation is that the studio made Enterprise way too much like Next Generation, DS9 & Voyager.

But an in-universe explanation may be that the original Connie design had a combined Ready Room/Captain's Quarters directly under the bridge. But later the Captain's quarters were moved down into the saucer - maybe because that space was needed - and there was no room left for a Ready Room. (And in TOS and in the follow-up movies, Kirk still had a small office space in his quarters...they just were away from the Bridge.)

Now, big question is why, in-universe, doesn't the nuKirk have a Ready Room - where there *is* plenty of space for one!? (I'm gonna say that he probably does, we just never see it, as nuTrek is a less "talky" version of Trek...more action-oriented, less time to sit around and have a chat. That, and they seem to have Transwarp or Slipstream drive, as fast as they get around the Galaxy...that, and turbo-turbolifts that can get you ANYWHERE on the ship in *seconds*...)