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Transparent Displays

Fun theories in this thread. But the people I feel bad for are the actors who have to wave their hands around pretending to use nonexistent holographic controls. It's like 21st century bridge shaking, only they have to do it all the time.
I wonder if there are choreographed movements so that there's some consistency to what the actors do. Like how some Doctors in Doctor Who take how they use the Tardis console seriously, while others just flip switches.
Wil Wheaton brought that up in one of the recent actor interviews in the Ready Room. Not sure which actor it was, but he was comparing notes about having a system for how he pretended to play the controls for different functions.
It was Cabrera, who said that he did indeed develop particular sequences for particular tasks, so that it would be consistent. He also said that every time he saw those sequences on playback while doing ADR work, until right up close before the launch, the holograms had never been added yet, so he had no idea what the finished product was going to look like, it was always just tape of him jabbing away at thin air!
 
The transparent part is annoying. I don't mind some of them being holographic projections by 2399 but they should be opaque like a holodeck character.

Or at least reduce the transparency enough to make them a bit more easily viewable. Why strain your eyes needlessly??

Not only that, but the displays ought to be fully 3d - not least because of Future Dax's comment in DS9 "The Visitor", but also simply because we've had decades of the productions trying to depict somewhat 3d viewscreen communications; so regressing to flat commpics on these interfaces is a bit... dumb.

Plus, a more 3d interface could offer substantially better ergonomics easily tailored to a variety of species, and a lot more functionality - consider what Tony Stark does with his holo displays in the Marvel movies, for example.
 
Also the floating transparent screens are very generic SF... it’s in everything now, from the MCU to The Expanse to now Trek.

This is the biggest reason why I dislike it in PIC.
The MCU takes place in current times but they already have these floating transparent screens. PIC takes place way farther in the future but there using the same thing. Like you said, it just feels like generic sci-fi.

If they have holodeck technology, and EMH, wouldn't data and info come in three dimensional, non-transparent tactile forms?
 
They serve the dramatic purpose of letting us, the viewers, see the character's expressions in response to what they are looking at in the air, while also being able to see what they are looking at.

Kor
It also gave us that great scene where Picard pulls up the picture of Locutus and it lines up perfectly with his face. To him it’s like seeing his reflection and the audience got the same view and emotional impact as it did on him.
 
This is the biggest reason why I dislike it in PIC.
The MCU takes place in current times but they already have these floating transparent screens. PIC takes place way farther in the future but there using the same thing. Like you said, it just feels like generic sci-fi.

If they have holodeck technology, and EMH, wouldn't data and info come in three dimensional, non-transparent tactile forms?
Opacity can usually be adjusted. I personally really like it. I want to work with displays like this.
 
Looking back, the TOS films weren't very futuristic in terms of displays. They were very comparable to big screens, and regular TV screens. It wasn't a big deal back then because there was only so much sci-fi and fantasy out there on TV and in the cinema.
Now though, fantasy is EVERYWHERE, from science fiction, to video games, to superhero films. So it's hard to one up the display situation. There's only so much futuristic stuff they can do till it becomes to unrelatable.
 
transparent digital displays have been possible since nixie tubes came about in the 1950's but they were almost always given a backplane or housing, partly due to the nature of their use, and partly so they could be seen better. I like the hard coded buttons and levers on the Meyer ST filkms, where the controls looked like they did something and were build to withstand abuse.

But considering how often consoles explode in Star Trek (they really need to talk to their capacitor supplier), maybe holographic displays aren't such a bad idea.
 
transparent digital displays have been possible since nixie tubes came about in the 1950's but they were almost always given a backplane or housing, partly due to the nature of their use, and partly so they could be seen better. I like the hard coded buttons and levers on the Meyer ST filkms, where the controls looked like they did something and were build to withstand abuse.

But considering how often consoles explode in Star Trek (they really need to talk to their capacitor supplier), maybe holographic displays aren't such a bad idea.

No to mention the people that also fill the ship with rocks.... I mean who puts all those rocks in the ceilings and walls?
 
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