Were rooms too small on the Enterprise-D?

[The Rock]

For such a gigantic ship, a lot of the rooms in it sure seemed very cramped.

Compare it to a much smaller ship like Voyager and you can see that a lot of the rooms on Voyager seemed much larger (like the bridge and the captain's ready room for example).

Why is this (if we're using an in-universe explanation)? You'd think it'd be the other way around!

 

[MrPicard]

I'm guessing a Galaxy-class starship had to make additional room for the families that were meant to be on board, hence why some other rooms are a little smaller. But that's just a guess on my part.

 

[The Rock]

I'm guessing a Galaxy-class starship had to make additional room for the families that were meant to be on board, hence why some other rooms are a little smaller. But that's just a guess on my part.

If so, how do we explain the Enterprise-E (which also had small rooms but there were no families on it)?

 

[Tosk]

like the bridge

Was it actually bigger? My gut feeling (ooh, scientific!) is that the D and VOY bridges are about the same size, but one is longer and thinner while the other is shorter and fatter. ...ish.

 

[Takeru]

Maybe Picard liked a smaller ready room and being the first captain he might have been able to put in some requests, the D's bridge module is asymmetrical on top and has a bump where the ready room is and presumably it wouldn't matter if the bump is a bit bigger or smaller. The Voyager bridge model is symmetrical with two 3 window wide rooms left and right of the bridge so when Janeway requested a small and cozy ready room she was told absolutely not because it will make the ship look stupid from the front.

 

[at Quark's]

You know, Beverley asked a similar question once in Remember me:

BEVERLY Deck after deck of this ship is now deserted! How do you explain all the empty rooms? If only a hundred fourteen people are supposed to be on board, why all the extra space?
DATA (rattling off logical explanations) Transportation of colonists... diplomatic missions... emergency evacuations...

So, there you have it

(And no, of course this is not a serious reply).

Also, it's very relative. Remember how Scotty remarked that even an Admiral wouldn't have gotten quarters the size of his standard guest quarters, when the aide told him he could find something bigger if he wanted.

 

[Qonundrum]

No in-universe explanation is needed nor desired*. As with all tv shows (and movies**), scale and layout will not always match. Even that dining room in "Haven" with the oddly placed trapezoid-shaped window that doesn't really match up anywhere against the outer hull, yet it's pretty obviously a window. If the houses for Brady Bunch, Golden Girls, and countless others regardless of genre*** because it boils down to the same cause and reasons -- such as: Space of studio, materials, and other related costs... It just needs to be "close enough". It's also as ironic as it is odd considering how I'm now bramblurbing saying opposite of the hyperactive levels of minutiae I otherwise enjoy reveling in, like these footnotes******:

* Sometimes a cake is just a bunch of ingredients put together and there is no need to come up with anything. Some shows have episode guides that just do their own asterisks and say "translation convention" as one of many means to bypass what arguably amounts to "needless continuity and/or canonicity****"

** The 1996 Trek flick abbreviated STFC to prevent folks from gettin' carpal tunnel in typing out on - Simply look at the on-screen bridge. Look at the claimed dimensions on the blueprint. Look at the deflector dish set in the movie while Picard blabbers "Don't fire near it" before doing so a couple of minutes later*****. It doesn't add up at all but it's close enough to suspend disbelief.

*** I like to think that modern Trek show showing turbolift interiors that are clarly oversized as they are asinine is, as some sort of joke aimed at how shows don't always match up what the blueprint claims

**** Since I wanted to find something to make a digression with, here's what I pulled out of my hat: Unlike "tho" and, more egregiously, "thou" as supplanting "though", "canonicity" is a legitimate word. Looked it up. Take that, built-in spellchecker, HA!! (That's a free "digression within a digression" too, woohoo!

***** now THAT scene is something to genuinely have anything approaching a proper gripe on, but before I digress...

****** I had to add at least one egregiously out of sequence somewhere ​

 

[JesterFace]

The evolved better future human doesn't need a huge place to live in, they're happy in a place not much bigger than a dog house?

 

[trekshark]

You know, Beverley asked a similar question once in Remember me:

BEVERLY Deck after deck of this ship is now deserted! How do you explain all the empty rooms? If only a hundred fourteen people are supposed to be on board, why all the extra space?
DATA (rattling off logical explanations) Transportation of colonists... diplomatic missions... emergency evacuations...

So, there you have it

(And no, of course this is not a serious reply).

But it can be a serious reply. Those missions are things that happened from time to time.

 

[TommyR01D]

There were bigger versions of some of those rooms (e.g. shuttlebay) used when needed, but those occasions were offscreen.

 

[The Wormhole]

The ready rooms always got me. The Galaxy class flagship's ready room is basically a tiny office while an Intrepid class ship that's half the size has a ready room that's basically a deluxe living room.

 

[The Rock]

The ready rooms always got me. The Galaxy class flagship's ready room is basically a tiny office while an Intrepid class ship that's half the size has a ready room that's basically a deluxe living room.

Lol Janeway's ready room was even bigger than her own quarters! Makes you wonder why she didn't just use her ready room as her quarters. I mean, I would've.

 

[NCC-73515]

Does anyone know how big (like m²) the various quarters were?

 

[MrPicard]

If so, how do we explain the Enterprise-E (which also had small rooms but there were no families on it)?

Different reasoning here - she was designed as more of a warship to fight the Borg, so I'm guessing this time the space that had gone to the families and other recreational areas on the Enterprise-D now went to equipment, sensors, weapons... you name it.

 

[The Wormhole]

Lol Janeway's ready room was even bigger than her own quarters! Makes you wonder why she didn't just use her ready room as her quarters. I mean, I would've.

Really, the ready rooms should have a bunk in them anyway, making them just like the Captain's At-Sea Cabin on actual ships.

And yes, I am aware there was a bunk in the Enterprise E's ready room, or at least there was in First Contact.

 

[The Rock]

Really, the ready rooms should have a bunk in them anyway, making them just like the Captain's At-Sea Cabin on actual ships.

And yes, I am aware there was a bunk in the Enterprise E's ready room, or at least there was in First Contact.

There was even a bunk in the Ent-D ready room, but I don't believe it was ever shown on screen.

 

[evilchumlee]

No in-universe explanation is needed nor desired*. As with all tv shows (and movies**), scale and layout will not always match.

This is such a cop-out answer. It's technically right, but like, that's not what the question was asking.

Yes, Star Trek is a TV show. We are aware.

Are we allowed to have fun now?

EDIT -

As to the OP, I think the E-D is just functional. It's a huge ship, but there's also a lot in it and almost certainly DECKS worth of unused quarters, to house any potential need.

There was some intent that much of the saucer section is a huge shuttlebay, so that's a ton of space lost. There are potentially huge cargo bays we don't see, possibly even largely empty most of the time... again somewhat just to give the ship versatility for when it's needed.

Quarters seem to be comfortable. They're about the size of a one bedroom apartment. With 1,500-ish crewmembers on board, that's quite a bit of space right there, not to mention there are bound to be larger quarters as well given the E-D was designed to have families on board.

 

[Farscape One]

The Enterprise-D, as well as Voyager, had quarters that varied in size throughout their respective runs. Which makes sense... rank, position, importance of visiting person, etc. factor in to who gets assigned what size.

In TNG's "Lower Decks", it's established that Lt. j.g. and higher ranks get their own quarters, while Ensigns (and possibly crewman) bunk at least 2 per quarters. Picard's quarters are obviously bigger than the rest because he's the captain. We also see guest quarters range in size, too. Scotty in "Relics" clearly thought his quarters were massive. Family quarters also seem to be a bit bigger than standard quarters because a family lives there.

On Voyager, it's clear senior officers had their own quarters, which explains why Kim got his own despite being an Ensign. Janeway's seemed larger than anyone else's. (With Chakotay and Tuvok's quarters looking to be very close behind hers, but that still makes sense given their rank and positions.)

I do agree that her Ready Room is very large in comparison to the Enterprise. I don't have a reasonable explanation for it, but someone in this thread mentioned the bridge module of the Galaxy class ship being... well, modular. That's as good a reason as any... maybe the best possible reason. (Real life, out of universe reason was probably that they didn't expect to film quite as many scenes in the Ready Room as they ended up doing... so when it came time to create VOYAGER, the producers decided to make filming easier in there by making it much bigger than TNG's counterpart.)

The one question I always wondered... the XO and Security Chief got their own office on Voyager, but we never saw Riker and Worf get the same. Surely a ship as large as the Enterprise, those two officers would have their own office? (Though I'm pretty sure that Geordi had his own, at least from dialogue in "Galaxy's Child", despite never actually seeing it. And the Chief Engineer should have their own office... it's arguably the most important role on the ship. Which now makes me wonder why B'Elanna never got one?)

 

[evilchumlee]

There may be offices we just don't see... not much action would happen in there. The shows didn't really have time to spend watching our heroes... fill out paperwork?

Although some may have a setup similar to Data... his "office" was clearly just in his quarters. We see that several times. I may be crazy here, but I vaguely recall Tuvok having a similar sort of setup.

Some of it may just be preference. ESPECIALLY the E-D but even Voyager has space. If a senior office wanted an office, they could surely have one. Some may prefer to just work in their department, or their quarters. Starfleet generally seems pretty open to doing what makes you comfortable, and the status of an office probably isn't as prevalent.

Torres in particular I don't believe has an office... she just likes to work directly from Engineering (she tends to use the one console alot... I think that's her "office".) La Forge may have an actual office, although I tend to think the little console in the alcove near the warp core is his "office".

Really, Harry Kim should have an office. "Operations" should be a fairly logistics-heavy role, I can't imagine he does his entire job standing at the bridge station.

In the end, I do think a good chunk just comes down to personal preference. If you want an office, you can have one. If you want a set up in your quarters, also ok. If you prefer to just have a spot in your department, also fine. It's up to the individual.

On the topic of quarters... I think to a large extent Starfleet has some like, artificial limitations on "lower decks" people to add incentive for ambition. There's no reason they need to share quarters or sleep in bunks in a corridor... ships have plenty of space. They just do to give them something tangible to work towards aside from just higher rank, which can often be somewhat meaningless in Trek (an Ensign can easily be a senior bridge officer).

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

(Though I'm pretty sure that Geordi had his own, at least from dialogue in "Galaxy's Child", despite never actually seeing it.

He kinda does, in fact it's the second or third most common place we see him.

And the Chief Engineer should have their own office... it's arguably the most important role on the ship. Which now makes me wonder why B'Elanna never got one?)

It's possible she did actually, though I'm not sure it was ever identified as such.

Torres in particular I don't believe has an office... she just likes to work directly from Engineering (she tends to use the one console alot... I think that's her "office".) La Forge may have an actual office, although I tend to think the little console in the alcove near the warp core is his "office".

The console in the alcove, or possibly the entire alcove space, is indeed what is sometimes referred to as the "Chief Engineer's Office". There is a similar, less often used space (where the engineering computer isoliner slots are) that is sometimes believed to be the equivalent for Voyager.