What is the best Starfleet Bridge design?

[Maurice]

The early TOS movie bridges had all of like 9 buttons on each station.

That's cute. But it's wrong. The consoles for the TMP Bridge were designed in part by Lee Cole--who I believe did instrument panel layout for Rockwell--Rick Sternbach and members of the art department, and are arguably the most functional and thought-out control panels ever seen on Star Trek.

 

[The Caprican]

The early TOS movie bridges had all of like 9 buttons on each station.

That's cute. But it's wrong. The consoles for the TMP Bridge were designed in part by Lee Cole--who I believe did instrument panel layout for Rockwell--Rick Sternbach and members of the art department, and are arguably the most functional and thought-out control panels ever seen on Star Trek.

You're right. More than a little condescending. But right. The consoles are more detailed than I recall, and I did not express myself properly. For that I apologize. However, I still feel that they didn't look "functional". Don't get me wrong, it wasn't awful. And it was very indicative of the era in which it was created. But there seemed to be a lack of labeling and nothing that really "grouped" the controls by function. At least IMO. The Okudagrams of TNG-era ships and even TUC-era ENT A looked far more realistic. But there is also about nearly two decades between designs of of the TMP and TUC and TNG sets. The ability to create more realistic graphics and sets were far more advanced by then.

I also think that people tend to pick their "first" bridge set as their favorites. People growing up with TOS tend to favor TOS era and I, who grew up with TNG, DSN, etc, tend to favor the later TOS movie sets and the DSN sets. I think it's as much nostalgia as design element.

 

[Maurice]

Personally, I think most Okudagrams look little better than the eye-level displays on TOS in that they're a bunch of little rectangles in grids with a few curvy bits to connect them.

The techniques used to create the TNG Okudagram consoles were little different from what was used on Star Trek: negative artwork with colored gels over a lightbox. The only difference in the TNG days was that the console designs could be done on a computer rather than with more traditional artist tools. But I still remember Mike showing me around the TNG Art Dept and seeing Rick Sternbach, headphones on, attaching colored gels to the backside of a console graphic for the battle bridge for BOBW pt. 2.

That said, if the Okuda type consoles look more realistic or believable to your eye, I'm not going to argue. The audience member is always right about what s/he likes.

 

[Amaris]

Tough choice, but I think the best design was Star Trek: V's bridge. Just the right balance of everything, IMO. I do love ST09's bridge too, though. Nice and busy.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I really liked Mr. Probert's Enterprise D bridge the most. It highlighted an era where technology had reached such a level that simplicity and aesthetics could take precedence over clunkiness and flashiness. (a design aesthetic sadly discarded for the Enterprise E a decade later) My only differentiation with Mr. Probert is that I personally like the Generations version better. Unconstrained by a TV budget, they could show more people working on the bridge which I felt was more in line with the size and complexity of the ship.
I'm also fond of the TMP bridge because of it's functionality. I thought the TOS sound effects in the DE GREATLY enhanced that room.
The single man helm console on the NX1 is downright silly. For that era, there should be at least 2-3 people navigating and managing the ship. The Enterprise E rail controls are also 200 years out of place. Unfortunately, chronological design lineage disappears from Trek after TNG. Only Voyager and Defiant are logical progressions from the Galaxy/Nebula class ships inside and out. Enterprise E's bridge has lots of TOS movie details, while the NX1 bridge has lots of Enterprise E and Voyager details. !?!

The problem is, the true logical progression from the 1701-D bridge is to have the crew sitting around a comfy living room, controlling the ship with iPads. They instead (understandably) went with "make it look good", hence things like design lineage going out the window.

Maybe they're at the "technology is art" stage, and instead of design linege, we're merely seeing the whim of the technical artist who designed whatever ship. All variations on a theme, but not necessarily progressive.

 

[Methos]

I do really like the design of the Enterprise-E bridge in First Contact... didn't particularly like the redress it got for later movies though

M

 

[BillJ]

I do really like the design of the Enterprise-E bridge in First Contact... didn't particularly like the redress it got for later movies though

M

With the exception of the view screen I couldn't tell the difference.

 

[TommyR01D]

Does anyone know the rough dimensions for any of the sets. I've seen loads of detailed pictures but none of them tell you what scale they're to.

 

[Who1]

I actually liked Voyager's bridge. I wasn't a fan of the two command chair set up, but it's a polished, slick set. Most of the TOS film sets were very cheap looking, the Enterprise E and Defiant sets were unimaginative and the Enterprise D was a lounge-y blast, but I preferred it being busier and better lit in "Generations." The NX-01 was well-done, but "Voyager" to me was the best mix of comfort, military cool and clean lines as well as a design capable of producing interesting camera moves and angles for years to come.

 

[RyanKCR]

The first three TOS movies were the best and V and VI were very cheap looking to me. V was very bland as well.

 

[jacoboram75]

My favorite is the ST09 Enterprise bridge mainly because it looks like an apple store and had that cool HUD. Kelvin's bridge for second place although It seemed to have a more active HUD, but maybe that's because they were in battle mode at the time.

 

[Patrick O'Brien]

I like: NCC-1701-A Bridge[2293 AD] dark military colored from 'Star Trek 6 Undiscovered Country' 1991.

 

[Trekker4747]

Overall, I prefer the Ent-D bridge as seen between Season 3 and the end of the show. For movies I'd probably go with the bridge in TUC.

 

[T'Pala]

My fav bridge is that of the NX-01. It's simple and not very fancy. The runner up is Voyager's bridge. Hurray for bridges!

 

[Lowdarzz]

Although I'm not a fan of the color scheme, the bridge from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is my favorite.

I really like the fact that it is basically the original series bridge done on a larger budget.

 

[Ian Keldon]

I'm personally rather fond of the white and chrome version of the movie-era bridge at the end of IV. I like the console layouts and overall design of the VI bridge as well.

My "dream" bridge would be VI's design in IV's color scheme.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^Didn't we see the STVI bridge in the STIV colour-scheme on the USS Prometheus in Voyager's "Message in a Bottle"? Aside from VOY-style console graphics and helm/nav stations, of course.

 

[AdmiralScreed]

I liked the bridge design from TUC quite a bit. I thought it had a very sterile and futuristic look to it. Kind of cool.

 

[The Janitor]

I'm not fond of the bridge designs in any of the movies to be honest. I find them to be rather sterile, disposable and lacking in any charm & personality.. .unlike the bridge designs of the television show versions of the NCC-1701/NCC-1701D. The bridge was almost like an extra character in itself.

 

[davejames]

My favorite was actually the bridge at the beginning of STIII. It was basically the same STII bridge, but the colors were a bit brighter and grayer, and it just had a really cool atmosphere to it.

Unfortunately we only got that brief look at it early on, and the lights were dimmed down for the rest of the movie.


Speaking of bridges, here are a few scratchbuilt bridges I made long ago (to the same scale as the old ERTL bridge kit), if anyone's interested.
http://davidjamesart.blogspot.com/search/label/Trek%20Bridge%20Models