What purpose does the big picture window on the bridge serve?

[Voyagerian]

It's a different way of doing things from the previous series, it works for me, and that be enough. Plus, when they get around to imitating the 'Picard Ramming Maneuver' they'll get a nice view of the fun...and they can see how funky and wild warpspace is without need of sensor relay. Oh, poor Bones...'We need a barf-bag up here-STAT!'....

 

[Kpnuts]

Best of both worlds. A window, and an overlayed viewscreen when needed. Makes perfect sense.

The viewscreen window is there to see the festive sombreros of other ships as they pass by.

FFS

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

would you rather be in a little bulb on the top of the ship, or in the direct center of the ship, protected by several decks?

Like I said, any attack powerful enough to knock shields offline or punch through them, will get to the bridge no matter WHERE it is. That attack will get through those "several decks".

On the first couple of Mercury shots, the capsules were windowless.

Alan Shepard's capsule, Freedom 7 (the first flight of the Mercury program) had a window.

 

[Sabataage]

In space, most of the time, you're so far away from stuff, you couldn't see it without extreme magnification... the only purpose I can see for it is to be able to see a ship you're ramming in the last split second, or a nice plant vista in orbit, both of which seem silly to me, given that the window seems more vulnerable than a bulkhead anyway.

Not long before seeing Star Trek XI I was reading Forever War by Joe Haldeman. One of the more advanced warships the main character boards is completly windowless save for one on the bridge. He takes note of it and the captain explains: "We have this here in case we need to navigate by star chart. Let's hope we never use it."

Besides, as a kid watching TNG, I always thought the viewscreen was a window anyway. When I found out it was a glorified TV screen I was dissapointed. It made the bridge feel even more like someone's living room (carpet floor, leather upholstery, guest chairs).

Based on how its always been used its not that much of a stretch to make it a window. Even when they weren't looking for anything in particular, the viewer was always just on and displaying a starfield.

 

[Sector 7]

Best of both worlds. A window, and an overlayed viewscreen when needed. Makes perfect sense.

The viewscreen window is there to see the festive sombreros of other ships as they pass by.

FFS

Don't be hatin'.. u know u want one... ur just jealous.
Also, thank you for agreeing with me.

 

[KirkSpockTOSFan]

I always thought the Viewscreen was to see what was going on space. You know like unknown obbjects that might be in front of them,sight enimey ships,to see the person/alien/enimey they are comunicating with, and other thing that might be going on. Thats the main purpose for the viewscreen right? If they didn't have that, they might have a problem, you think?

 

[GhostFaceSaint]

In space, most of the time, you're so far away from stuff, you couldn't see it without extreme magnification... the only purpose I can see for it is to be able to see a ship you're ramming in the last split second, or a nice planet vista in orbit, both of which seem silly to me, given that the window seems more vulnerable than a bulkhead anyway.

Your forgetting this is Star Trek, thats not glass but transparent steel!

 

[Kelso]

^ Or transparent rodinium.

 

[Char Aznable]

Your forgetting this is Star Trek, thats not glass but transparent steel!

Dude, you're TOTALLY wrong! Its transparent ALUMINUM, noob.

 

[Good]

My problem with the idea of it serving as a viewscreen too is that the picture looks like ass. My old color TV with rabbit ears had better resolution.

 

[Char Aznable]

^ That and they can't seem to afford non glare transparent aluminum in the 23rd century.

Otherwise it seriously didn't bother me that much. It was different and it was nice to see the saucer, giving a nice little bit of depth that you don't usually see in a Trek film.

Anyway, it beats the hell out of that dumb, lopsided nacel in the DE of TMP, am I right?

 

[StarshipDefiant]

My problem with the idea of it serving as a viewscreen too is that the picture looks like ass. My old color TV with rabbit ears had better resolution.

Yeah, I can agree with that, one of my first thoughts when they used the picture version of it was "Why doesn't someone fix the picture?"

Like others said, its probably to offer a view, the writers said it was to offer a visual cue outside of the ship (Read, the space shots/external shots of the ship) where the bridge was, as without it, even with the dome there, you could have the bridge any place and say it was someplace else. In short, I think it was their attempt at some sort of consistency, and to lock in that the bridge is indeed, on deck one (or whatever the number/letter is).

 

[GhostFaceSaint]

A quick tech comment, remember "Polarize the viewscreen"? Someone wrote that in space you can't use a window alone because of the distances involved, well they thought of that in the film and the viewscreen big window can magnify distant objects, planets, ships, or display other things as well. Just wanted to point that out too.

 

[startrekrcks]

I thought it was very futuristic wasn't it

 

[I-Am-Zim]

In space, most of the time, you're so far away from stuff, you couldn't see it without extreme magnification... the only purpose I can see for it is to be able to see a ship you're ramming in the last split second, or a nice planet vista in orbit, both of which seem silly to me, given that the window seems more vulnerable than a bulkhead anyway.

The window was just there so they could do that cool pull-away shot. As far as I konw the Enterprise has always had a viewscreen. In fact, in "WNMHGB", we actually see the screen when it is turned off and it looks like a blank wall. And in FC we see the Enterprise-E's viewscreen when it is off. The viewindow on the Abramsprise was just another way for JJA to distance this version of Star Trek from the original upon which it is based.

The picture window is there to piss off the TOS purists and the NuTrek haters.

Yep. And it's working.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And in FC we see the Enterprise-E's viewscreen when it is off.

I thought it was really cool the way they did that (such as when Picard orders the viewscreen on during the Borg battle). I wish they'd kept that for Nemesis.

 

[Warp Rider]

The window is for flipping off the person you're about to shoot a Photon Torpedo up their tailpipe.

 

[Gepard]

The viewindow on the Abramsprise was just another way for JJA to distance this version of Star Trek from the original upon which it is based.

Oh, horrors! How presumptuous of him, putting his own mark on his movie.

 

[I-Am-Zim]

Yeah. It was. Some things are not meant to be messed with. The Enterprise is one of them.

 

[thesovereignman]

Yeah. It was. Some things are not meant to be messed with. The Enterprise is one of them.

Why didn't you make the movie then?