When there's only one bridge chair...

[Cicero]

On Navy ships do the first officer's really spend much time on the bridge? I've heard that they basically run the ship for the captain and that they're all over the place so he doesn't have to be. Is that accurate? Because if it is it's unlikely Riker would have been on the bridge at the same time Picard was.

On the Enterprise, at least, neither the captain nor the first officer spends much time on the bridge. They are generally represented by the command duty officer, one of which is assigned for each watch section.

On a carrier, the first officer is indeed very busy with administrative matters, and has little time to take a role in the operations - i.e. use - of the ship. The captain and navigator (who fills the operations deputy role that the first officer is too busy to perform) both do appear on the bridge sometimes, the latter much more than the former. While I was assigned to the bridge, the first officer never made an appearance there.

 

[The Wormhole]

IPersonally I think the design of Voyager's bridge is proof that Herman Zimmerman was completely out of good ideas at that point.

Actually, aside from the allignment of captain's and XO's chairs (which always bothered me, too) Voayger's bridge is a pretty decent design, IMO.

No two bridges look alike in late TNG or in DS9!

The USS Saratoga, USS Prometheus (the Nebula class one) and the USS Odyssey had similar looking bridges.

Hell, that set even got modified for a Romulan warbird bridge in The Die is Cast.

 

[doubleohfive]

I think the counselor's chair was probably a personal preference of Captain Picard's. I mean Janeway didn't have that extra seat. BTW isn't it funny how Voyager decided to retain a bridge chair for a first officer but they also decided to retain the idea of the captain's chair being in the center? I think it's funny because you got Janeway in the center and Chakotay way the fuck off to the side by himself. The only thing that would have been funnier is if she took a big piece of tape and divided the bridge in half so there would be a Starfleet side and a Maquis side of the bridge. I dunno why I find that funny. Personally I think the design of Voyager's bridge is proof that Herman Zimmerman was completely out of good ideas at that point.

Um, you must have been watching a totally different show. Janeway and Chakotay's seats were centered together in the middle of the bridge. Instead of one, or three chairs, Voyager has two.

See?

 

[Cicero]

On Navy ships do the first officer's really spend much time on the bridge? I've heard that they basically run the ship for the captain and that they're all over the place so he doesn't have to be. Is that accurate? Because if it is it's unlikely Riker would have been on the bridge at the same time Picard was.

On the Enterprise, at least, neither the captain nor the first officer spends much time on the bridge. They are generally represented by the command duty officer, one of which is assigned for each watch section.

On a carrier, the first officer is indeed very busy with administrative matters, and has little time to take a role in the operations - i.e. use - of the ship. The captain and navigator (who fills the operations deputy role that the first officer is too busy to perform) both do appear on the bridge sometimes, the latter much more than the former. While I was assigned to the bridge, the first officer never made an appearance there.

Just to clarify, I'm speaking of U.S.S. Enterprise, CVN-65.

 

[milo bloom]

In TNG, the first officer sits to the right of the captain.

Why there are three command chairs on the bridge, I really don't know.

On a ship the size of the Ent-D, it makes more sense (to me, at least) to have a dedicated second officer not tied down to a station. I think the episode "Conundrum" shows it best. In that episode we have First officer Commander MacDuff, second officer Commander Riker, with Data being just the Operations Officer. Riker sits in Deanna's usual seat, with Deanna over on the little bench thing. I imagine the other Galaxy class ships used that layout in this fashion, or it could just simply be for a mission specialist, or the CMO when she was advising on something.

As for the first officer's station without the extra chair, there is onscreen precedent. In Yesterday's Enterprise (just watched last night, TNG re-watch), on the alternate Enterprise there's no additional chairs and Riker basically just hovers at Tactical beside Tasha. If you need a "prime" timeline example, the only other one I can think of is the first movie. Once Spock comes aboard, he takes over at science and Deckard is a "pure" first officer, and he basically just hovers at Science behind Spock.

In my (currently stagnant) fan fic, set somewhere in the TNG era, my XO is a "floating" XO, not tied to any one station. I've never liked either idea that Trek usually shows us: either being tied to a station, or having a "special chair" assigned to them.

 

[BillJ]

I think the counselor's chair was probably a personal preference of Captain Picard's. I mean Janeway didn't have that extra seat. BTW isn't it funny how Voyager decided to retain a bridge chair for a first officer but they also decided to retain the idea of the captain's chair being in the center? I think it's funny because you got Janeway in the center and Chakotay way the fuck off to the side by himself. The only thing that would have been funnier is if she took a big piece of tape and divided the bridge in half so there would be a Starfleet side and a Maquis side of the bridge. I dunno why I find that funny. Personally I think the design of Voyager's bridge is proof that Herman Zimmerman was completely out of good ideas at that point.

Um, you must have been watching a totally different show. Janeway and Chakotay's seats were centered together in the middle of the bridge. Instead of one, or three chairs, Voyager has two.

See?

Janeway's chair wasn't in the center. If you look at the bridge from left to right, the helm console is dead center. With the command chairs further back to the left and right with a computer console between the two. Always hated the fucking designs from that show.

 

[milo bloom]

I think the counselor's chair was probably a personal preference of Captain Picard's. I mean Janeway didn't have that extra seat. BTW isn't it funny how Voyager decided to retain a bridge chair for a first officer but they also decided to retain the idea of the captain's chair being in the center? I think it's funny because you got Janeway in the center and Chakotay way the fuck off to the side by himself. The only thing that would have been funnier is if she took a big piece of tape and divided the bridge in half so there would be a Starfleet side and a Maquis side of the bridge. I dunno why I find that funny. Personally I think the design of Voyager's bridge is proof that Herman Zimmerman was completely out of good ideas at that point.

Um, you must have been watching a totally different show. Janeway and Chakotay's seats were centered together in the middle of the bridge. Instead of one, or three chairs, Voyager has two.

See?

Janeway's chair wasn't in the center. If you look at the bridge from left to right, the helm console is dead center. With the command chairs further back to the left and right with a computer console between the two. Always hated the fucking designs from that show.

I've long had issues with Voyager's bridge. Looking back, it makes me wonder if it was designed for how it looked onscreen instead of how a ship's bridge should be put together (there's a reason the military and others used the original Enterprise circular bridge as the inspiration for real life applications).

 

[Kibbin]

I never liked how Janeway wasn't in the centre of her bridge but shared it equally with chuckles. While it was fine for the show, where the two were supposed to be joint leaders of crews the ship was not supposed to be designed with that in mind. Maybe if the bridge had been a bit more beat up in the pilot, requiring them to rebuild and thus taking advantage of building it like that.

I always thought the third chair on the E-D was just for whoever needed it. Visiting Admiral on the bridge, take a seat etc etc
It just happened that Troi used it most.

 

[milo bloom]

I always thought the third chair on the E-D was just for whoever needed it. Visiting Admiral on the bridge, take a seat etc etc
It just happened that Troi used it most.

Problem is, that feels like a retconned explanation. Reading or watching any of the background material of the show, it's pretty clear GR intended it for the ship's shrink. The later showrunners (and general fanon, myself included) have expanded and clarified on it, but then I guess that's why this forum is here isn't it?

 

[Timo]

I've long had issues with Voyager's bridge.

Never could work up the passion to care about bridge layouts...

Looking back, it makes me wonder if it was designed for how it looked onscreen instead of how a ship's bridge should be put together (there's a reason the military and others used the original Enterprise circular bridge as the inspiration for real life applications).

...And never could understand why anybody would want to use the TOS design as the basis for anything practical. That bridge was designed solely for looks, and is utterly impractical as a command center.

I mean, everybody is looking away from the person whose eyebrow movements they should be following, and I don't mean Spock even though everybody looks away from him as well. They have to lean forward to reach the controls they operate, and constantly twist on their chairs to communicate with the people they need to communicate with. The communication specialist has to do a full 180!

The big viewscreen seems to only serve the helmsman, yet he has to look away from his work (his hands) to get a good view, and his head blocks the view of the one other guy who might care. This other guy gets a beautiful view of everybody's neck from his spinning chair, which is first sunken down two steps from the general floor level, then raised two steps again. Not even raised three steps to allow him to properly look past the helmsman or over some shoulders...

Perhaps a Soviet warship might have been designed that way: the politruk could deliver neck shots from the central chair at the first indication of "undesirability".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[FormerLurker]

snip

... wear a tight, cleavage-showing bodysuit instead of a uniform ...

snip

"Made of DENIM. And not the stretchy kind."
Marina Sirtis, during Q&A at STARFEST, Sunday, April 18, 2010

 

[C.E. Evans]

Looking back, it makes me wonder if it was designed for how it looked onscreen instead of how a ship's bridge should be put together (there's a reason the military and others used the original Enterprise circular bridge as the inspiration for real life applications).

...And never could understand why anybody would want to use the TOS design as the basis for anything practical. That bridge was designed solely for looks, and is utterly impractical as a command center.

I mean, everybody is looking away from the person whose eyebrow movements they should be following, and I don't mean Spock even though everybody looks away from him as well. They have to lean forward to reach the controls they operate, and constantly twist on their chairs to communicate with the people they need to communicate with. The communication specialist has to do a full 180!

I think in a real world scenario, nobody would actually look up from their consoles because they have their own monitors or readouts to pay attention to. It probably wouldn't normally matter if they were facing the captain or not. But because of the demands of dramatic necessity, directors probably insisted that cast members look up and address the captain (or rather the camera) whenever they have to report something.

The big viewscreen seems to only serve the helmsman, yet he has to look away from his work (his hands) to get a good view, and his head blocks the view of the one other guy who might care. This other guy gets a beautiful view of everybody's neck from his spinning chair, which is first sunken down two steps from the general floor level, then raised two steps again. Not even raised three steps to allow him to properly look past the helmsman or over some shoulders...

I always thought the helm and navigator chairs were positioned far enough apart to allow the captain to see the main viewscreen between them.

 

[milo bloom]

Yeah, I've seen more than one screengrab from TOS used for the caption contests, where you can clearly see most of the viewscreen through Sulu and Chekov's heads.