Why can't we have a few potted trees in the mess hall?!

[Gaith]

This bugged me on Voyager, too, though at least they had their dinky little planter boxes in Cargo Bay 2, depending on whatever else the writers were doing with that space at the time. And the holodeck could always give the crew nature time of a sort. But, I digress.

Couldn't we have had at least a few plants somewhere on the show apart from Phlox's cages? A Vulcan shrub in T'Pol's quarters, a tomato plant in Archer's, something? Must all spaces have been as sterile as the stupid Zion we got in the Matrix sequels?

If nothing else, a potted bit of flora in the corner of a frame, especially in the mess hall, could have given the show's look a bit of cheap and easy flair.

 

[horatio83]

I do not recall any plants in the mess hall or quarters in any other Trek show so I fail to understand why this criticism is narrowed down to the very Trek ship with the highest premium on space. It's a sub, not a pleasure cruiser.

 

[I am Surak]

I am with Gaith on this. Plants add something to an environment that is hard to describe but I believe they are the yang to our ying.
Especially T'Pol coming from a hostile planet like vulcan should treasure plant life.
Maybe I am just an old hippy at heart but being in tune with nature is a good thing.

 

[SchwEnt]

I suppose a few plants were possible, but impractical.

Of all ST ships, you ask of the one that is LEAST likely to be able to support such amenities?

Just look at the interior design of the ship.. far more akin to a submarine or naval vessel of today. And I haven't seen potted trees aboard cruisers or carriers or submarines.

I guess naval vessels of today could have potted trees for the crew's enjoyment, but they do not. And I'd think the reasons they don't would be the same reasons the NX-01 doesn't, either.

Oh yeah... we are talking in-universe here, right?
Or is this about displeasure with the aesthetics of the show's production design?

 

[I am Surak]

I love the production design. The sets in ENT are the best of any trek and the ship to me looks real.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I guess naval vessels of today could have potted trees for the crew's enjoyment, but they do not. And I'd think the reasons they don't would be the same reasons the NX-01 doesn't, either.

Good point. Also do we really want Porthos pissing on potted plants?

 

[Mr_Homn]

I do not recall any plants in the mess hall or quarters in any other Trek show...

I will refresh your memory:

I do agree that the lack of plants seems fitting for the NX-01 for reasons already stated in this thread. A couple of leaves here and there couldn't have hurt, though.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Yeah they could have dressed Trip in just leaves for one episode. That would have increased the oxygen in the room.

 

[jespah]

They have a Chef and cook real food. Perhaps the vegetables are grown hydroponically. I'd have liked to have seen a Botanist (in TNG, Keiko was a Botanist, so they're canonish).

 

[RandyS]

I do not recall any plants in the mess hall or quarters in any other Trek show so I fail to understand why this criticism is narrowed down to the very Trek ship with the highest premium on space. It's a sub, not a pleasure cruiser.

Look at the backgrounds more. TOS, TNG, DS9, and (I think, but I'm not sure) VOYAGER all had them.

 

[horatio83]

I wouldn't keep any flowers in my quarters. After every red alert you need at least a new pot.

 

[Gaith]

Hot dang, Mr. Homn really broke out the research!

I do not recall any plants in the mess hall or quarters in any other Trek show so I fail to understand why this criticism is narrowed down to the very Trek ship with the highest premium on space. It's a sub, not a pleasure cruiser.

That's the standard in-universe answer, sure, but I'm not entirely convinced. For one, subs are combat vessels, and ENT goes out of its way to show the ship as being not very military, down to leaving the Sol System and getting in numerous scrapes without so much as a developed "battle stations" protocol. Moreover, there are good reasons for subs being so cramped (stealth, speed vs. water displacement) that simply don't apply in the enormous vacuum of space.

I do agree that the other shows would have done well to have had many more plants/indoor gardens and the like, especially Voyager, with its freedom to deviate from strict Starfleet regs, but particularly given how trendy "organic" and "green" stuff has become in the past few years, I would've liked to have seen even a fairly small, cramped greenhouse-like space for a few crewmen to relax and shoot the breeze in.

 

[horatio83]

It's the first deep space ship and it's cramped because the thing is friggin' expensive. You really want the first human spaceship to look like the D with 40 m² quarters and pleasure gardens all over the place?
Not to mention that taking a part of home with you would have taken all the juice out of such scenes.

 

[Gaith]

Not sure how this...

I would've liked to have seen even a fairly small, cramped greenhouse-like space

... got interpreted as this:

You really want the first human spaceship to look like the D with 40 m² quarters and pleasure gardens all over the place

 

[R. Star]

As mentioned all the later Trek series had some flowers and stuff in the background. In public areas, no. In quaters do what you want.

Really though the arguements about space being at a premium fail in the face of Archer bringing his dang dog into space. Even Janeway knew better than this and she was a dog fanatic.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Janeway was on a short mission! There was no reason to bring along a dog. Also Janeway's dog was pregnant and needed to stay home and be pampered.

 

[Gov Kodos]

I do not recall any plants in the mess hall or quarters in any other Trek show...

I will refresh your memory:

I do agree that the lack of plants seems fitting for the NX-01 for reasons already stated in this thread. A couple of leaves here and there couldn't have hurt, though.

They all appear to be captains' quarters or offices, rather than general crew. I'd imagine other places might be VIP quarters where you'd find such stuff. It is a drain on resources of a ship, I'd expect regulations would prevent general posession of flora and fauna (stupidity of Trouble with Tribbles aside.)

 

[Gotham Central]

Actually the Enterprise D started out with ALOT of plants. There were planters in all of the public areas on the ship when the show started. They were eventually replaced with light boxes as the show went on. I think it just proved difficult to keep them looking good on a weekly basis.

Of all of the ships on Trek, the NX-01 should have had MORE plants not fewer. The NX-01 was supposed to represent more primitive technology. Part of that primitive nature would be that they needed someways to augment the environmental systems...replace oxygen and scrub CO2. Plants do that naturally, so it would make sense for the Enterprise...which was on a long mission without any real knowledge of when they'd be able to replenish supplies...to have lots of plants. Beyond the environmental, plants help improve morale and connect the human residents to the natural environment.

 

[horatio83]

While I totally agree that having plants aboard to create oxygen (Sunshine is a movie which comes to mind) Trek isn't hard sci-fi and has never concerned itself with realistically depicting these aspects of space travel. Gravitation, not getting smashed when the ship accelerates, warp drive, life support and so on just work.

 

[Mr_Homn]

I do not recall any plants in the mess hall or quarters in any other Trek show...

I will refresh your memory:

I do agree that the lack of plants seems fitting for the NX-01 for reasons already stated in this thread. A couple of leaves here and there couldn't have hurt, though.

They all appear to be captains' quarters or offices, rather than general crew. I'd imagine other places might be VIP quarters where you'd find such stuff. It is a drain on resources of a ship, I'd expect regulations would prevent general posession of flora and fauna (stupidity of Trouble with Tribbles aside.)

No, the one with beverly is in her quarters. There were also plants in the observation room, and there were plants in even regular crew quarters. For example there were plants in the quarters of the annoying girl that data was dating in "In Theory", and she is certainly not important or a VIP. It was hard to find photographic evidence, though, so I didn't show it. The only picture i could find on google image was this one and it's hard to tell that it's from her quarters :

I assure you there were more plants depicted in ALL of the series outside of enterprise... not just in quarters. I was just limited what I showed to quarters because he specifically was talking about quarters and mess halls. I couldn't find any plants in messhalls though, which I found surprising, because I totally thought I remembered some plants in ten forward, but that wasn't the case to my surprise.

Hot dang, Mr. Homn really broke out the research!

Hehe, it actually wasn't too difficult to find that stuff. Took about 15 maybe 20 minutes total. Google did all the work .. All I did was type in variations of "Star trek plants quarters" in google image search. Voyager was definitely the hardest to find though, the best I could find was that single image with the little tiny plant in the background.

Let's also not forget Sulu was also a botanist and he was depicted with at least one plant (albiet a crappy hand sock puppet plant :P)

I was surprised that I couldn't find any plants in uhura's quarters, though, in any of the multiple episodes that depicted her quarters.. They might be there though, just hard to find on google image and I was too lazy to bust out the blu rays