Best starship bridge?

Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:20 am by Fear Factor

Okay, which starship bridge do you think is the best, out of all sci-fi?

My favorite is our own Starlancer's Yamato (you get to see it whenever Mukai rewards or reprimands you). It combines beauty and grandeur with safety and practicability - when in action stations, the captain's command chair and other bridge officers' can be lowered and embedded into the floor into crash cages, minimizing casualties in case of breach - one hole on the bridge won't kill everyone inside, just a select unlucky few. At all other times, the chairs and stations resurface and assume a more traditional ship bridge config, allowing the crew to walk around. Very, very beautiful and functional design.

My second best is Honorverse ships - this is the most military-realistic universe in the entire spectrum of sci-fi. Bridges also have crash cages, although not total embedding. Bigger ships have secondary bridges where the XO and a secondary bridge crew stand by to take over whenever the Captain is killed, his bridge destroyed or just comm dead. Plus the CIC, which can function as tertiary bridge if the others are out of action. Flag ships also have flag bridges for the commodores and admirals to concentrate on more strategic aspects of combat. All this redundancy thinking is very convincing. Plus, they make everyone wear skinsuits on beating to quarters.

My third is the SeaQuest bridge - just because they have a fish tank on it!

And the (new series) Battlestar Galactica bridge deserves the honorable mention.

Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:20 am by Tawakalna

great topic, FF!

I'll go along with the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica bridge, which impressed me from the moment I first saw it in the mini-series. I also liked the bridge in the Wing Commander movie version of the Tiger's Claw , but my favourite is the bridge of the SSD Executor in TESB/ROTJ - now there's a starship bridge worthy of the name! And of course, although not a starship as such, I've always been partial to the command section of the Discovery in 2001.

Tue Sep 12, 2006 11:36 am by topher

Mine are as follows:

1. Eagle 5 - nothing more comfortable than a Winebago with wings

2. Firefly/Serenity - functional and really fit what you'd expect from that type of crew

3. Sea Quest - was a great show and had a cool bridge

Honorable Mention: Galaxy Quest - It has an actual pilot seat!

Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:39 pm by H.Q. Victor

Since any go, 1st Enterprise D - Nemisis

2nd DeepSpace 9 - 7th season

3rd Enterprise A - Undiscovered Country

Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:52 pm by Tawakalna

you and your Trek fetish

Trek bridges are really boring. A lot of the time they look like badly tiled bathrooms or 1970s airport departure lounges. Carpeted walls indeed. The only time the Enterprise-D looked any good was in the "Yesterday's Enterprise" episode when it was actually a dedicated warship for the one and only time.

However, Klingon bridges are mint. Proper battle-wagons, dark and moody. Give me a D-7 cruiser over any Starfleet tat any day of the week.

Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:25 pm by Esquilax

The Executor *does* have a nice bridge. Nice clean lines, "crew pits" for the bridge crew below the standard deck level (where they belong

), nice field of view, inspiring leadership...

Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:49 pm by The Shroud (lurking)

The Executor *does* have a nice bridge. Nice clean lines, "crew pits" for the bridge crew below the standard deck level (where they belong ), nice field of view, inspiring leadership...

I concur master bunny, i'm also partial to the POA bridge. That view is worth the risk.

All grumpy rants subject to copyright.
The Shroud©/RvB TMC©

Tue Sep 12, 2006 5:56 pm by Zeta1

I have 4 fav bridges, best to least
USS Prosthemues
USS DADELUES [Dadalues bridge from Dr. Crusher's ship in All good things..
USS DEFIANT
USS ENTERPRISE [enterprise series bridge, best series of them all

Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:02 pm by Fear Factor

Oh, SeaQuest is not exactly a starship - although it did travel to the stars once - when the show turned into a bad X-Files episode and got themselves kidnapped by aliens

.

Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:42 pm by NukeIt

The bridge designs in Halo for the Pillar of Autumn and In Amber Clad are my personal favorites (especially the PoA's, with the Captain behind a transparent tac plot and the helmsman/navigator stations out in the "bubble"- in addition to the bent corridor entrance, which would slow down any attempt by an enemy to take the bridge), though I like the way Reliant's bridge looks in Starlancer (the best view of it is during Foster's last stand) as well.

*edit* for realism, the new BSG bridge and the Honorverse concept are tops, no question about it. A well-designed combat starship really ought to have its nerve center beneath the thickest armor in the heart of the ship. Those two designs make the most real-world sense, especially with the skinsuits Weber has all of his starship crews wearing during combat (if you pay attention to the BSG miniseries, however, every major compartment of the Galactica has vac gear in case of battle damage, and all of the bulkhead doors may be sealed manually).

There's just something awesome about a bridge that looks out into space, however- it calls up images of classic battleships on the high seas, and that just screams all kinds of coolness.

Edited by - NukeIt on 9/12/2006 7:52:37 PM

Edited by - NukeIt on 9/12/2006 7:53:34 PM

Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:55 pm by Arania

For looks, i would have to go with the bridge of the Daedalus in Stargate Atlantis. It looks distinctly human, and i would find it easy to get my bearings if i was ever on that bridge. The Ori Battlecruiser command room from Stargate SG-1 Comes in at a close second

For practical application, i actually dont know... The Bridge of the Yamato from Starlancer and the Bridge of the Truth and Reconciliation Covenant Cruiser from Halo come in about equal.

For sheer stupidity in design, the Bridge of pretty much any Trek ship. for one, half the consoles have no seats, so the users are forced to stand, and two, have the people not heard of seatbelts?

Heres an interesting question: If you could design a starship bridge, what would it look like?

Wed Sep 13, 2006 3:49 am by Thunderbolt_Starfury

Earth Alliance Warships Bridge from Babylon 5 (I.E. EAS Elexander seen in the episode Severed Dreams)

Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:54 am by J Dawg

I was hooked on the Battlestar Galactica bridge until I saw the Pegasus. Their graphic/set designers have waaay too much fun.

Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:40 am by Tawakalna

actually, the Pegasus sets were leftovers from the axed Lost-in-Space tv remake.

Wed Sep 13, 2006 8:14 pm by Xca|iber

Well, I might have to go with almost any Covenant vessel, seeing as the bridge is at the center of the ship, the most practical location, as stated above. Interesting about the Yamato's bridge, I've never really looked at it. Although I prefer bridges of my own design overall, because they usually include the most features from all the bridges I know about.

About the Starfleet bridges...

They weren't ever really meant to be functional, they were designed primarily for the viewer to be able to see the characters clearly. Having them in crash cages or down in little bubbles and whatnot would make a somewhat confusing scene if you tried to take shots of all the senior officers...

Not disagreeing, however, just pointing out why.

EDIT: Would somebody mind posting an image of the Yamato's bridge? I'd like to see a shot of the retractable crash-cage seats. (To add to my repertoire of Starship Bridge Features)

Edited by - Xca/iber on 9/13/2006 9:14:54 PM

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