Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Captains and Their Chair Usage

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Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :

It's been noted recently that Bakula's Captain Archer will spend a lot of time not in his chair, walking to and fro between stations as needed. This got me thinking: just how much have the various Captains used their chairs when they're on the bridge commanding their ships? Let's see:

-Kirk is generally in his chair. Usually when he gets out of it, it's to leave, or to go to the railing in front of Spock's station to talk to him. He's rarely seen standing at the forward consoles.

-Picard was practically stitched to his chair. During action scenes, he's always there. Rarely is he seen at the tactical console, and never anywhere else. This has left Riker the opportunity to make a leg on Data's Ops console.

-Sisko didn't have a chair in DS9's Ops, so he generally stood at the head of the Ops table, and basically never at anyone else's stations. On the Defiant, he started out as nailed to his chair as Picard, but after he got promoted he's very frequently gets out of it to stand at the conn next to whoever was flying it.

-Janeway hated her chair. That, or she hated sitting next to Chakotay. I think she spent more time out of it than in it, standing at other peoples' stations, often working the consoles, or standing anywhere she could grab a railing. Given the ergonomic nature of the Voyager bridge, it was pretty easy.

Question for all: does this say anything about our Captains' personalities, or is this based on the chairs themselves? Could the efficiency of a ship's IDF figure into this?

While we're at it, let's see some other Captains for whom we've seen much less screen time:

-Watters (USS Valiant) never got out of his chair. As a cadet being thrust into the position he most desperately sought, that's no surprise. He even had the chair's little headrest out all the time.

-Esteban (USS Grissom) was barely ever in his chair - in fact, did he ever sit down again after standing up in his first scene? He was always standing next to the comm station, science, tactical... But his chair was pink, so that's a likely excuse.

-Martok (IKS Rotarran et.al.) was constantlly in his chair. Never did he stand up to go somewhere else on the bridge - except for "Way of the Warrior". But that probably wasn't him anyway, so...

Any more for thought? Does this mean anything, or are they just keen observations?

Mark

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

It's possible that the character's motions in the later series were scripted based on their personalities, but it's likely that it is plot and camera angle driven. If the director wants this line of dialouge shot from in front of the ops console...then Picard has to get up and walk to that mark.

My uneducated guess would also be that leaning on railings...punching buttons...putting your feet on furniture...is as much improvisation by the actors based on their interpretations of the characters as anything else. I can't imagine every scene containing stage directions like -Janeway leans on railing- Some probably do when it figures into the scene.

Posted by MeGotBeer (Member # 411) on :

The most stage direction you would have would be something like:

DATA PICARD WORF ENTER BRIDGE, GO TO STATIONS.

Anything like Picard approaching Ops or Tactical would be the director's call.

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

"This has left Riker the opportunity to make a leg on Data's Ops console."

Best sentence I've seen all month.

Posted by Veers (Member # 661) on :

Well, Esteban appeared in one film for 15 minutes or so...then got blown sky high by the Klingons. We can't be sure about him yet.

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

Yet?

Posted by Veers (Member # 661) on :

Um...
We can't say much about him. Period. That's what I meant. I doubt someone's going to do a book about him (I was thinking that when I posted).
Anyway, I think it's the captain's personality that affects his or her chair-sitting. Maybe some captains like to move around and not feel confined, whereas some may feel they are doing their duty by sitting in it.

Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :

Voyager's captain's chair never looked, well, captainy enough. And the lack of a headrest, very non-ergonomic. Looked like, if the ship lurched, you'd forever be hitting your head on the railing behind.

Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :

And her chair wasnt even in the middle of the bridge where it belonged. Paramount didnt want to offend viewers who might infer that a centered captain's chair might indicate a flake like her, and a woman too was in charge.. just like Pike's first officer Number One all over again....

On Esteban: Actually, in the novelization for "The Search for Spock," there were some good passages about Esteban talking to Kirk without realizing David was his son. Apparently they were old friends (And maybe it was because J.T. Esteban stood for James Tiberius Esteban? maybe NOT!). But Admiral Kirk was disapproving of Estebans command style.
Wonder why...
You mean Pocket Books isn't going to do the eight part Grissom crossover next year? The one the runs through Enterprise (the Grissom NX-02), The Original Series, Next Generation, Deep Space nine, Voyager, Challenger, New Frontier and the Early Voyages?

"Captain Esteban, you look uncomfortable.."
"I believe i might have to use the restroom"
"It would be logical"
"Communications, get Starfleet and the Federation council on the line. Send this: permission to use facilities, USS Grissom, JT Esteban commanding"
"There appears to be jamming on the line"
"Damn..."

[ September 06, 2001: Message edited by: CaptainMike ]

Posted by StyroFoam Man (Member # 706) on :

STARFLEET GENERAL ORDER 147
"Any officers caught "making whoopee" in the Captain's chair will be court-marshaled and discharged from Starfleet."

Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :

Oh, totally agreed. Esteban wouldn't take so much as a deep breath without talking to Starfleet first.

Mark

Posted by TheF0rce (Member # 533) on :

I seem to remember the captain of the oddyssey[spelling] standing heroically for the last minutes of her ships life.[and everyone aboard her]

Even though i would have prefered to sit if i had been him...
His bridge was getting rocked by dominion fire and sparks were raining down overhead...i would eigther sit or scramble in the direction of an escape pod by then

Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :

Captain Keough of the Odyssey had no choice but to stand. The budget for "The Jem'Hadar" did not allow for the building of a Galaxy-class bridge set, therefore only a partial set piece was built to place behind the captain and th first officer to make it appear they were on a bridge. Did he even have a chair?

Posted by Veers (Member # 661) on :

Notice how the bridge of the USS Prometheus ("Second Sight") and the Sutherland ("Redemption") are different. Both Nebulas,
Both different bridges to accommodate the episode budget.

Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :

The would have used the Enterprise-D bridge set, but 'the Jem'Hadar' was filmed a few days after the set was torn down. And then they rebuilt it for Generations (with no lights... grr..).

The bridge for the Prometheus was a single wall too.. apparently that ship was in need of some finishing up, with only one station and a chair. That's why they only had a lieutenant in charge... I wonder why Starfleet thought an empty Nebula-class ship was necessary for carrying one shuttlepod to the Gamma Quadrant. Say stock footage?

At least the Sutherland had three walls and some panels for the guys to stand at to look busy.

Another great journey into cheap bridge sets was Admiral Hanson on his flagship in The Best of Both Worlds: one chair, one railing, one monitor and a close in camera shot.

Posted by Mr. Christopher (Member # 71) on :

Sounds similar to Benteen on the Lakota... But not as bad as Admiral Ross on his ship. He was just standing in front of a wall with monitors somewhere...

Oh, and then there's Captain Kim on the Rhode Island. Looked like a small set there, too. But, he was sitting down during that little scuffle. I wonder if Ransom would have sat down had he had a chair accessible on the Equinox...? And that scene in "Timeless", it was just LaForge in his ready room, wasn't it?

[ September 06, 2001: Message edited by: Mr. Christopher ]

Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :

No it was that bad... Admirals Ross and Hansen got about the same setup , as did the Lakota and the Odyssey were about equal..

At least the Enterprises alway run into their sister ship so they can use their bridge.. the Lexington in "The Ultimate Computer" (Commodore Wesley got to use the 'easy chair' from the mirror universe to show he was a big shot) and the Yamato in 'Contagion' (which is the first time we saw the panel behind Picards chair was removable for circuitry)

Posted by Michael_T (Member # 144) on :

Well, I would think that the USS Rhode Island would come to a close second to the Melbourne set.

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

The Yamoto in "Where Silence has Lease" too used the Enterprise-D set.

The original practise for guest starring Starfleet ship sets was to use the Battle bridge set. That served as the Enterprise-C, and several Mirandas. And that pirate ship from Gambit. And others too that I can't remember. It got used more for other ships than it did for the Battle Bridge.

Posted by Veers (Member # 661) on :

Still haven't figured out what Admiral Ross's ship was in "What You leave Behind." You saw him on a little screen with some sort of computer behind him. The Bellerophon, perhaps?

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Possibly. But why would Ross have been on the bridge anyway?

Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :

Ah, bridges. My *thing*.

-Ross was standing in front of the Defiant's engineering consoles.

-The original E-D battle bridge set is not seen as many other bridge sets - the Stargazer, and a few other rooms over the early years (most notably the hearing room set in "Measure of a Man". The set used for the E-C, Hathaway, et.al. is a different set altogether.

Mark

Posted by David Templar (Member # 580) on :

My main problem is with the size of some of these bridges. I thought the Equinox's bridge was rediculously big for a ship her size, and the Prometheus's bridge was too big for her purpose.

Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

It could be that the crew of a surveyor spends all their time on the bridge, keeping watch over whatever the sensors are sensing. This is most efficiently done in a single common room where the specialists for the different instruments can cross-coordinate. Why not make that room be the bridge? It's not as if actual "bridge functions" related to the running of the ship would take much room, not when the mission of the ship is just to go to within sensor range of an interesting planet.

The Prometheus in turn could be super-automated, again making it unnecessary to have much crew in any other room. Let's just gather them all up on the bridge (although I didn't see too many chairs..). The Prometheus is a big ship, though - why *shouldn't* she have a big bridge?

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by Michael_T (Member # 144) on :

Maybe the Romulans don't like to sit down on the console Starfleet chairs. It could do horrors on their backs.

Posted by Stingray (Member # 621) on :

But Vulcans and Romulans are almost exactly the same species...how could the Vulcans serve w/o a problem on Starfleet chairs and not the Romulans...?

Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :

To clarify: The panel behind Picards chair on the railing of the Galaxy bridge (per Captain Mike's post about the Yamato) is not necessarily removeable. The circuitry we saw was a flap of the Tactical console hanging over the railing. They had pulled it away to get at the circuitry underneath.

I've actually been fairly impressed with the bridge sets we've seen...even the one-episoders and on-screen-only bridges. Sure we'd love to see the whole thing...but let's get real.

The worst, IMHO, was LaForge on the Challenger in "Timeless". Not only did he appear to be directing the chase from his ready room, which was fairly obviously an interior set from either the E-E or Voyager, but the camera angle kept changing between takes. That bugged me.

Posted by Michael_T (Member # 144) on :

That was Voyager's ready room in "Timeless" that LaForge was in.

Posted by Veers (Member # 661) on :

If you watch "Ties of Blood and Water," when Gul Dukat is talking on the screen, you'll notice the camera angles change in on him during the screen. Weird.

Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :

Laforge was also sitting in the Prometheus's Captain's chair. That chair is seen on several ship bridges on Voyager.

Mark

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

"The set used for the E-C, Hathaway, et.al. is a different set altogether."

Are you sure? I thought the battle bridge was a modification of the first three movies bridge set. And the Ent-C was also a modification of said bridge.

The ship in Gambit is fairly obviously a redress. Look at the viewscreen. It has the exact same Red Alert light flashing above it as the battle bridge from BOBW.

Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :

S'okay, it's a common misconception. Look at these:

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/scans/bridges/bridges.gif

Ignore the overhead views - many of them are inaccurate.

Anyway, you can see that the original E-Refit bridge was refit into the E-D battle bridge and the Stargazer. Another set, distinguished by the large wall segments that angle inward in large trapezoidal sections as they go up, is seen as a multitude of different ship and planetside sets, including the E-C, Pasteur, BoBW E-D battle bridge, Hathaway, the ship in "Gambit", Data's lab, etc. The forward viewscreen may have been shared by the E-Refit and new set, but it's tough to say.

Mark