posted
Fanboy speculation to break the summer mediocrity!
What features are unique to a battle bridge? What features SHOULD be unique to a battle bridge? Why have one in the first place? While it doesn't work in the Trek television sense, would it work from a Trek technical standpoint?
Running through some old Gundam lineart in my library, I happened across the bridge design for the Ra Caillum class warship from "Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack". This carrier-type ship has two bridges: a regular bridge from which normal operations are run, and a "combat bridge" directly below it that everyone goes to when the ship is in combat (other ships in this movie feature similar bridges). The combat bridge in this case is a small room for a slightly smaller number of people, who are all bunched together around a central holographic display AND a forward monitor.
The kicker here is that in this setup, the captain's chair actually descends into the combat bridge (everyone else who transfers has to go down a laddered hatchway). Anyway, I'm wondering if this sort of setup would fit in in Trek - and what kind of console setup would make sense.
[spooge]
Imagine something like the GCS bridge, all happy and brightly lit. Then, when comes time to fight, the three central chairs descend into the floor, and emerge into a much smaller set. The flanking seats now have larger consoles in front of them. The familiar con and ops consoles are now much closer to the centre of the room, and a tactical console is sandwiched between them. Additional tactical and sensor stations are around, and manned as the descending chairs settle in.
[/spooge]
Mark <--- Haven't sketched a bridge in a while, I haven't.
[ June 24, 2004, 01:25 PM: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
posted
Well, modern warships have a bridge and a combat information center located in a more heavily armored section of the ship. The bridge controls the movement and navigation of the ship while the CIC controls the fighting of it. During combat, the commanding officer goes to the CIC while the executive officer stays on the bridge.
In Star Trek it is an excuse for a special effect. It is really just a secondary bridge to control the "stardrive" section when it is separated from the saucer section.
That said: perhaps your version of a battle bridge should have extensive weapons and sensor controls as well as strategic and tactical displays in conjunction with the main viewer.
-------------------- I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit.
Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
A battle bridge certainly doesn't need 12 year olds on it, but I'll just ignore that for now.
The moving chairs idea sounds overly complicated, especially since the battle bridge is not directly under the main bridge. The battle bridge commands the battle section of the ship (hence it's name, you could say) in case of seperation.
The one thing I'd really like to change on a battle bridge are the standing consoles. Not very comfortable, and in case of a big impact, Worf ends up in the viewscreen, decapitating Picard on the way. Not pretty.
posted
Gundam pilots average 15-17 years old, actually. The youngest known pilot on record was 13. But ship captains tended to be older (Ra Caillum's captain was in his late thirties), and we're talking about the ships.
What I'm discussing is the feasibility of such a setup in the Trek universe. If not a fully-functional separate bridge, then a separate CIC-type thing. So this time, instead of all three centre chairs descending to a combat bridge, just the Captain's chair would go down one deck. The two other chairs would be for the XO and another officer to drive the ship, and the Captain would direct fire and operations from a room with lots of tactical consoles.
Another Gundam-based idea is the Archangel class from the current show, Gundam SEED. This time, we have a Main Bridge from which the Captain commands ths ship overall. The dark spot behind the captain's chair is an opening to the Gunnery Bridge a half deck below and underneath the aft consoles. There, the ship's XO and gunnery crew direct fire. The gap is such that the XO and CO can still communicate directly.
I guess what I'm getting at here is how to design Trek bridges more along the lines of real-life pardigms while still maintaining the Trek "look". Gundam is a franchise whose designs often emulate that, so I'm examining ways of incorporating some of their ideas into the trek universe.
posted
Moving chairs is an awful, no good idea. We already have to sit through incredibly dated scenes of people physically handing information to each other.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
From the ST:TNG Technical Manual on the main bridge there is a turbolift that runs directly to the battle bridge. The battle bridge might be used in the event that the main bridge was damaged and operations had to be shifted to the battle bridge. I know on US navy ships for example the last ship I served on was a carrier and we had the main bridge which control helm and throttle controls and CDC which the captain was in during a "battle" and they had radar and stuff like that and then we had Secondary and Aux conning stations that were in case the bridge was damaged they had a ships wheel and a throttle assembly and could actually control the ship.
-------------------- "Who cares if we bomb a few hospitals, it just means we got them a second time" Warrant Officer Robert Clift, CVN-71 OEF
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
But when Data was "taken over" by Dr. Soong and made the Main Bridge loose lifesuppport in TNG's "Brothers", Picard and the others went to Main Engineering.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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I've always wondered about that. There was more than just "Brothers" I think where they controlled the ship from Engineering. One would think that the Battle Bridge would be the more logical location, but that probably had something to do with how the set was put together and what not.
Registered: Mar 1999
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I always had the feeling that the Battle Bridge was specifcally set up to control the Secondary Hull and needed to be reconfigured for control of both hulls. But Main Engineering was already set up in case the Bridge fell apart.
-------------------- Later, J _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ The Last Person to post in the late Voyager Forum. Bashing both Voyager, Enterprise, and "The Bun" in one glorious post.
posted
But that's stupid. If the main bridge is damaged, it seems far more logical to use the battle bridge, since presumably the layout of those locations is productive to ship running. What are they suppossed to do in engineering? Have Picard sit on the pool table?
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Creepy image of Picard in a sequence dress lying atop a piano in engineering and singing lounge songs....
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
In any case, Engineering is proably optimized for the crew that's already there, and probably has more people runnign around during combat. So, if the main bridge is dmaged, and everyone runs downstairs and starts using all THEIR consoles, it'd be really crowded and a big downer for everyone already there...
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