posted
Any franchise, any universe. What's your favorite spacecraft command area design ever? Bridge, command deck, tower, whatever. What makes the most used set of any given SF series or movie COOL for you?
And by the same token, what's the WORST design you've ever known? And why?
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For me, one of my favorites was the design of the Lar Caillum class battleship from the Gundam movie "Char's Counterattack". It was actually two bridges at once - the everyday bridge was a semicircle of consoles facing outwards onto a panoramic window view forward, with large displays built into the ceiling and walls above the windows. The CO sat on an elevated chair allowing him access to both the windows and displays, and behind him was a large situation display.
THEN, during actual combat the CO chair would descend into a combat bridge chamber below the main bridge. It was more protected, had large displays for everyone plus a holographic sphere in the middle, and the CO, helm, weapons and communications stations were all bunched shoulder to shoulder in the very small room for ideal communication between them and the ship.
For effectiveness/budget, I always liked the Earth:Final Conflict shuttles. Came before the over-hyped Minority Report version by at least a couple years, looked cool, and seemed practical. Also the concept is so easy to screw-up, see B5:LotR.
For atmosphere, the Star Destroyer bridges are nice. Stark imposing lines, literally putting the main characters above the crew (perhaps symbolising the unimportance of individual human life in a facist society....or it just looks cool). Just looks efficient and evil without anything too overt.
The Firefly bridge is an obvious pick for the "I wouldn't mind living there" factor. But I imagine that others will be able to describe it much better.
As for worst, I'll have to think about it more.
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WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
WORST bridge....the "Executor" from Star Wars.
I always liked the Millenium Falcon's bridge, but that is quite possibly because it was a modified B-29 cockpit. Though I admit the placement really pulled vacuum. "Hey Chewie, anything coming from the left?"
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
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For atmosphere, I loved the Enterprise-A bridge, personally. It was busy while still not being crowded, and it had a very efficient design. I also liked the Enterprise-E bridge.
For non-Trek, the Galactica CIC is awesome, with the sole exception of the dangerous combination of rolling chairs, plate glass separators, and computers stacked in a tower config.
I agree with Wiz that the Executor is the worst bridge, because it's so damn inefficient. For such a damn huge ship, the bridge is so tiny and uncoordinated.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
I agree that the Star Destrooyer bridge is pretty neat with it's darkness and forboding lines. But I also like the mon cal bridge because of the giant transparisteel bubble that gives you an unhindered veiw of space.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
While not really a "bridge" per se, I'd put in my vote for the big CIC area on the Minbari Sharlin cruisers. 3-D surround can where you're standing in the middle of the battle? Fuck yes awesome. Similarly, the White Star bridge. Your main people are just to your right & left, & those shiny little pods that zip together right in front of the CO during combat.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
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Those pods were only ever seen moving once, and never again. Supposedly they were so that the people in those chairs could have a better view through the windows, but that doesn't make too much sense given that they had a COUCH in the way. Later, even in battle, the pods were always seen squished up against the wall a la Hathaway. Perhaps it was only a temporary measure, as back then the White Star didn't yet have its command chair or secondary stations.
Speaking of couches, the Liberator from Blake's 7 had an AWESOME command deck. Pilot in the middle, four stations within gabbing distance, and a comfy lounge in the front? Awesome. You even had a hand weapons station off to the side, a coffee table for Orac, and the big glowing Fortran ball that was Zen! BBC low budgets forced as much as possible to be crammed into one set, so here we had the one room that could do it all, from bridge to science lab to armory to computer interface.
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: Huh? How can a bridge so "tiny" have an A-Wing crash through it and still have room for everyone to dive out of the way?
Well, for all its open space, how much of it is actually used for starship operations? It's really nothing but really tall walkways for the Sith Lords to stalk up and down and terrorize everyone below. Remember those quick shots in Empire when we actually saw into the crew pit, and there was barely enough space to walk? Very strange and inefficient.
Also, if my command ship were seventeen fucking miles long, I'd want an actual command chair station (notice how Admiral Piett was perpetually stuck looking over someone's shoulder?), true two-deck command facilities (rather than some puny cramped slave pit), and some kind of big holo-projector for strategic and tactical analysis. For all its space, the Star Destroyer's bridge was mostly empty and wasted.
(I was never fond of the crew pit in Babylon 5's C&C either, but at least there, it was supposed to be small because of limited space and technology.)
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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IIRC, the White Star's bridge was redesigned after its first appearance, and the moving pods disappeared. They were just the director's idea anyways and just "looked cool."
As for the Sharlin bridge, that is indeed a creative way of making a bridge on a budget
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
If I remember from the Star Wars roleplaying game schematic books there was a second area behind the bridge we see in the movies that housed a holoprojector and some other less important bridge functions. There was also a secondary bridge on the Executor but they couldn't activate it before it crashed into the death star.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
The TARDIS. I don't really know what version, offhand. Definitely the pre-movie style, though. And not the wood-panelled one Tom Baker had for a while, either.
Registered: Mar 1999
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The Beliskner had no standard bridge set, did it? They just threw together a random-looking Asgard room with Thor's nifty console on it. I'm sure it looked different nearly every time we saw it.
Ahh, here's a couple caps of the Liberator's command deck. All asymetrical and everything, just liek most of the TARDIS sets. Ahh, the way things were...
posted
Well I liked the Asgard sets then. Actually I was going to post a thread or at least a comment on how GOOD Stargate sets have ALWAYS been. From the Hatak corridors to Thor's ship to well whatever.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
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