Wrap-around viewscreen

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

In the IDW comics Star Trek: Ongoing issue 17 (http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/IDW_Star_Trek,_Issue_17), a dying child named Jenny tells AR McCoy about the starship she dreams of commanding, with a viewscreen that goes all the way around the bridge.

Have there ever been any Trek ships like that?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Stellar Cartography on the Enterprise-D comes close...

 

[Galileo7]

^ Stellar Cartography on the Enterprise-D comes close...

I really liked that set on screen in GENERATIONS.

 

[Space Coast]

Why bother with a flat viewscreen at all? Have a projected 3-D screen, or a holographic one that projects an image of the ship and its surroundings in 3D space.

Better yet, have an 'immersive' screen with a view of the surroundings in all directions, a la the COFFIN system from Ace Combat 3.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

And instead of flying the ship at a console, you could run around in a holodeck-style room and direct the ship with your movements. So you turn 180 degrees and begin to walk up the wall, then your ship rotates and flies upward.

 

[mos6507]

Or just stay in bed all day with a neural lace implant. Or just have the ship fly itself (ala The Ultimate Computer).

Trek does things the way it does because it's traditional, and that tradition hearkens back to tall ships style terminology. As time goes on, as pure futurism, it starts to seem a little antiquated, but it kinda has to stay that way. I didn't like the transparent viewscreen in Kelvinverse because it was screwing around with something that never needed screwing around with in the first place. One of the most naive attitudes one can have is to think that the bridge module needs a literal "window".

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

One of the most naive attitudes one can have is to think that the bridge module needs a literal "window".

It served a purpose in the Gorn game, anyway. Kirk remotely flies a shuttle into the screen, decompressing the room long enough to suck out the invading Gorn, then activates the big metal doors to keep everyone else in.

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(56:25-57:33)

 

[Go-Captain]

The closest we see to a proper wrap around screen is probably the view screen of the nuTrek Enterprise. It has the widest and maybe tallest, relative ceiling height, view screen of any ship in Trek. It doesn't cover a full quarter, or half, but it is likely as close as we will ever get.

A wrap around screen is really something which should have been featured. I think it would not be any more difficult than the smaller screens because it is just more green screen, but I suppose it would have been more difficult because it was not used. Or, it was not used for aesthetic reasons.

There are actually several concepts for the Enterprise-D bridge which have a view screen which wraps at least a quarter if not more of the bridge. It wraps almost half the bridge circumference. There is also a fantastic Battlestar Galactica bridge concept with a huge screen.

I didn't like the transparent viewscreen in Kelvinverse because it was screwing around with something that never needed screwing around with in the first place. One of the most naive attitudes one can have is to think that the bridge module needs a literal "window".

A window on a space ship makes sense as final backup for navigation, really no more. All else fails, an astronaut can point an optical navigation device at the stars and do calculations by hand. It doesn't have to be on the bridge, but it makes a little sense for the final backup navigation method to be easily accessible by the command staff driving the ship.

Personally I would make a separate compartment for the that stuff along with its own ship controls so it can act as a tertiary bridge after engineering.

 

[RAMA]

There was a wra[ around viewscreen for an early production design for the Excelsior bridge in STIII. There was also one rendered for a possible bridge for Voyager.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And instead of flying the ship at a console, you could run around in a holodeck-style room and direct the ship with your movements. So you turn 180 degrees and begin to walk up the wall, then your ship rotates and flies upward.

Like that B5 spinoff with the Rangers, featuring the ship with a weapons control system based on punching and kicking. Yeah, I'd advise against Trek going there...

Trek technology works the way it does because it looks cool. Tae-Bo helm control would not.

As for the viewscreen? Maybe the characters don't need to see what's outside, but the viewers do. And of course there's ship-to-ship communications to consider as well. And the easiest way to do that, is to have a viewscreen.

(I mean, why else do you think the DS9 holo-communicator died a quick death?)

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

And instead of flying the ship at a console, you could run around in a holodeck-style room and direct the ship with your movements. So you turn 180 degrees and begin to walk up the wall, then your ship rotates and flies upward.

Kinda like weapons control onboard the Liandra from "Legend of the Rangers".

 

[Idran]

And instead of flying the ship at a console, you could run around in a holodeck-style room and direct the ship with your movements. So you turn 180 degrees and begin to walk up the wall, then your ship rotates and flies upward.

Wouldn't that be more tiring, slower, and less accurate as a control scheme?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Okay, so a one-off alien race whose ships work like that, and a Starfleet crew member has to fill in flying it.

A window on a space ship makes sense as final backup for navigation, really no more. All else fails, an astronaut can point an optical navigation device at the stars and do calculations by hand. It doesn't have to be on the bridge, but it makes a little sense for the final backup navigation method to be easily accessible by the command staff driving the ship.

It's better than having to cut a hole in the wall. Though actually, I would like to see that. "Get the screen out of the way. If we make a hole right here and surround it with force field generators, we should be able to see what's going on without getting sucked out."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ And what happens when the generators fail?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

It would only be a temporary fix, a last ditch effort idea. Say they were in some alien ship with no working screen and had no other option...

 

[DrCorby]

Like that B5 spinoff with the Rangers, featuring the ship with a weapons control system based on punching and kicking. Yeah, I'd advise against Trek going there...

Trek technology works the way it does because it looks cool. Tae-Bo helm control would not.

The failed B5 spin-off pilot "The Legend of the Rangers" also came to my mind. While it might seem like a cool new way of depicting space combat in theory, in practice it most assuredly was not. Rather cringe-worthy, in fact.

As for the viewscreen? Maybe the characters don't need to see what's outside, but the viewers do. And of course there's ship-to-ship communications to consider as well. And the easiest way to do that, is to have a viewscreen.

For emergency navigation, a window could be useful. For ship-to-ship combat, a window is pretty useless in most cases. The distances would realistically be so large that other ships would only be dots of light, if that. And the speeds would be so great that any shot fired based on visual reckoning would miss by wide margins. A viewscreen is really much more practical, especially if it has tactical information superimposed on the view.

 

[Go-Captain]

Wouldn't that be more tiring, slower, and less accurate as a control scheme?

Yeah, imagine walking toward something to get a better look, only for the ship to get closer instead of the sensors narrowing for a better look.

It's better than having to cut a hole in the wall. Though actually, I would like to see that. "Get the screen out of the way. If we make a hole right here and surround it with force field generators, we should be able to see what's going on without getting sucked out."

Nemesis had the viewscreen of the Enterprise-E blown out and it got filled in by a force field, but it was slow to raise or manual and at least one person got sucked out. In the same movie Picard opens a hatch to show where they are, and instead of a window it is filled by a forcefield, so they seem to be have already gone that route in a minor way.

Since the ships already have loads of portholes I can only assume windows aren't a weakness, just a greater expense.

There is a scifi book (Spheres of Influence, I think) where the bridge of a ship has a window but it is specifically described as being a stronger material than the hull, with greater hardness but less flexibility. Its failure state is to shatter like a crystal, instead of deforming like metal as with the rest of the hull, but it doesn't matter because the hull would be destroyed first. The material is too expensive to build an entire ship out of it. The window also has various display functions so it can zoom and show status information a lot like the 2009 view screens.

 

[Darkwing]

The failed B5 spin-off pilot "The Legend of the Rangers" also came to my mind. While it might seem like a cool new way of depicting space combat in theory, in practice it most assuredly was not. Rather cringe-worthy, in fact.

Actually, that'd make sense as the control interface for primitive recruits. "We know you know how to fight hand to hand, and your race doesn't have artillery yet, so we made this custom holosuite fire control system so you can fight the way you're used to and this translates that for our computer". Which Klingons might do; the UFP could not. Something like the Galactics in an Andre Norton novel, maybe...

 

[DrCorby]

Actually, that'd make sense as the control interface for primitive recruits. "We know you know how to fight hand to hand, and your race doesn't have artillery yet, so we made this custom holosuite fire control system so you can fight the way you're used to and this translates that for our computer". Which Klingons might do; the UFP could not. Something like the Galactics in an Andre Norton novel, maybe...

But firing a spaceship's weapon systems isn't all that analogous to hand-to-hand combat. Yes. certain system responses could be programmed to react to certain physical actions, which was how "Legend of the Rangers" did it. But it still looked goofy and inefficient on screen. Might as well just go straight to mecha combat, a la Spaceballs...

 

[Darkwing]

A method primitive tribesmen can accept for starship combat is the only reason I can see why somebody would build such a kewl system. That, or if yo're selling the ship to the Pakled...