We often get asked about the design of the USS Enterprise's bridge. Most of us never actually get the opportunity to visit the nerve center of the Enterprise. Only senior officers, those assigned to duty shifts, those who have been granted meetings with Captain Picard, and engineers on repair assignments, have authority to visit the Bridge. The rest of will only see it in pictures.
Now, I have posted photos of the USS Enterprise-D Bridge in the past (you can find them on our website), but I haven’t shown the entire command center in one image. I had an artist draw up an illustration the Bridge, for those who are curious.
In the attached image, you can see the many command stations available on the Bridge. In the center, on the raised platform, is where the shift commanding officer sits. To his/her right and left are auxiliary command chairs, usually occupied by admirals, mission specialists or diplomatic personnel. At the front of the Bridge are the helm and operations consoles, and to the left and right of the command area are the raised-deck wall stations for communications (port) and science (starboard). The tactical officer sits at the console directly behind the captain’s chair, and the ship environmental and life support consoles line the rear of the Bridge.
The doors on the port side of the bridge lead to turbolifts down to the rest of the ship, while the open door in the lower center of this image leads to an express turbolift ending at the Battle Bridge in the stardrive section. The rear door on the upper left leads to the stairs down to the Bridge Conference Room, while the door opposite to that leads to a small Bridge officer restroom.
All Galaxy-class starships, except the prototype USS Galaxy, have this Bridge layout. The USS Galaxy is the only ship of this class to have a simpler Bridge layout – without the two side console areas (for communications and science). In that earlier layout, communication duties are integrated with the operations console, and science operations are at the rear of the Bridge.
The new Galaxy-class starbase saucers feature a different Operations Center layout that completely removes the standard command chairs and tactical area, and replaces them with a round operations table, duty chairs, and additional station support consoles as needed.
Other Galaxy-class Bridge layouts have been tested, but are not likely to enter service.
-Lieutenant Sam Archer
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December 14, 2364 -- (Original Devron Timeline)