So, you've got the latest and greatest starship, with cutting edge hyper warp engines, everything sensors, cloaking device, beehive barriers, and it's even got a fresh coat of paint.Why is the bridge right on top, where it can be easily targeted and blown away by a direct hit?
8 comments:
All the phlebotinum was taking up too much room, so there wasn't any space left.
Because you need to be able to see out of the windshield!
Nobody's really willing to talk about it, but the computer can actually handle everything, and it's well-shielded.
Because captains like to stay on top of things. :)
It's psychological. Height = power. Of course this is a stupid reason -- you should be using psychology against your enemies, not your own crew.
The real reason is "because that's where it is on sea vessels, and our space fleet is just like an ocean fleet," which is ten times dumber. On sea vessels, it's to give you a high vantage point. On spaceships, that doesn't mean anything, and they fly by instrument anyway.
On the other hand, since up and down are arbitrary in space, it doesn't really matter where you put the bridge, except whether it's more towards the interior or exterior. The question then becomes, "Why put it on the exterior?". Potential reasons are: to allow the command crew to look out the windows (even if only in the case of instrument failure), and to allow direct passage between the bridge and the outside. Not very convincing reasons, though.
Why does it even have a bridge? What kind of maniac lets people run all that hyper-technology? Gimme a Culture Mind any day of the week...
Well, look at it this way. The bridge is where all the managers live. The ship was designed and built not by managers but by engineers. And anyone who's read Dilbert knows what engineers think of managers.
I reckon it's all part of a cunning plan by Scotty to (ahem) "reduce management overhead" by introducing Kirk to the joys of vapourisation. If Spock gets it too, that'll just be a pleasant bonus.
(Hey, Lifewish. Check out the latest post on GDL. I only just now noticed one of your comments, and I had some thoughts on it.)
That's similar to what I'm saying... Perhaps Scotty is in league with the computers, or something. It would be somewhat amusing to see him 'talking' with the ship, plotting when it can overthrow the slow-thinking humans.
That's why he's wired the consoles with C4, you know.
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