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My own view is that such controls were simply en vogue during the TOS era - a trend. After all, most of the ship's systems were presumably maintained by its extremely powerful computer.. |
My own view is that such controls were simply en vogue during the TOS era - a trend. After all, most of the ship's systems were presumably maintained by its extremely powerful computer.. |
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| + | :True to an extent, but those interfaces were in use a lot longer than you indicate...all the way from the contols of the Phoenix (depicted in "First Contact" [movie]), through the NX-01 Enterprise (2150s) through the time of ST III (movie) (2280s), where we see the earliest "touch screen" controls (on the bridge of Excelsior).[[User:Capt Christopher Donovan|Capt Christopher Donovan]] 08:09, 28 December 2007 (UTC) |
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Revision as of 08:09, 28 December 2007
We all know that the at-first-glance antiquated flashing lights, switches, levers etc on the TOS Enterprise were simply the result of a 1960s view of the future.
However, has any canonical or semi-canonical revisionist explanation been offered as to why such user interfaces were employed in the 23rd century?
- Firstly, I object to the term "antiquated". We STILL use lights, switches, and levers in many many applications today, even where "touchscreens" etc would also work because they are simple to maintain and easy to read/manipulate.
- The TOS instruments depicted capabilities centuries beyond their mid-20th century equivilants. Take just the Engineering station on the bridge of the Enterprise-nil. ONE man, using a span of console not much larger than the span of his outstretched arms, could monitor and control the ENTIRE engineering functions of the ship directly if need be. Contrast that with the Main Mission room for the Apollo program, where it took dozens of people EACH with a console that big just to MONITOR the capsule systems in flight...they had no direct control over it.Capt Christopher Donovan 02:14, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
Well, I said "at-first-glance antiquated", which is a rather different sentiment to the one to which you object. I certainly did not intend to criticize Matt Jeffries et al for somehow not being farsighted enough. I simply wondered whether any canonical explanation for the apparent anachronism existed. After all, such interfaces had all but disappeared by TMP.
My own view is that such controls were simply en vogue during the TOS era - a trend. After all, most of the ship's systems were presumably maintained by its extremely powerful computer..
- True to an extent, but those interfaces were in use a lot longer than you indicate...all the way from the contols of the Phoenix (depicted in "First Contact" [movie]), through the NX-01 Enterprise (2150s) through the time of ST III (movie) (2280s), where we see the earliest "touch screen" controls (on the bridge of Excelsior).Capt Christopher Donovan 08:09, 28 December 2007 (UTC)