Phaser Turrets vs Strips

[WATCH-MAN]

It's more like connecting your keyboard with a overhead power line or overhead line.

[Sea Skimmer]

Maybe they use a small pressurized plasma conduit system tophysically operate valves on the main plasma conduit system as a throttle. With the manifold controls for the control plasma pipes located within the bridge consoles. So like hydraulic power and controls in a automatic transmission almost, except inherently highly explosive instead of just flammable!

[Alyrium Denryle]

Then it's like plugging my keyboard direct into the wall and the house being struck my lightning and me getting blown up.

That's a really stupid design. I appreciate they may need large amounts of power conduits to have things like forcefields and structural integrity but why does that run through the consoles? It's not normally the wall that explodes behind it - helm consoles spontaneously ignite and throw *rocks* at people.

It is only stupid if they have other options to handle their power requirements, and dont take those options.

They dont necessarily hook that up to their computers directly. Think of a ship like it is a building. Cable and pipes in the ceiling or floor, with wall-sockets running from those.

The difference is, because your primary power system is not power station 20 km away, it is a tube of plasma running off a fusion reactor or m/am reactor. You are also not isolated from that transformer by 45 meters of empty air. Rather, each transformer is local to the socket or cluster of sockets in a room, and is only partially sealed away because of other design constraints (you have to get wires from the transformer to your sockets, afterall).

We do regularly see bulkheads get blown out. So that would be surge or damaged induced failure to the primary power trunk. Keep in mind, staggering amounts of power. There is no choice but to use EM contained plasma for that, because no material can carry the necessary current load.

But what happens if the transformer gets hit by a massive power surge? Well when it happens to you in real life, nothing happens except a power outage. For them, it is somewhat (as in, holy fuck) more energetic and it happens in a mostly sealed place. The resultant gases want to escape and they go through the most readily available space. The spaces that permit them to feed power to whatever it is they are powering--their computer consoles. And of course you will get pieces of...stuff along with that.

[Prometheus Unbound]

In no sense should anything more than enough ampage and voltage be running through those things than to provide a touch screen interface.

There should not be bits flying out when it over-heats that can dig in to your neck or skull:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9sLn2SUGR6c/T ... rprise.jpg

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mem ... -prefix=en


There's no way that is acceptable from a touch screen interface, I don't care how many torpedoes hit the warp naecells and it happens to be directly connected to the helm.

That's retarded. And I don't meant that in a flippant way.


Starfleet consoles should NOT be exploding as they do - not when shields are up and weapons are firing. At the end of a losing battle, perhaps. But sparks and gas going mental at the first short is stupid.

[Borgholio]

IIRC, the whole exploding console brain bug started in Star Trek 2, when Savvik was running the Kobyashi Maru simulation, and it appeared that consoles were exploding and killing the crew when the ship got hit. I always figured those were simple pyrotechnics meant to simulate damage and casualties, but it morphed into actual exploding consoles killing people when TNG came out.

[Elheru Aran]

IIRC, the whole exploding console brain bug started in Star Trek 2, when Savvik was running the Kobyashi Maru simulation, and it appeared that consoles were exploding and killing the crew when the ship got hit. I always figured those were simple pyrotechnics meant to simulate damage and casualties, but it morphed into actual exploding consoles killing people when TNG came out.

How many exploding consoles were there in TNG actually? I don't remember a *lot* until after the episode with the Enterprise-C, which is what really, ahem, set it off.

Here's a fun parody from Reddit:

(Interior of USS Enterprise, the bridge crew looks tense. Frantic action of extras)

CUT TO PICARD: FIRE!

(Exterior shot. Phasers leap from the saucer section and explode against hull of Borg cube. The Borg cube is undamaged. Green phaser fire shoots from the corner of the cube, hitting the Enterprise near the bridge)

CUT TO INTERIOR SHOT OF ENTERPRISE BRIDGE:

(The ship doesn't move as the intertial dampeners actually work this time. Picard nods in grim defiance.)

WORF: Shields are down 25%

(The view screen shows another shot headed toward the bridge from the cube. CUT TO ENGINEERING STATION: Screen flickers and then the LCARS panel goes off like an old tube tv, leaving a little glowing light artifact circle that fades out)

Engineering Officer: AW SHIT! We tripped a breaker.

(Bridge crew turns to look at station, groans, murmurs of frustration emanate from the crew)

Engineering Officer: Does anyone know where the breaker box is?

Worf: Check the laundry room.

(Engineer officer darts out to flip breaker. Bridge crew turns back to the fight. The Enterprise darts nimbly around the cube, never keeping one side to the Borg to preserve shields, Engineering Officer pokes head around back wall of the Bridge)

Engineering Officer: Try it again.

(Data holds down power switch underneath the console)

Data: The panel is non functional

(Engineer disappears again, clicking and rummaging is heard out of shot. Data sits patiently, notices smudge on panel, beathes onto panel and wipes it with sleeve)

(From off of camera) Engineering Officer: We blew a fuse, damn it. Where do you guys keep the fuses?

(Without looking back) Riker: Check the drawer by the stove.

(From off camera) Engineer: Awww man. All we got are these blue ones. The one we blew was a red one.

Riker: Deanna, didn't I tell you to get some fuses when you went to the store?

(Troy rolls her eyes in exasperation and sighs) Troi: Goddamn it, Will, you know I'm a damn psychologist right? What do I know about fucking fuses and stuff. That's why we hired Geordi right? I told you to hire a handyman, and you keep asking me to do this stuff.

(Riker obviously frustrated and feeling attacked) Riker: Deanna, not now, we'll talk about this later.

Picard: Look, someone just fix the damn fuse. Swap the one from the garage until we can get to Home Depot.

(From off screen) Engineer: Got it!

(Data pushes the ON button. A Federation symbol appears on screen and a green progress bar rolls by. Finally the screen goes black and then the screen goes to a pleasant background image of a rolling green hill on Risa with a ringed moon behind it, a pop-up appears.)

Data: It is asking for the admin password.

Thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comme ... s_without/

[Eternal_Freedom]

IIRC, the whole exploding console brain bug started in Star Trek 2, when Savvik was running the Kobyashi Maru simulation, and it appeared that consoles were exploding and killing the crew when the ship got hit. I always figured those were simple pyrotechnics meant to simulate damage and casualties, but it morphed into actual exploding consoles killing people when TNG came out.

It's extremely odd, since IIRC we don't see any consoles exploding/sparking during the actual combat, with the possible exception of the trainee manning the weapons console having a burnt face after Reliant's initial attack.

[Simon_Jester]

During the first real space battle in the original series, Balance of Terror, the Enterprise takes a hit that causes an electrical fire on the bridge, which Spock then has to put out. It's not a console explosion, but it may represent a forerunner to the console explosion.

Also, console explosions don't seem to be very common in the TNG era, in that the ship gets shot at in numerous different episodes and rarely or never does one actually see a console explode. If bridge consoles explode once every ten or twenty incidents in which the ship takes heavy weapons fire, that's bad but it's just plain not the same order of problem as having the consoles exploding every single time, or every other time.

[Batman]

The problem with the exploding console is, I think, that it makes NO SENSE given our current understanding of engineering/electrical systems. There's nothing the console needs high energy plasma FOR, everything it does should be easily doable via electricity, and not all that much of it. A phaser emitter or deflector generator blowing up is one thing, but why should a bridge console have that much power running through it?

[Borgholio]

The problem with the exploding console is, I think, that it makes NO SENSE given our current understanding of engineering/electrical systems. There's nothing the console needs high energy plasma FOR, everything it does should be easily doable via electricity, and not all that much of it. A phaser emitter or deflector generator blowing up is one thing, but why should a bridge console have that much power running through it?

There is one thing to consider that I just thought about. Now we only see this once, so I don't know if this was a special setup or not...but in Voyager's "Year of Hell", Tuvok is blinded when an enemy torpedo hits the ship. He still functions as Tactical Officer because his console has a "tactile interface". So if the consoles are more than just glorified Ipads, that could certainly increase their power draw...but electricity should still be more than sufficient as a power source.

[Simon_Jester]

Some possibilities:

1) Standard shipboard computers may have very high power demands compared to what we're accustomed to. We know their computers don't really operate on the same principles as ours, so that seems like a possibility. If so, then a result, they need high-voltage high-current power lines running to the computers in or near the consoles. Or even if the power requirements aren't that severe, the battery backup for the console may be a high-energy system that can explode in flames the way laptop batteries do in real life (only more so).

2) The console itself isn't actually exploding, but something behind it is, something which actually needs to run near the bridge (say, a power line running to a shield generator that normally protects the bridge). In other words, the problem isn't the console, the problem is a totally unrelated high voltage power line that happens to be near the console.

3) The explosion of the console may be a result of some other, seemingly unrelated battle damage. The damage to the ship's overall electrical grid then causes an excessive amount of energy to 'short out' through the console, which is not normally designed to use such a large amount of energy. It seems likely that the floors and walls of the bridge are insulated against random electrical current from the power grid, but it may not be possible to electrically isolate the computer network from the main power grid well enough to fully withstand battle damage.

4) They may be using EPS conduit even when normal electrical current would suffice because of other issues. Say, because they need the power mains to be EPS conduits, and because they can't design a system that conveniently interfaces between EPS conduits and conventional wiring. Although in that case they should be able to build an auxiliary power system and run the consoles off that while using EPS only for main machinery and other high-power needs.

[Lord Revan]

the second option would make sense since I can remember only 1 time that the bridge got shot off a human designed starship (the NX-01 in this case) and one where it came close but didn't quite happen (Nemesis) so that suggests some additional protection for the bridge dispite how exposed it is.

so a secondary shield generator powerlines could the reason (as to why the walls aren't exploding it could be that consoles are the path of least resistance for the explotion to go).

[Simon_Jester]

Well, additional bridge shielding was just one of several possibilities- there are a LOT of things in the hull that could reasonably be placed near the bridge for a lot of reasons. But secondary bridge shielding is a good one if, for some reason, you actually have to put the bridge near the outer hull.

[Batman]

'Near'? The damned thing is at the very top of the saucer for no good reason. Hell this gets worse for nuTrek. Not only is the bridge still in that same stupid position but the main viewscreen is also a bigass window!

[Alyrium Denryle]

2) The console itself isn't actually exploding, but something behind it is, something which actually needs to run near the bridge (say, a power line running to a shield generator that normally protects the bridge). In other words, the problem isn't the console, the problem is a totally unrelated high voltage power line that happens to be near the console.

3) The explosion of the console may be a result of some other, seemingly unrelated battle damage. The damage to the ship's overall electrical grid then causes an excessive amount of energy to 'short out' through the console, which is not normally designed to use such a large amount of energy. It seems likely that the floors and walls of the bridge are insulated against random electrical current from the power grid, but it may not be possible to electrically isolate the computer network from the main power grid well enough to fully withstand battle damage.

These two options are pretty much what I have been getting at, you just said it better.

The power grid is partially plasma, partially electric current (plasma gets converted to electric current for systems with less power draw).

Systems that would be high power draw near the bridge would be a bridge shield generator, artificial gravity, plus redundant paths for power in the event of damage for other systems (otherwise, how the hell do they have such a vast capacity to reroute power?). Plus there are probably automatic cutoffs if containment is breached in the plasma conduits that seal off damaged sections and allow for backups to be used without massive loss.

So imagine box. You've got plasma contained in that box that feeds a transformer of some sort. That transformer feeds (relatively) low voltage/amperage current to the computer that is directly attached to the box. Every part of the box is sealed but one. The connections between the plasma containment and the transformer have to be more or less open by necessity. From there, you cannot fully seal the computer from that section because it needs power and data connections that run through the box.

Hit the plasma containment vessel really hard. You might lose containment. If you lose containment, you have plasma free in the box that wants to rapidly expand. It will expand into the path of least resistance, which means the tiny openings for power and data into the computer.

Even if it cools very quickly, it is still a hot rapidly expanding gas that gets into the computer... which wont be pleasant for someone standing in front of the integrated monitor which is the only opening to the outside.

Plus there are design constraints that might cause power surges to short through consoles that are not designed to handle the load.

...........

On other bigger ships with more stable power grids, this is less of a problem for a lot of reasons depending on how a ship that still has shields up is taking damage (power surges, conservation of momentum through the shield generators etc). Smaller ships would be more vulnerable to it, because the power requirements (and need for power lines) dont scale linearly with their mass.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

In which case, all you need to do is put vents in the sides of the consoles so that the gas can expand in a direction that doesn't involve the hapless operator. This is of course more difficult for the wall-mounted panels than the free standing type...

[Elheru Aran]

The plasma thing is still fricking dumb. You're basically running your computers off a high explosive? Something like that.

The fact of the matter is that they're using a highly dangerous method of computing, which is largely unnecessary for what they're doing, which means that frequently they're more or less literally exploding themselves in the foot.

I can accept that the main computer of the ship may require such technology... in which case, insulate it strictly from the rest of the ship by layers of armour; the main computer should be well protected anyway. But simple piloting and weapons commands? No. You don't need a plasma conduit to tell the ship 'shoot a torpedo at this target'.

But that wouldn't be gee-whiz, now would it...

[Lord Revan]

The plasma thing is still fricking dumb. You're basically running your computers off a high explosive? Something like that.

The fact of the matter is that they're using a highly dangerous method of computing, which is largely unnecessary for what they're doing, which means that frequently they're more or less literally exploding themselves in the foot.

I can accept that the main computer of the ship may require such technology... in which case, insulate it strictly from the rest of the ship by layers of armour; the main computer should be well protected anyway. But simple piloting and weapons commands? No. You don't need a plasma conduit to tell the ship 'shoot a torpedo at this target'.

But that wouldn't be gee-whiz, now would it...

as people have point (myself included) they might actually not be running the consoles directly with plasma conduits but rather there's high power systems in or near the bridge module (for example shield generators) and the consoles are the "path of least resistance" when the conduits burst, remember that conduits don't so much explode as burst like a water hose that's damaged.

[Elheru Aran]

The plasma thing is still fricking dumb. You're basically running your computers off a high explosive? Something like that.

The fact of the matter is that they're using a highly dangerous method of computing, which is largely unnecessary for what they're doing, which means that frequently they're more or less literally exploding themselves in the foot.

I can accept that the main computer of the ship may require such technology... in which case, insulate it strictly from the rest of the ship by layers of armour; the main computer should be well protected anyway. But simple piloting and weapons commands? No. You don't need a plasma conduit to tell the ship 'shoot a torpedo at this target'.

But that wouldn't be gee-whiz, now would it...

as people have point (myself included) they might actually not be running the consoles directly with plasma conduits but rather there's high power systems in or near the bridge module (for example shield generators) and the consoles are the "path of least resistance" when the conduits burst, remember that conduits don't so much explode as burst like a water hose that's damaged.

Still an example of terrible engineering. I get the existence of high power systems, but if they're *designed* to explode-- and after a few blown consoles they should damn well know what's going on-- they should explode *away* from the bridge. Shield generator protecting the bridge pops? Fine, have an explosion on the hull near the bridge... but people in the bridge shouldn't be having the equivalent of a hand grenade going off in their faces.

[Borgholio]

Still an example of terrible engineering. I get the existence of high power systems, but if they're *designed* to explode-- and after a few blown consoles they should damn well know what's going on-- they should explode *away* from the bridge. Shield generator protecting the bridge pops? Fine, have an explosion on the hull near the bridge... but people in the bridge shouldn't be having the equivalent of a hand grenade going off in their faces.

We already do this with tanks and armored vehicles. Any shell hit that penetrates the magazine will tend to explode outside the back of the tank instead of inside where it will turn the crew into chunky salsa. It's just good design practice. But I guess that goes right along with hull armor, having a bridge exposed on deck 1, and windows large enough to potentially decompress a whole deck in minutes as designs that they just didn't feel were worth it for some reason.

[Elheru Aran]

Still an example of terrible engineering. I get the existence of high power systems, but if they're *designed* to explode-- and after a few blown consoles they should damn well know what's going on-- they should explode *away* from the bridge. Shield generator protecting the bridge pops? Fine, have an explosion on the hull near the bridge... but people in the bridge shouldn't be having the equivalent of a hand grenade going off in their faces.

We already do this with tanks and armored vehicles. Any shell hit that penetrates the magazine will tend to explode outside the back of the tank instead of inside where it will turn the crew into chunky salsa. It's just good design practice. But I guess that goes right along with hull armor, having a bridge exposed on deck 1, and windows large enough to potentially decompress a whole deck in minutes as designs that they just didn't feel were worth it for some reason.

I get the whole gee-whiz-this-looks-cool angle, okay. But just... put some goddamn thought into it.

Big windows? Make it a *holograph*, cause that's kind of awesome, and if you have an emergency failure of the cameras capturing exterior views, well then have someone turn a crank to open the shutters, which can be a dramatic moment in and of itself.

Bridge view. Klingon Bird of Prey firing torpedoes directly at prow of starship. Bridge shudders and the large viewscreen in front goes dead.

PICARD: Damn it! Do we have secondary cameras?

DATA: Pulling it up, sir.

PICARD: Sensors! Do we have a fix on that Bird of Prey?

WORF: Readings are vague... it's running on low energy... I have a signal at 239 mark 95!

Viewscreen comes back on, flickering, off colour, but we can see the Bird of Prey starting to cloak off to the side as another zooms across the screen

RIKER: Lock torpedoes and fire!

WORF: Firing now, alpha spread!

Exterior view, torpedoes launch from starship. Off to the side of the bridge, another ship decloaks and fires.

Bridge shakes, Worf is thrown from his position, viewscreen dies again. When shaking stops, Picard stands and snaps:

PICARD: Ensign! Man the shutter release!

Ensign Goldshirt runs across the rear deck of bridge, opens wall panel, pulls out lever and starts jacking energetically. Mechanical shutters start opening slowly around bridge. Riker stands, as do Worf and Data, and they start looking out in different directions as Worf steps over to his station.

RIKER: There! Starboard, twenty degrees above our horizon!

We see a Bird of Prey slowly turning towards our heroes while the other two, in formation, warp away

PICARD: Worf, can you manually lock on?

WORF: Working...

RIKER: Data, man your station and stand by to fire second salvo. Ensign, keep your eyeballs in front!

PICARD: Fire when ready, Mr. Worf!

You get the idea.

The fact of the matter is that Star Trek has far too much of the gee-whiz, flash-bang high-tech solutions going on, that they've forgotten that there are *easier*, low tech solutions available.

Hell... you know the battle bridge on the Enterprise-D was in just about a perfect position. Well tucked in the body when the saucer and engineering section were together, compact setup, no external reveals. Sure, not as roomy, but that's not the point. *sigh*

[Prometheus Unbound]

Still an example of terrible engineering. I get the existence of high power systems, but if they're *designed* to explode-- and after a few blown consoles they should damn well know what's going on-- they should explode *away* from the bridge. Shield generator protecting the bridge pops? Fine, have an explosion on the hull near the bridge... but people in the bridge shouldn't be having the equivalent of a hand grenade going off in their faces.

We already do this with tanks and armored vehicles. Any shell hit that penetrates the magazine will tend to explode outside the back of the tank instead of inside where it will turn the crew into chunky salsa. It's just good design practice.

And we can do that in the 21st century in a tiny metal box. Federation starships sometimes have entire decks that are empty. There's loads of room available, even on an Intrepid class ship.

I know I probably come across as being a bit dickish on the subject. And I'm fully aware of the reasons why it's done on a TV show and film franchise - it looks exciting, it shows drama etc. And Star Trek isn't the only one that does it - B5, SG1, Atlantis etc all did it too. I think Trek did it first though, by virtue of being the oldest.

It happened a couple of times in TOS - a console overloaded. There was an electrical flash and it was considered extraordinary.

ST:TMP has Chevok burning his hand. In these days, he'd be thrown across the room as half the console blows up in his face

ST:2 came along and then we had the initial blowings up and and then later on serious hits against the Enterprise bridge, Engineering and Reliant bridge. But it also seemed to "fit". None of that seemed to come across as too much, even if it doesn't make perfect sense (why was the bridge on fire? The bridge wasn't struck. Actual fires on the doors etc. No sense really but hey ho

ST:3 Scotty gets a small shock when the entire computer system of the ship overloads and knocks out everything at once. It sparks a little and he says "ah!". That's it. Then "the automation system's overloaded". He wasn't ejected from his seat toward the view screen, breaking his neck or anything.

I think TNG did it first in season 3. There was Yesterday's Enterprise and also The Survivors (Kevin Uxbridge). And The Survivors is only a small electrical flash and discharge/smoke - everything is fine.

Even in The Best of Both Worlds, whilst people were shaking, there weren't bridge consoles exploding at all, even with the Borg lowering the shields and cutting into the Engineering Hull.

Indeed, when they initially take a section of the Enterprise in Q-Who, there's no explosions or shaking - Riker just says a laser is cutting into the hull. You wouldn't know it if someone hadn't said.


In Redemption a Klingon gets the same treatment as Yesterday's Enterprise:




We don't really get too much more of it, until DS9 and Voyager - I suppose because they had more space battles. Even in Season 5 TNG Darmok, there's no explosions, just lights going out.


Then the Intrepid - jesus christ. Every time something taps the ship, there's sparks, explosions, consoles blowing out, white smoke (is that meant to be the fire suppressant system?) flying out everywhere, obscuring views... and spraying into the faces of people using the consoles. Literally spraying in their faces sometimes. Other times it just slowly vents like someone's put too much dry ice in a container behind the computer monitor. Weird thing to do but there we go.

What the hell kind of design philosophy is this? Seriously.


And the Galaxy doesn't escape. Installing that new bridge module for Generations seems to have introduced literal rocks into the bulkheads. Literally rocks are embedded into the bulkheads and explode all over people.

The following is from the first shots after the initial two torpedoes. At this stage, Engineering is fine (although a hit was nearby).

The BoP fires on Engineering again:





And so of course, the new station added to the right of Helm immediately blow up from the side



And propels him across the bridge to land in front of the captain. That's over 8 feet. And a somersault. Naturally.



The Helm station then spontaneously explodes, knocking out poor Lt Jae






That's about 3 seconds into the battle. The battle lasts 2 minutes. I think I could keep doing this but you get the idea.





Same for Nemesis.

ST09 I actually give a pass on, because the ship was actually getting torn to shreds, it wasn't a light tap.

Voyager can have shields up just fine and yet have explosions 5 feet from the warp core. It's mental.

I know why it's done, but even a cursory glance must make some people go "eh?" The ship is nearly a kilometer long. It's huge. A torpedo on the back is not ... sorry, should not make anything on the bridge do anything to throw people out their chairs, kill them or otherwise incapacitate them.



Don't even get me fucking started on the lighting systems they have on the bridge.

[Prometheus Unbound]

Big windows? Make it a *holograph*, cause that's kind of awesome, and if you have an emergency failure of the cameras capturing exterior views, well then have someone turn a crank to open the shutters, which can be a dramatic moment in and of itself.

The viewscreen in ST:FC was a holographic one ... I think that's the closest they got.

ST:09 decided to make it literally a window ><

[Prometheus Unbound]

Don't even get me fucking started on the lighting systems they have on the bridge.

I'll get myself started. Sorry, I can't edit the post any more (tried to and had to re-write / edit the below) and it seems pointless to start a new thread on it tbh. Someone on Reddit asked:

What is the function and purpose of the green dome on the bridge ceiling in Star Trek the Motion Picture?


My answer:

They have them on most ships. Its purpose seems to be to fall down and hurt people during critical moments. This happened to Khan's crew in ST2 and it happened to Mayweather in Enterprise Azati Prime.

It seems to consist of glass, a light in the middle, and lots and lots of cables which have enough extra wiring in there to allow it to drop 8-10 feet when drama requires.

The Enterprise D seems to have a plexi-glass viewing hole for some reason. OOU, that's where they had some lighting fixtures. I think we only see it, smashed, in ST:GEN. I believe, and this could be wrong, that the *only* times we see them do *anything* in 50 years of Star Trek TV shows and Films, is when they explode and fall down, killing people.

http://imgur.com/a/3wZJv

Other than that, they are never referenced or shown to do anything obvious. TMP has some sort of Enterprise diagram on it but it doesn't seem to do anything other than be a static picture of the ship.

And I can't think of a plausible in universe explanation other than "light fitting". I know Starfleet likes to pack C4 in the consoles for shits and giggles, I suppose following that design aesthetic, these are packed with light bulbs, shattered glass, live electrical cables and a bunch of small styrofoam shells painted to look like rocks and stones, for some reason. -- **Which is exactly what we see falling out**

And of course with 24th century design techniques, the light weight plastics we use these days to cover lights aren't used - instead a 200kg rocket propelled pulley and pneumatic system is set in place to eject it from the ceiling at maximum possible speed straight down onto the helm station.

It was the source of the red lighting / emergency lighting seen in ST2 and ST3.

My best, honest, guess is that it performed some sort of function around TMP (has a graphic on it) and over time it just stopped being used. By ST6 it was defunct and just turned off - they just never bothered removing it.

Possibly because of the millions of casualties caused over the decades. Starfleet went "hmm. Maybe not" and that was that.

Voyager doesn't have one, the Defiant doesn't and neither does the Galaxy class.

Reddit Edit:

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Brid ... Bridge.jpg

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Brid ... Bridge.jpg

Nope, it's a light fixture apparently.

I see the Kelvin's one is large enough to take out the entire senior command staff, if required. Luckily Nero did that before anyone needed to get further hurt by design.

This one has glass tubes hanging from it!

You go Starfleet! At least the Intrepid's one won't hurt anyone immediately. However that ship is prone to spewing out poisonous gas out of all possible computers and chairs and replicators when they get hit by something, so maybe it's a gas dispenser. Perhaps rather than exploding, falling and killing the bridge crew, the Intrepid one gasses everyone in the room if it takes a direct hit?

It turns Red and Blue depending on alert status (default is white light with some minor blue bits). That matches with ST2 and ST3 as a lighting fixture.

For the life of me, in all seriousness, I can't figure it out. If it's a lighting fixture then *my god* it's one of the worst designed ones possible, given that it apparently can just fall out of the ceiling and kill people.

If it's an MSD it's in a really weird place and the captain has to look in a strange direction.

So what do we have?

TOS - didn't have one - initially at least, the ceiling was plexi-glass (The Cage, The Menagerie)

TMP - Some sort of picture of the Enterprise with text so small the captain couldn't read it if he wanted to from that distance

TWOK - Red Alert light fixtures (and explodes on the Relient, releasing a massive bundle of cables and sparks and metal pipes and god knows what was in that thing for a light bulb). I think the speaker from the "distress call" is placed in it, during the Kobyashi Maru simulation but I'm not certain.

ST3 - Red Alert light fixtures

ST4 - I don't think we see it?

ST5 - I'm not sure if we see it and I can't be bothered searching

ST6 - It's turned off

TNG - they have a glass roof again for some reason.

DS9 - the Defiant doesn't have one - it just has a normal roof

VOY - Has a very large one which apparently just alternates between blue and red. This may get blown up in Year of Hell, I'm not sure.

ENT - Prequal and back to filled with nails, broken glass and this time what appears to be a pneumatic system that forces it down on to poor Mayweather.

[Elheru Aran]

I suspect you could fill a book with all the design flaws found in Trek ships... hell, you should write one. "Spaceship Building and Design-- What Star Trek Taught Us NOT to Do"