Kevin's Watch

I am a little lost trying to picture these bridges in my mind, spoiled by pulp-science fiction as I am. I did see Space Odyssey, which seems similar.

The author has done an great job in creating the scenes so that I can envision every minor detail, but the bridge scenes particularly in captain's fancy elude my imagination.

I've always pictured what might be called a kind of a bleak Star Trek look. Same basic stations and layout, but darker, less color, less advanced computers.

They were all circular, weren't they? Or at least, the bigger ships were. A big circle with the stations around the outside, which rotated to give the effect of gravity. So if you're on the 'floor' and look up, you see the floor above you. Or am I thinking of ships in a different book? I've got myself confused.

Sorus wrote:I've always pictured what might be called a kind of a bleak Star Trek look. Same basic stations and layout, but darker, less color, less advanced computers.

Except that the bridge is designed with the centrifugal effects of internal spin in mind. It's like a big hamster wheel (as I understood it) with the entrances to the rest of the ship, on one of the circular faces, and the various displays on the other face; the "floor" is the entire inner curved surface, and the crew's stations are spread evenly around it (though I think it mentions that they can move around if needed).

At least, that's my impression of Captain's Fancy, and I think Punisher has a similar layout (but I imagined it bigger, darker, and with a few raised platforms).

Ok.
Now, I'm probably the worst artist in the world, but here are a couple of (helpfully labelled, because otherwise you won't know WHAT'S going on) very rough sketches of how I picture the CF bridge.



I've no doubt missed some crucial description of some feature somewhere, of course.

does anybody here remember 2001: A Space Odyssey? sounds like the visual you guys are trying to get...... the space station had the whole spinning thing.....

Oh, great. If I'd known I could've found some film stills that showed it I wouldn't have had to embarrass myself with my drawings

embarrassed? I thought it was rather brave of you to do it and admire you more for it.....

Seconded.

And I agree entirely on the bridge layout.

That is a good match to the description in FK. I think my mental image is so different because I don't picture them always being in zero G.

The one thing I struggled to get my head around was the companionway. In a sailing vessel the companionway is the steps that lead from the deck to the cabin (can be above or below the deck). SRD refers to the companionway 'retracting' which lead me to think that people actually entered the bridge from an entrance in the centre of the back wall. The stairway would slide out from the wall, providing access to any part of the bridge. Of course, this would require the actual entrance to be dead centre in the ship and therefore have no gravity, and I don't remember SRD referring to this.

I struggled with that too, so I ignored it.

I pretty much ignored it too, but now in my 3rd time through, its starting to bug me. For some reason, Punisher's bridge seemed easier for me to visualize, like a dark ST:ToS bridge, and the Captain's Fancy like a something from Space Odyssey. Good drawing too...

All I can picture from Bright Beauty and Trumpet are two stations side by side in the center of a bulbous room, with an entrance behind them to the rest of the ships.

Also, I would kind of like to see what you think the ships look like from the outside. The German book covers look more convincing than the American ones. Damn I wish this was a movie, or an animated series, but I suppose that would take away from the thick plat and deep characters.

Nav wrote:Of course, this would require the actual entrance to be dead centre in the ship and therefore have no gravity, and I don't remember SRD referring to this.

I'm not 100% certain, but I seem to remember Trumpet (the only vessel I recall having a companionway) was always free of gravity. I remember something about it being too small to have internal spin like the larger vessels. The bridge does, however, swivel around to face whichever direction trumpet is moving.

Hmm, maybe there wasn't a companionway on the CF after all. If Trumpet's bridge moved around, it might explain the companionway being retractable.