Kathryn Janeway looks out the window of her ready room
The captain's ready room, also known as the captain's office, was a personal office reserved for the commanding officer of a starship and was typically accessed from the bridge.
Here, the captain could engage in administrative work with all relevant office equipment at hand without interfering with bridge operations while having instant access to the bridge in the event of a crisis. In addition, this room was usually the preferred place where the captain could hold private discussions and/or receive classified communications.
In the absence of the ship's commanding officer, the use of the ready room accordingly fell to whichever officer was in command of the vessel at the time. (TNG: "The Arsenal of Freedom", etc.)
Starship ready rooms[]
NX-class[]
Jonathan Archer's ready room aboard Enterprise
On NX-class vessels of the 22nd century, the captain's ready room was located starboard of the bridge, directly across from the turbolift. Office space in these early ready rooms was much more cramped than that of 24th century vessels and featured pipes running along the length of the ceiling, which was itself relatively low. The room had one window and one door. (Star Trek: Enterprise)
The set of the captain's ready room was built on Paramount Stage 18.
A short corridor outside the room was usually used as an access to and from the bridge, although it also led to the starship's network of corridors. (ENT: "Chosen Realm", "Affliction") The ready room was located to the aft of an emergency rescue hatch, as an exterior sign indicating this hatch's location was visible immediately below the ready room window. (ENT: "Shadows of P'Jem")
Aboard Enterprise, Captain Jonathan Archer's ready room was sparse compared to its future counterparts, featuring a desk, small couch and portraits of ships named Enterprise, including a sailing ship, the second aircraft carrier, the orbiter, and the NX-01 itself. (Star Trek: Enterprise) The room was plagued by a persistent squeak that, though seemingly repaired, resurfaced from time to time until it was apparently fixed for good by the automated repair station in 2152. (ENT: "Fight or Flight", "Dead Stop") Two years later, the room was one of numerous areas aboard the ship that were heavily damaged during the Battle of Azati Prime. Thereafter, neither the room's door nor its door chime were functioning. (ENT: "Damage")
A version of Enterprise from an alternate timeline in which the vessel was sent back 117 years into the past retained its ready room until at least 2154. However, at that point, the room no longer had its sketches of Enterprise, as they had been replaced with various alien-looking artifacts. ("E²")
The set for Archer's ready room was intentionally built to be cramped. "Captain Archer's ready room was designed to have low ceilings, so we would see Scott Bakula have to bend over, a little bit, when he moved around in there," observed Visual Effects Producer Dan Curry. "That gave the impression about how valuable space is in this craft, just how it would be in a submarine." ("Silent Enemy" audio commentary, ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) The cramped quality of the set led the actors and production staff members to sometimes hit their heads on the ceiling. During production of Star Trek: Enterprise's first season, Chief Lighting Technician Bill Peets observed, "Because the set is so low, we have a running joke: Who hit their head today? Some people actually wear hard hats now because so many people have cold-cocked themselves and gotten a lump on their noggins, including the actors. When you get to this set you've got to be careful." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 138, p. 51) Some of the furnishings in the set for Archer's ready room came from a French designer. (citation needed • edit)
All the prints in the series of Enterprise illustrations were made by John Eaves, who, due to his own oversight, had only twenty-four hours to produce the drawings. A fifth, that of the World War Two carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) was additionally slated to be part of the series, but had to be left out due to space restrictions on the wall. [1] Set Decorator James Mees recalled of the ready room, "We were trying to show that [Archer] was someone who had a past, a good past, and who remembered that past; that's what the show is so much about." (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 3, p. 85
In the first draft script of "Shadows of P'Jem" (written while the episode had the working title "Untitled Andorians Return"), the ready room on Enterprise was used for a meeting between Commander Tucker, Lieutenant Reed, and Captain Sopek. In the final draft script and the final edit of the episode, the setting for that scene was changed to the situation room.
As evidenced by the final draft script of ENT: "Acquisition", a short, ultimately excised scene from that episode was to have shown a Ferengi named Ulis searching Captain Archer's ready room for the ship's vault.
In the final draft script of "E²", the ready room aboard the version of Enterprise from an alternate timeline was described thus; "In contrast to Archer's ready room, this one is a little run down, and is filled with Vulcan and alien artifacts (the Enterprise artwork has been removed)."
Walker-class[]
The Walker-class starship featured a ready room to the port side of the bridge. It contained a desk for the captain as well as a conference table with six seats.
The USS Shenzhou had a ready room in which Captain Philippa Georgiou and first officer Michael Burnham had a heated discussion about how to respond to a Klingon vessel. (DIS: "The Vulcan Hello")
Crossfield-class[]
The Crossfield-class starship featured a ready room to the port side of the bridge. It was lightly furnished with a standing desk for the captain, a computer, and several large wall-mounted displays.
The USS Discovery had a ready room located to the port side of the main brdge in which Captain Gabriel Lorca and Michael Burnham first met after Burnham's prison shuttle was rescued by the Discovery. (DIS: "Context Is for Kings")
When Captain Christopher Pike took command of Discovery, his ready room was set up on a separate part of the ship, disconnected from the bridge. It was larger than Lorca's and contained a large computer table, numerous wall mounted displays, as well as personal effects Pike brought from Mojave. (DIS: "New Eden") Both Saru and Michael Burnham retained the use of this room during their respective commands, with the old ready room converted to a science and mission planing room.
Tamara Deverell, identified Pike's effects as a table from his childhood that had been hit by lightning, Frederic Remington statues, and Navajo artwork and pottery. [2]
Constitution-class[]
On the Constitution-class, the ready room's location varied based on the class's configuration. On the starship's configuration in 2245 to 2254, the ready room was not located on the main bridge and was instead on another deck, featuring a table for the senior officers and captain. After the class's first overhaul around the end of 2254, the ready room on the same deck since the bridge had been moved down to deck 2 allowing for the two rooms to be connected. In 2259, the ready room was still located behind the main bridge and featured a desk for the captain, as well as an additional conference table for the crew. (SNW: "Strange New Worlds")
Galaxy-class[]
On a Galaxy-class starship, the captain's ready room was located port of the main bridge, beside the forward-port turbolift. It was approximately seven meters in length. (TNG: "A Matter Of Time")
Among the items kept in Captain Jean-Luc Picard's ready room was a copy of The Globe Illustrated Shakespeare: The Complete Works, a model of a Constellation-class starship (registry NCC-7100), a crystal model of a sailing ship, an ancient nautical sextant, a Mintakan tapestry, and the Kurlan naiskos given to Picard by his mentor, Professor Galen, (TNG: "Hide And Q", "Who Watches The Watchers", "The Chase"; Star Trek Generations) as well as a saltwater aquarium containing his fish, Livingston.
The room featured a large desk, with a personal computer and three chairs, a couch, a large portrait of the USS Enterprise-D, and, in a side alcove, a food replicator.
Shortly after it was decided that the Galaxy-class would have a captain's ready room, Andrew Probert suggested placing the office area so that it opened onto the upper level of the bridge, to increase dramatic impact. At first, Gene Roddenberry agreed with this proposal. The reason the ready room was moved down to its eventual position was to facilitate a shorter, more direct route to the command chair. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 3rd ed., p. 8)
Construction on the Galaxy-class ready room set began on Paramount Stage 6 in March 1987. The set remained there for a year before being permanently located on the adjacent Stage 8. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 3rd ed., p. 9)
The alcove where the replicator was located was supposed to open into a side corridor, leading to a bathroom. However, it was never shown on camera and a set was never constructed. The corridor, however, was briefly seen in TNG: "The Neutral Zone", showing Picard walking out of the corridor, back into the ready room proper. Also, the couch in Picard's ready room was actually constructed to slide out from the wall for use as a bed; though this function was never seen in use, it could occasionally be seen with the bed part either pushed too far into the wall or sticking out farther than intended.
The replicator in the rear alcove
An exterior shot looking into Picard's ready room, from TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", "Darmok" and "Conundrum", showed the outside bulkhead of the ready room as squarish in shape. This did not match the configuration seen on the exterior model of the Enterprise-D. Also incorrect was the reflection in the window, proving a perspective that made it appear as though the ready room window actually faced forward.
In the film Star Trek Generations, the fish tank was seen blackened and apparently drained following the crash of the Enterprise. When asked what exactly had happened to Picard's fish, the producers admitted that it most likely perished in the crash. (citation needed • edit)
Many of the scenes involving conversations in Picard's TNG ready room were filmed independently from scenes on the bridge, meaning that the latter wasn't always fully dressed, when seen from inside Picard's ready room through the open door. Oftentimes this resulted in the bridge set outside the door not being fully "ready" as a real bridge would be; many times, particularly during the last two seasons, the emergency turbolift alcove directly across from the ready room alcove was not lit and, in many cases, the two forward consoles were not staffed. Also, there were many instances when an actor would come to speak with Picard actor Patrick Stewart and then leave the ready room set, with the camera (and, therefore, the audience) remaining in the ready room with Picard; through the open doorway, the departing actor could clearly be seen walking towards the viewscreen. Within the Star Trek universe, those actors would have been stepping into a solid wall where the viewscreen was; as it was, the nine-foot-tall cavity where the viewscreen supposedly stood was actually the means by which actors entered and left the set, as it opened directly onto the soundstage. Only in scenes specifically requiring the viewscreen to be seen was the bottom of the screen frame – discernible by two vertical separation lines near the corners where that part could be removed – attached, and either a bluescreen matte or a starfield drape placed outside, to give the illusion of an image.
The ready room's large painting of the Enterprise-D was created in 1987. While the sets for TNG were under construction, Andrew Probert and Rick Sternbach became interested in providing some form of decoration to fill up a large blank wall space which was over the couch in the newly designed ready room. "So Andy and I approached [Set Decorator] John Dwyer […] and said, 'Something needs to be put over that couch,'" remembered Sternbach. "Then we volunteered to do a painting." Bearing in mind that captains' offices typically have some form of ship painting, Probert and Sternbach agreed it would be fun if the painting was an illustration of Picard's own vessel. Probert subsequently planned the picture's layout. Having no office computers, the pair of production staffers chose to render the image using traditional media, which were acrylics on eighth-inch Masonite. Sternbach painted the background then Probert painted the ship, impressing one another with their work. "We did it on our own time," said Probert, recalling the picture's creation. "Each of us took it home to work on. When it was ready, we loaned it to John to put in the captain's office." During the series run of TNG, many viewers were awed by the painting when they saw it on-screen but it was only ever mentioned in a single episode: by Berlinghoff Rasmussen in "A Matter Of Time". Several prints and posters of the painting were publicly released after the series concluded. "The painting got around," noted Sternbach. (Star Trek: The Next Generation 365, p. 233) Although David A. Goodman regarded the TNG captain's office as "beautiful," he referred to the Enterprise picture as "terrible." ("The Forgotten" audio commentary, ENT Season 3 Blu-ray special features)
The crystalline sailing ship model was made by Hawaii artist Anthony Vannatta. (Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 2, p. 207)
Despite remaining mostly unchanged throughout its service aboard the Enterprise-D, Picard's ready room was temporarily redecorated (most notably, the fish tank removed) when Captain Edward Jellico briefly took command in 2369. (TNG: "Chain Of Command, Part I", "Chain Of Command, Part II")
In an alternate timeline in 2366 in which the Federation was at war with the Klingon Empire, Picard's ready room was much more austere and contained none of the personal touches seen in the normal timeline. Like the rest of the vessel, it was less brightly lit and contained a monitor showing a map of the conflict. Picard held a briefing with the senior staff here in which he outlined his intention to send the crew of the Enterprise-C back through a temporal rift. (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise")
In an alternate quantum reality visited by Worf in 2370, William T. Riker was the captain of the Enterprise-D and his trombone was on display in the ready room. (TNG: "Parallels")
A smaller, seldom-used ready room was also incorporated into the battle bridge on the stardrive section of the ship. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint")
Matching its on-screen appearance, the set for the battle ready room was actually constructed adjacent to the battle bridge set. (Starlog issue 115, p. 75)
Defiant-class[]
The ready room aboard the Defiant
Like the other rooms on the USS Defiant, the ready room of the Defiant-class was small and compact.
In 2374, Captain Tim Watters spoke to Nog in the USS Valiant's ready room. Watters told him of the Valiant's mission to destroy a Jem'Hadar battleship.
Watters and Karen Farris later brought Jake Sisko to the ready room to warn him to stay away from Dorian Collins. (DS9: "Valiant")
Several months later, Captain Benjamin Sisko spoke to Captain Lisa Cusak from his ready room. They talked about the Dominion War, Starfleet's attempts to liberate Betazed from the Dominion and his discomfort with having Kasidy Yates aboard. (DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice")
In 2375, Sisko spoke to Ezri Dax on Deep Space 9 from his ready room on the Defiant to tell her they had been unsuccessful in locating Worf and other members of the IKS Koraga. (DS9: "Penumbra")
The Defiant ready room initially appeared as Admiral Ross's office on Starbase 375 in the beginning of Season 6 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It was part of the set extensions created between seasons that saw the engineering set for the Defiant connected to the Mess Hall set on Stage 18.
Intrepid-class[]
An Intrepid-class ready room
The Intrepid-class ready room
On an Intrepid-class starship, the captain's ready room was located starboard of the main bridge, beside the tactical station.
The desk, which featured a work area and access console, was the focal point of the room, located in front of the main entrance door. A raised level in the front section of the room featured a small table, a curved couch, and a food replicator.
The bulkhead behind the couch featured three windows facing the bow of the ship. A port-facing door beside the main entrance provided secondary access to the room from a deck 1 corridor. (VOY: "Shattered")
A shelf beside the main work desk allowed the commanding officer to display personal belongings. Captain Kathryn Janeway, of the Intrepid-class USS Voyager, used this shelf to display various historical and archaeological items.
The windows in the USS Voyager ready room were a reuse of the windows from the Ten Forward set from Star Trek: The Next Generation flipped upside down. The same was true of Voyager's briefing room.
For the production of Star Trek: Insurrection, Captain Janeway's ready room was redressed for use as Counselor Troi's office (somewhat appropriately, since Janeway's couch was first seen on TNG in Troi's Enterprise-D office). The set was also modified for the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Author, Author", lit with darker tones and decorated not with historical and archaeological items, but with weapons of various designs.
The Voyager briefing room set was reused to represent Admiral William Ross' ready room aboard the Intrepid-class USS Bellerophon in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges".
The schematics for the Voyager ready room were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. They were drawn by production designer Richard James and set designer John Chichester and located on Paramount Stage 8. [3](X)
Sovereign-class[]
A Sovereign-class ready room
Aboard Sovereign-class vessels, the ready room was located to the forward starboard side of the main bridge. It featured a small window looking out into space and a private entrance located off the bridge.
Captain Picard's ready room aboard the USS Enterprise-E featured a desk and small couch. It was decorated with items from the previous Enterprise, including his Mintakan tapestry.
The set for this captain's ready room was constructed on Paramount Stage 29. (Star Trek Monthly issue 20)
While none of the TNG films ever really featured a clear shot of Captain Picard's ready room, publicity stills from Star Trek: First Contact did show evidence of the existence of a cylindrical-shaped fish tank that apparently did not make it into the final cut of that movie, nor any of the others.
The room was mostly unchanged in Star Trek: Insurrection. However, director Stuart Baird requested that it be redecorated for its appearance in Star Trek Nemesis, thus, the Mintakan tapestry was removed. Also, the small corridor leading to the bridge was slightly lengthened and the model of the Enterprise was added.
One of the large isolinear data modules seen on Picard's desk in his ready room was auctioned off in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction.
California-class[]
A California-class ready room
A California-class ready room, viewed from the ship's exterior
Aboard California-class ships, the captain's ready room was located off the bridge, with a single room-wide window to space. The room featured shelving and framing built into the walls, a desk and chairs, a replicator, and bench-style seating along the wall opposite the desk.
Captain Carol Freeman decorated her ready room aboard the USS Cerritos with a flag of California, an ammonite fossil, a sword, a service cap, a Starfleet trophy, at least two models, a baseball, a sextant, three beverage bottles, a pineapple, a Gorn action figure, and a Samurai helmet. Freeman also kept a wooden box containing a Bajoran earring atop a folded Federation flag following the death of Shaxs. (LD: "Second Contact", "Much Ado About Boimler", "No Small Parts", "Strange Energies", et al.)
The ship models are like those seen on the USS Enterprise-D, the fossil is like the one on the USS Enterprise-E, the baseball is similar to the one kept by Benjamin Sisko aboard Deep Space 9, and the sword could be a reference to Mackenzie Calhoun from the Star Trek: New Frontier novel series.
Dauntless-class[]
A Dauntless-class ready room
The ready room of Dauntless-class vessels was divided into two sections. One side featured a desk and chairs and a large wall-mounted screen; the other side featured shelves and a seating area. A window to space spanned one entire side of the compartment. A communicator with a holographic screen was built into the room divider. (PRO: "Masquerade")
The location of this room on Deck B was labeled in the master situation display. (PRO: "Mindwalk")
On one of the MSDs, this room was labeled as the first officer's office. A clear view of the MSD was provided by Dominique Rossier of Wardenlight Studio. [4]
Lamarr-class[]
In 2384, the ready room's location in the USS Voyager-A was labeled in the ship's master systems display. (PRO: "Into the Breach, Part I")
A clear view of the Voyager-A MSD was provided by Dominique Rossier of Wardenlight Studio. [5]
Other[]
Captain Benjamin Maxwell had a ready room aboard the Nebula-class starship USS Phoenix in 2367, as did Captain Leyton aboard the USS Okinawa during the Tzenkethi War. (TNG: "The Wounded"; DS9: "Paradise Lost")
Ready rooms have also been included within starships built and used by other spacefaring organizations than Starfleet. The Andorian Imperial Guard, for example, were known to equip their vessels with such a room as early as 2153, when Commander Shran used a ready room on the Andorian battle cruiser Kumari. (ENT: "Proving Ground")
There was also a ready room aboard the Xindi-Primate Degra's ship, around the same time. (ENT: "The Forgotten")
There was, as well, a ready room aboard the Romulan vessel Devoras. (TNG: "Data's Day")
Similarly, the Klingon Empire constructed ready rooms in some of their Birds-of-Prey; Captain Kurn had a ready room aboard the IKS Hegh'ta in 2367 and General Martok had a ready room aboard the IKS Rotarran in the 2370s, and another while briefly serving as commander of the IKS Ch'Tang in 2375. (TNG: "Redemption"; DS9: "Soldiers of the Empire", "Sons and Daughters", "Once More Unto the Breach") The Vor'cha-class attack cruisers were, as well, equipped with ready rooms. (TNG: "Redemption")
Background information[]
In the script for "Redemption", the two ready rooms of the Hegh'ta and the Bortas were described and contrasted. Kurn's ready room was described as emphasizing "the prestige and prowess of the ship's captain. Weapons and trophies are boldly displayed on the wall and the captain's chair is bigger and highter than the other three seats." For Gowron's ready room aboard the Bortas, it was described as having more symbols, befitting the higher rank of Gowron in Klingon society.
A section of the script for DS9: "Paradise Lost" takes place inside the ready room of the Excelsior-class USS Lakota, but the same scene in the final version of the episode seems to take place on the ship's bridge. The Okinawa's ready room was mentioned in that episode but never appeared.|Worf and Martok are the only characters who were seen using both the ready rooms aboard the Rotarran and the Ch'Tang.
In the final draft script of "Proving Ground", the Andorian ready room was described as "a small compartment aboard Shran's ship, decorated with personal memorabilia from Shran's career in the Imperial Guard." The room was additionally described as including "a work area" at which the room's occupant could sit and "a small monitor".
In the final draft script of "The Forgotten", Degra's ready room was simply described as "A small private compartment on board Degra's ship."
Gates McFadden once joked that the ready room of the USS Pasteur could have contained a damaged memento from the Enterprise-D's ready room, suggesting either the lionfish, now skewered, or Picard's book of Shakespeare, ripped in half. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 306)
See also[]
Appendices[]
Background information[]
The concept of a ready room was first conceived by Robert H. Justman, who proposed the creation of such a room in a memo dated 9 November 1986. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, 3rd ed., p. 8) Years later, he recalled, "I suggested to Gene [Roddenberry] that we should have a captain's ready room, for what we both considered as a dramatic necessity. In a show like Star Trek, you need to have a place where the star, or the captain, can go to have a privileged conversation with someone else, without the possibility of being overheard. To me, the ready room was the perfect place to have that." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 115, p. 74) Justman took the idea from Navy experience he himself had had. [6] The ready room was therefore in accordance with Roddenberry wanting to adhere to naval custom. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 12, p. 24)
James Mees was of the opinion that the identity of a ready room's occupant should inform how the room itself looks. "My question is this: Does a ready room always have to have a desk, a chair, and a place for someone else to sit, or does the form and function of the room vary between races?" Mees asked. "To me, it seems clear that different people need different spaces. For instance, Degra's Ready Room is more a working laboratory than an office, because that's what he wants and needs." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 152, p. 36)
David A. Goodman picked fault with the captain's ready rooms whose walls featured Enterprise pictures, such as the ready room aboard the NX-class Enterprise and the equivalent room on the Galaxy-class Enterprise. He thought it unrealistic that a person's office aboard an active spacecraft would have images depicting outer space, rather than trees or other more down-to-earth imagery. Although Chris Black countered that each captain couldn't see their respective spacecraft from the outside, Goodman noted each vessel's external appearance was nonetheless known by its commanding officer. Black settled the debate by reminding Goodman he meanwhile had a picture of his office building on a wall in his own office. ("The Forgotten" audio commentary, ENT Season 3 Blu-ray special features)
The practice of using ready rooms seemed to have fallen into disuse by the mid-23rd century, as the original USS Enterprise did not appear to have an area specifically designed to serve as a ready room – at least none that was shown in the entire run of The Original Series. Captains instead received a small office area in their quarters, as seen aboard the Enterprise refit in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Although space station Deep Space 9 likewise didn't feature a captain's ready room, it nonetheless had an office for the facility's commanding officer and Production Designer Herman Zimmerman likened it to a captain's ready room. ("The Deep Space Nine Scrapbook", DS9 Season 1 DVD special features; Trek: Deepspace Nine, p. 57)
Apocrypha[]
The Pocket TOS novel The Captain's Oath explains that James T. Kirk has no ready room aboard the USS Enterprise because he did not need one; his yeoman would handle paperwork in an office adjacent to Kirk's quarters instead. Author Christopher L. Bennett attributed the reasoning for this to a TrekBBS member's answer. (citation needed • edit)
A scene in comic book The Modala Imperative shows Admiral McCoy and Ambassador Spock touring the Enterprise-D and, when they get to Picard's ready room, McCoy states that, if Kirk had had such an office, they would have never gotten him off the bridge.
External links[]
- Ready room at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- Ready room at Wikipedia