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Can anybody else see ANY ryme or reason to the TOS control panals? It makes no sense to me, and seems quite inefficient as well. I don't see ANYTHING labled on most panels, and every control looks like a flashing crystal, except for old fashioned switches and dials. Does anybody else share my opinions here? These things make next to no sense.

OOU - Nobody had any conept of touch screen technology being a possibility when they made the FX.

IU - Either touchscreens were forgotten, or were too inefficient/primitive for all the control necessary for the (for its time) most advanced piece of materiel in the galaxy.

I think this is one of those areas where you are not meant to look too closely. In the "real" Enterprise no doubt there is a rhyme and reason to it, and there are labels, and it all does make sense. But it's just a TV show, you can't seriously expect them to create actual practical control panels!

In the 23rd Century people didn't need labes... they wern't all wimps like their 24th Century counterparts... but yeah the controls are pretty badly dated but to me thats just the beauty of the series. If your looking for examples of bad controls look at STV I think where Kirk is trying to do his log entry on the machine that he never needed until then, the only light on the thing was for failure, no 'recording' no indication of the problem, no wicked LEDs like in my server...

23rd century personel had to learn what every button on their console did off by heart.

Yet, Sisko had no trouble using E-Nils control stations in Trials and Tibbleations. I'm pretty sure they didn't teach retro control panals at the acadamy. Be like somebody who has ONLY used Windows to go up to an old Apple 2c and just know how to use the old DOS system.

Mark wrote:Can anybody else see ANY ryme or reason to the TOS control panals? It makes no sense to me, and seems quite inefficient as well. I don't see ANYTHING labled on most panels, and every control looks like a flashing crystal, except for old fashioned switches and dials. Does anybody else share my opinions here? These things make next to no sense.

If you look close enough (and can find a clear picture) a fair number of those buttons have writing under them, barely visible through them (personally I think they look like jolly ranchers). And the movie era controls are marked on the helm/navigation console, your on your own with the science stations massive mess of identical white buttons though.

Its to prevent the ships being used effectively when they're captured by the enemy.

Khan: "Where's the override? The overide?!!"
Joachin: "There it is"

Scotty: "Where's the damn anti-matter inducer"
Chekov: "This? no this"
Sulu: "Try the one marked antimatter inducer"

Never had a problem with their control scheme. Something you just gotta let slide, basically.

He's got a point about the labels though. I've seen american tanks whose controls were so well labeled a third grader could steal it. Don't ask how I know that, and maybe it was just that tank because it was for some demonstration thing. But there still should be some sort of labels.

A large number of our armed forces haven't finished school so for us thats a good thing.

Deepcrush wrote:A large number of our armed forces haven't finished school so for us thats a good thing.

I take it you don't have a manditory HS requirement? Seriously though, having nice easy to read labels are a good thing in any application. Unlike our old Leo-1's which still had all the old German labels on everything...

Cpl Kendall wrote:

Deepcrush wrote:A large number of our armed forces haven't finished school so for us thats a good thing.

I take it you don't have a manditory HS requirement?

I don't think so but I'm no expert. But our armed forces are undermanned as it is so it wouldn't suprise me.

Blackstar the Chakat wrote:

Cpl Kendall wrote:

Deepcrush wrote:A large number of our armed forces haven't finished school so for us thats a good thing.

I take it you don't have a manditory HS requirement?

I don't think so but I'm no expert. But our armed forces are undermanned as it is so it wouldn't suprise me.

The Army had a GED waiver to get in when I enlisted, but that was over 10 years ago. Needed a GED, but not a diploma. Navy, Air Force, and Marines all required HS diplomas then.

We have a HS program in the service for those who haven't completed. You can enlist and they will support you with getting a GED after boot. With as low as recruiting has been I'm suprised that they have added an ECE program.