Bryan Fuller tweeted out what we assume is a picture of the Captain’s chair for the 2017 tv show! Here it is!
It looks great, right?! I love the wide arms- plenty of room for control panels. It seems to be inspired by the Kelvin timeline USS Enterprise chair. The more I look at this bridge the more I like it. That include’s Pine-Kirk’s command chair. I love the width of it! It really “commands” the room. I’d love to know what the controls on the arms do. Bottom line– it’s a great chair on a great modern bridge.
With this posting, I decided it might be fun to take a look back at previous captain’s chairs. Some are better than others. I mean, poor Captain Janeway had to share one computer interface with her first officer. It just doesn’t say “COMMAND”. Maybe it’s because her seat isn’t centered in the bridge. The CO and XO’s seats split center.
Captain Picard went thru a few chairs but the one that stands out is the USS Enterprise D chair from seasons 2-7 of The next Generation. It looks comfy, right? It’s only beige chair in our list, that’s for sure. By itself that color choice might look odd, but in place on the bridge it fits right in. The D bridge was designed to look comfortable and welcoming. It was a ship of exploration on a mission to make peaceful contact with new species. A comfy bridge makes perfect sense.
By far the most famous command chair is Captain Kirk’s from The Original Series. This chair was built from an actual executive office chair from the 60’s. Of course it was modified, but it still keeps that mid century design aesthetic. This is the chair a young Mike Jones used to pretend he had. I even make mock-ups of the control panels and taped them to the arms of my Mom’s recliner. This is a classic. It’s here to stay. I just wish it had a head rest (like the one if “Mirror Mirror” does).
Of course there are many more captains chairs from the TV shows, the movies, etc. Picard upgrades to a dark red leather chair in the Enterprise E. Sisco had a nice chair in the Defiant that had free-standing control consoles on both sides. That was a cool idea.
So- which is my personal favorite? I have to go with Kirk’s classic chair! It’s held up in pop culture for 50 years and isn’t going anywhere soon!
Star Trek Beyond comes out this week!!! Are you excited?!? I know I am! In preparation for the new movie (#13 to be exact) I’ve been watching the entire Trek movie canon. It’s been a fun journey and I thought I’d rank the 12 films here. This is entirely my personal preference– I’m not a film critic, just a trekkie. 🙂
12. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – By far the worst Star Trek film. But Star Trek is kind of like Pizza. Even when it’s bad it’s pretty good. There are some great scenes in this film- especially with Kirk, Spock, & Bones around the campfire.
11. Star Trek Nemesis – Often called the film that killed the franchise, the main problem with Nemesis is often put squarely on the director, Stuart Baird. He lacked an understanding of the characters and Roddenberry’s universe. Still, it’s better than V.
10. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock – Honestly, the only reason I watch this film is that it bridges the gap between II & IV and without it Spock’s journey is incomplete.
9. Star Trek Into Darkness – Again, this film has its moments but overall doesn’t fit into the Star Trek universe. Meant as an homage to Star Trek II, the film borrows too much of its plot from the classic. It feels more like an issue of the IDW Star Trek comic book series than as a major motion picture.
8. Star Trek Insurrection – I really struggled with where to put this film on the list. It could go much higher, actually. It holds up as a really good 2 hour episode of Star Trek TNG. But lacks that special something that makes a good motion picture.
7. Star Trek Generations – This was the first Star Trek film I saw in the movie theatre. It holds a very special place in my heart because of that. I love seeing Kirk and Picard working together. Honestly, sentimentality puts it so high on the list. I mean, my god, the Enterprise D looks AMAZING on the big screen!! Sadly, it’s destroyed in the film.
6. Star Trek (2009) – The first 10 minutes of this film are the most emotionally powerfully Trek on film. Director JJ Abrams does a great job bringing Star Trek to a new generation. It would be much higher on the list if 1) the plot didn’t rely so heavily on unbelievable conveniences or lazy writing 2) the engineering room didn’t look like a brewery and 3) the villain was developed better.
5. Star Trek The Motion Picture – Some people call this “Star Trek The Motionless Picture” because it’s a high concept slow moving intellectual film. This is pure Roddenberry, baby!
4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – Most non-trekkies (can we call them muggles?) would site this one as their favorite. My husband calls it “the one with the whales”. This is Trek comedy at its best! And it has a nice little environmentalist message in the end.
3. Star Trek First Contact – By far the best of the TNG movies, First Contact proves that Picard’s crew has what it takes on the big screen. It’s thrilling, funny, scary, and all around perfection. My only problem with this film is the villain. The Borg are the ultimate Star Trek villain, but the creation of the Borg Queen undercuts what makes the Borg so scary. They are terrifying because they cannot be reasoned with. They are a hive mind- a mass of being with one single thought and goal. They are not conflicted, they are Borg. Paring all that down into a Queen makes them much more vulnerable.
2. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – This is my Star Trek! I didn’t catch this movie in the theatre- but I owned on VHS as soon as it came out. I was 12 at the time and I was OBSESSED with The Undiscovered Country. I wore out that VHS tape. I used to move my mom’s recliner into the middle of the living room and pretend it was Captain Sulu’s chair in the open scene. When the shockwave hit the USS Excelsior I would throw myself onto the couch and hell “TURN HER INTO THE WAVE!”. Years later this film still holds up. Now I understand the parallels with the cold war and Nicholas Myer’s brilliant direction. Now I get teary eyed at the end when each actor’s signature signs off.
1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn – I don’t mean to sound like cliché but Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn is the ultimate Star Trek film. Period. The credit goes to Nicholas Myer and producer Harve Bennet who took the leftovers from The Motion Picture & a tiny budget and relaunched the franchise helping it to fulfill its potential.
Star Trek Beyond has premiered in Australia and as we are all trying to avoid reading any spoilers, one little tidbit of information has leaked all over the internet. According to 
In fact, the closest we come to learning about Sulu’s orientation is in the TAS episode “The Magicks of Megas-Tu”. The crew gains magical powers and Sulu conjures up a female companion. It’s implied that this is a sexual companion– but again not really stated out loud. Maybe he just wanted another person of Asian decent on the Enterprise!
Hailing Frequencies Open 