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"Starfleet's most up to date vessel, and they still can't design a comfortable place to hold a meeting."
– Kathryn Janeway, 2371 ("Relativity")

The briefing room was a dedicated area on Federation starships and on Federation and alien facilities where senior staff or military leaders could conduct meetings and various conferences. On starships, it was generally located near the ship's main bridge.

On NX-class starships, there were a few types of briefing room, including the situation room, the command center, and the conference room. (Star Trek: Enterprise)

On Galaxy-class and Sovereign-class starships, the briefing room was referred to as the conference or observation lounge.

The USS Protostar had two types of briefing rooms, the observation lounge and a pair of conference suites. (Star Trek: Prodigy)

Constitution-class[]

The original Constitution-class had at least two briefing rooms, but they were not located in close proximity to the bridge. One of these briefing rooms was located on Deck 14. They also lacked windows, though not a wall viewer. A conference table – with a tri-screen viewer for the display of information, an inset computer terminal, and inset comm units – was placed in the center of the room, around which were several chairs. (TOS: "The Naked Time", "Dagger of the Mind", "Space Seed"; ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

Defiant-class[]

The Defiant-class did not have a dedicated space for a briefing room, but the aft part of the bridge had a built-in table that acted as an informal area for officers to discuss mission-specific details. (DS9: "The Search, Part I") For larger crowds, the mess hall could also be used for briefings. (DS9: "To the Death", "Trials and Tribble-ations", "Valiant")

Intrepid-class[]

USS Voyager briefing room

The briefing room aboard the USS Voyager

On Intrepid-class vessels, the briefing room was located to the port side of the bridge, with three large view ports facing the front of the ship. The room offered many comforts and was equipped to provide a relaxed area for briefing. An odd-shaped table was located in the center of the room and could support seven chairs. The captain customarily sat at the head of the table, closest to the windows. A monitor was provided to allow visual aspects to be involved in a briefing. For more comfort, a replicator was provided. (VOY: "Caretaker", "Parallax", et al)

On her initial tour of the USS Voyager, Captain Kathryn Janeway did not believe the briefing room looked very comfortable while Seven of Nine thought it an "efficient design". The room was later decorated with various objects of art. (VOY: "Relativity", "Parallax", "Resistance")

Voyager's briefing room was a new set built on Paramount Stage 8, but utilized the windows of Ten Forward from Star Trek: The Next Generation flipped upside down. It was also redressed to serve as the briefing room of the USS Bellerophon in DS9: "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges".

Dominion Headquarters[]

Dominion Headquarters had a briefing room from where Dominion personnel, including Weyoun, the Female Changeling, Damar, Gor and Pran, directed the war. It was quite far from the cargo bay door of the building to the briefing room. Kira Nerys, Elim Garak, Ekoor and other Cardassian Rebellion members were able to fight their way there, in late 2375. (DS9: "What You Leave Behind")

Deep Space 9[]

DS9's wardroom

The briefing room aboard Deep Space 9

Deep Space 9's wardroom, the space station's equivalent of a briefing room, was commonly used to discuss various actions during the Dominion War.

The script of DS9: "You Are Cordially Invited" describes a location where Benjamin Sisko, Miles O'Brien, Julian Bashir, and Alexander Rozhenko met Worf and Martok as one of Deep Space 9's briefing rooms.

Federation Headquarters[]

The Federation Headquarters space station had at least seven briefing rooms. (DIS: "All Is Possible")

Appendices[]

Background information[]

The briefing room which appears in TOS: "The Cage", was built on Desilu Culver Stage 16. The scene there was filmed on Friday 30 November 1964. [1] (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, p. 57)

The set was moved to Desilu Culver Stage 15 for the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", in which it also doubled as the briefing lounge. Both the briefing room and the briefing lounge scenes were filmed on the first day of production, Monday 19 July 1965. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, p. 87)

For the series itself, a completely new set was built on Stage 9 at Desilu's main Gower Street studio facilities. The set also served as the recreation room and the officers' lounge. It was occasionally redressed to serve as other, temporary sets, such as the interior of Balok's pilot vessel in "The Corbomite Maneuver". (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, pp. 110, 126)

In the episode "The Naked Time", there is a sign which reads "Briefing Room 2", which is the clearest evidence we have for the existence of at least two of these rooms. The episode "Mudd's Women" shows the room number plate for this room as "3C 44". In "Dagger of the Mind", there was a blue placard that reads, "Briefing Room ->". This sign was located near the Science Library, and was seen briefly when Doctor Simon Van Gelder was running down a corridor and when he incapacitated a security guard.

The Constitution-class briefing room was created by Matt Jefferies. ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary, TOS Season 1 DVD) The set used for depicting the room was situated on Desilu's Stage 9. ("The Menagerie, Part I" text commentary, TOS Season 1 DVD) Although the set incorporated sloped ceiling beams that implied the room had a gently curved ceiling, the room actually had no ceiling. Most of the walls were straightly vertical, which cost much less to build, and only one of the room's walls was slightly angled. Hence, Michael and Denise Okuda characterized the angled ceiling beams as "ingeniously designed." ("The Menagerie, Part II" text commentary, TOS Season 1 DVD)

In the final draft script of TOS: "Court Martial", a scene which is set in one of the briefing rooms aboard the Enterprise had a scene heading which indicated it was to be set in a "conference room". This was changed to "briefing room" by the time the revised final draft of the script was issued.

External link[]

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