USS Farrington: Captain's Chair (2287)

"So Skipper, what do you think, now that she's finally finished?"
"I don't know, Maddie. I mean, she's big, she's beautiful, and she's certainly brand new, but..."
"But?"
"Do you think she likes me?"
"Why don't you ask her yourself? The chair's waiting."
"It's comfy. Got a nice bounce to it."
"Well then, mon capitan, I think she likes you."
-Commander Madeline Jeanne Carpentier and (Brevet) Captain M. Tobias Sun aboard U.S.S. Farrington (NX-2010), April 2287.

Medical school at Georgia Regents University (formerly Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Health Sciences University) has been keeping me extremely busy as I race to finish my 2nd Master's degree (Master of Health Science in Clinical Laboratory Science), but I still have time every now and then to sneak in a little design work for my pet starship design project: my version(s) of April Welles' kitbashed wormhole-generating Excelsior-class variant, the United Space Ship Farrington (NX-2010). I had my first Molecular Diagnostics lab exam this morning, but it wound up being a piece of cake and I found myself with 2-3 hours' worth of free time and nothing on the schedule. So what's a battleship geek to do? I didn't have a lot of references on hand, I didn't have any free white paper, and I didn't even have most of my tools, but I decided to work something else out for my ship anyway.

The result was something I'd wanted to do for quite a while: the initial design for the first of the two known Captain's Chairs used on board the Delta-Universe version of the U.S.S. Farrington (NX-2010), the "Lady in White" and the second of the Four Sisters (a.k.a. 14th Battlecruiser Squadron, 31st Independent Battle Group, 3rd Tactical Wing). This particular chair was the one used by Captain M. Tobias Sun as the Farrington's first commanding officer. It was installed when the ship was first being fitted out between late 2286 and early 2287, and was used from 2287 to 2296, when it was replaced with a completely different model as Commander Madeline Carpentier was brevetted (provisionally promoted) to Captain and granted command of the vessel, and in my mind, it is still the "definitive" Captain's Chair of the Farrington. (I haven't designed Madeline's yet, but I already know that it won't be as aesthetically smooth and elegant as Toby's chair was.)

I had thought about what the U.S.S. Farrington's "center seat" should look like for years before I finally put pencil to paper and hashed out a design, and I must say: I can't believe I'm stating this, but I found it harder to design a single chair than to design an entire starship. I had always known that my favorite canon Captain's Chairs out of all the ones in the "Star Trek" franchise have been the ones that were much, much larger and more ornate than any other chair on the bridge. Such chairs can be seen on the U.S.S. Kelvin (NCC-0514) in ST:09, the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701) in TOS, the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) in ST:V and ST:VI, the U.S.S. Excelsior in ST:VI & "Flashback (VOY)," and the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) in "Generations" and I wanted the Farrington's chair to also be much, much larger and fancier than any other crew chair on her bridge. Having the chair designed this way would serve to visually emphasize the nature of being a naval captain: with the crew sworn to obey all legally given orders as part of their oaths of enlistment, you're like a king (or queen) enthroned, ruling your own little world of 1,918 officers & enlisted rates (although the Farrington "only" carried a skeleton crew of 800 on her fateful maiden voyage in September 2287). I had also established years ago that the Delta-Universe continuity is based on the Alternate Reality set up by the J.J. Abrams movies "Star Trek (2009)" and "Star Trek: Into Darkness," so the only two things I knew going into this sketch project were that the Farrington's chair had to look like it fit into the J.J. Abrams "Trek" universe and that it needed to have at least a bit of a "throne"-like feel - especially since it's used by a very princely Captain.

However, as I began drawing, I came to realize that it didn't seem right to make the chair too ornate or too over-designed. Instead, I decided to use a proven design as a base (after all, there is a saying: if it ain't broke, don't fix it) and build from that. The Enterprise is often held as the "standard" of her era in Starfleet history, so I chose to base the Starship Farrington's command chair on Kirk's chair from the Alternate Reality version of the Constitution-Type Class I Heavy Cruiser, U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701). This chair also maintains the same color scheme as Kirk's chair; I like to think of it being built from ivory-white fiberglass with black leather cushions in the seat, back, headrest and armrests. However, the chair's shape was stretched and refined. The chair of the Enterprise is short and boxy, but the Farrington's chair is much taller, "pointier" and more elegant, giving it a regal, imposing appearance. I also took a cue from the bridge chairs of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and added a "wraparound" shape to the headrest so that the ends of the headrest curl around the Captain's head a little.

The armrests of the chair were lengthened and upswept to allow them to hold more control panels, make them look more "elegant," and reshape their style to better resemble some classic Captain's Chairs of the past - particularly the ones of the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-A), the U.S.S. Excelsior (NCC-2000), the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-B) and the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-D). The basic control scheme has also been held over from Kirk's chair from ST:09 (again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it) including the string of labeled lights, buttons and Manual Steering Column (miniature joystick) on the left armrest and the function buttons, light-up indicator bar, and status display on the right armrest. However, I started taking more liberties from there. The chair on the Enterprise has two round details, making it look like it might have two Manual Steering Columns, and I felt this was redundant. So I kept the "joystick" on the left armrest and extended it (taking inspiration from the small control sticks used on early video game systems from the 1980's) while replacing the one on the right with a small Communications viewscreen used in conjunction with the intraship P/A system to talk with crewmen in other parts of the Farrington - especially when discretion is required. I also took a detail that only displayed text-based messages on Kirk's right armrest and expanded it to show both text messages and a small interactive system monitor diagram of the entire starship, and added multi-function display screens to the pointed tips of both armrests.

The Captain's Chair is intended to be comfortable, light, flexible enough to withstand rigorous use, but very strong. It is capable of pivoting 360 degrees on a horizontal swivel mount and features a headrest that can extend upward or retract downward to adjust to the Captain's height. The ship's name and registry are embossed onto the chair's white frame in several areas while the black leather cushions are incorporated into the adjustable headrest, backrest, seat and armrests. The backrest cushion also features the starship's registry number (NX-2010) and a Delta Shield insignia while the cushion's heavily segmented layout is inspired by the design of the one found on the Sovereign-class U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-E), first seen in "Star Trek: First Contact."

Again, this is actually the ship's first Captain's Chair, in use from 2287 to 2296. This chair would be replaced with a bulkier, heavier, sturdier, more "militaristic" model in 2296, which I haven't designed yet (and don't know if/when I will be designing). Because the drawing is also a rough concept, it isn't perfect either; the seat back is too high, while the arm rests are much too low and not far enough apart. However, the overall shape - despite the drawing being a "first draft" - turned out very well: just "throne"-like enough to get the symbolism I wanted while not being over-designed or too fancy and still managing to suggest an "evolution" of the ST:09 Enterprise chair's design.

Disclaimer: U.S.S. Farrington (NX-2010) and her backstory are the intellectual property of model builder April "Kitbasher Girl" Welles and are being used with her express permission.

UPDATE (10/10/2013): I've replaced the originally uploaded file with a "touched-up" version that shows the design and its labeled details much more clearly.