Star Trek: Ranking The Main Bridges (2025)

18. Honorable Mention: Deep Space 9

Let's just get this out of the way up front: Space station Deep Space 9's Operations Center is not a main bridge. Ops is also not really the heart of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (that would be the Promenade, the most identifiable location on the station and the setting for most of the action in the show).

DS9's Ops is a set that's emblematic of the series – a confusing, hard-edged, Cardassian-styled location that in no way looks like a great place to work (Raktajino-dispensing replicators aside). Ops is dark and shadowy, with various steps and raised consoles arranged with seemingly no real reason, and an elevated commander's office looming over everything like a micromanaging boss.

As a set, DS9's Ops is an incredible achievement by veteran Star Trek production designer Herman Zimmerman (you'll hear a lot about him), a jumbled up mess of a command center that's a far cry from the easily recognizable, ergonomic Starfleet bridges that both the characters and the audience had been used to for decades.