Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The Next Generation Main Bridge

Throughout most of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the bridge of the Enterprise-D was distinguished by two forward stations: Flight Control (or Con) manned first by Lieutenant (j.g.) Geordi La Forge – and then by Ensign Wesley Crusher, Ensign Ro Laren, or (according to Marina Sirtis) "anyone in red who happened to be passing by that day". The second forward bridge station was Operations (or Ops), which was famously manned by Lieutenant Commander Data.

Aft of con and ops was the "command center" with chairs for the first officer, captain, and ship's counselor or medical officer (there was additional seating on either side of those three chairs, but these benches were rarely used). Behind the command center was the horseshoe-shaped wooden Tactical station operated by Lieutenant Worf. And then there were the aft bridge stations.

During TNG's first season, the aft bridge stations were labeled "Science I", "Science II", "Propulsion", "Emergency Manual Override", and "Environment". However, these stations were juggled a bit before season two.

Following his promotion to Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge lost his permanent station on the bridge, spending most of his scenes down in engineering. To get La Forge in on some of that sweet main bridge action, TNG's set designers reworked the bridge stations to give La Forge his own dedicated aft console.

While the Science I and Science II stations remained unchanged, the Propulsion console was converted to "Mission Ops", Emergency Manual Override changed to "Environment", and the old Environment position converted to "Engineering" – Geordi's new station.