Master systems display On Federation starship s and space station s , the master systems display ( abbreviated MSD ) , also known as the master situation monitor , or master situational display , was a large , wall - mounted computer display , sometimes in engineering or the bridge . The display usually featured a large cutaway diagram of the vessel , and was used to provide a detailed overview of the ship ' s operational status . The had its master systems display in engineering , along with a master systems display table , while the starships , , , , , and all featured their displays on the bridge . ( ; , ; , etc . ; , ) Appendices . Background information . Originally , Scenic Art Supervisor Michael Okuda intended the " master systems display " and the " master situation monitor " to be two different objects altogether . According to the " " ( pp . 47 - 48 ) and the , the " master systems display " was the information console ( affectionately dubbed the " pool table " ) seen in main engineering on board the , , and in the back of the bridge on the . The " master situation monitor " was meant to refer to the wall - mounted back - lit ( cut - away ) graphics of the ships in question . Neither of the two designations were initially seen on - screen in their entirety , though there were " master situation " bridge work stations on both the and in ( and , in " Excelsior " s case , in the episode as well ) . None of the wall - mounted graphics ever had a caption " master systems display " until Scenic Artist Doug Drexler updated the cut - away graphic for the . Drexler gave it the caption " master systems display " , which is legible in the episodes and . This was the first such graphic ever to actually carry the exact designation , as every other MSD , featured in the live - action franchise up till then , was usually labeled with the ship ' s name , registry , ship class , random numbering , or any combination thereof . Drexler created additional LCARS graphics endowed with the caption for display on the other " Defiant " sets , specifically the engineering set , several of these turning up in the 2006 - 2008 wave of " Star Trek " auctions , such as in the " It ' s A Wrap ! sale and auction " of June 2007 . The first MSD was created for the sets of the " Enterprise " - D by Michael Okuda . According to the " Encyclopedia " ( 3rd ed . , p . 291 ) , it included a number of in - jokes , including " the official USS " Enterprise " duck , the ship ' s mouse , a Porsche , a DC - 3 airplane , the " Nomad " space probe , and the hamster on a treadmill that was alleged to be the true source of power for the ship ' s warp engines . " The MSD terminology , regardless of its original intent , was specifically introduced in " The Next Generation " , though operations graphics displaying similar properties , had been featured in prior " Star Trek " incarnations , including , though up until that point in time they were not endowed with a designation . The earliest and best known such graphic was the Matt Jefferies - created large rudimentary graphic situated on the bulkhead right next to the turbolift doors on the bridge ( on the left when entering the lift from the bridge ) of the original . Doug Drexler later created a detailed operation schematics graphic , still unnamed , of the " Constitution " - class and was seen in .