Command center

The command center was a specialized section aboard the starship , in which dedicated data analysis and mission operations were performed.
=== Layout ===
Roughly the size of standard crew quarters, the command center was distinguished by a large display screen and computer terminal, flanked by a number of smaller screens mounted on the bulkheads. The room also contained a large, T-shaped table and workstation, and a free-standing computer console. These computer terminals could be utilized for a number of functions, including displaying star charts, ship's status, and sensor data, but were more often used in the analysis of the acquired Xindi database. The command center's computers were also linked to internal sensors and could provide video and audio from linked sections within Enterprise. ()
The command center was easily accessible from the situation room. ()
=== History ===
Installed among other system upgrades in 2153, the command center was located in a converted storage bay that once held conduit housings. Starfleet went to a lot of trouble to retrofit the room, turning it into the command center and outfitting it with state-of-the-art equipment. This work was carried out to help Enterprise locate and investigate the Xindi, due to the extreme jeopardy that group represented to Earth during the Xindi incident. ()
In 2153, Sub-Commander T'Pol and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed were using the command center when Captain Archer arrived. They discussed the ship's forthcoming mission to a particular planet where a Xindi was suspected to be working as a miner. When Reed advised cautious skepticism, a frustrated Archer reminded him that the command center had been intended to help investigate the Xindi but Archer continued by explaining that – because no data on the Xindi had been gathered by Enterprise, despite having been in the Xindi's territory of the Delphic Expanse over the past six months – he felt justified in following the latest lead. ()
Once Enterprise recovered the Xindi database from an Osaarian merchant ship, Archer returned to the command center alone. The monitors in the room were darkened when he arrived but he soon started viewing the information from the database, which was displayed on all the monitors. ()
Late one night shortly thereafter, Archer called T'Pol to the command center, where he showed her a third Xindi species he had found, Xindi-Arboreals, and told her he had located the last place a specific Xindi starship had visited – a planet Archer had T'Pol set a course for. ()
The command center was subsequently used by Captain Archer and Commander Charles Tucker III, again late at night. They used the room to review some star charts from the Xindi database, as Tucker suspected the charts might help them determine if there were any previously undetected spatial anomalies in the region. At one point, Tucker spoke with Archer about the crew's morale being low, so he was given approval from the captain to show a Hope and Crosby comedy as part of movie night. T'Pol then arrived and Archer notified her that he and Tucker had been reviewing the Xindi starcharts. Though T'Pol told Archer she would have assisted him with that, the captain stated he hadn't wanted to wake her and that Tucker had been eager to find "something to do". Tucker invited T'Pol to the upcoming movie night, and Archer received a message from Ensign Hoshi Sato, on the bridge, that the ship was picking up an automated distress call from a Vulcan ship, the Seleya, which had proven unresponsive to hails. The command center was then vacated by Archer, T'Pol, and Tucker, who headed to Enterprises bridge, via the ship's situation room. Later, while T'Pol was infected by trellium that caused her to become irrational, she accused Archer of having used the command center to analyze the Xindi starcharts behind her back, in an attempt to undermine her work. ()
While T'Pol was off duty, she was working in the command center, operating the central monitor from the desk in the middle of the room, when Archer arrived. Moving to the central console, she showed him a simulation she had created, from which she had discovered that a second Delphic Expanse sphere was likely in the region, less than four light years from Enterprise. Archer ordered T'Pol to have the ship alter course toward the sphere.
After T'Pol asked Ensign Sato to analyze a section of the Xindi database, Sato was studying the database on the central monitor when she experienced what seemed to be an hallucination but was actually a telepathic communication from an alien named Tarquin. What Sato witnessed included all the monitors in the command center changing firstly to a view of a particular planet and secondly to various apparently live views of herself, from different angles. After the planet appeared on the screens, Sato used the room's intercom to contact Lieutenant Reed and request assistance in the command center, but there was no response. Moments later, she rushed towards the door but found she had suddenly left the command center and was now in an alien building on anpther world. When the telepathic communication ended, Hoshi was still no longer in the command center, but in a corridor aboard Enterprise.
T'Pol later returned to the command center, from where she vocally gave directions to a (which contained Archer and Tucker) regarding gravimetric distortions in the area. She thereby guided the shuttlepod into a cloaking barrier around the second Delphic Expanse sphere.
T'Pol was subsequently working in the command center when Archer arrived, back from his mission to confirm the existence and location of the second sphere. She explained that, thanks to data he had collected from that sphere, she had discovered there were at least fifty such spheres in the Delphic Expanse. Archer began to realize that the spheres may have been built to create that region of space, though he and T'Pol were unsure of who the constructors had been and what their motives were. ()
Shortly thereafter, the command center was visited by T'Pol, Captain Archer, and Lieutenant Reed, shortly before Enterprise visited a Xindi-Arboreal colony, whose location Tarquin had informed them of. They discussed the colony's lack of defenses and Archer arranged for Enterprise to hide behind a nearby moon. He also planned for an away team consisting of himself, Reed, and MACO Major J. Hayes to leave Enterprise and head for the colony in two hours' time. ()
In an alternate timeline, being in the command center with T'Pol, where they had viewed some long range sensor scans, was one of the last memories Archer had before he was infected by interspatial parasites that caused him to develop anterograde amnesia. Archer kept this memory until 2165, when both the parasites and the timeline were eradicated. ()
Later in 2153, Archer and arranged to meet in the command center at 0800 the next morning, before Archer and T'Pol were to leave on a journey to Earth of the early 21st century. When Archer entered the command center with T'Pol, though, they suddenly found themselves in Detroit in 2004, having been sent there by Daniels' faction of temporal agents. Moments later, Archer and T'Pol came back through the command center door, having just completed an extensive mission to stop the Xindi in Detroit of 2004. Archer requested a security team be assigned to the command center as soon as possible. Since Commander Tucker was baffled by the seeming swiftness of their return, T'Pol showed him that the command center now contained three Xindi-Reptilian corpses and various Xindi equipment, including a bio-reactor, all of which Archer wanted moved to Cargo Bay Two. ()
Later the same year, the command center was again occupied by Archer and T'Pol, analyzing some new data that helped map the spatial anomalies and spheres in the Delphic Expanse, though T'Pol admitted to not yet having thought up any new theories about the purpose of the spheres. Archer also received news, from the bridge, that Enterprise was picking up a distress call from a ship traveling at impulse.
Shortly after Triannon Pri'Nam D'Jamat came aboard Enterprise from the newly arrived vessel and proceeded to orchestrate a takeover of Enterprise with his fellow Triannons, D'Jamat was in the ship's command center when Archer entered, having been brought there by the Triannon Yarrick. Archer and D'Jamat then had a heated discussion in the command center. Their discussion included D'Jamat explaining that he intended to use Enterprise to annihilate a group of "heretics" on his homeworld of and giving Archer – as a punishment for "desecrating" the Delphic Expanse spheres, which the Triannons held sacred – six hours in which he had to select a crewmember to be executed by the Triannons. At the end of the discussion, D'Jamat used the room's central console to delete the data Archer and his crew had gathered regarding the spheres as well as different aspects of the Xindi mission in general. ()
In December 2153, the command center was the site of a meeting between Captain Archer, Sub-Commander T'Pol and Ensign Sato. After they discussed a signal Sato had found which represented a new lead in the ongoing investigation of the Xindi, T'Pol reminded Archer that she and Sato had been working to recover the deleted data. They had managed to piece together enough of the recovered data that they could begin creating a map of the spatial anomalies. Although the signal was located just beyond a massive and dense field of those anomalies, Archer decided to send Enterprise through the anomaly field rather than go around it.
Soon thereafter, the command center served as a meeting point where Archer, T'Pol and Andorian Commander Shran had a discussion regarding Enterprises tactical situation. As T'Pol explained, there were signs of extensive weapons bombardment on most of the moons in a particular nearby G-type star system, where there were more than a hundred moons. Archer realized the star system was being used by the Xindi as a proving ground. Shran pointed out that it would be a mistake to risk their vessels against such mighty Xindi firepower as had evidently been tested there. Since Archer agreed, they began to consider how to obtain a closer look of what was going on in the testing area. ()
Later the same month, the command center was being used by T'Pol and Ensign Travis Mayweather, updating the navigational sensors to account for gravimetric waves in the vicinity of Enterprise, when the room was visited by Captain Archer. Mayweather was happy with how the updates were progressing and, after he left, T'Pol likewise explained to Archer that she had learned a lot about a nearby gravimetric disturbance which was causing the gravimetric waves. After the captain instructed T'Pol to help Tucker examine a Sphere-Builder transport pod which had recently been discovered in the disturbance, T'Pol exited the room, leaving Archer alone there. ()
In January 2154, Archer became mentally affected by a Xindi-Insectoid neurotoxin and ordered T'Pol to power up a crashed Xindi-Insectoid starship in an attempt to save numerous fetal Xindi-Insectoids which were in a hatchery there. While a schematic of the Insectoid craft was displayed on the room's large monitor, the command center was used for a discussion about Archer's recent order, a meeting held between T'Pol, Commander Tucker, and Lieutenant Reed. As the operation required Enterprise to transfer a lot of much-needed antimatter to the Xindi vessel, T'Pol instructed Tucker to delay the transfer until after she had spoken with Archer about it. ()
The next month, another meeting was held in the command center, between Archer, T'Pol, Tucker, Reed, and Ensign Mayweather. Since Tucker and Mayweather had recently seen the Xindi weapon for the first time, the group discussed the weapon, deciding that one of them would go on a one-way mission in which they would sneak into the weapon aboard a Xindi-Insectoid assault shuttle and use a couple of photonic torpedooes to detonate the weapon in an explosive chain reaction. Mayweather and Tucker debated between themselves as to who would go on the mission, until Captain Archer nominated himself for the job, arranging for Tucker and Mayweather to prepare the Insectoid craft and Archer's piloting knowhow for the covert mission. ()
The command center was among many sections aboard Enterprise that were damaged in a battle with the Xindi near Azati Prime in early 2154, suffering power failures. It still remained functional, though. ()
A short while later, the command center was used by Archer, T'Pol, Tucker and Reed. They discussed Kovaalan starships that were near a subspace corridor which the Enterprise crew was endeavoring for their own ship to access without being detected by the Kovaalans. ()
The command center was fully repaired by the conclusion of the Xindi mission. ()
== Appendices ==
=== Background information ===
The script of described the command center as "a dark chamber filled with numerous monitors," and went on to say, "A large central wall display dominates the room."
The command center was created especially for the third season of and appeared only in that season – first in "The Xindi" and last in , the first and last episodes of the season respectively. Once built, the set remained standing throughout the season. ( text commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD) Recalling the set's placement, Production Designer Herman Zimmerman stated, "It was added to a corridor near the bridge set that we did have a little space for." () Zimmerman was credited in the with overseeing the design and construction of this set. In fact, not only was the set for the command center located beside the bridge set, it was also so near to the series' video control room that linking the computers therein to the monitors on the command center set was relatively easy. ( text commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD) The set included a free-standing console that had previously been used in the infirmary on . 
The central monitor referred to in the script for "The Xindi" was represented, on the set, by a monitor that computer graphics were rear-projected onto. This monitor was custom-built for the series. () The area behind the screen had to be draped off so that stray light would not wash out the image on the monitor. ( text commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD) The monitor was initially created for the observation lounge aboard the in . (text commentary, DVD)
In accordance with the script, many other monitors had to be obtained for the addition of the set. "That added a huge opportunity for a colorful wall that we hadn't done before," said Herman Zimmerman. The room's smaller monitors were represented with fourteen LCD flatscreens. () Behind these, Director of Photography Marvin V. Rush hid tiny fluorescent lamps. This use of lighting created small patches of illumination on the wall, which served to visually separate the monitors from their backgrounds.
The wall to the left of the central monitor included a series of lit gizmos that were originally on the set for Enterprises sickbay; they had been removed from that set when it had undergone a revamp at the end of the first season. The same left-hand wall was a "wild" wall, meaning it was specifically designed to be easily removed when required to allow camera and equipment access. Using this access, Marvin Rush often mounted his camera on a small crane to achieve complex camera moves in the otherwise closed-in set. ( text commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD)
Denise Okuda approved of the command center. "That was a fun set," she enthused. "There were monitors all over the place." ( audio commentary, ENT Season 4 Blu-ray special features)
In the fourth season of Enterprise, parts of the command center were used in the creation of the medical observation room for the episode . ( text commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD) In an audio commentary for that installment (on ENT Season 4 Blu-ray), Michael and Denise Okuda identify the medical observation area as actually being the command center, though the room was scripted to be an "Auxiliary Medical Lab". The set of the command center was additionally used in the episode , for an interrogation room containing an agony booth aboard the . ( text commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD)
=== Apocrypha ===
In the ization of , the displays that fill the command center are described as "monitor stacked upon monitor" and mostly unused, their screens "a dull opaque gray." However, in the same scene from the actual episode, there are slightly less monitors arranged vertically than those that are arranged horizontally. Also, all the monitors are shown as being on, with lit screens.
The novel Last Full Measure places the command center on B deck of the NX class.
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