While the many spinoffs of Star Trek had multiple showrunners, it was the word of Gene Roddenberry that they all tried to follow. Roddenberry was the creator of the franchise and he intended to portray a future that was hopeful, scientific, and full of exploration. He also emphasized his rules of how each aspect should be, even if he was not the showrunner.
He had his rules about everything, including the design of the Enterprise ship that housed the Starfleet crew. When designing the USS Enterprise-D for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Roddenberry reportedly laid down four rules that had to be followed. However, one of them reportedly made the chief crew extremely vulnerable to attacks.
Gene Roddenberry’s rules for the Enterprise design had a serious flaw
One of the key differences between the ships on Star Trek and Star Wars was that the latter followed the rule of cool while the former followed creator Gene Roddenberry’s researched designs. The creator of the franchise reportedly laid down four rules that were essential for the design of every Enterprise ship.
The first three rules, according to the site Ex Astris Scientia, were focused on the warp nacelles, the engines that propelled the Enterprise. The first rule reportedly stated that the nacelles had to come in pairs. The second rule stated that both nacelles had to have a 50% line-of-sight on each other while the third stated that they had to be visible from the front.
While these were doable enough, Roddenberry’s final rule had a major design flaw that was kept in for diplomatic purposes but in actuality, would be extremely dangerous. The fourth rule reportedly stated,
The bridge must be located at the top center of the primary hull.
The bridge is where the primary officers of the Enterprise are situated. The placement was reportedly kept in by Roddenberry to give the Enterprise crew a dorsal view of the galaxy and portray that the ship was not a vessel of war but one of diplomacy. While the thought is great, the placement would make the main staff extremely vulnerable.
Gene Roddenberry wanted the Enterprise to use clean fuel
Clean energy has always been one of the most researched aspects of the scientific world. The pollution and energy lost with the use of traditional fuels have been a point of debate for decades and many clean energy solutions have been put forth over the years. Gene Roddenberry, the visionary that he was, seemed to believe that humanity would have figured it out in the future.
According to the book The Making of Star Trek, Roddenberry reportedly said that he did not want to see fire and smoke in deep space due to the Enterprise. He said,
We’re out in deep space, on the equivalent of a cruiser-size spaceship. We don’t know what the mode of power is, but I don’t want to see any trails of fire. No streaks of smoke, no jet intakes, rocket exhaust, or anything like that…It will be like a deep space exploration vehicle, operating throughout our galaxy.
Roddenberry was known to be hopeful about the future and was well-versed in growing changes in the scientific space, with star William Shatner even theorizing that Roddenberry would believe in climate change.
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