History Main / TheBridge

*** In ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', the Bridge of the ''Defiant'' started to sound like a Navy bridge, with orders being repeated and relayed (the computers were busted).

* ''SpaceQuest'' has a couple of ships with this style. When Roger Wilco becomes a Star Confedration captain in Space Quest V, he is assigned to the SCS Eureka which plays the trope straight on a small scale, since the Eureka is, literally a garbage scow. Roger's chair is in the center, as usual, with Officer Flo and Subcorporal Droole towards the front. Captain Quirk's ship, the SCS Goliath, plays it straighter, in addition to the SCS [=DeepShip=] 86 in the next game which is based on DeepSpaceNine. However, since the DS86's captain is a member of a CatFolk species, his chair is a large, plush couch with scratched-up sides.

* All bridges on all the large ships in the MobileSuitGundam series.

** The ''Liandra'' from ''Legend of the Rangers'' is an interesting case, being an old (and failed) Minbari design. It features a small (but mostly standard sci-fi) bridge, except for the weapons. The weapons room is a zero-g spherical chamber that shows the holo-image of the surrounding space, allowing the gunner to target and fire the ship's weapons with ''gestures''. Basically, the weapons fire as fast as the gunner can ''punch air''. No wonder the design failed. Minbari aren't very good when they try new things on their own.

* ''SpaceQuest'' has a couple of ships with this style. When Roger Wilco becomes a Star Confedration captain in Space Quest V, he is assigned to the SCS Eureka which plays the trope straight on a small scale, since the Eureka is, literally a garbage scow. Roger's chair is in the center, as usual, with Officer Flo and Subcorporal Droole towards the front. Captain Quirk's ship, the SCS Goliath, plays it straighter, in addition to the SCS Deepship 86 in the next game which is based on DeepSpaceNine.

* The ''Macross'' bridge on ''SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' and its counterparts in ''{{Macross 7}}'' and ''MacrossFrontier''.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* UrExample: the bridge of the ''Enterprise'' on ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' set the pattern for The Bridge on many other SpeculativeFictionSeries. (Note though, that at in least one ''Star Trek'' movie there are in fact seat belts on the bridge, in the form of arm rests that fold down and lock a person in his seat. Also, Kirk had ''male'' BridgeBunnies.)
** In a case of TruthInTelevision, the US Navy began to design their bridges after that of the ''Enterprise'' due to its more efficient layout.
*** This is also a case of influence going both ways, since the design of the original Enterprise's bridge was done by Matt Jeffries based on military aviation designs, some input from Naval sources... and the appearance of an electric stove's heating coil.
*** In ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', the Bridge of the ''Defiant'' started to sound like a Navy bridge, with orders being repeated and relayed (the computers were busted).
** Budget and time constraints, along with the need to make different ship interiors visually distinct from one another in ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' and later series, however, lead to a number of other Federation starships with bridges that were decidedly less efficient and practical. The starship ''Jenolan'' from the episode ''Relics'' was of particular note, as it featured several stations--including the command chair--isolated from the others by bulkheads, without any line-of-sight to the other bridge stations.
** In a few episodes of the original series, and in several episodes of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', the ships featured, in addition to the bridge located on top of the ship, a secondary "Battle Bridge" located deep inside some heavily armored portion of the ship. It also doubled as the bridge for the main section of the ship whenever the plot demanded they [[EscapePod jettison the saucer section]].
** This only applies to TheFederation ships. [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Klingon]] captains always sit at the front of the bridge, leading the warriors into battle.
*** Except on the Birds of Prey in the movies, which had very Federation-like bridge layouts except for the periscope the captain uses to aim and operate the weapons. The bridges of Klingon ships in ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' had the same layout minus the consoles in between the captain and the viewscreen.
** The first Romulan ship we ever see actually had most of the systems operated by standing crewmen arranged around a central pillar with the captain wandering around the perimeter giving orders. Later Romulan ships had bridges that looked more like later Klingon ships, possibly a result of the Klingon-Romulan treaty.
* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' is another example of this pattern.
** The bridge was later re-designed by Harper a little. The pilot now has to stand, for some reason.
* The ''Excalibur'' on ''Series/{{Crusade}}'' intentionally departed from this pattern, with a long rectangular bridge more akin to the control rooms on modern-day attack submarines.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'' has a variety of bridge designs for the different races.
** Narn ships are cramped with everyone strapped in because they lack artificial gravity. The White Star's bridge is fairly spacious with the expected central command chair and separate work stations. Earth ships have the central command chair and a more cramped layout (and seatbelts). The eponymous station's Command and Control isn't really a bridge at all, but combines air traffic control, tactical control, and other functions.
** The ''Liandra'' from ''Legend of the Rangers'' is an interesting case, being an old (and failed) Minbari design. It features a small (but mostly standard sci-fi) bridge, except for the weapons. The weapons room is a zero-g spherical chamber that shows the holo-image of the surrounding space, allowing the gunner to target and fire the ship's weapons with ''gestures''. Basically, the weapons fire as fast as the gunner can ''punch air''. No wonder the design failed. Minbari aren't very good when they try new things on their own.
* The original ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Classic}}'' had a standard TV bridge; the Combat Information Center on the new ''[[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined Galactica]]'' is more like TheWarRoom in nature, being located deep within the armoured superstructure of the ship.
** [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined Reimagined Series]] creator Creator/RonaldDMoore, a veteren writer of three Franchise/StarTrek series[[labelnote:*]]''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', and ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''[[/labelnote]] designed the [=CIC=] specifically to avoid a number of Trek bridge tropes and cliches that he had grown tired of.
* Averted in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' and the film ''Serenity'', where the spacecraft was flown from a flight-deck clearly modelled on transport aircraft rather than ships. It is much smaller, with just two workstations, actual windows in place of a viewscreen and has nowhere for the captain to sit. The dining room or cargo hold is a much more common gathering place than the flight deck.
* The bridge of the ''{{Lexx}}'' has nothing but a viewscreen, a pedestal for the Captain, and a ''[[NoOSHACompliance thousand-foot drop to one side.]]''
* The bridge of ''SeaQuestDSV'' was not very sub-like, but it was supposed to be a radical design. Because of the ship's long configuration, a maglev train was the convenient access.
* The titular ship on ''Series/RedDwarf'' doesn't seem to have an actual bridge; the Navigation Room is seen a few times, but most of the action happens in and around the main characters' quarters. During the two seasons without the ''Red Dwarf'', the bridge of Starbug is a small room only seen during emergencies, and the "character" action happens in the dining room.
** The viewer does see Red Dwarf's bridge, briefly, in the very first episode, when Lister is called before the Captain and chewed out for bringing a cat on board. Another episode hints later on that the area is still radioactive from the accident which set the show's plot in motion.
** Series 10 has several scenes set in a control room which has about the same dimensions and layout of a Starbug bridge.
* ''Series/VoyageToTheBottomOfTheSea'' had a submarine-style control room that was just large enough to fit all the major characters along with extras to run sonar, control, and communication. For dramatic visual purposes, the ''Seaview'' also had big viewing windows, right up in the bow, where they could be shattered by any trivial collision. They would even direct the ship from there. Eventually the producers realized that the captain of a submarine had no business trying to navigate his vessel by looking out the window into a murky ocean, though the windows remained and the bridge was never shifted to the depths of the vessel where it should have been. In fact, the bridge was moved ''to'' the front of the ship, just behind the windows in the second season.
** The windows did have moving shutters that closed over them, they just weren't used very often.
* Despite fact that the TARDIS on ''Series/DoctorWho'' is ''huge'', literally as big as the plot requires, and contains libraries, a swimming pool, crew quarters, a sickbay, storage rooms, cloisters, endless corridors to run up and down, and much more, you pretty much only ever see the console room. The new series had glimpse of the wardrobe and a few corridors before, after several years, 'Journey to the Center of the TARDIS' gave us the full tour.
* The {{Stargate}} verse play this trope straight across multiple species.
** Tau'ri bridges have the captain [[http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/File:304Bridge11.jpg sitting in the middle with another crewman sitting on either side]] of him, [[http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/File:304BridgeForward.jpg facing a large viewport]]; all other crewmembers are standing behind these three.
** Ancient ships have spherical bridges with the captain [[http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/File:AuroraCommandChair.jpg sitting in a raised chair]] and the others working along the walls. Even larger window.
*** The ''[[Series/StargateUniverse Destiny]]'' has a [[http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/File:Destiny_brige.jpg similar design]].
** Traveler ships have a bridge that's [[http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/File:Travler_bridge.jpg more like]] a large two-seater cockpit.
** [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080821183922/stargate/images/6/67/BilisknerBridge.jpg Asgard ships]] have a very different bridge design, consisting of a central "pillar of light" and multiple platforms, although it only appears once: most of the time the bridge appears to be whatever room Thor has parked his [[CoolChair teleporting throne]] in at that particular moment.
** Hive ships have a bridge, but it's not as important, since the ships controls are very distributed.
** Ori ships have a similar bridge as Ancient ships, to be controlled by a prior.
** Goa'uld motherships have a standard design with the throne of the captain in the middle and consoles in the front. Smaller ships lack the bridge.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Bridges are described in {{Gurps}} {{Traveller}} ''Starships''. There are several types of bridges depending on the ship. Some ships, notably naval flagships have more then one bridge(one for the ship and one for the fleet). Different crew members are assigned workstations with computers arranged to taste.
** Hivers, quite sensibly, but contrary to sci-fi tradition put their bridges in the middle of the ship. They also fire the guns from the bridge, again quite sensibly but contrary to sci-fi tradition.
* ''{{Warhammer40K}}'' has of course bridges tending towards the monumental - while the Lord-Captain resides on the obligatory Command Throne, the rest of the bridge is generally big enough to qualify as TheWarRoom. The RogueTrader rpg has bridges as a starship component type. Depending on the specific component chosen, the bridge layout and its equipment can benefit anything from spaceship combat to commerce, exploration or planetary invasions.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The ''Halo'' series has shown the bridges of several different ships, most of which fit the cliche. The ''Pillar of Autumn'' in particular has a rather... precarious seat for the pilot and another officer.
** That's putting it mildly. In fact, the bridge of the ''Autumn'' is a complete contradiction - suposedly one of the most ridiculously over-engineered ships in the whole human fleet, yet it has just about the most exposed bridge it is possible to imagine?
** Meanwhile, the presumed bridge on the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Covenant]] ship ''Truth and Reconciliation'' is particularly enormous and laid out in a circular design. However, it's also located in the center of the vessel and has no obvious 'viewscreens'. Being a video game, it's also not easy to get to.
** Partially subverted with the bridge of the UNSC frigate ''In Amber Clad'': while it does have a central Commader's chair, two forward bridge-bunny stations and several other stations around the perimeter, it's also badly cramped.
** In the novels Covenant troops occasionally {{Lampshade}} this, calling the human's bridge location in the fore of the ship "bold but foolish."
*** Although Human bridges are towards the front or the top of the ship they are not always exposed. Whilst it is never out and out stated it's made very clear in the novels most ships have internal bridges a decent distance from the hull.
* Averted in ''EveOnline'' - while NPC ships are presumed to have bridges, one of the advantages of player-controlled ships is that they don't ''have'' bridges - instead, the ship's command functions are wired directly into the pilot's nervous system. This allows the ship to react quicker, and cuts down on the need for life support.
** Nevertheless, some ship models ([[http://www.eveonlineships.com/eve-online-ship.php?navicrip=bWlubWF0YXItdGVtcGVzdC0zLmpwZw== especially Minmatar designs]]) have elongated or raised parts that look like bridges. The fan vid [[http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=783871 Clear Skies]] shows [[spoiler: how dangerous that can be.]]
** Fluff-wise, the capsuleer ships are simply retrofitted conventional vessels.
* Also averted in ''Franchise/MassEffect''. The bridge of the Normandy is a small compartment in the nose of the spaceship with just enough room for two pilots. All important navigational decisions seem to be made from the control deck further aft, and all important character gatherings take place in the strangely spacious communications room. This is apparently a Turian design which the Alliance used on the Normandy so they could compare its efficiency to their own (never seen) bridge layouts.
** Though it seems to be implied that Alliance ships play this trope more straight.
--> '''Joker:''' Y'know what pisses me off? Calling this the cockpit. Alliance ships have bridges. Asari ships have cockpits. Oh, wait. [[OneGenderRace No they don't.]]"
** Technically, the pilot's compartment is the helm, not the bridge. Control deck has all the bridge facilities and is also constantly manned by officers. The game simply doesn't show how the ship is actually commanded. Normandy design also resembles one of the submarine (what makes sense, given it is small, stealth special-purpose vessel).
** Even further averted with the addition of the WarRoom in the third game, where most of the characters congregate to discuss any upcoming military strategy, engage in diplomacy or to update their leadership on their progress. Once a plan is finalised, any relevant information is then relayed to the officers in the CIC, before being passed to the helm so Joker can plot a course.
*** For bonus points, they are all located on the same deck, so if internal communications ever went down, critical information can still be relayed as easy as just walking from one room to another.
** The bridge of the ''Destiny Ascension'' is shown several times. It also appears to play this trope straight, although it's an asari flagship and a dreadnought to boot (since dreadnoughts are too large to land on planets, their rooms a located perpendicular to the thrust).
* In both ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' video games this trope is also averted - the [[CoolShip Ebon Hawk]] has a small cockpit and some sort of a briefing room for important discussions. It is played straight with the Sith warships and their massive rooms with sunken areas for control operators and a long walkway for Malak to pace up and down menacingly, and the Republic ''Hammerhead''-class vessels and their console-lined rooms at the prow with big windows.
** Well, the Ebon Hawk wasn't exactly a warship, now was it?
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' gives the player access to the bridges of several ships.
* Appears to be averted in ''StarControl'', although, to be fair, the heavily-pixelized crew animations don't show enough to be certain. Human crews, for example, are shown to be sitting in a cramped control room with chairs back-to-back. Then again, given that their shape is based on ''Franchise/StarTrek'', they may have a "standard" sci-fi bridge. Other examples include the [[ArtificialHuman Androsynth]], who operate their ships from a standing position, and the [[BugWar Ur-Quan]], who hang from the ceiling in a massive chamber.
* Appears to be the case with human ships in ''SwordOfTheStars'', with The Bridge located in the Command (i.e. forward) section with a large window into space. Partially subverted with the (presumed) existence of a secondary bridge in the Mission section, meaning that destroying the Command section does not result in the ship becoming useless.
** Battle bridge confirmed [[http://www.kerberos-productions.com/wp-content/gallery/sots2/sword_of_the_stars_2_screen1.jpg here]]. The same diagram also shows that both bridges are protected by blast shields.
* In the "Mothership Zeta" {{DLC}} for ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the titular [[TheGreys alien]] mothership has a large bridge with the captain's chair in the front and various consoles to the sides.
* Many cutscenes in ''[[NavalOps Warship Gunner 2]]'' consist of the characters talking on the bridge. While every ship you build in the series requires a bridge, this is the only title where you get to see what's going on in it.
* Equipping different bridge modules in ''InfiniteSpace'' can improve your ship's performance, as well as the background for traveling or fighting. Many cutscenes are set on the bridge of some ship or other.
* The ''Lexington'''s bridge in ''VideoGame/MissionCritical'' is reminiscent of ''Franchise/StarTrek'', which is fitting, given that the captain is played by [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Michael Dorn]]. The captain's chair is in the middle. The officer stations are along the sides of the large circular room. No front-facing consoles, though. There is also a large viewscreen at the front. However, unlike Trek ships, the bridge and every other deck on the ''Lexington'' is facing perpendicular to the acceleration in order to provide artificial gravity.
* The player's party in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' games is often based on a battleship of some kind and cutscenes sometimes take place on the bridge.
* The ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' games occasionally feature scenes on the bridge, though given the focus of the series they're not common. In a subversion, the BWS ''Intrepid'''s bridge was destroyed in combat with Confederation forces before Blair joins them, so the ship is run from the Combat Information Center with a jury-rigged setup to replace the functionality lost with the damaged bridge.
* ''SpaceQuest'' has a couple of ships with this style. When Roger Wilco becomes a Star Confedration captain in Space Quest V, he is assigned to the SCS Eureka which plays the trope straight on a small scale, since the Eureka is, literally a garbage scow. Roger's chair is in the center, as usual, with Officer Flo and Subcorporal Droole towards the front. Captain Quirk's ship, the SCS Goliath, plays it straighter, in addition to the SCS Deepship 86 in the next game which is based on DeepSpaceNine.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury'' has a ship with a ''stupendously'' large bridge.

[[folder:Film]]
* Most vehicles in ''StarWars'' that are large enough to have one. [[TheEmpire Imperial]] ships don't follow the usual layout, though -- BridgeBunnies are confined to two sunken pits full of consoles, bisected by a long walkway for Darth Vader to pace up and down menacingly. It's basically galley slaves InSPACE!
** The Walkway serves the same purpose as the raised command chair in TOS that allows kirk to turn around and see what everyone else is doing, only instead of requiring a full rotation, you just turn your head from side to side. It also has room in the back for a Holographic 3D display, rather than a 2D viewscreen at the front, instead it has a window for similar reasons as the Star Trek (2009) Bridge does.
* The new ''Film/StarTrek'' film goes further than the series it's based on and has a window instead of a view screen[[note]]Which is a very dumb thing to have done, because from inside that brightly-lit bridge and with the vast distances of space, they won't be able to see anything except their own reflections in a window. The original series had the right idea.[[/note]], and the interior looks like an Apple store.
** Actually having a window isn't a dumb idea at all, since most combat in Star Trek occurs well in visual range and the window cannot be interfered with using jammers/false sensor readings. For example, the Nebula chase in Wrath of Khan would have been far less difficult if they simply used a window instead of the viewscreen.
*** Assuming that the sensors which feed the viewscreen were not being used to see through the dust on another spectrum and just being portrayed as visible light.
* In ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'', there are ''multiple'' Bridges, and are used to great effect, except [[InsistentTerminology being submarines]] they're called the 'control room' or just 'conn'.
* ''Film/SpaceMutiny'' has two bridges, one for the good guys, one for the bad guys, both on the ''same ship''.
* Averted in ''Film/{{Alien}}'' - the ''Nostromo'' has a fairly cramped control room for piloting the ship (and, in a deleted scene, listening to a beacon), and at least one area with windows/monitors that allows Ash to monitor the away team, but most of the gathering and decision making is made around a general living area table.
* The Helicarrier in ''Film/TheAvengers'' has a particularly large one. It's got a gigantic window at the front, and the ship's briefing room is basically part of it as well. Bonus points because the space has room for ''tons'' of BridgeBunnies (and more points because they come in all genders!)

[[folder:Literature]]

* The Pool ship's bridge and the Blade ship's bridge in K.A. Applegate's ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' are the locations of some very important events.
* Bridges in Creator/DavidWeber's ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series are usually quite spacious, but you'd hardly notice it, them being cluttered by the crew's workstations (up to several dozens on a large capital ship), their associated shock frames (happily averting NoSeatbelts), buried deep into the most protected part of the ship, and having not exactly the classical layout. Basically they are modeled not on a ship's steering bridge, but on a [[TheWarRoom War Room]] or a submarine's Command Center. Larger ships have two, the second headed by the executive officer in battle situations in case the main bridge is damaged or destroyed. Ships intended for flagship purposes also include a flag bridge for the admiral and their staff.
* The Task Force Resolution ships in ''Literature/{{Lacuna}}'' have an Operations room that functions as their bridge.
* Sergey Pavlov's HardSF novel ''Moon Rainbow'' just loves to subvert various tropes, starting with both the titular CoolShip and its counterpart later in the novel being not a naval vessels, but an exploration boat and ''freighter'' respectively, so it's not surprising that it does it for this trope as well. Just as in Honorverse example above, bridges there are more of a control rooms, large, but cluttered, with seatbelted crew being generally just representatives of their departments collected there for the Captain's convenience, and rarely, if ever, being BridgeBunnies -- they're just too busy for it. There are also a number of ''other'' control rooms throughout the sip, each controlling is own department, and a couple of sub-bridges for steering, astrogation and managing ships various systems.

* In ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'', there are ''multiple'' Bridges, and are used to great effect, except [[InsistantTerminology being submarines]] they're called the 'control room' or just 'conn'.

* The ''Lexington'''s bridge in ''MissionCritical'' is reminiscent of ''Franchise/StarTrek'', which is fitting, given that the captain is played by [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Michael Dorn]]. The captain's chair is in the middle. The officer stations are along the sides of the large circular room. No front-facing consoles, though. There is also a large viewscreen at the front. However, unlike Trek ships, the bridge and every other deck on the ''Lexington'' is facing perpendicular to the acceleration in order to provide artificial gravity.

* The Videogame/WingCommander games occasionally feature scenes on the bridge, though given the focus of the series they're not common. In a subversion, the BWS ''Intrepid'''s bridge was destroyed in combat with Confederation forces before Blair joins them, so the ship is run from the Combat Information Center with a jury-rigged setup to replace the functionality lost with the damaged bridge.

** Fluff-wise, the capsuleer ships are simply retrofitted conventional vessels. This troper cannot seem to remember whether the capsules fully replaced the bridge (physically) or if they were simply rerouted or rewired.

* ''CrestOfTheStars'' ''partially'' goes for the standard aversion, making the bridges of its ships cramped and flight deck like,.. but only for the lighter units. Capital ships feature standard elevated platforms for the captain (with enough room to swing the ceremonial sword), loads of BridgeBunnies etc. Although both the capital ships and the lighter elements have their bridges in the heart of the ship and not exposed -- this comes as a major plot point in one series when Lamhirh friend and mentor [[spoiler:dies in the doomed destroyer's bridge, when battle damage blocks the way to the shuttle]].

The standard bridge cliché involves TheCaptain sitting in the very center on a [[CoolChair Command Chair]], with two crewmembers (sometimes Bridgebunnies) in front of him steering the ship, looking at an AppliedPhlebotinum viewscreen showing a whizzing star field or a map of nearby space. Other characters sit at workstations arranged in a circle around the perimeter. There's an elevator or other extremely convenient access, and any character who wants to come to TheBridge [[SwissCheeseSecurity can do so easily]]. The Bridge will be spacious and have a large ''stage'', usually in front of TheCaptain's chair, so the officers, their invited guests, and the random uninvited enemy of the week can walk around and meaningfully emote.

Essentially TheBridge is part of the SpaceIsAnOcean model of space flight, in which the traditions of naval architecture are RecycledINSPACE by lazy writers. It will typically either be perched on [[{{Two-DSpace}} the obvious "top"]] of the ship, often in some sort of conning-tower, or in the nose like the flight deck of an aircraft.

TheBridge will typically cram navigation, weapons control and even strategic-level command functions into a single room, all controlled by the same handful of people.

* UrExample: the bridge of the ''Enterprise'' on ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' set the pattern for TheBridge on many other SpeculativeFictionSeries. (Note though, that at in least one ''Star Trek'' movie there are in fact seat belts on the bridge, in the form of arm rests that fold down and lock a person in his seat. Also, Kirk had ''male'' BridgeBunnies.)

* Like ''{{Firefly}}'', the main characters' vessel in ''CowboyBebop'' contained a relatively small cockpit, and a larger living-room structure that better served the functions of TheBridge.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': it isn't in a space ship, but the local [[TheBridge bridge]] fits every caracteristics, complete with BridgeBunnies and conveniant elevators.

* Appears to be averted in ''StarControl'', although, to be fair, the heavily-pixelized crew animations don't show enough to be certain. Human crews, for example, are shown to be sitting in a cramped control room with chairs back-to-back. Then again, given that their shape is based on ''Franchise/StarTrek'', they may have a "standard" sci-fi [[TheBridge bridge]]. Other examples include the [[ArtificialHuman Androsynth]], who operate their ships from a standing position, and the [[BugWar Ur-Quan]], who hang from the ceiling in a massive chamber.
* Appears to be the case with human ships in ''SwordOfTheStars'', with TheBridge located in the Command (i.e. forward) section with a large window into space. Partially subverted with the (presumed) existence of a secondary bridge in the Mission section, meaning that destroying the Command section does not result in the ship becoming useless.

This has nothing to do with the game of TabletopGame/{{Bridge}}, the cop show known in English as ''[[Series/BronBroen The Bridge]]'', the Sirius XM Satellite Radio channel known as The Bridge, the PuzzlePlatformer game ''VideoGame/TheBridge'', the German movie The Bridge (Die Brücke) (or novel of the same name).

* The player's party in ''SuperRobotWars'' games is often based on a battleship of some kind and cutscenes sometimes take place on the bridge.

* Despite fact that the TARDIS on ''Series/DoctorWho'' is ''huge'', literally as big as the plot requires, and contains libraries, a swimming pool, crew quarters, a sickbay, storage rooms, cloisters, endless corridors to run up and down, and much more, you pretty much only ever see the console room. The new series has so far ''only'' shown the console room(s) -- except for one scene in the wardrobe, and some corridors a few years later.

* Also averted in MassEffect. The bridge of the Normandy is a small compartment in the nose of the spaceship with just enough room for two pilots. All important navigational decisions seem to be made from the control deck further aft, and all important character gatherings take place in the strangely spacious communications room. This is apparently a Turian design which the Alliance used on the Normandy so they could compare its efficiency to their own (never seen) bridge layouts.

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'': it isn't in a space ship, but the local [[TheBridge bridge]] fits every caracteristics, complete with BridgeBunnies and conveniant elevators.

* ''IrresponsibleCaptainTylor'' uses the bridge of the ''Soyokaze'' quite heavily.