I'm starting this (actually on 3/16) thanks to an extended discussion in the 'Random Thought's thread, so things can stay random over there.

The reason this is in "General (Off-Topic) Discussions" rather than the "Movie Talk" or "Television aka TV discussion" areas is because this thread started with something that has been both on TV and in film, with further discussions flowing back and forth between the two media types.
Though it started with a discussion of starships of varying types, so that this thread is more useful, it is hereby expanded for discussions of
any considerations of how different science fiction (and science fantasy) elements compare. Anything from ship construction (hence the title), to politics ('oh, goodie: more senate debates on trade treaties!!'

), or alien races, or whatever.
The rest of this is my discussion-triggering post from Random Thoughts:
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Thinking about the old Star Trek (for some reason

), and this came back to me.
Does anyone else think that having the bridge as a bubble on top of the ship is the stupidest fucking design
possible for a ship likely to run into hostile forces?
I mean: it's like painting a friggin' target on
the place to hit to pretty much completely disable the ship (certainly to eliminate enough of the upper level crew so that no-one else would be able to pull it together enough to win in a fight).
Honestly, when I was a kid - and teen - and young adult - hell for many years (possibly until
Star Trek Generations' saucer crash when the front was taken off of the bridge [should that have been spoilered?

]), I thought the bridge was buried deep within the ship for pure common sense reasons of protecting the personnel most essential to the ship.
Since they didn't use windows on the bridge (in the old Treks), there was no reason to be exposed like that. [Obviously not an option with the new Trek films.]
Am I the only one who thinks this?