Status readout, on a bridge monitor
Starship mission status reports were a computer display available to Starfleet officers used to brief them on the activities of other Federation starships and installations.
A readout of this nature for various sectors was often displayed on a screen in the observation lounge or bridge of the starship USS Enterprise-D and on the communication relay station Relay Station 47 during the 2360s.
The starship mission status readout was displayed in the observation lounge in an alternate timeframe when Jean-Luc Picard found himself time traveling to his first mission on the Enterprise-D. (TNG: "All Good Things...")
While "All Good Things..." is the earliest appearance of the status chart chronologically, it was probably the last production featuring an appearance of the graphic on screen.
The status readout was displayed on a computer screen on the bridge in 2367 when Data took over the ship. (TNG: "Brothers")
Bridge version[]
Observation lounge and Relay Station 47 display versions[]
This version can be recognized from a distance by two horizontal graphics under the text "STARFLEET OPERATIONS – SECTORS 21538 – 23079".
Background information[]
The mission status readout was devised by Michael Okuda's art department, and featured the registry numbers, classes and assignments of many Federation starships mentioned during TNG's run. "Chain Of Command, Part I" was one of its many appearances. This display was never clear on screen in the DVD release of TNG, but has been reproduced in other media, and the info within has been adhered to by many later works including the Star Trek Encyclopedia as well as the Blu-ray release of TNG. Okuda has noted in this regard in 2000, "During TNG and DS9, I (or others in my department) occasionally made up a number of Starfleet operations status charts for use on background computer display screens. One such chart was often seen on one of the large screens in the Enterprise-D briefing room during the sixth and seventh seasons. Anyway, I populated those display graphics with lists of ships that had (mostly) been mentioned in episodes, and added registry numbers and class designations that seemed consistent with whatever we knew about the ship. Those charts were a source of a lot of the info in the Encyclopedia. (For whatever it's worth, I have been doing this a lot less of late, simply because the last few seasons of DS9 introduced so many new ships that it became nearly impossible to keep track of them all.)" [1]
Like similar on-screen graphics used on the sets, these back-lit translites were constructed from black colored molded resin, wood, and plastic components, with a clear acrylic screen that, when back-lit revealed a graphical application which depicts the mission status of multiple Federation starships. They were typically attached to an internal electronics set-up that was powered by twelve 1.5V AA-sized battery packs.
Drexler's chart at auction
One of these, Lot 6866(X) , or at least a very similar okudagram, was sold on 25 February 2008 in a It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay for US$4,400. It is essentially the same as the "bridge version" shown above, but corrects the USS Trieste from Yosemite-class to the Merced-class, and does not include the Victory and Zhukov. A second one, that is actually the Observation lounge version, which did include the latter two ships, measuring 48×36 inches and originating from Doug Drexler's personal collection, was sold as [2](X) on 8 August 2010 in Propworx' The official STAR TREK prop and costume auction for US$840 (including buyer's premium), having had an estimate of US$600-$800.
The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine issue 15, PADD Prop, and Star Trek: Captain's Chair Versions.
"STARFLEET OPERATIONS – SECTORS 21538 – 23079". The text is available here because this version of the graphic is recreated, from the 1991, The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine issue 15, p. 35, the 1997 Star Trek: Captain's Chair CD-ROM, as well as a prop PADD featuring this chart was auctioned off in 2007 for $3152. Whether the PADD was used onscreen has yet to be confirmed. [3](X) [4]