19

In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Sybok captures the Enterprise and confines Kirk, Spock and Bones to the brig.

Inside the brig there is sign on the wall in the background that reads

"Do not use while in spacedock"

Although at this point its not clear what the sign relates to.

Shortly afterward, Kirk pushes a square metal button under the sign and a seat slides out of the wall.

Why exactly are they not allowed to use this seat while in a spacedock? What could possibly happen?

enter image description here

JK.
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    Could it have been the toilet? – iAdjunct Sep 14 '16 at 03:49
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    Pretty sure it's the toilet, but no idea why it wouldn't be allowed in the spaceport. – Thunderforge Sep 14 '16 at 03:49
  • No definitely not a toilet. It was a bench seat with enough room for two or three to sit. Don't know about you, but I'm not sitting side by side on the toilet. – JK. Sep 14 '16 at 03:50
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    Maybe it's a love seat. Spaceport crews have been known to be prudish. – Major Stackings Sep 14 '16 at 04:38
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    The sign might not be related to the bench, but to the toilet. Presumably because they jettison the waste, just like trains and planes used to. – ThePopMachine Sep 14 '16 at 04:39
  • @JK Are you sure? Check out the picture here. Doesn't look like a bench to me. – Kevin Workman Sep 14 '16 at 15:49
  • @JK. Yes, I believe Kevin is correct. He is sitting on a toilet with the lid closed. – ThePopMachine Sep 14 '16 at 18:41
  • Nice answers :) The sign really stood out in the scene as if it was supposed to mean something, but then it played no part in the story. Instead it was a nod to everyone asking about the toilets. Note that in the very beginning of the scene, you only see the first part of the sign and you can only see "Do not use while in space", which is what caught my eye. – JK. Sep 15 '16 at 02:52
  • Actually I was wrong about the button. There's a round button and a square button. He pushes the square button to slide the seat out. He does not push the round button - this is probably the flush button. – JK. Sep 15 '16 at 04:07
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    This scene is actually hilarious for other reasons. There's a toilet, in the brig (jail) of a starship, with a sign kindly asking it's inhabitants to not use it under certain conditions. Put anyone in there that has to go number 2 and is in a bad mood while the ship is docked and somebody is going to be cleaning up a lot of crap. – Ellesedil Sep 22 '17 at 16:05

2 Answers2

38

In this instance there are a few things going on in the scene, some more obvious than others.

In universe

Kirk is siting on a closed toilet. The implication here is that the head (toilet) in the brig vents directly into space. If it's used while in spacedock it will cause mess to the landing platform/connectors.

Out of Universe

Since the 1950s and 1960s, American TV censors have valiantly fought to guard public virtue by keeping toilets off the airwaves, demanding that any visual indication of toilets (or even the sound of flushing) be removed from shows. Star Trek was one of the shows affected, leading to the total absence of toilets on the Enterprise.

After being faced with decades of questions about where Kirk and crew go to the loo, Director Bill Shatner evidently decided to include a scene where his character (Kirk) is quite literally sitting on the toilet to deliver his lines. Rather than labeling it "TOILET" they've followed a convention used on trains of labeling the toilet but not as a toilet

enter image description here

Valorum
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    Related: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/81086/%CE%91re-there-bathrooms-on-the-enterprise – Z. Cochrane Sep 14 '16 at 11:44
  • That explains A LOT. I always wondered why there were no toilets...regardless which series bakc then^^ – Thomas Sep 14 '16 at 16:02
  • Agreed, and its the kind of nod / fun element that long running actors and writers will put in to entertain (true) fans - like Schwarzenegger mocking his own catch phrases briefly in another movie or Stephen King briefly referencing an incident or person from another novel (e.g. Castle Rock). "The implication here is that the head (toilet) in the brig vents directly into space. If it's used while in spacedock it will cause mess to the landing platform/connectors" Exactly, and how many of us have done that in a railway station... go on, admit it. – Applefanboy Sep 14 '16 at 16:18
  • Seems kind of lame to let a prisoners have the ability to spew crap on my space station. – Hannover Fist Sep 14 '16 at 20:58
  • @HannoverFist - The majority of potential inhabitants are likely to be otherwise law-abiding. – Valorum Sep 14 '16 at 20:59
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    I would have thought that the waste from toilets would be dematerialized and rematerized by a replicator. – Cave Johnson Sep 20 '16 at 21:52
  • @Andrew - This film is set in an era that pre-dates replicators. On the Enterprise they use food synthesisers to prepare food and then physically move it to the desired location. By the same token, waste is moved by pipes to a recycling hub to have the water extracted and the solid waste dumped. – Valorum Sep 20 '16 at 21:59
  • Sheesh...and I thought the bathrooms on airplanes were scary... – Sovereign Inquiry Nov 04 '22 at 23:16
13

It's the Toilet

Check the link at memory alpha toilet.

You can clearly see that it seats only one and there is a clear line marking the "lid". The next compartment over Kirks right shoulder houses the sink.

enter image description here

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