The ‘bottle episode’ approach to sheltering in place
a global epidemic of cabin fever
The COVID-19 virus has affected our world with two epidemics. On the one hand, there is the obvious and overt danger of the viral infection in the public spaces around us, and on the other hand, there is another widespread affliction: the mental fatigue caused by our entire population being suddenly thrust into home isolation. Cabin fever arises when we least expect it; its symptoms include a sense of anxiety, isolation, restlessness, low motivation, and even a feeling of being trapped or depressed.
Within this context, we are suddenly faced with the need to adapt to our new stay at home circumstances, keeping our spirits up, and finding new ways to connect with our friends and families.
the bottle episode as a model for sheltering in place
If I had to choose a place to shelter-in-place, it would be aboard the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701-D. I remember my first week of summer after graduating from high school. I had just completed my final exams and graduation ceremony. As it happens, I decided to spend an entire week holed up at home, binge watching Star Trek: the Next Generation, while eating ramen noodles and drinking a tall glass of milk off a tv tray. It was like the 90’s version of Netflix and Chill, except at that time there was no such thing as Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime Video and you had to watch commercials and would be holding a tv remote in hand. I was living in Toronto at that time, and luckily we had a channel called Space and a couple of different City TV local channels where you could watch essentially endless back to back episodes of Star Trek by simply flipping back and forth between channels… pretty much any time of day or night.
One of the interesting things you will notice about Star Trek is that there are entire episodes of the show where the crew never leaves the ship. Entire complex storylines and crazy adventures can happen without ever having to leave the confines of just a few rooms or corridors aboard the Starship Enterprise.
In episodic television, filmmakers call such episodes bottle episodes. A bottle episode is an episode that is produced cheaply and limited in scope, planned to be shot within just a few interior sets. They usually have lots of dialogue and use only a few regular cast members to tell a story. Apart from saving money, bottle episodes often happen when another episode falls through and the production team needs to write a brand new script on short notice. Pushed to the extreme, a bottle episode can sometimes be written up as an elevator episode, where through some contrived plot device, characters get trapped in an elevator or a single room and are forced to spend an entire episode stuck in a single confined space with one another. Usually this leads to the dramatic effect of allowing for a slower pace and deeper exploration of characters and their motivations. In the 2009 independent film Moon, Sam Rockwell’s character plays almost the entire 97 minute film alone on a space station, with only the AI computer for conversation. The great challenge with bottle episodes or elevator episodes is how to keep the story interesting despite it being limited to just a few sets.
These days, for most shows, bottle episodes will only happen once in a while, at the risk of making the show too boring. However, in the 80’s, it was not uncommon for some shows to be primarily shot entirely within just a few sets. Famously, the 80’s sitcom Cheers was set almost entirely within a single location, a Boston bar by the title name. Gilligan’s Island was another example of a show that only had a few sets with the premise of the show being a group of characters marooned on an island. The single location show model got pushed to the extreme in Star Trek, where despite its epic galactic scale, the crew often never leaves the ship due to the nature of the show being set in outer space. In a way, the Starship Enterprise was designed to be the ultimate bottle episode machine, able to accommodate any number of stories and dramatic real life situations in a single vessel. When planning a new tv show, producers / writers spend a lot of time up front designing the sets around the characters to accommodate a wide variety of storytelling situations.
In a similar way, in the new stay at home economy, taking a bit of time to plan out our home situations can afford great benefits over the long haul. It can save us time and money, take away some of the stress and anxiety of working in a constrained space, and help to shape better stories for our households. Let’s take a step back, and think about our own life situations through the lens of a tv producer / writer:
- How can we design the living spaces for our own lives like an episodic show or sitcom, given that we expect the majority of episodes to be filmed within a limited number of rooms set at the same location?
- How will these sites accommodate all of life’s diverse day to day activities, drama, events, and stories while saving time and money?
- Given the characters living there (your household) and their roles and responsibilities in the show (your life), what rooms are needed to accommodate their needs? If you are on a budget, you may need to get creative with how your rooms are laid out and activities distributed.
- How will each room on the set accommodate different character interactions, different moods, dramatic moments, and circumstances while giving every set the atmosphere it needs to make a great scene?
- How will the set define territories for individuals, with varying degrees of public and private space, and opportunities for different kinds of social interaction?
- Given that we live in a digital world, what opportunities exist for digital interactions which will occur in this place? These connection points will become all the more important especially for those living alone.
1. “The Bridge” : a shared work space where most of the action happens
In work from home situations, I have observed that in some households, there is often a large communal table, usually in the dining room where everyone tends to congregate. The bridge is the place where every crew member has their own seat / station, where they may each be working on their own stuff, but in a social setting. It’s the place where household meetings can take place, or group collaboration and activities (like a game of Jenga or Uno or D&D), and where a working parent can pause to help the kids with their homework assignments.
The bridge often becomes the center of the action, it’s where work and conversations meet, and everyone settles into their own space each morning around the table.
2. “Ready Room”: a quiet space for focused work and private conversations
In addition to the bridge, I have found that it is useful to set up a secondary private workspace on the side. This can be a den or additional bedroom, or if you don’t have a spare room, a number of people I know have converted garage spaces into a makeshift office space for doing focused work. Having the extra quiet office space can also be a great way to have a private conversation, for example when a crew member is misbehaving, you can say “Ensign, in my ready room.” With two working parents, it can be useful to take turns working in the ready room to focus on work, while leaving one parent always on the bridge in case the Klingons show up.
3. “Engineering” : the place where we make this ship hum, and where crisis is averted
Let’s face it: a starship cannot go to warp without its warp drive, and your household in this new shelter-in-place world cannot operate without its wifi. Similarly, the internet always seems to be having a meltdown when all hands are on deck, so it’s best to have one of the parents trained as an engineer to handle emergency situations. Speaking from experience, we had a near meltdown when the warp core destabilized while we had 4 crew members on conference calls at the same time.
4. “The Holodeck” : a flexible room for activities, escape, and recreation
Aboard the Enterprise, the holodeck is the magical room that is able to create all kinds of virtual environments, and enables recreation, training, and entertaining experiences for the crew. I have found that it’s useful to have a similar open and flexible activity space in the heart of the shelter-in-place home. Yoga, ballet class, breakdance class, circle time, class discussions, piano… a lot of your crew’s activities will be moving to a video conference setup. One way to accommodate these activities is by using lightweight and mobile furniture, like a lightweight couch and seating which can be moved aside when open spaces are needed. An easy way to convert your living room TV into a flexible conference setup is by using an apple tv and airplay with an iPhone or iPad. This is also a great setup for face-timing with grandparents and friends. And then when the workday is over, seating can easily be brought back into the holodeck converting it into a viewing area for movies or cartoons or a game of Minecraft or Terraria.
5. “The Observation Lounge” : a meeting place / conversation room that doubles as a view to the world outside
While the bridge and ready room are great for work and group / focused activities, sometimes you may want to huddle and have a conversation in a more comfortable setting around some refreshments. I think of the observation lounge as a separate table where conversations are more focused without the distractions of computers or devices, and snacks and refreshments like coffee or whiskey can be consumed, and kids can have bacon and eggs or cereal for breakfast. It’s a little more casual in layout than the bridge, and it can be nice to have a view so you can step away from the table and gaze out to the galaxy beyond.
6. “Transporter Room” : the place things arrive and expeditions venture out
In this new shelter-in-place era, the majority of supplies are delivered to your ship via transporter. You don’t actually need to board a shuttle to go get them, you just punch a couple of buttons on your computer console and they magically get teleported to your doorstep. For this reason, it is essential to be prepared with a good space for them to teleport in. The transporter room is the space in your home where you will be able to receive and manage incoming boxes of supplies or food deliveries.
At the same time, despite the dangers of venturing outside the confines of your ship, it’s still good to plan for the occasional (socially distanced) excursion outside the ship to take a look around, and to let the crew stretch their legs. Set up your transporter room with convenient access to any equipment you may need for your expeditions, such as kids scooters, bikes, or running shoes. To maintain sanity, we try to let the crew out at least once or twice a day.
7. “Cargo Bay” : storage space for all those rolls of toilet paper and supplies
Having a very organized storage space where extra supplies can be put away is essential in the new shelter-in-place world. With the entire family being stuck at home, it is easy for things to start to drift into chaos, so it’s essential to have the main storage area very well organized and tucked away from places of work or play or rest. Hopefully you have already resupplied the ship at Costco or Safeway before they were destroyed by the Ferengi Trade Federation.
8. “Crew Quarters” : soft space for alone time and relaxation
In a shelter-in-place situation, it can be easy for crew members to become irritable and need a time out. At the same time, parents may often need to take private phone calls for work. Given the amount of time we will be spending at home, it’s worthwhile investing some time and attention in making your bedrooms comfortable, with soft furnishings and proper lighting so that they can double as soft spaces for taking calls, or crew members can get away and relax alone. Equip your crew quarters with some nice reading materials and comfortable sleeping spaces.
9. “Sick Bay” : where to go when health is a concern
In the new shelter-in-place world, health is a primary concern. Be sure to outfit your sick bay with plenty of Tylenol, Claritin, Musinex, Pedialyte and essential medications to avoid having to go to a hospital or clinic. Being stuck at home, it can be worthwhile also having some bath bombs and bubble baths on hand in case a crew member needs to decompress.
10. “Ten Forward” : the breakroom where you can unwind and mingle
In the new shelter-in-place world, it is essential to find new ways to connect socially with others outside your household. Many workplaces have started arranging virtual happy hours and persistent social video rooms for team members to mingle. I have also heard of families having virtual dinner parties and playdates with others. Take some time to plan for social connections. Think about how different kinds of social activities through video conferencing can be done in different spaces in the house. Will you have your virtual happy hours on the holodeck or in the observation lounge? Or perhaps another space? Maintaining connections to the world beyond is essential for lifting spirits and taking care of the emotional and mental well being of the crew.
Like all challenging times, the COVID-19 epidemic will eventually pass. Take comfort in knowing that we are all in the same fleet, and that we are in this together. In the meantime, let’s take this as an opportunity to pay a little more attention to the needs of our crew, our friends and loved ones, carefully craft experiences at home to keep spirits up, and make our homes more livable and comfortable and efficient so that we will be well prepared any time the need for a bottle episode arises in the future.
