Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge?

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

I'm a little dubious of this myself. The bar proper is clearly from Ten Forward, but the set layout is really different, and it looks like it opens out into the courtyard, but I could be mistaken.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

I think my favorite variant of it was the one from ST VI. It just looked more realistic.

Out-of-universe - i.e. for filming purposes - I'm sure it was always the same set, but IN universe, I am guessing that all three were separate replaceable modules. They just look too different. If Starfleet's going to go through that much work to alter a bridge, surely it'd be easier just to start over?

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

^But between V and VI they move the turbolifts too, which necessitates moving the shafts for at least one deck below. Quite a bit more work than plugging in a new module on top.

EDIT: That said, I think we're supposed to believe the bridge in IV, V and VI "really" looks the same, just as Kirsty Alley and Robin Curtis are both recognizable as Saavik.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

The Ten Forward set on Paramount's Stage 8 was a large set that had nothing adjacent to it except a stretch of corridor (which had the senior officers' quarters set on the other side), and I assume the walls were wild (removable) for camera access. So it wouldn't have been hard to take out a wall or two and build a bit of courtyard.

http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Stage-8-floorplan.png

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

Maybe the turbolifts move from side to side after they leave the bridge, before they start going downward.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

I never knew that either, to be honest though for me the set that screams TNG in TFF is the corridors but the only two that spring to mind during TUC are 10 Forward as the Presidents office and then Engineering which never bothered me until I noticed the TNG console amongst the movie era graphics.

I would say IV and V are 'meant' to be the same bridge in the same way the bridge of the BoP in III and IV are 'meant' to be the same.

The one in VI I always took to be a remodel between VI and V is just something to ignore.

Personally I prefer the V layout but love the mix of touch screens and switches in VI. I hated the clocks though, too 20th century seeming they could have easily (in universe) added to the screens themselves.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

Or I'm mistaken and misremembering the passage about the bar set in Shatner's making of book.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

The source of this photo:
http://mikelynchcartoons.blogspot.com/2012/08/podcast-1991-gene-roddenberry-speech.html

lists this as a pic from TMP, NOT TFF

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

^ That is definitely from TFF. Look at the control panels. They didn't look like that in TMP.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

Those are the TVH consoles, that bridge looks nothing like the TFF bridge

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

^Where are these TFF references coming from? GeorgeKirk's comments accompanying the photo were in reference to the TVH version of the bridge. It was never claimed to be anything else.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

^ Oops, sorry, my bad, I meant TVH, not TFF.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

^ his typo made me think something though. I'm wondering if the controls themselves (The buttons on the consoles) were reused in TFF? They look very similar.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

Wouldn't be out of the question for the console graphics to have be reused. Plus, wasn't the refit bridge reused for the Stargazer in TNG?

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

It was a reuse of the Battlebridge which was a reuse of the refit bridge.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

As I recall, some of the rear displays from the Stargazer used the backlight displays from TVH (the upper row on the rear station). I think the Helm still retained its control panel, but was left unlit.

The bridge for TFF had many CRTs built in to display graphics with motion, so I don't think the plexiglass panels for TVH were able to be reused. Also, I think the button groups on the control panels were surrounded by a line with rounded corners instead of the more angular corners like TVH. Not sure on this last point, will need to go back and look closely. However the counsels themselves had different shapes, so it is unlikely they could use the same pieces in the new set.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

I did forget one thing though. The Helm and NAV console was reused for certain for TFF and TUC. Both Herman Zimmerman and Mike Okuda stated that. The Turbolift alcoves and Helm/nav station were reused from the refit set (the only salvagable parts). They Modified the NAv/Helm console with a light in the center support. Also the TNG production crew are to blame for the ruined TMP set. Which I am thankful for, because I like both the TFF and TUC setups better than the TMP,TWOK,TSFS, TVH bridge.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

But didn't the movie guys eventually ruin TNG's observation lounge wall? So they're even.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

I prefered the TMP bridge over the others. The TFF bridge was so plain and bleah. TUC improved it a bit.

 

Re: Was the Star Trek 4 Ent-A bridge a redress of the Excelsior bridge

Maybe they meant "A motion picture", not "THE motion picture". ST1 has an unfortunate title.