The Kongo shot was the best shot of that segment. When they pulled back for the wide shot, all I could think was "holy shit!".
They did indeed do great set decoration in this scene. Doing much of the Phase II set decoration, I can tell you that the "lived-in look" cuts both ways and we need to be careful not to overuse it. If there is a relatively constant state of disheveled-ness employed to make the sets look believably lived in, when it comes time to show, for whatever reason, that things are really chaotic and hectic, you've got no place to go set decoration-wise. You can't leave crap lying around to convey chaos if lots of crap lying around is the normal state of affairs. In that case, crap lying around would look like just another day on the ship--if that's how the set decoration looks all the time. So, the sets need to be pretty neutral so you can move from there as needed. (Finding a good "neutral" is the art of doing this.) At any rate, here's a "we're hectically trying to scramble around to get some answers" shot from "Kitumba:"
You're welcome. Set dressing IS an art. If you look at Act One of TTI the briefing room table is relatively uncluttered. In Act Three the table gets cluttered with tapes and a tricorder because Garrovick is going through every bit of data he can to find an answer, and the chaotic clutter indicates his state of mind. In this shot from Act Four, everything's still a mess because he ran off to the bridge earlier and left things in a state of disarray.
A minor note--- Interesting...Garrovick was wearing the green tunic in the first three acts and then switched to the gold tunic in Act IV. I don't recall Kirk having done that in TOS. I was never a fan of the green one in the first place.
Kirk wore his green wrap at the beginning of "Court Martial:" ...and then his regular gold tunic later in the episode:
In our case it indicates the passage of some time. If that's a spoiler - fuck it, it's not much of one.
Yep, it indicates a passage of time. How much I ain't saying. Oh, and, hey, Dennis, that last test you did of the you-know-what for the tag looks really good. I think we're close to nailing that shot. (How's that for maddening, gentle readers?)
And he did it in "Charlie X" when he stepped into the turbolift in his gold velour and came out onto the bridge wearing his army green wool-knit wrap.
Two possibilities: 1) Kirk stopped off at his quarters to change shirts before heading up to the bridge, 2) The continuity girl was off that week.
Another thing that happens sometimes is scenes are scripted to play in one order, but in editorial the order of the scenes sometimes gets changed around, which can play havoc with even properly filmed continuity. It's one reason having people wear the same outfits all the time makes it easier to avoid continuity problems.
No, this isn't the time left til it's done. It's how much time Garrovick and crew have until...well, you'll have to wait and see.