"The impossible has happened..."

[Gary7]

GSchnitzer wrote:

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Well, for what it's worth, they rounded the corners a tiny bit on the main view screen of the U.S.S. Lexington in the re-mastered "The Ultimate Computer."



Compare it to the Enterprise's main view screen:

Greg, thanks for posting this--really fascinating. I surmise they did this to make it a little more distinctive, so that the viewer would see a definite transition from one bridge to the other (the bridges and ships look identical, except for the high back of the captain's chair on the Lexington). I like it.

[Gary7]

Tiberius, your Chinese Kirk is hilarious! I hope you don't mind... I just had to give it a go in a slightly different view.

[Green Shirt]

^ It goes really well with Spock's semi-smirky expression.

[Tiberius]

Gary7 wrote:

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Tiberius, your Chinese Kirk is hilarious! I hope you don't mind... I just had to give it a go in a slightly different view.

[Wingsley]

These's another cute little quirk about "Where No Man..." and "The Cage" that seems to set them off from (at least) most of TOS: the doors. If you watch the doors and pay attention to the "whoosh" sound, it is as if starship doors from this "older" era operate on a slower mechanism. Yet another little trait that, along with the uniforms, seems to make this seem like a pre-refit era prior to the rest of TOS.

The turbolift elevator car interior seems a little bit psychedelic next to the more tone-down TOS version, don't you think?

As SchwEnt pointed out, the transporter room noise in "The Cage" is quite unique. I had mixed feelings about it over the years. I coupled the heavier noise with the two-man transporter crew as a clear implication that Pike's Enterprise was indeed using significantly "older" technology requiring more manual control. Pike's line about "being responsible for two hundred and three lives" seemed to dovetail into this perception for me; for years, I assumed that older starship specs could only support smaller crews. (Maybe older starship machinery and on-board support services occupied greater internal bulk back in those days)

Does anyone know what changes there were in the transporter room set over the course of TOS, other than the sound FX and control consoles?

[CorporalCaptain]

Wingsley wrote:

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Does anyone know what changes there were in the transporter room set over the course of TOS, other than the sound FX and control consoles?

I don't know any of this for a fact, but I'd wonder about the food synthesizer, viewscreen, and the scanner hood in the back, plus the star scape mural on the side.

[Iron]

I always liked the early campy feel of TOS. Watching it for the first time in the early 2000's really brings you back to the pure sci fi of decades past.

[Albertese]

Timo wrote:

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...

The episode does have its own wholly internal chronology/continuity problems. If Kirk has known Mitchell for fifteen years, but Mitchell first met a "Lieutenant" Kirk at the Academy, then both men are about the age of the actors portraying them - yet the onscreen graphics try to suggest Mitchell is but 23 years old.

I don't see the upside of pretending that Mitchell is 23 or Dehner 21, but apparently youth was directly related to sex appeal back then in a rather embarrassing way. At least Michael J. Fox sort of looked the part...

Timo Saloniemi

My assumption is that those were records made when they joined up after graduating the academy, not reports of measurements made earlier that day. I assume cadets ESPer rating is measured and noted during their training and these are the documents we're seeing on screen.

As for set differences, my understanding is that both pilot episodes were filmed in one studio and then the sets were half struck and carted over to a different, larger studio somewhere else in town. Off the top of my head, I want to say the pilots were made at Desilu in Culver City and then moved to Paramount? It's been a while since I looked any of that stuff up so I probably have that mixed up and rearranged somehow, but the pilot episodes were definitely made in a different place than the series production was. That's why there are so many differences in the set details, and more sets for the series.

--Alex

[Timo]

My assumption is that those were records made when they joined up after graduating the academy, not reports of measurements made earlier that day.

That's my preference as well - the big problem being that Mitchell is indicated to have held the rank of Lieutenant Commander while 23.

But we could decide that these records are kept "partially" up to date. That is, they always display the person's current rank, address and other such specs, but they also indicate the age at which the specific test results were obtained. No doubt Mitchell's immutable birthdate would be found a few lines down...

I'd wonder about the food synthesizer, viewscreen, and the scanner hood in the back, plus the star scape mural on the side.

...Did the set even have four walls in the beginning? What was the first episode to show the back wall (that is, a view from the platform towards the console)?

Timo Saloniemi

[ssosmcin]

More coolness: notice Scotty working the transporter controls. They made sure each sound effect coincided with his pressing of a button. This might not seem like a big deal, but consider that these same sound effects would often trail on after a character hit one button. As an example, check out the opening scene when Kirk says "bring it aboard." Scotty has five button hits, with a sound for each one. Later episodes would have that same five-note sound effect after one push of a button. It's almost like Scotty is playing a musical instrument.

[EnsignHarper]

It seems like up to about halfway through the first season, they were very inconsistent about exactly how the transporter was activated. In The Corbomite Maneuver, Scott engages it with the slider as is seen just about the whole time in the series. But in Enemy Within and Dagger of the Mind, Scott or the chief is telling the tech on the right to energize, with it looking like the slide ris being used to 'reintergrate' the beamee. Actually, it looks like in EW that the quick repair solution changes the activation process.

And as far as the transporter itself is concerned, remember in the pilots, for the transporter console all they did was move the helm/nav console and called it the transporter. When they got the series OK, it was deemed necessary to have an actual dedicated console, as the transporter would be as important a set as any on the ship, and people would notice it being the helm console very quickly. (actually, for the series, it looks like they built an entirely new helm/nav console - or rehabbed the first one VERY extensively. Sure looks sleeker)

And I have always thought that about the 203/430 difference also - certainly Federation technology gets smaller, as ours does. Plus, perhaps, Starfleet's personnel base was bigger, too.

[GSchnitzer]

Timo wrote:

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That's my preference as well - the big problem being that Mitchell is indicated to have held the rank of Lieutenant Commander while 23.

But we could decide that these records are kept "partially" up to date. That is, they always display the person's current rank, address and other such specs, but they also indicate the age at which the specific test results were obtained. No doubt Mitchell's immutable birthdate would be found a few lines down...

...Did the set even have four walls in the beginning? What was the first episode to show the back wall (that is, a view from the platform towards the console)?

Timo Saloniemi

You can see the back wall of the transporter room in "Mudd's Women," the second regular production episode.

[Mytran]

The wall adjacent to the doors changes too - in the third season it acquired a sharp corner and 90 turn (to encompass the mini scanner). You can see it clearly in LTBYLB when Bele and Lokai leave the ship for the final time, but it appears in other episodes too. An odd design modification, to be sure!

[Wingsley]

This is just me, but I prefer to think the "back wall" of the transporter room was always as it was with the large, engineering MSD we see in "Dagger of the Mind". It just makes sense to me that it be there.

I realize that it clearly was not there in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield".

[GSchnitzer]

Wingsley wrote:

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This is just me, but I prefer to think the "back wall" of the transporter room was always as it was with the large, engineering MSD we see in "Dagger of the Mind". It just makes to me that it be there.

I realize that it clearly was not there in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield".

Well, they might have upgraded the transporter room (just like they upgraded the transporter room set. Alternatively, there may be more than one transporter room.