TOS Door Colors

[jayrath]

Mytran wrote:

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Thanks for that - made my lunchtime!

Oh, I like that. I like that a LOT!

Really, I do. This is the same outside-the-box thinking I try to bring to people who argue that cel phones are the same as communicators. Really? Cel phones can contact ships in space? From the opposite side of the planet? Via subspace? And relay the exact coordinates of every atom of my body? Without satelites? Wow, that's great bandwidth.

If so, I can't wait to dial into the International Space Station!

[blssdwlf]

Mytran wrote:

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Is it possible that the reason those Turbolifts are unmarked is because they are "exit only" elevators?

Mytran, are there alot of instances where we've seen these unmarked turbolifts?

[Mytran]

I'd need to double check, but I think it's only those early first-season instances which are mentioned above. Generally speaking, the set dressers were very consistent about changing the doors to red and sticking the label on if a turbolift required a new location.
For example, the door across from the Transporter Room in season 3 (also previously mentioned upthread) changed colour and a few episodes later in LTBYLB was actually shown to be a working Turbolift! It also changed colour later that season back to the regular blue. Much better IMO, it's a weird place for a turbolift stop!

[Timo]

Shouldn't turbolifts connect as directly as possible to the transporters? Runs from the bridge to the transporter room are among the most common and most important!

in LTBYLB was actually shown to be a working Turbolift!

Umm, are you sure? There was no turbolift connecting to a transporter room in that episode - it was sort of the point that the two clowns were unable to use turbolifts in their quest to reach the transporter room (supposedly because they jammed each other's rides with their telekinetic powers).

Or do you just mean that this part of the set was equipped with a red door and a turbolift sign, for the scene where Bele bursts out of the lift and tackles a crewman? That by default was "really" nowhere near a transporter room. And an odd turbolift exit point there would well fit the idea that the ride was cut short by jamming action. Plus, supposedly Bele exits at a relatively high deck, so that he's forced to travel by foot through decks 3-5 at least; a straight rather than curved turbolift-served corridor that high up is a welcome sight indeed...

The one thread-relating oddity in the episode was the instance of the crew lounge doors being ajar so that Spock could eavesdrop. Another example of the clowns using their jamming powers?

Timo Saloniemi

[Robert Comsol]

Mytran wrote:

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"For example, the door across from the Transporter Room in season 3 (also previously mentioned upthread) changed colour and a few episodes later in LTBYLB was actually shown to be a working Turbolift! It also changed colour later that season back to the regular blue. Much better IMO, it's a weird place for a turbolift stop!"

While the door color changed to red after "Elaan of Troyius" the scene you are describing from "LTBYLB" appears to take place on main deck 3 (across the studio set of the transporter room). The corridor end has this strange angled-in wall (they used earlier in this episode for the hangar deck) they put there some time during Season Two or Three.

The movement of Lokai and Bele throughout the ship (monitored and commented by Spock on the bridge) suggests that the turbo lift is inoperative below deck 3. It could appear that the transporter room is on deck 5. Which - again - might indicate that's where we have sickbay. I feel that medical wards and transporter rooms should be on the same deck so you don't need to worry about moving those stretchers and get injured landing party personnel to an "astro-medicine ward" ASAP.

Bob

[Robert Comsol]

Timo wrote:

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"The one thread-relating oddity in the episode was the instance of the crew lounge doors being ajar so that Spock could eavesdrop. Another example of the clowns using their jamming powers?"

Or a leftover from "Wink of an Eye" when the Scalosians short-circuited some doors in order not to wait a whole day for just one door to be opening.

Bob

[Mytran]

Yes, with regard to LTBYLB I was referring to the use of set as a turbolift demonstration. But you can see the red door (complete with Turbolift label, I believe) in several episodes when people exit the Transporter Room.

As regards to where a Turbolift should stop by a Transporter Room, I agree that it ought to be nearby - but the spot through the A-Frame is a better use of space (and has turned up there in other episodes too.

[Robert Comsol]

Mytran wrote:

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"Yes, with regard to LTBYLB I was referring to the use of set as a turbolift demonstration. But you can see the red door (complete with Turbolift label, I believe) in several episodes when people exit the Transporter Room."

For my transporter room thread I did make an ongoing analysis and after "Elaan of Troyius" (production order) the door became red but there are no turbo lift labels above the door (opposite to the transporter room).

Mytran wrote:

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"As regards to where a Turbolift should stop by a Transporter Room, I agree that it ought to be nearby - but the spot through the A-Frame is a better use of space (and has turned up there in other episodes too."

Please feel free to correct me, but thus far I'm only aware of three episodes where the turbo lift is visible behind the A-Frame:
"Charlie X" http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x...rliexhd002.jpg
"This Side of Paradise"
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x...adisehd397.jpg
"Elaan of Troyius"
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x...yiushd0038.jpg
(I believe the door label opposite to the transporter room reads "Electrographic Analysis")

Starting with Season Two the 'back door' of the transporter room (set) became a new turbo lift location (e.g.: "Amok Time", "Wolf in the Fold", "Ultimate Computer").

By Season Three they went back to the original location at the end of the corridor (between the transporter room and sickbay set) like in this shot from "Day of the Dove" (crew heading from transporter room to nearest turbo lift): http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x...dovehd0272.jpg

(notice the fire hydrant socket on the wall. During the sword fighting later on, it gets kicked over...)

Bob

[Mytran]

Robert Comsol wrote:

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(notice the fire hydrant socket on the wall. During the sword fighting later on, it gets kicked over...)

That always makes me smile when I see it - shows just how fragile some parts of the set really were!

[Robert Comsol]

Here is the screencap from "Charlie X" near the ship's galley (transporter room corridor set) with the turbo lift sign reading "turbo lift 3" which I mentioned earlier in the thread: http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x...rliexhd187.jpg

Other than "2" and "7" I'm currently not aware of signs with different numbers, in the later two seasons we had less close-up shots of the turbo lift doors.

Bob

[throwback]

In later Trek shows, turbolifts were located in turboshafts. Each turboshaft was labeled with a number. It's possible that the numbers we see in TOS are for turboshafts.

http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/..._6_graphic.jpg

[Timo]

I guess the issue there would be, why label any particular stretch of an interconnecting network of shafts "7" or "2" or "3" on the outside? It apparently tells nothing about where this particular lift goes or cannot go - as far as we know, all lifts go everywhere.

Clearly, it is unlikely that all the doors marked "Turbolift 7" could be along the same vertical shaft, or along the same circular or radial horizontal shaft. If they are along a stretch of shaft that swerves and weaves through the ship, why is that stretch being given a number? Why not call it the sum total of radial shafts 2, 17 and 9, circular shafts 3 and 5, and vertical shafts 1 and 8? It is unlikely to be a single "unit" of shafting for any user anyway.

Timo Saloniemi

[Maurice]

The answer is that all turbolifts have the name "7".

[Mytran]

Ah, if only! See upthread:

throwback wrote:

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Here is an image from the episode "The Man Trap" where we have a sign for Turbo Lift 2.

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x...ntraphd335.jpg