How many transporter rooms on TOS Enterprise?

[Robert Comsol]

Mytran wrote:

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"Add to that that we only see the front two pads, and I'd suggest that what we are seeing is a smaller, auxiliary room instead of the usual one(s).

Perhaps this is the Transporter Room that is used when saucer separation occurs? Those impulse engines are not in the same league as M/AM reactors, a small T-Room is probably all they can handle!"

Unorthodox but wonderful idea, I love it! (but that's probably not the only transporter room in the saucer?)

In "Mudd's Women" they used the transporter while without M/AM power. So maybe Spock's "How many coming?" doesn't refer to the amount of dilithium crystals, but shows a concern if they still have enough power to beam that many people from Rigel's surface.

Same goes for space station K-7. I believe this one to be powered only by nuclear fusion and the two transport pads in Mr. Lurry's office could suggest that fusion power will only allow beaming of two people at a time.

As for the transporter room studio set I'm not exactly sure what we are talking about. The Season Three set in general had this odd "kiosk" corner protruding into the room of whatever you'd call it, like in "The Way to Eden": http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x...edenhd0104.jpg

(hmm...shouldn't the console be visible in this shot: http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x...edenhd0166.jpg)

The scene in front of sickbay, however, doesn't look like the transporter room set extended into the corridor: http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x...edenhd0474.jpg

(I don't think they would have moved the wall back just for this scene, but I could be wrong, of course).

I can't shake the feeling that during Season Two they had this turbo lift access in the corridor at the expense of the back part of the transporter room set.

By Season Three the turbo lift got back to the end of the circular corridor and rather than re-assembling the transporter rom set as seen in Season One they came up with these design changes for Season Three. Measure?

Bob

[Just a Bill]

Robert Comsol wrote:

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The scene in front of sickbay, however, doesn't look like the transporter room set extended into the corridor

I believe that it actually did extend into the corridor for Assignment: Earth (end of S2) as shown in the floor plan most recently linked by Mytran (disrupting your corridor set to get an unusual transporter shot needed for the last episode of a season doesn't seem too problematic), and then for S3 they tightened up the transporter room layout (resulting in the odd re-angling of that kiosk). All the reference images I've seen here seem consistent with this conclusion.

[blssdwlf]

It looks like in Assignment Earth they didn't show any corridor shots of that area immediately after entering or leaving the transporter room.

[BK613]

Screen shots of Is There in Truth No Beauty? could be informative as well.

[Just a Bill]

Interesting ... whereas the kiosk's angle with the doorway wall appears obtuse in the S2 set plan and Assignment: Earth screenshots, and acute in LTBYLB screenshots, the captures from ITITNB make it look close to 90 degrees.

S2e26 - Assignment: Earth
Obtuse (seems to match posted S2 set plan)

S3e05 - Is There In Truth No Beauty?
Near 90°

S3e15 - Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Acute

Could it be that these latter two are actually the same angle and I'm just seeing it wrong?

[Mytran]

I really can't see how - the acute angle is pretty obvious, which is why it first peeked my attention.

[GSchnitzer]

Mytran wrote:

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I really can't see how - the acute angle is pretty obvious, which is why it first peeked my attention.

It looks to me that the small wall with the gooseneck viewer on it is at a 90 degree angle to the wall with the door. And it looks to me that the wall with the "kiosk" is at a 90 degree angle to the small gooseneck viewer wall. It seems the only thing that is differing in LTBYLB is the *back* wall. It is not perpendicular to the wall with the door. Compare the LTBYLB shot with a very similar shot from Lincoln's POV on the transporter pad in Savage Curtain."

[Mytran]

Thanks, I'd forgotten about SC! Actually, it seems to demonstrate the acute angle in LTBYLB rather well:
Acute (and a shorter wall section that usual)

90°-ish

I must admit, I hadn't realised that wall moved around so much!

[GSchnitzer]

No, I think it's a right angle in all episodes. It only looks acute and like it's a shorter wall because the camera is way over to the side of the alcove in LTBYLB. I think the short wall is just foreshortening. The kiosk always seems up be parallel to the door.

[Just a Bill]

No, there are definitely (at least) three positions; I am convinced now with the Savage Curtain shot (thanks, Mytran!). GSchnitzer, please review the first and third images in my previous post, taking note of how the "gooseneck wall" and adjoining doorway wall meet at the floor; this should eliminate any camera-angle confusion. (If the angle in the Bele-transporting shot were truly 90 degrees with camera distortion, we would expect to see the other 90-degree angles in that shot similarly distorted, but they all look fine.)

Also, in the Lincoln image, the wall that supports Spock's science console cannot be parallel to the door; otherwise we would see that wall. The science console itself is angled toward the transport console, and somewhat away from the door (note that you can easily see the back of the top edge of the console, and the back of Spock's viewer).

It seems clear that the yellow-striped apex of the kiosk must be acute (in all the shots I've seen); I suspect that the two walls of the kiosk are fixed together, but the whole "prismic" thing was rotated relative to the transporter room walls on either side in whatever way was convenient each episode.

[GSchnitzer]

I might not be making myself clear.

I think the gooseneck wall is perpendicular to the door even at the floor; I think the kiosk wall is perpendicular to the gooseneck wall and parallel to the door wall even at the floor and only the back wall is obtuse in LTBYLB. They seemed to have hinged it back a bit, leaving the kiosk and gooseneck walls untouched.

I think we do see the kiosk wall in the Lincoln shot; Spocks shadow is being cast on it and it looks to be the same plane as the door.

[Timo]

I think the gooseneck wall is perpendicular to the door even at the floor

The thing is, this wall doesn't appear anywhere near parallel to the line connecting the two transporter disks on the foreground, even though that line is rather neatly perpendicular to the door wall...

There'd have to be some really weird lens phenomena at play to twist the line between the disks one way in the foreground and the gooseneck wall the other way in the background to create this great a discrepancy.

Timo Saloniemi

[Just a Bill]

You actually did make yourself clear, Greg, and I understood what you're saying; what I'm saying is that your interpretation is not consistent with the reference images. The change in gooseneck/door angle across various episodes is very apparent in the screen shots, and your last statement that Spock's shadow is being cast on the "kiosk wall" — that is, the wall that supports his science console — would mean that his shadow was falling on the console itself. But clearly this is not the case in the shot.

Perhaps you are interpreting that the patch of purple between the silver stripe and the yellow stripe is one single wall panel that connects those two stripes? If so, I would point out that this would have the science console projecting out from that hypothetical wall edge-out, and at a very strange angle. No, it is clear from the Bele-transporting reference shot that the console is attached to a wall by its back face; a wall that is not shown in this scene due to the camera angle. (Also hidden in this scene is the red intercom panel above the console, which would be visible if there was a wall directly between the silver and yellow stripes.)

The "shadow wall" appears coplanar with the larger wall segment to the left (look near Spock's left foot), and this is perpendicular to the doorway wall. The shadow wall does not connect directly to the gooseneck wall: you have to visualize the intermediate (hidden) console wall; that's what you're missing.

[GSchnitzer]

Timo wrote:

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The thing is, this wall doesn't appear anywhere near parallel to the line connecting the two transporter disks on the foreground, even though that line is rather neatly perpendicular to the door wall...

There'd have to be some really weird lens phenomena at play to twist the line between the disks one way in the foreground and the gooseneck wall the other way in the background to create this great a discrepancy.

Timo Saloniemi

I don't think if you get a plan view of the transporter that those two pads are parallel to the door. I think they actually are nearly perpendicular to the door.

[Just a Bill]

According to the set plans, the front two pads are perpendicular to the door just as Timo said. Furthermore, the following screencap from The Savage Curtain shows the hidden "console wall" (barely) and should put the debate to rest by proving that there is indeed another wall that is not seen in the Lincoln image. (The same one we see in the Bele image.)



It is still possible that the gooseneck wall was somewhere in the neighborhood of perpendicular to the door in this episode; but it is also obvious that sometimes the angle was acute and sometimes it was obtuse. The kiosk surely was repositioned as necessary or convenient.