The Cage bridge.

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by Rulius, Aug 29, 2013.

  1. MarsWeeps

    MarsWeeps Fleet Captain Premium Member

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    That's what I always thought every time I saw that scene - he points at someone in order to let them know he wants the next slide displayed.
     
  2. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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    Not if you had, say, a static star chart on one, some seismograph like zig-zag pattern on another--something general.
     
  3. GSchnitzer

    GSchnitzer Co-Executive Producer In Memoriam

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    I think some general static shots is what they *do* have.
     
  4. FormerLurker

    FormerLurker Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    He must want them all to have the warm glow of a monitor instead of the flat, lifeless printed-image look they had.
     
  5. Noname Given

    Noname Given Admiral Admiral

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    Well, remember, they were still considering NOT using color and going Black and White for the series. The Bridge set for "The Cage was designed with that possibility in mind.

    Once the decision to go color was certain, they redesigned the color scheme to 'show off' for color TVs (NBC had a stake in RCA at the time, and selling more color TVs helped the bottom line.)
     
  6. scotpens

    scotpens Professional Geek Premium Member

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    Do you have a source for that? It's news to me.

    AFAIK, Star Trek was always planned to be in color. But, at a time when less than 10% of U.S. households had color TV, the show had to look acceptable in black-and-white as well (hence the change in Spock's makeup from a reddish hue to a yellowish skin tone).
     
  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Rather, NBC was owned by RCA at the time. It was actually founded by RCA in 1926, and was owned by them until GE bought up RCA in 1986. These days it's owned by Comcast.
     
  8. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    It's not like sets for black and white shows were all painted gray, anyway. Cinematographers and set designers and costumers were aware of what things would look like in black and white (heck there's even a kind of special yellow glass sometimes used to reduce everything to monochrome which film people would use to gauge if anything needed adjusting for B&W).
     
  9. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    ^Indeed...the squad car in Car 54, Where Are You? was actually red and white, because red showed up better than black, for example....
     
  10. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    And George Reeves's Superman costume in the black-and-white episodes was actually gray and brown instead of blue and red.

    On the other hand, the Robot in Lost in Space was basically colored in grays and silvers in the first season, and had more color added in season 2 when the show went to color.
     
  11. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I honestly can't remember the last time I actually saw an image change on one of those upper monitors. When did they ever do that?

    This is in TOS itself, by the way. IIRC, the Defiant bridge in "In a Mirror, Darkly" did have the images change. But they got away with that because it was only one scene and there were no continuity issues.
     
  12. GSchnitzer

    GSchnitzer Co-Executive Producer In Memoriam

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    The only ones that come to mind are:

    The four images from Where No Man Has Gone Before (thank you, Christopher):

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


    ...and the pages from Baruch Spinoza's book The Ethics (Part IV):

    [​IMG]

    The Corbomite Maneuver:
    [​IMG]

    Dagger of the Mind:
    [​IMG]

    The Galileo Seven:
    [​IMG]

    The Squire of Gothos:
    [​IMG]

    Friday's Child:
    [​IMG]

    And the Children Shall Lead:
    [​IMG]

    I think a matte shot was planned for "Conscience of the King" where the bridge crew could watch the Karidian Players do Hamlet in the Ship's Theater.

    This also doesn't include static shots of Dr. Roger Corby or John Gill.

    (I hope I didn't miss any.)

     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2013
  13. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^What about the displays of Dehner and Mitchell's files in the second pilot?
     
  14. GSchnitzer

    GSchnitzer Co-Executive Producer In Memoriam

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    Ah! Very good! Thank you. I missed those. I'll add them in.
     
  15. Noname Given

    Noname Given Admiral Admiral

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    Just FYI - the "Friday's Child" shot you have is from the remastered version of the episode. In the original version of the episode, it was just a bright white light dot on a blue background - and the dot faded out as they were talking.
     
  16. GSchnitzer

    GSchnitzer Co-Executive Producer In Memoriam

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    Yes, I know. I didn't have a screen grab from the original non-new visual effects version available. (It's a matte shot showing movement even in the original episode.)
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Wow, I never read those files on Mitchell and Dehner in detail before. It's remarkable that they actually wrote detailed entries on both characters rather than just sticking in some lorem ipsum, considering that there was no home video or HDTV and the viewers would never be able to make out a word of it. There's some fascinating background information in those, like the telepathy of the Deneb IV inhabitants.
     
  18. HarryM

    HarryM Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Also used in "What Are Little Girls Made Of" to display Exo-III graphic and Roger Corby picture, this looks matted in. In "Patterns of Force" used to display John Gill but that looks rear projected.
     
  19. GSchnitzer

    GSchnitzer Co-Executive Producer In Memoriam

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    Well, we *are* looking for all the ones that were matted in and had motion. Like I said in the OP, I think Korby and Gill were just static rear projections with no movement. I think the Exo III diagram was rear projection, too. It shows up again in "The Tholian Web."
     
  20. Neopeius

    Neopeius Admiral Admiral

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    This was a real concern after Skylab. Everything was in golden brown hues, and by the 3rd Crew, everyone was sick to death of it.

    I don't know what they've done with the I.S.S. to improve on that.

    As for Spock's hand-gesture controlled slides, if the lady was cropped out of the shot, she was never there. :) That's what editing is for.