The Cage bridge.

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

  1. marksound

    marksound Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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  2. jpv2000

    jpv2000 Captain Captain

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    Yes he was.
     
  3. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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    They had a few too many. A good office would have a standard monitor, the three view monitor on a conference room table nearby, with the gooseneck near the head seat for the captain, with padds on the table too.
     
  4. Praetor

    Praetor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The fine line between continuity and fanwank.
    I always liked the "Cage" color scheme, but retroactively I've always thought that in-universe the latter TOS era colors may've been an attempt to brighten things up for spacegoers - space is dark and you're on the ship all the time, so let's have something bright and colorful and less dreary to stare at.

    ...An attempt that apparently didn't work, since it was discontinued by TMP. ;)
     
  5. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^In TMP, the ship was launched prematurely to deal with an emergency. They probably didn't have time to paint all the railings.
     
  6. Praetor

    Praetor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Ha, touchee sir.
     
  7. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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    That's sad. If I had to make a bridge, I would want every type of display. Plasma screens, rear projectors for a soft light, LEDs LCDs, a little bit over everything to add layers of warmth to the images.
     
  8. GSchnitzer

    GSchnitzer Co-Executive Producer In Memoriam

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    And an army of continuity people to make sure constantly-changing images match from shot to shot.
     
  9. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    That's for sure. Imagine you've shooting a wide shot off to one side there's a screen displaying an image of a galaxy behind Rand right as Kirk finishes a line. The next line is hers, so in her closeup for that line you have to make sure the slide projector is showing the same image so as not to cause a jump cut. Now imagine doing that all the time. Eek!

    We ran into a tiny example of that on Polaris. There's one console that features a rhythmically flashing "blip" and if you cut wrong randomly when it's in two subsequent shots you immediately notice the jump.
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2013
  10. marksound

    marksound Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    That would be great, but in the 1960s there were only CRTs and rear projection screens. CRT monitors would have been unwieldy and expensive, so rear projection was the only real choice.

    Then there would have been the continuity problems as pointed out above.
     
  11. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^Plus CRTs on film sets just didn't look good before HDTVs came along. Even when the monitors were synchronized to the film so they wouldn't flicker (a hard thing to do since they had different frame rates), the resolution was still poor. That's why most old TV shows and movies used mattes to simulate the screen image on a TV or monitor the characters were watching. They switched from film loops to CRTs in The Wrath of Khan and it just looks so much more primitive. IIRC, it wasn't until Voyager that they were able to incorporate real monitors into the bridge and other sets.
     
  12. scotpens

    scotpens Professional Geek Premium Member

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    ^^ Fantastic Voyage (released in 1966) used real black-and-white CRT monitors on the CMDF control room set. I recall reading that the DP had to keep the light level low to avoid washing out the TV images.
     
  13. Mycroft Maxwell

    Mycroft Maxwell Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Ummm speaking of those railing, anyone notice on Pikes bridge, they were only divided into 2 sections instead of 4? Also I should point out that the "Where No Man's Gone Before" is different from the "cage" bridge as well. Most notably the Viewscreen. I am a fan of the WNMGB bridge myself.

    Hey did anyone else notice that in "The Cage" , when spock was giving a report from his display, all he had to do in change screens was wave his hand? I thought that was neat concept for back then. Then In "Where no man has gone before" you see Mitchell wave his hand over his console to activate some control. Anyone else catch these occurrences?
     
  14. Redfern

    Redfern Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    As cut in both "The Cage" and the "inset" footage for "The Menagerie", it does indeed appear Spock is employing some sort of "proximity" controls the change the screen displays. A wider shot left on the cutting room floor reveals Spock is actually gesturing to an "assistant" sitting at the science board to press some buttons or flip some switches. (This is the same crewperson, a brunette wearing a ponytail, we see when Pike extracts his printout report.)

    I know; I know; if it's not in the final print, it's debatable. Just sharing a tidbit some members may not know.

    Sincerely,

    Bill
     
  15. marksound

    marksound Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Funny how easy it is to forget things like that.
     
  16. Mycroft Maxwell

    Mycroft Maxwell Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    No, It makes sense. I forgot that there was someone sitting there.

    But Mitchell definatly did some sort of gesture control with his panel in WNMHGB.
     
  17. Green Shirt

    Green Shirt Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    To me it appeared he was sliding his hand on the controls, not above them.
     
  18. Mycroft Maxwell

    Mycroft Maxwell Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Oh....Yeah your right! Still though, it screams iPad at me. Seems revolutionary at the time.
     
  19. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    Eh, Klattu was doing gestures to operate controls in The Day The Earth Stood Still. If Star Trek did it, it was 13 years late to the party.
     
  20. Mycroft Maxwell

    Mycroft Maxwell Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    But that was alien tech...some alien tech was mind though activated and etc. Just something different seeing Earth tech doing it though, like it adds an all new awesome factor.

    Hey pike's bridge had a Printer, and Kirk's WNMHGB bridge had a corded earpiece!!!...or was that part of a Telephone. I would have laughed really hard if the Communications station had one. "Lt., phone starfleet" .