Did TNG ever use the TFF Bridge Set?

[Workbee]

It has been pretty well documented that many of the sets and props from the TOS films were recycled in TNG as a cost savings measure. In fact, most of the TOS standing sets were converted into sets for the Enterprise D. Even the TMP - TVH bridge set became the Battle Bridge, as well as the bridge for other misc. ships.

Because of damage to several of the wild sections, a new bridge set was constructed for TFF, reused in TUC and I believe GEN as the Enterprise B. Yet, of all the reused sets, I noticed this on TNG. Was this set ever used in the the run of TNG for any other purpose? DS9? Voyager? If not, why do you think that is? AFIK, the set was left standing between movies. Why not use it for another federation starship bridge? Especially after the old battle bridge set seemed to be completely rebuilt by BOBW.

Anyone have any insight into this? Did the movie division tell them to stay away from it?

WB

[od0_ital]

It may have been used for VOY 'Flashback' for the Excelsior bridge, but other than that, I can't think of any obvious reasons why it would have been used after GEN.

[MickJo1701]

IIRC Paramount allowed its television division use of the sets from the features for TNG, but when it came to film STV and the bridge had been modified to the point where it was unrecognisable and a new one had to be constructed using the film's budget, I suppose they were not so keen as to repeat this mistake considering the great cost of making bridge sets.

After its use as the Enterprise B, it was redressed to become the interior of the Amargosa Observatory. This modification I imagine was irreversible as Richard James had to completely recreate the Excelsior bridge for 'Flashback'. AFAIK only the turbolift alcoves where salvaged and they went on to be used as part of the Enterprise E set.

[Workbee]

^ yes, but how hard would it have been to film without modifying it? I remember seeing somewhere (but I can't find the source) that the problem with the bridge was not so much that the modifications were irreversible (which they might have very well been) but that the removed sections were left outdoors and warped by the time of TFF.

[MickJo1701]

Memory Alpha wrote:

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The Enterprise-A bridge is mostly a new set, except for the turbolifts, Sulu and Chekov's helm console, the handrails, and some of the platforms on which the portions of the bridge stood. According to the Collector's Edition DVD text commentary, a new bridge set was necessary due to the original movie bridge set being mostly damaged by a sudden windstorm while in temporary storage at the Paramount studio parking lot, and only those few pieces used on the Enterprise-A bridge were salvaged from the original set. Captain Kirk would thus seem to briefly break character when he muses, "I miss my old chair." The decoration from the salvaged set was also used for the Stargazer bridge and for the battle bridge in TNG.

Not really sure how the 2 stories combine, best guess is that maybe the main structure of the set had been altered to the point were it would be easier to just make a new one and the front sections which were unused in the Battle Bridge modification for EaF were the ones that were damaged in the storm.

[BillJ]

I think Voyager used the set pieces in the episode with the Prometheus, Message in a Bottle I think.

[R. Star]

Been awhile since I've watched them but the sets they used for the older Federation ships... Stargazer/Hathaway/etc might have been an altered version of it. I know that ST5 and 6 used TNG's transporter and engineering sets.

[Mark_Nguyen]

As I recall:

The original TOS movie bridge, or the rear third of it anyway, was cannibalized into the original E-D battle bridge. This was used mostly intact as the Stargazer bridge and (flipped around) as the Lantree bridge, Wesley's team lab (from "Pen Pals") and the judicial chambers of Starbase 173.

By that point additional bits had been added to it (specifically large trapezoidal shapes above the console that extended the height of the set without needing a full ceiling for it, thus allowing some more camera angles) and were used for another regular guest set which ended up being the bridges of the Hathaway, Enterprise-C, Pasteur and the second E-D battle bridge (which re-incorporated some elements of the older set, notably the four TV screen monitor thingies behind the CO chair). It was used for several guest sets, alien labs, etc. as well.

For DS9, bits of the TOS movie set from TFF and TUC (specifcally the aft third - see a pattern here?) made its way into the Saratoga, Norkova, Prometheus and Odyssey bridges. Dunno what happened after that but the space the set occupied eventually went to the Defiant sets.

The Excelsior bridge set from VOY "Flashback" was used for the Prometheus and Equinox bridges as well. It may have incorporated the same aft third that was previously taken for DS9.

The Defiant bridge was later seen as the bridge of the fake Delta Flyer in "Live Fast and Prosper" and a Ferengi ship later on after that. I think it showed up in ENT as well.

As for Engineering, the TNG Engineering set was the original TOS set anyway, but they only very thiny disguised it for TUC, essentially showing the E-A as having a warp core from a much larger ship 70 years in the future. In TFF they partly redressed the Jeffries tube set they built for that movie as Engineering (in the script anyway), but it still looked like Scotty was just standing in the Jeffries Tube set with a couple generic consoles added.

More obviously, the TOS movie corridors which were converted to the TNG corridors were used in TFF with barely any redressing AT ALL (I think they just left the hallway doors open in a couple shots). THey put a lot more effort into it for TUC, adding lots of extra piping and doors and stuff while still leaving the set basically intact behind it.

Finally, the transporter set from the TOS movies is the same set, modified into the TNG version and then back again - leaving the transporter PADS as TNG era but adding back the glass-paneled booth from the earlier incarnation for TUC anyway. This then become the VOY transporter room with another booth.

Mark

[Gary7]

I'll bet that over time, the production crew saw it fit to design the sets intelligently, for the purpose of rapid assembly and take-down. Probably very easy to stow it all away and then pull out when needed... so I wouldn't be surprised if many of these sets were cannibalized and re-purposed for a variety of Star Trek productions.

[Lon Suder]

wasn't it the Bozeman Bridge in Cause annd Effect? and the Stargazer

[R. Star]

I think the Enterprise-C used the same set as the Stargazer/Hathaway too.

[Mark_Nguyen]

The E-C and Hathaway used the same set, which later appeared as the Bozeman. The Stargazer and the E-D had the same set, which was cannibalized from the TOS movie set. If you examine the bridge layout pics from EAS, you can see the common elements from each set and work out a rough lineage.

Mark

Mark

[topas]

the Voyager bridge set used some of the ceiling spotlights from the TUC bridge (rectangular with an L-shaped pattern). These were placed above entrances to the ready room and conference longue.

Also, I may be in error here, but believe the aft third of the Excelsior set being also used on DS9, redressed as Warbird bridge.

[gaghyogi49]

I've been tracing the re-uses and modifications of the various TOS movies and TNG sets for the episode observations articles at EAS. As far as I have found out, the original Enterprise bridge set from the first four films was re-used in the first three seasons of TNG as follows:

USS Enterprise-D battle bridge ("Encounter at Farpoint")
USS Stargazer bridge ("The battle")
USS Enterprise-D battle bridge ("The arsenal of freedom")
USS Lantree bridge ("Unnatural selection")
Starbase 173 courtroom ("The measure of a man")
Geophysical lab ("Pen pals")
Starbase 515 surgical suite ("Samaritan snare")
Tactical lab ("The emissary")
USS Hathaway bridge ("Peak performance")
Drafting room 6 ("Booby trap")
Federation outpost ("The vengenace factor")
Brig ("The hunted")
Brig ("Deja Q")
USS Enterprise-C bridge ("Yesterday's Enterprise")
Cybernetics lab ("The offspring")
Brig ("The most toys")
USS Enterprise-D battle bridge ("The best of both worlds II")

The medical/science lab (sometimes redressed as stellar cartography) was finally constructed for "Transfigurations", making it no longer necessary to redress the old bridge set as various labs all the time. The set thus appeared much less often.