TOS Botany Lab = "Outdoor" Recreation Area?

[jayrath]

We were to see the ship's arboretum in "And the Children Shall Lead" and "Elaan of Troyus." If memory serves, the scenes were cut, though stills culled from frames survive. We at least heard about it in "The Man Trap" and finally saw it in "Is There in Truth No Beauty."

[Albertese]

TIN_MAN wrote:

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Well, if you're still lurking about Albertese, I'll extend an olive branch, and meet you half way.

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Thanks TIN_MAN. I apologize for coming down with such hostility. After all, it's only a tv show. We had a death in the family a couple weeks ago and I think I was kinda taking it out on you guys in this thread, which is hardly appropriate.

Anyhow, I checked out the FJ deck 18 drawings and I see what you mean. I'm sure that area is his version of the Herbarium area in ATCSL and ITITNB.

I don't really hold to the FJ plans, and my biggest problem with them is probably this very area aft of the sensor/deflector dish. Just seems like there should be some sort of machinery back there for the dish instead of the random unrelated business he put in there...

--Alex

[TIN_MAN]

No problem Alex, sorry for your loss.

[GSchnitzer]

TIN_MAN wrote:

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As for whether the Herbarium was a standing set, I still say it was. I worked in the theater business building sets, so I’m very well aware of how sets are used and stored; and being an original TOS fan since the Sixties, I’ve certainly been around long enough to know how the Trek production handled their set requirements. So unless I see an original memo or an interview that says otherwise, I’ll remain unconvinced that it was anything other than a permanent addition to the other standing sets, as was the case with the auxiliary control room and emergency manual monitor.

Ralph Senensky, director of "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" had this to say in his blog:

"There were no locations required to film this episode. In fact the entire show would be filmed in the Enterprise set on Stage 9 except for one four page scene in a herbarium set on swing stage 8."

http://ralph-senensky.blogspot.com/2...july-1968.html

[TIN_MAN]

Thanks, but I'm not sure that helps much? We already knew the set was on stage 8, but other than this being the place where their “planet surface of the week” sets were built, there’s still nothing to preclude the possibility that the recreation area was not a permanent “standing” set, tucked away in a corner of that soundstage somewhere?

Now, the adjoining “herbarium” set which we never saw, because it was never built, was most probably going to be a temporary affair of flats and door frames assembled at a moments notice, but then was never really needed, so…?

On the other hand, I can see how the recreation area set could have been cleverly built to be quickly assembled and then “struck” and stored away until next time? Perhaps they just left it up unless or until they really needed the space, at this point who knows?