How many transporter rooms on TOS Enterprise?

[Timo]

Makes good overall sense, really. But the subtle variations in the sets with time are actually pretty damning in terms of the standardized parts argument: it must be hellishly difficult to cope with a wall that is at a 23 degree angle with its corner companion one day, but at 28.5 degrees the next!

I'm not quite convinced that the location of the doorway would be a concern in this respect, psychologically, operationally or technologically. And the control console gives the appearance of being a rather generic, even modular and moveable, and ultimately "non-chiral" piece of equipment; flipping left and right would not appear necessary for its successful operation even if everything else in the room is flipped. (One wouldn't, say, need to number the pads counterclockwise in a "flipped" room if they are numbered clockwise in the set we see.)

Ultimately, I think I'll vote against the "two rooms flanking the corridor" model after all, on basis of most things being equal but only a single queue indeed being witnessed in "This Side"... Although of course we could make the point that the crew was not only abandoning the ship but also shutting it down to prevent the possibility of re-boarding, and might have started out by having the transporter chiefs shut down their respective rooms but for one.

Timo Saloniemi

[Just a Bill]

I wouldn't think subtle differences in wall angle are really "canonical" any more than coffee stains on Spock's tunic or shoe polish on the carpet from the previous three takes of the fight scene are canonical. Some on-screen information has to be filtered out as "TV production noise" that doesn't count as in-universe; it wouldn't be there if they had a practical/cost-effective way to erase the heel marks/afford more costumes/enforce precise continuity on the placement of movable walls.

Otherwise, we could see minor blemishes or other recurring visual cues in the set and have to conclude that Kirk, Janice, and Uhura all live in the same quarters! ("Come and knock on our door....")

-Bill

[Robert Comsol]

Just a Bill wrote:

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"Having your visual expectations jarred when you're in the middle of one of the most unnatural processes known to man is probably not advisable."

That's a good one! I'd like to think that the scene in "The Doomsday-Machine" when Kirk has finally gotten back to the Enterprise reveals a moment of hesitation as if Kirk tries to figure out (after all the previous problems with the transporter) in which transporter room of the ship he's actually rematerialized.

And there's of course the question of mass production of transporter (room) modules during the era of TOS. Probably a complicated device it appears reasonable to have one design to fit all Starfleet vessels that would also help to ease maintenance and repair efforts by the engineering personnel.

According to The Making of Star Trek there were supposedly many different kinds of transporter rooms aboard the ship but partially because of budget reasons we only saw one model (with the exception of small transporters like the one on space station K-7 to tell viewers they were not aboard the Enterprise).

These budget restrictions disappeared with TAS, yet, I don't remember ever having seen an animated transporter room that was supposedly different from the 'real' counterparts in TOS (though TAS established the Enterprise to have at least four transporter rooms).

Though I agree that little production glitches shouldn't be taken too seriously (one of the aims of my blueprinting project), I equally don't like the overused rationalization that everything is different because of an upgrade and that applies to a number of transporter rooms seen in the series.

According to "Assignment: Earth" sickbay ("Amok Time" suggests it rather to be on Deck 5 than Deck 7!) is above one transporter room which is above "security". Following the movement of Bele and Lokai in "Let That Be..." would also suggest a transporter room not much lower than Deck 5 or 6.

The opening scene in "Journey to Babel" (one of the strongest indications for the studio set being used for parallel corridors, IMHO) sees Kirk picking up the call from the bridge near "Computer Statistics" and next passes a sign with a direction marker saying "Transporter Section" (on Deck 5 !?).

(Sometimes, I'd like to be able to read what these signs say and sometimes I don't )

The only transporter rooms I remember this moment that do accurately match the actual studio set are the ones from "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" (Christopher trying to force Kyle to beam him down) and "Day of the Dove" (Kirk and landing party traveling to their posts).

Bob

[Mytran]

The Transporter Room in LTBYLB is different to every other one seen, in that the wall adjacent to the door (on your right as you enter) sweeps forward at a very sharp angle, instead of the usual 90 degrees. 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!

[Timo]

One could also argue for the opposite, sort of: that walls observed at funny angles bespeak of the significant capacity of the transporters.

Supposedly, these machines are a key element in starship logistics. The six-platform stage is capable of handling major pieces of equipment, in terms of dimensions, and the actual teleportation machinery doesn't seem to suffer from bulk or mass limitations, either. But the doorway to the room is quite limiting! How are the logistics handled beyond the initial beam-in?

Perhaps the back wall is a moveable partition, and can fold up accordion style to reveal a cargo elevator system beyond... Exactly like the actual set walls can!

Indeed, perhaps all the wall elements aboard the ship are a closer match to their studio plywood alter egos than we give credit for. The outer skin may well be the structural strongback of the ship (c.f. the way the engine pylons seem to attach without major internal structures that would be visible inside the landing bay/hangar), and the interiors could be rearranged with fairly limited effort.

The wall segments need not be flimsy, though. Absent modern forcefield technology, perhaps the way to limit hull breach damage is to fold the nearest wall panels out to block the corridor?

Timo Saloniemi

[Mytran]

Foldable corridor segments would certainly help explain some of the weird side corridors that appeared during the series! (Little Girls, Mirror Mirror and so on)

[blssdwlf]

Mytran wrote:

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The Transporter Room in LTBYLB is different to every other one seen, in that the wall adjacent to the door (on your right as you enter) sweeps forward at a very sharp angle, instead of the usual 90 degrees. 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!

Hmm. The reason it sweeps forward is because of the computer station. It looks like the same old transporter room with the addition of a computer station attached to modified wall. It looks alot like the setup from "Assignment Earth"...

[Mytran]

It is the same layout of consoles, but the wall angles have been shuffled around a fair bit. From LTBYLB compare this:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x...ieldhd1445.jpg

with similar shots from Assignment:Earth
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x...arthhd0046.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x...arthhd0058.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x...arthhd0145.jpg

It should be noted that the setup from AE is the more common one and features in a lot of episodes in S2-3. However, it is also a setup that requires intrusion into the corridor, as shown in the set blueprints:

http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/wp...-floorplan.png

[GSchnitzer]

Mytran wrote:

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It is the same layout of consoles, but the wall angles have been shuffled around a fair bit. From LTBYLB compare this:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x...ieldhd1445.jpg

with similar shots from Assignment:Earth
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x...arthhd0046.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x...arthhd0058.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x...arthhd0145.jpg

It should be noted that the setup from AE is the more common one and features in a lot of episodes in S2-3. However, it is also a setup that requires intrusion into the corridor, as shown in the set blueprints:

http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/wp...-floorplan.png

I think the walls of the transporter room set were not wild and they didn't move. I think the only thing that changes from shot to shot is the position and angle of the freestanding transporter console.

[Mytran]

The straight wall (with the door) looks to have been fixed. The rest - I'm not so sure...

Certainly the rear wall must have been wild, otherwise there'd be large bits of it permanently sticking out into the corridor!

[blssdwlf]

Good observation Mytran. Yeah, that wall looks to be wild or modifiable given it's different configurations. Do you know offhand if there were any episodes where we were shown the version that sticks into a corridor and in the same episode see characters walk that same corner?

[Just a Bill]

I'm not really seeing that the "corner kiosk" setup would necessarily have to protrude into the corridor, at least as far as these screen captures are concerned. In the LTBYLB shot with Bele on the platform, the kiosk angles do not conform to the blueprint at all. The apex, for example, clearly points between the two frontmost transport pads, the kiosk base (as in the base of a triangle) is on an angle to the outer walls (like a corner cabinet), and the back wall of the room itself is not much worse than a 90-degree angle with the doorway wall; perhaps 100 or 110 degrees.

The blueprint, on the other hand, shows the kiosk's base flush against the doorway wall and its apex pointing directly at the far wall. However, this does not match what we see in the Bele image [delete]or in either of the two AE shots[/delete]. I don't know if the blueprint is actual or conjectural, but it is not a good representation of these visual references, so if the transport chamber did in fact violate the corridor space during filming, I would be interested in some corroboration.

Hmm, I wonder if the blueprint was the intended setup, but when it came time for the set redress, somebody decided to not break down the corridor and instead just re-angled the kiosk and moveable rear room wall to fit the available space. There are some very odd angles apparent in that Bele shot, supporting the idea of an on-the-fly "just make it fit" solution.

UPDATE: I see now that the kiosk angles are different between AW and LTBYLB. If you look at the angle between the kiosk and the wall it shares with the door, the angle is acute in the Bele shot but obtuse in the AE shots. I now speculate that for AE they may have done as the blueprint suggested, and then when they wanted to use the science console again for LTBYLB they either didn't want to, or couldn't, break down the corridor again, likely because the unusual reverse camera angle from the platform required a much longer (temporary) back wall to be put up than was normally seen. (The temporary nature of the wall is suggested by how it atypically mates directly to the floor.)

[Timo]

Hmm... The stage plan manipulation looks spot on for the "Assignment: Earth" setup, save for the minor detail that the transporter control console in the blueprint is at a 45 degree angle with the radial corridor, while the console in the episode is at a 90 degree angle to the corridor. That is, the wall angles look completely correct.

Whether the dimensions of the wall sections are off is another matter. If each segment were a tad shorter than suggested in the blueprint, the protruding might yet be avoided... But again the drawing looks like a good approximation of the dimensions we see in the episode.

Timo Saloniemi

[Just a Bill]

Timo wrote:

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Hmm... The stage plan manipulation looks spot on for the "Assignment: Earth" setup, save for the minor detail that the transporter control console in the blueprint is at a 45 degree angle with the radial corridor, while the console in the episode is at a 90 degree angle to the corridor. That is, the wall angles look completely correct.

I see now that my update wasn't very clear on this point, but I do agree that the AE configuration appears consistent with the set plan. (I was misinterpreting the images when I first composed the message.) But the realignment apparent for LTBYLB looks to me like it will easily accommodate the full corridor, so I would treat that as "more canonical" than the earlier appearance, since it doesn't appear to require space to fold in on itself.

[Mytran]

blssdwlf wrote:

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Good observation Mytran. Yeah, that wall looks to be wild or modifiable given it's different configurations. Do you know offhand if there were any episodes where we were shown the version that sticks into a corridor and in the same episode see characters walk that same corner?

My episode notes have yet to be unpacked, but I have a feeling that it only happens once, in the early part of Mirror Mirror. Even then, we don't really see that much of the offending parts of the Transporter Room, a bit of squinting might get us though that one.