TOS shuttle bay set question

[Forbin]

Personally I think the remastered shuttle bay looks fine, but the way they make the shuttle takeoff and land is ridiculous. I know the tracks in the floor were just there to move the miniature, but the impression my younger self got, was that the shuttle was always launched and recovered automatically by computer. Having it wobble up off the floor (turntable!) and spin in place (there's a turntable you idiots!) like Airwolf was stupid.

 

[FormerLurker]

As I recall, the only times the Shuttlecraft wobbled during takeoff were those times it was being stolen. To me, that was much more believable than such a controlled launch would be. Now, if TOS-R was lazy and reused the wobbly takeoff for all takeoffs, then that would be a problem.

 

[uniderth]

The remastered version in LTBYLB looks kind of cartoonish, but the way the Shuttlecraft wobbles...

...the shuttle wobbly lift off...

Having it wobble up off the floor (turntable!) and spin in place (there's a turntable you idiots!) like Airwolf was stupid.

...times the Shuttlecraft wobbled during takeoff...

Would you all like some chocolate, pistachio, and peach with that wobble?

 

[Spock's Barber]

There wasn't really any "set" for the full-sized shuttlebay -- just the shuttlecraft mockup sitting on a bare soundstage with a door and a bit of corridor in the foregrou

Well, there is a grey backdrop behind the Shuttle that simulates a bulkhead, and the deck is also grey with colored markings that help position the craft.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Would you all like some chocolate, pistachio, and peach with that wobble?

No thanks. Chocolate makes my weeble wobble until I fall down.

 

[FormerLurker]

No thanks. Chocolate makes my weeble wobble until I fall down.

You need to stop eating the alcohol infused chocolate.

 

[Spock's Barber]

You need to stop eating the alcohol infused chocolate.

...or the chocolate infused alcohol.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"Hey, you got alcohol in my chocolate!"
"You put your chocolate in my alcohol!"

 

[johnnybear]

The Commissioner's fate really stuck with me for a while as a kid. Although he really did it to himself.

He got what was coming to him agreed but you could also feel sorry for him too!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

I think every time I've seen POTA there's been some bit of recognition of that sound from somewhere, that I couldn't put my finger on...
---------------------
PS, you don't kill your only medical doctor (Smith), even if he is an a-hole....

He wasn't really a Doctor of medicine I believe more a quack as the robot used to say!
JB

 

[Mytran]

I'm not seeing it.

The "drop" I was referring to occurs in the live action sections of those episodes. Take a look at the CGI'd gallery above the shuttle:

It's clearly the same CGI asset, but in JTB they wouldn't have been able to have it so low without rotoscoping the actors' heads as they climbed out of the shuttle. I really wish they hadn't bothered with either, TBH

FWIW, here is the original unaltered shot from JTB. A gallery of some sort flashes injto shot for a second, but I think it probably a piece of the soundstage itself!

 

[Albertese]

Naw, That's not soundstage bits, it's clearly a Jefferies style bit of set dressing. Honestly, I prefer the unaltered JTB footage, as we can assume that it's not the flight deck, but, rather, the hangar deck below. Which makes more "space ship architecture" sense. After all, if that's the flight deck, and we're seeing the upper gallery there above the shuttle, that means that Kirk and Spock are entering the bay from one of the sides. But the width of the ship really doesn't allow the flight deck we see to fit in the exterior we see if we also have broad side corridors. Having this be a lower hangar area means they could be entering from a door that is forward of the shuttle and the camera is looking aft, which makes more physical sense.

I prefer to think that the shuttle lands in the flight deck, rotates and lowers on the elevator to the shuttle hangar, which is smaller volume that gets sealed off from the flight deck (which is depressurized to space) and pressurizes more quickly, then the passengers disembark. I imagine all the boarding and deboarding of shuttles usually happens on the smaller hangar deck and then the shuttle rides to the elevator to the flight deck for launch every time.

--Alex

 

[Mytran]

You've described my mental picture of the internal Enterprise layout exactly!
But then maybe that's not such a surprise, as we might have discussed before, perhaps once or twice?

Thanks for the titbit about the Jefferies soundstage dressing though, I've never been entirely sure as it only appears on screen for a few frames in JTB

 

[Captain Rob]

What would have made more sense would be for some straight and curved black lines to be painted on the background behind the shuttlecraft. These could represent the inside of the clamshell hangar bay doors. This would allow for the long distance of the honor guard if the Captain was standing at the forward access door and facing aft. That way there si plenty of walking around room inside the ship there.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Naw, That's not soundstage bits, it's clearly a Jefferies style bit of set dressing. Honestly, I prefer the unaltered JTB footage, as we can assume that it's not the flight deck, but, rather, the hangar deck below. Which makes more "space ship architecture" sense. After all, if that's the flight deck, and we're seeing the upper gallery there above the shuttle, that means that Kirk and Spock are entering the bay from one of the sides. But the width of the ship really doesn't allow the flight deck we see to fit in the exterior we see if we also have broad side corridors. Having this be a lower hangar area means they could be entering from a door that is forward of the shuttle and the camera is looking aft, which makes more physical sense.

I prefer to think that the shuttle lands in the flight deck, rotates and lowers on the elevator to the shuttle hangar, which is smaller volume that gets sealed off from the flight deck (which is depressurized to space) and pressurizes more quickly, then the passengers disembark. I imagine all the boarding and deboarding of shuttles usually happens on the smaller hangar deck and then the shuttle rides to the elevator to the flight deck for launch every time.

--Alex

In addition to the deck plan issue, I like this because, as you say, it spares the cost of pressurizing and depressurizing the huge flight deck. Only a small enclosure around the elevator platform below would have to be cycled. (The TNG-style force fields that hold air in while letting shuttles pass through seem a little out of place on TOS.)

 

[Redfern]

This is one situation when "Space: 1999" depicted the smarter solution. Assuming what we see in those boarding and disembarking shots on Trek is actually a "smaller" chamber beneath the main landing deck, it's still pretty darn big. Cycling all that air has got to be both energy and time consuming, plus potential wear on the the mechanisms pumping the atmosphere. More economical to leave the shuttle in a vacuum and have a docking tube of some sort latch onto the hatch. Besides a bit more "realism", this approach would have saved the production having to to wheel out the mock-up (saving it for planetside sequences) and staging a landing deck set. Instead, we could have an establishing shot of the shuttle miniature with a tube affixed and then cut to a corridor shot with a door or "hatch". When opened, we'd see a short length of sealed walkway and at the other end, the distinctive looking shuttle hatch.

But hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

 

[Galileo7]

This is one situation when "Space: 1999" depicted the smarter solution. Assuming what we see in those boarding and disembarking shots on Trek is actually a "smaller" chamber beneath the main landing deck, it's still pretty darn big. Cycling all that air has got to be both energy and time consuming, plus potential wear on the the mechanisms pumping the atmosphere. More economical to leave the shuttle in a vacuum and have a docking tube of some sort latch onto the hatch. Besides a bit more "realism", this approach would have saved the production having to to wheel out the mock-up (saving it for planetside sequences) and staging a landing deck set. Instead, we could have an establishing shot of the shuttle miniature with a tube affixed and then cut to a corridor shot with a door or "hatch". When opened, we'd see a short length of sealed walkway and at the other end, the distinctive looking shuttle hatch.

But hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

Absolutely agree. There was an episode of DS9 that had a Runabout docked to an access hatch in it's DS9 hangar. It was very reminiscent of Space:1999 Eagle docking on a Alpha launch pad.