Why *was* the bridge turbolift offset?
- Thread starter WarpFactorZ
- Start date
^I think they rotated the helm console for that Chekov shot so they wouldn't have to deal with having the main viewscreen in the background.
Last edited:
^ Well, I approve of cuboctahedra (when not the form of reduced Enterprise crew people).
Then there's this post I made to an old caption contest (ineptly photoshop-ing the original image and all) that went over like a ton of bricks:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/tos-caption-contest-308-just-a-country-doctor.287204/#post-11978056
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/tos-caption-contest-308-just-a-country-doctor.287204/#post-11978056
Those were cuboctahedrons, actually.Pretty sure you are thinking of the one from "By Any Other Name" where Chekov is sitting almost "Donald Trump-style" before being icosahedronized.
Last edited:
Yes, it was very early in the morning my time, I was using my phone on a shuttlebus on the way into work, and somehow lost my head for a moment. I actually own a replica of that prop and know better.
But what I find more interesting is that you corrected my spelling of "before" in my original post in the process of quoting me?!
But what I find more interesting is that you corrected my spelling of "before" in my original post in the process of quoting me?!
Pretty sure you are thinking of the one from "By Any Other Name" where Chekov is sitting almost "Donald Trump-style" bebore being icosahedronized.
Last edited:
Yep, well said and my take as well. There are countless moments where someone enters the bridge and it's used dramatically: two that come to mind are Kirk's "come with me please" moment in AT and Spock's entrance to the bridge while the Scalosian distress call is replaying in Wink. Also, the guards running on to the bridge at the start of Spock's Brain, or (similar, just not involving entry) Spock motioning the guards forward to "bluff" (or not) Decker in Doomsday. If the camera was in its usual position, and the lift was where Uhura's station was, you wouldn't get any of this, or at least not as cleanly.
In universe, I never thought that was the turboshaft on the model, but even if it is, why can't the lift car move to the side a bit before entering the bridge to preserve the ergonomics of the consoles?
...We get a very strong signal that the placement of the turbolift station is flexible in the TOS movie era and its 24th century echoes, with half a dozen externally identical bridges with different lift station placements. The Reliant goes for the single centerline lift, say.
No doubt the lift station is but a modular wedge similar to the consoles; the exact mechanics are left as an exercise to the audience. Heck, who knows, perhaps the wedges are adjustable "in flight", which is why sometimes the wedge to the left of Spock's station pulls outward a bit and reveals the side of Spock's pulpit?
Timo Saloniemi
No doubt the lift station is but a modular wedge similar to the consoles; the exact mechanics are left as an exercise to the audience. Heck, who knows, perhaps the wedges are adjustable "in flight", which is why sometimes the wedge to the left of Spock's station pulls outward a bit and reveals the side of Spock's pulpit?
Timo Saloniemi
The problem was that the viewscreen and all the stations between it and Spock were typically pushed off to one side, so to get the shot of Chekov would have required wheeling a piece or two of that back and lighting it for one quick shot. Not worth it. Easier to do what they did.
That's true, but they could have left the helm platform facing forward and simply shot Chekov from the side (camera looking to port). Even easier.
Yeah, but there's also the fact that the viewscreen was an optical effect. They occasionally rear-projected footage onto it, like in "The Cage" or "Spock's Brain," or used a star backdrop, as in "The Doomsday Machine," but usually it was just a blank space to have an image matted into it in post-production. So setting up a shot of an actor with the viewscreen in the background would've been complicated for that reason as well as the reason you mention.
This is the one, here:
Right beforehe gets turned into a dehydrated cube octohedron
This one scene takes place in an alternate universe because it's not consistent with prior canon. #NotMyStarTrekScene
...In-universe, quite possibly the exact opposite. As the bridge consists of those modular wedges, the outer shell basically never gets changed. And there isn't significant thought put into where each module goes, exactly because moving them is so trivial. So some skippers want Science 01 here and Comms 01 and 02 there - and the turbolift station is the odd man out, ending up in the leftover space.
Timo Saloniemi
John Zizolfo built a beautiful bridge model a while ago, a little bigger than the accepted size, to fit his (and my) pet theory: The bridge faces forward. The external tube is where the turbocar comes up to that level. The car then jogs forward. Then to port to reach the doors. On the starboard side of the central shaft is a siding with a spare car. So when a turbolift car leaves the bridge, the following happens: The car moves from its portside station at the doors, to the central position, then aftward into the vertical shaft. After that car is out of the way, the spare car that's in the starboard siding jogs quickly to port to station itself behind the bridge doors.
This is pretty much the only way there can be another turbolift car behind those doors as quickly as we've seen.
This is pretty much the only way there can be another turbolift car behind those doors as quickly as we've seen.
I doubt they originally intended the bridge to be offset - the bridge window in the first pilot (EDIT: My bad, second) faces forward, after all.
I'd guess it was only when Franz Joseph did the math and realised that's the only way it'd fit inside a 947-foot Enterprise that the offset bridge became a thing.
I'd guess it was only when Franz Joseph did the math and realised that's the only way it'd fit inside a 947-foot Enterprise that the offset bridge became a thing.
Last edited:
Actually that is the second pilot version...
I stand corrected.Actually that is the second pilot version...
Similar threads
