Image-heavy posts warning! So I tied up as many loose ends on the four bridges I've been working on since the new year as I could. There's still a few things I didn't get to (namely, a working red-alert mode and both simple and complex interactions with bridge consoles), but those will have to wait until a later date. I must admit I'm quite fatigued from working on the bridges and over the last couple of weeks I've noticed myself forging ahead despite not actually wanting to. But I know myself, and if I was to have moved on without taking them to at least to a 97% completion, I'd probably never come back around to finishing them. I have to ride the momentum while it's there. As you have noticed over the last couple of months, I have attempted to nail all the differences between the bridges, and capture every detail to the best of my ability given available references. Much like with the latest iteration of my TOS proejct, I did this because I want this to be the final time I build these bridges! I wanted to leave no stone unturned and model everything to the highest quality possible so that there would be no reason for me to want to model these again in the future. Not that I minded modeling these bridges (as it was great fun) but you all know I have a penchant for going back and re-modeling old work instead of focusing on new things . I want to start looking forward and provide the fan art community with the things they've yet to see fully realized in 3D (that is, after I touch up all my existing TWOK-era sets). Anyway, I modeled the missing pieces to the Grissom bridge Friday night and Saturday morning, and then spent the rest of the day Saturday doing a final lighting pass on my bridges and took a plethora of final screenshots of all four. Therefore, I present to you the finished Enterprise Bridge in it's 2271 configuration, the Enterprise bridge in it's 2285 configuration, the Reliant bridge, and the Grissom bridge. I'll be doing one post per bridge, so first up is the Enterprise bridge in it's 2271 configuration, as seen in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture":
Beautiful! Donny! Question, as a part of your animations on the bridge, do you have a mechanism to make Spock’s lateral stations slide back into the wall at the press of a button? I noticed they did that a couple of times in TMP.
Next up is the up is the Enterprise bridge in it's 2285 configuration, as seen in "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan":
And last is the Grissom bridge, as seen in "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock". This one is different in that it is elliptical in shape and does not feature a sunken pit with railings like the other three. The captain's chair is on a small raised platform, but all other stations are on the same level. I've chosen to place both turbolifts flanking the smaller, less elegant viewcreen. I took some liberty with the ceiling structure, removing the spokes and raising it up a tad to account for the fact that the helm is no longer in a sunken pit. I've also modified the astrogator from it's Enterprise/Reliant appearance to show some progress towards how the astrogator appeared on the Enterprise-A in TFF and TUC. I've also re-imagined the Internal Security station as a Tactical station to account for the fact that this ship's defenses don't facilitate the need for the full-sized Weapons & Defense console of the other ships. So that does it for these four bridges. Once my "bridge-fatigue" settles, I'd like to come back and do other variants, including (as promised) the Enterprise-A bridge as seen in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home". I'm also would like to depict the bridge simulator as seen in TWOK (complete with retracting viewscreen door and including the bit of Starfleet Academy outside of it). But for now, I begin the task of modeling the exterior of the Enterprise Refit! I'll also take some videos of these bridges soon so everyone can see the display and console graphics in motion.
Just awesome Donny! I had to pay the ultimate compliment and actually bother to boot up my desktop so I could take in the eye candy on the big screen. I'm a big fan of the Grissom bridge - it's a logical extension of what we saw on screen, and it is totally credible as the bridge of a smaller scoutship. It is quite evocative of the Defiant bridge from a century later, with the oval, one-level footprint, and the slightly elevated captain. The viewscreen is much more fitting than the cinematic widescreen look you were considering. Top marks! Makes me want to see more of that poor ship... Looking forward to seeing the progress of your Enterprise exterior!
So much bridge-ness, I don't know where to look first! I'm still not sold on the design of those standing consoles first seen on the refit-E. Since the design of the consoles is the same as the seated ones, it seems that they're just crying out for chairs! Your project has got me much better acquainted with the turbolift flanking consoles on the Reliant and to my mind, they sell the concept of an occasional use standing console far better. Right, back to gawping...
Simply amazing, Donny. It's so photorealistic, right down to the fabric texture on the chairs. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pick up my jaw from the floor.
From the Phase II documents I've read, the standing consoles were only meant to be manned during critical times, which would both explain why they aren't seated consoles and save the TV production from staffing the bridge with extras. This seems to have been abandoned for the films, since those budgets allowed for more believable bridge staffing I do, but the effect is somewhat broken by technical lighting problems of the Unreal Engine, so until I find a workaround to those problems, I won't be showing off the effect
That sounds vaguely familiar so I think I might have read that somewhere too. It still doesn't make sense though, since critical situations (such as combat) are where you would want to be seated; strapped down using those fancy new armrest restraints!
One small nit on the Grissom and TWOK bridges - I’m thinking one of the turbolift doors (probably the one to the right of the camera’s position) should probably say “B”. Other than that, I think you’ve achieved perfection! Edit: Oops! Never mind. Just checked on TrekCore and both doors do indeed (oddly) say “A”. Please disregard. I should have known better than think you would have made such an obvious mistake. Perfection!
Someone just pointed out to me on Facebook that in TMP, the decks were numbered, not lettered like they were in TWOK/TSFS/TVH. Doh! I'd forgotten that when I composited the images last night. My little caption in my TMP images is therefore incorrect
I remember a Strange New Worlds short story of David's internal monologue as he made his way from Sickbay to the Bridge at the end of TWOK, and his frustration and confusion that one crewman gave him directions using lettered decks, and another numbered levels.
An H Deck was spoken of in one of the TOS episodes so it wouldn't be too outside of boundaries for it to be interchangeable in TMP In anycase, wonderful renderings of the 4 bridges @Donny
It appears that sickbay was on “Deck E” in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. I don’t know if this appeared on screen in either the episode or the unaired pilot. (h/t @Firebird)