Engine Room(s) on the TOS Enterprise (revisited)

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by Henoch, Jan 25, 2019.

  1. yotsuya

    yotsuya Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    According to the photo you posted, my drawing is a little over a foot off (deliberate on my part to line up with TUC), but your drawing is the wrong angle. You have the red mesh panel parallel to your pov line and it isn't. The control panel should be parallel to the wall and the wall should be about 2-3 feet longer than you have it and meet at a right angle with the other wall in the corner with the green pipe. And the three pipes you can see next to the console are not closely spaced, but there is a gap between the first one and the next two. I drew the room as it was during the scene when Watkins was with the Avatar (you can see the pipes behind her) and ignored the shot where she disappeared (again to align with the TUC version of that area). And the three pipes should be parallel to the red mesh panel, not a different angle.

    This is how I would do it. My version is on the top and what I think the set was on the bottom. Note the console would have to move in order to get all 4 pipes in the shot. That's why I moved them and used that detail for the pipes. The TOS production thought nothing of moving set walls for different shots, even if they make no sense in the final edit.
    [​IMG]
     
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  2. Phaser Two

    Phaser Two Commodore Premium Member

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    I was making a little joke.
     
  3. Henoch

    Henoch Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    In production order, Day of the Dove (#66) and That Which Survives (#69) both had the closed-off wall to the alcove room. The alcove room or that area of the engine room was not seen again for the rest of the series, so, it could have been a further set refinement. The top set of pipes in your sketches would be directly behind the wall where Kang is standing (note the wall is only about inset about 18 inches):
    [​IMG]
     
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  4. Henoch

    Henoch Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    I'm tempted to keep the closed-off alcove room, put a second set of control panels and walkway on the forth wall direct across from the other control panels and walkway, delete the EMM room, and call this the secondary hull engine room. For the primary hull engine room, I'd open the alcove room as in TUC, EOT, etc., and put the EMM centered on the forth wall. Or vice versa. Two slightly different engine rooms.
     
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  5. PCz911

    PCz911 Captain Captain

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    Right by the tommys burger.....whose chili is both amazingly good and dreadful.
     
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  6. Ryan Thomas Riddle

    Ryan Thomas Riddle Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It's amazing going down... dreadful coming out.
     
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  7. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    True, but this one is and I think nails the position fairly well:
    http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x17hd/thatwhichsurviveshd0590.jpg
    Your console pretty much matches that

    Looking at in the morning light I tend to agree after all. And a right angle looks so much tidier!
    http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x17hd/thatwhichsurviveshd0625.jpg
    The wall adjacent to the doorway really was quite short though - a 6" doorframe, a 48" panel and a 24" panel are pretty much it:
    http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x17hd/thatwhichsurviveshd0631.jpg

    I ackowledge the gap and you can even see what looks like the corner of the wall flat behind them!
    Regarding the avatar shot, are those even pipes in the background behind her? There's a lot of sharp edge and angles. It might even be a regular grey wall with a red light on it!
    http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x17hd/thatwhichsurviveshd0598.jpg

    I'm still to see definitive proof of that, because the brief images we have are far from clear. Also, an angled wall is not uncommon to TOS set design, would cover the gap much better and be easier to film around. TBH it looks like they noticed the gap at the edge of the shot and just threw up a few extra tubes to cover it!
     
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  8. TIN_MAN

    TIN_MAN Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Could we interpret this be an emergency bulkhead that can be raised or lowered as needed?
     
  9. Henoch

    Henoch Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    Wouldn't that leave those red pipes exposed? One bump from the rolling transformers and boom, antimatter explosion.
     
  10. Mres_was_framed!

    Mres_was_framed! Captain Captain

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    Why delete the Emergency Manual Monitor for the secondary hull? It would make sense there, as there is enough height for it in without having to adjust it.

    Based on what Jeffries had said in some interviews: Dare I say that angled walls may possibly have been to make the sets seem bigger or more complicated than they really were?...
     
  11. yotsuya

    yotsuya Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    That relates to my goal - getting rid of all the things that they did just for the camera. Or didn't do because the camera was never going to see it. It's really the same as expanding the pipe structure out.
     
  12. TIN_MAN

    TIN_MAN Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I take it you think there is anti-matter in the pipes? we don't know what's in those GNDN pipes, and in any case, having a retractable bulkhead slide down (or from the side) would be just thing thing needed to avoid having the "rolling transformers" bump into the pipes. And who says the transformers would roll? More likely they can be magnetically clamped to the floor once they're in position, and if they need to be moved, those anti-gravity devices we've seen from time to time would most likely be used, rather than having them on rollers (speaking in-universe, of course).
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2019
  13. yotsuya

    yotsuya Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I think they would have built in anti-grav so they could be moved (as we see them in many many different positions). I'm trying to figure out how to get them out of the room. I need to check more on the monitoring room to see where it is positioned. In Mirror Mirror there is an excellent shot showing it is pretty much in the middle, but as the set was freestanding, I need to check other instances to see if it moved around or if they were consistent about the placement. I really want to push it forward or back to make space to move those transformers to a side room. I consider them auxiliary power units that can provide extra power to regular ship's systems for various purposes (such as an experiment that needs a lot more power) or emergencies.
     
  14. Henoch

    Henoch Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    Of course, I was being extreme in my accident example to be funny, but the point is pipes or conduits running floor to ceiling should not be exposed from accidental damage especially in a dangerous work environment like the engine room of a starship. Remember the solo conduit in the engine room from The Enemy Within:
    SCOTT: Mister Scott, sir, on the lower level of the Engineering deck. I've found a new trouble with the transporter. The casing has a wide gap ripped in it. The main circuits have been burned through. The abort control circuit is gone altogether.​
     
  15. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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    Thanks for lining all those up.
     
  16. Koloth TOS

    Koloth TOS Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    I am going to build a diorama of the Emergency Manual Monitor room of the TOS Enterprise. What I need is a HD backdrop of the Engine room (without crew) behind the grill, as seen from the Emergency Manual Monitor room. Any help highly appreciated. (I tried hard to insert a pic to show what I mean but it didn't work).

    [​IMG]
     
  17. Henoch

    Henoch Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    The EMM has appeared in:
    1. Mirror, Mirror
    2. I, Mudd
    3. The Immunity Syndrome
    4. By Any Other Name
    5. Is There In Truth No Beauty? about as good as it gets: https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x05hd/isthereintruthnobeautyhd0560.jpg
    6. The Tholian Web
    7. The Lights of Zetar
    The Scotty/Mira Romaine scene in the EMM would make a nice diorama.
     
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  18. Koloth TOS

    Koloth TOS Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Thanks Henoch,
    I have collected all the stills of the episodes featuring the EMM but there is none showing the engine room without the grill. The grill I made myself, it is part of the diorama, the picture would serve as backdrop.
    BTW how did you know that the Scott Mira scene was the inspiration to the project?
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2021
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  19. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Ah, so you're after the view from the EMM but without the grill?
    I don't think such a view ever appeared in the series but Donny Versiga (on these boards) has done photorealistic recreations of various Trek sets, including the engine room. It's a long, LONG thread but here is where he focuses on the engine room:
    https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/donnys-tos-enterprise-interiors.212119/page-152
    I don't think he ever shared the specfic view you're after but it might be worth asking him if he has such a still in his archive
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2021
  20. Koloth TOS

    Koloth TOS Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Thank you Mytran, I know of Donny's excellent work but there is no such view. I thought there might be someone having shot a pic from the MMT during one of the scenic tours thru the "Enterprise".