Donny's TOS Enterprise Interiors

[Donny]

No other vessel in the entirety of Star Trek has done this, preferring instead to do nebulous clouds or one-glow effects that aren't the same.

I'm not the biggest fan of either the Kelvin-Timeline movies or Discovery, but to be fair, Starfleet ships in both of these visual incarnations of Trek use spinning nacelle caps with varying degrees of glow, including both of those incarnations' Enterprises.

 

[Redfern]

All of them, as well as the "fusion core" of the Jupiter II harken back to the C57-D (or is that C-57D?) of "Forbidden Planet".

 

[Norsehound]

I'm not the biggest fan of either the Kelvin-Timeline movies or Discovery, but to be fair, Starfleet ships in both of these visual incarnations of Trek use spinning nacelle caps with varying degrees of glow, including both of those incarnations' Enterprises.

I overlooked the Kelvinprise, but I didn't know of any craft in Discovery other than the Enteprise to use them. It's essentially only visible on the Enterprise herself.

Just wish more of Trek technology used kinetic movement in the drive mechanisms.

 

[Firebird]

I honestly can't wait to make a WNMHGB variant of the exterior! Gotta finish the bridges first though!

I'm eagerly waiting in the proverbial front row for it all! Including your take on the corridor set from WNMHGB, should you ever get around to that .

 

[Donny]

Ya know, I was looking over screencaps of my TOS Enterprise model today and realized I had somehow left off the painted portion of the nacelles that was a slightly darker color (just below the nacelle caps but forward of the pylons). I'd originally painted them correctly, but somehow turned it "off" before exporting my textures a year ago. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity to correct this and will be taking some updated screens of my TOS Enterprise soon after finishing up the new bridge variants:

I'm eagerly waiting in the proverbial front row for it all! Including your take on the corridor set from WNMHGB, should you ever get around to that .

GIven that it won't take too much work to convert my existing set pieces to their WNMHGB apperance, I don't think I'd be able to resist

 

[Professor Moriarty]

Ya know, I was looking over screencaps of my TOS Enterprise model today and realized I had somehow left off the painted portion of the nacelles that was a slightly darker color (just below the nacelle caps but forward of the pylons).

Go to your room. No supper for you.

 

[Tallguy]

Go to your room. No supper for you.

Wow. You're strict.

 

[Professor Moriarty]

And then I go and make a dozen non-canon changes on my own stuff. Do as I say, not as I do.

 

[STEPhon IT]

All this talk got me thinking about my TOS Enterprise model, so I decided to load it up tonight and make a few tiny adjustments to the textures and things that have bothered me about it for the last year. Minor stuff, but I thought I'd take a few new shots.

The Enterprise really is a beauty.

Absolutely beautiful. I've been waiting a long while to see this thread return, and as usual never disappoints. Great job, Donny, please show more. I think your eye for lighting has made your images look more photoreal.

 

[Donny]

Well, the pilot bridges are taking a little while longer than I'd anticipated, but I am rounding third on them and just have a few small things to polish or adjust before I'm ready to take the final renders.

But for now, here's a teaser of the WNMHGB bridge (with properly aligned conn platform) and the "goose-neck" viewers I finished up tonight:

 

[Redfern]

Did GSchnitzer (or anyone else for that matter) ever reveal the origins of those gooseneck "viewers"? I've often wondered if the "housing" was merely the "shade" of a commercially available electric lamp that was compressed into the ovoid shape. Obviously, the "interface" was made just for the pilot. Or were the entire "housings" custom made, the "shroud" in addition to the "control surface"?

 

[Donny]

Did GSchnitzer (or anyone else for that matter) ever reveal the origins of those gooseneck "viewers"? I've often wondered if the "housing" was merely the "shade" of a commercially available electric lamp that was compressed into the ovoid shape. Obviously, the "interface" was made just for the pilot. Or were the entire "housings" custom made, the "shroud" in addition to the "control surface"?

I've gone through all of Greg's Flickr depository of photos, and IIRC I never found any reference to the gooseneck viewers, but I could check again. Unfortunately Greg is no longer with us so I'm unable to ask him, of course.

However, I don't think the housing was some other shape compressed to be an ovoid. If you look at the screen below, you'll see that where the "housing" meets the "neck" it is flattened a bit in a very refined way, to indicate that this was the housing's intended shape, wherever it came from or whatever it is. Looks almost too refined to be something the Paramount prop houses created, but it's possible they're a product of Wah Chang, who handled the crafting of the more finessed props of the series. Now that I'm saying that, I can't help but see that the viewers most definitely have Wah's "touch" to them.

 

[Donny]

I think it only fair that I also tease with a shot of "The Cage" bridge. It really is a good thing they gave the captain's chair a higher base in the next pilot, because it sure looks weird down so low like that!

 

[137th Gebirg]

Agreed. I also like how they added more color to the post-Cage bridge. That version was just so gray and drab. No doubt due to the fact that most people back then didn’t have color TV’s. Nobody would have noticed.

 

[aridas sofia]

I think of those gooseneck viewers as the predecessor of the Spock/Scotty and Sulu viewers. Not just “intercraft” comms as we saw, but data screens specific to their particular stations. Was there any indication they were used in that way? I don’t recall.

Were they given a name either in memos, scripts or dialogue?

 

[Tallguy]

Well, Wah Chang did work on War of the Worlds and those always reminded me of top of the Martian machine.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Never considered the connection before but now that you mention it, yeah, I see it.

 

[Donny]

I've done a diligent search, but can't find any information on the origins of those "gooseneck" viewers (but I did discover that they got that name from James Blish's novelizations). If Wah Chang did manufacture them, there isn't any evidence that has come to light confirming that, but he did make both the laser pistols and the communicator for "The Cage" so we know that he was involved with the series at that early stage.

I think of those gooseneck viewers as the predecessor of the Spock/Scotty and Sulu viewers. Not just “intercraft” comms as we saw, but data screens specific to their particular stations. Was there any indication they were used in that way? I don’t recall.

Were they given a name either in memos, scripts or dialogue?

Yeah, I've always assumed they were capable of displaying information from sensors or the computer banks as well, although we only see them used as visual intercoms. I dunno about whether they were given names in production info, and a quick view of a script from "The Cage" just has Mister Spock "knocking on the door" and entering Pike's cabin to relay information that they've found survivors, instead of using the viewer to relay this info like we saw on-screen. However, like I stated above, I did read that they were given the name "gooseneck" viewers in James Blish's novelizations. That's not canon, of course.

Damn. I was going to take this opportunity to point out all the times we see these viewers throughout the series, but Trekcore seems to be down this morning (which really worries me ) I know we see them on a desktop in Commodore Mendez's office in "The Menagerie" and as part of a Romulan computer prop in "The Enterprise Incident", and the "head" of one of the viewers ended up as a wall prop in the Enterprise transporter room in Season Two of TOS. If Trekcore gets back up I'll be sure to post some references.

 

[Redfern]

Well, Wah Chang did work on War of the Worlds and those always reminded me of top of the Martian machine.

Uh, I thought it was Al Nozaki who worked on the George Pal production, designing the gracefully intimidating "manta ray" Martian war machines. Maybe Chang was involved in another capacity? On the other hand, Chang is rightfully famous for designing the titular "Time Machine", another George Pal work, helping to establish design ethics we now associate with "steampunk".

 

[UssGlenn]

Chang is rightfully famous for designing the titular "Time Machine", another George Pal work, helping to establish design ethics we now associate with "steampunk".

I didn't know that, that's really cool!