Where was Kirk coming from Amok Time

Maybe discussed before, but Kirk comes up this red "ladder" and arrives on the deck of Sick Bay with
Spock's quarters down the hall,
so where was he coming from, what is below, and why did he need to use it?

 

Maybe a short-cut? He was on a lower deck inspecting something or other, and the ladderway was just quicker than going to a turbolift.

 

A lot of office buildings have a rule, that if you are going up one floor or down two, you should take the stairs. It frees up elevators and it's good for your health. Ladders are even better exercise, and I'd love to have one in my routine just for that reason. But no.

In "The Doomsday Machine" if I'm not mistaken, three men take the triangular ladder at once. I don't think we ever saw a woman take the ladder.

 

That secret hallway between the hallways with all the spy holes.

 

Bathroom, of course.

 

An architect wouldn't make people climb down a ladder to get to the can. That has accident written all over it.

 

I never really thought about it before, but I suppose that Kirk was coming up from Engineering and heading off to his cabin for some rest. He'd probably just gotten off duty after inspecting something.

It's certainly a neat way to stage the scene though, isn't it? There's all kind of cool staging and blocking in "Amok Time."

Considering that most women on the Enterprise wore miniskirt uniforms, that'd be all kinds of trouble just waiting to happen. Or at the very least a sexual harassment incident.

 

Technically, they all wore one-piece swimsuits with hems attached: looking at Kirk's tight pants from below would give a better bum view in practice.

Those ladders pose something of a credibility problem for the starship. Corridors and turboshafts can be blocked off by doors in case of local pressure loss, alien intrusion or occurrence of space air. There doesn't appear to be any means of blocking the horizontal opening to the ladder shaft, though, apart from a putative forcefield. And how to cut the ladder horizontally? Does it consist of free-floating, deck-high segments suspended on tractor beams?

Why is the interior shiny and groovy? I mean, nothing wrong with shiny or groovy. But regular corridor walls don't even have funny mirrors. Why is the ladder shaft so much better off?

Timo Saloniemi

 

In all seriousness, Nomad used the same ladder to go from the Security Area (after killing two more redshirts) to go to Medical. Also, Tongo Rad climbs up it to jump a redshirt guarding the security cell that Dr. Sevrin was held. So, best guess: it's the Security Area.

 

I have always assumed that they were a combination of alternative access between decks should the turbolifts go on the blink, and TOS's minor version of Jefferies tubes (along with the major ones that Scotty is often climbing up to fiddle with some equipment).

 

I'll go with exercise. Gotta keep in shape to do those flying body-slams.

 

A minor point: we don't really have to start thinking that Spock lives next door to Sickbay. The room McCoy emerges from is not identified as such, after all (and thankfully the sign next to the door is unreadable); odds would be that the top officers happen to meet at Officer Accommodation Deck instead, with McCoy popping out of the Lounge or something.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Maybe even that nice room we see in LTBYLB!

 

You are probably correct. I just thought it was sick bay. Later when Spock was ordered to go to Sick Bay, he wanders, in a daze, you see a YELLOW ladder (not the tri-red ladder alcove) so a different part of the ship, he turns into that corridor, and then he turns into sick bay. Interesting that Sick Bay had a large RED stripe on the floor indicating Sick Bay! Maybe put there perhaps in emergency situations so you can locate it easily!

 

I'm sure if they left the camera running after Kirk exits, a slightly disheveled yeoman with a satisfied smile would follow.

 

What I have wondered is if the set is built on the studio floor which I assumed, then is Shatner coming up from a hole in the studio floor?

Or is the set with its floor built up off the actuall studio floor?

Robert

 

Many stages have a "pit" for such things, or below-ground storage. Presumably the ladder goes down into that, because it's expensive to to build all the sets up on platforms.

 

Was just coming in here to post this and to wonder why the blueprint gurus hadn't weighed in. Isn't Spock's cabin supposed to be on Deck Five with Kirk's? And Sickbay on Deck Seven?

 

Heh, I've often wondered if any "Memory Beta" sources came up with a good in-universe explanation for the corridor floor stripes.

 

>Sigh< I just knew that someone was going to take issue with me calling them miniskirts...