Hello everyone. Since I never felt that the
USS Enterprise deck plans by Franz Joseph Schnaubelt represented the ship
as seen on television (except for the bridge), it had been my desire to accommodate, combine and arrange the original studio sets in the most credible way possible and in a manner the Brandon character from
Galaxy Quest would have probably done it.
My special thanks go to various Trek BBS participants, which still have an equal unwavering interest in the Original Series’ Enterprise and encouraged me to make my drafts available for discussion. Timing couldn’t be better as a long time friend of mine (with CAD skills light years ahead of mine) is currently doing exterior views of the old Enterprise and will eventually use these deck plan drafts as storyboards for CAD deck plans.
These deck plans are (currently) based on following theories:
1. In real life the
USS Enterprise would have a length of 1,080 feet.
2. There are 16 engineering decks in the engineering hull (according to Whitfield’s
The Making of Star Trek) where deck numbering starts at the top of the neck pylon below the primary or saucer hull (if this were not the case the height of the engineering decks would be lower than seen in the series).
3. The yellow circle at the bottom of the engineering hull belongs to a structure that extends into the ship and conveniently justifies the existence of circular corridors inside the engineering hull.
4. The radius of the original studio sets’ circular corridor can either be reduced (e.g. engineering hull) or enhanced (outer rim of saucer hull) to create a variety of locations aboard the
USS Enterprise which are not just limited to the interior corridors of a few saucer decks. A good canon example that justifies this procedure is the opening scene of
Journey to Babel (Kirk, McCoy and Spock walk down "Kirk's corridor" and then make a 180° U-turn into the same corridor, differently 'dressed'. One of these corridors has a different radius than the original studio set)
5. The Enterprise has at least two engine rooms, i.e. the “Engine Control Room” in the saucer hull near the impulse deck (especially
Court Martial and
Space Seed – it had to stand in for the engine room in the engineering hull during Season One) and the “Engineering Section” in the engineering hull (Season Two and Three with the possible exception of
Day of the Dove).
6. A diagonal turbo shaft connects the saucer and the engineering hull (a passenger in the turbo lift car couldn’t tell by the passing lights whether movement is vertical or diagonal).
The mission goals are
A) to recreate the ship’s corridors and locations as seen on the show(s) (i.e. from
The Cage to the ENTERPRISE episode
In a Mirror, Darkly) and later fill in the blank spots with rooms and components as Matt Jefferies hopefully would have done it given the task.
B) to present a feasible turbo lift system that makes sense.
C) to try to make these deck plans look good and believable.
This is a work in progress starting with the engineering hull deck plans that have been assembled by dissecting and assembling copies of the studio set plans from all three seasons (including some homemade reconstructions, i.e. the corridors from
Where No Man Has Gone Before and
In a Mirror, Darkly).
Constructive feedback is much appreciated. Live long and prosper and enjoy!
Engineering Deck 14: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/42om8cmlxqta8hn/gxvjE9apMA/USS Enterprise Engineering Deck 14 Uncompressed Version 2.2.JPG
Rewatching TOS I felt that the first season was somehow bound in the engineering hull. Possibly for upgrades in the saucer hull – following events in
Where No Man Has Gone Before where many things were noticeably different – Kirk had to take provisional quarters on (Engineering) Deck 12 and probably Dr. McCoy, too (
The Man Trap reveals an exterior window above his bed). Janice Rand’s quarters might be permanently on this deck (as a yeoman she should technically share her quarters, but as Captain’s yeoman she seems to enjoy certain privileges but only gets her own cabin on Deck 12) and then there is a transporter room on Deck 14 (lower than that we’d have problems assigning useful functions to the bottom exterior hatches of the ship, IMHO).
In an interview Doug Drexler conducted with production designer Matt Jefferies (RIP) in the 1970’s for the Star Trek Posterbooks Matt Jefferies stated his design strategy: “identification by association”. Therefore I have no doubts whatsoever that what we see in Kirk’s, Mudd’s and McCoy’s quarters are exterior windows closed by shutters (probably because they ran out of budget to do the VFX or these looked like crap). Thus I started these deck plans on Deck 12 to adjust the orientation of the (two) studio sets to bring these quarters to the corresponding position:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x06hd/muddswomenhd146.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x05hd/theenemywithinhd138.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x06hd/muddswomenhd395.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x01-2-hd/themantraphd484.jpg
Because of this the two transporter rooms two decks lower were first diagonally aligned but I felt it looked bad, so for Deck 14 I readjusted the orientation to have both transporter rooms near a central axis running through the ship (after all, who says that the “Environmental Engineering Only” ladders have to connect to more than two decks?).
The corridor used by Kirk and Captain Christopher in
Tomorrow Is Yesterday is a late addition and the result of “Janice’s corridor” two decks above. The turbo lift near the transporter room might be an exit-only turbo lift (we’ve seen only people exiting this one but never entering it), it may be debatable whether it was also seen in
Elaan of Troyius (judging by the lights in the turbo lift shaft).
The latest addition was the medical ward in the center. Ironically, this is a rare occasion where the strange curvature of the bed section from all seasons makes almost perfect sense (the corridor should still be a little tighter). Since I presume a medical ward in the engineering hull would be specialized in handling radiation burns (a daily hazard for the engineering personnel) I think this one is (Dr. M’Benga or Dr. Sanchez in charge) and since the Cestus III surviving Lieutenant had radiation burns I’d like to believe that the medical ward scene from
Arena took place here.
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x18hd/arenahd151.jpg
Engineering Deck 13: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/42om8cmlxqta8hn/g6rR1mHsnQ/USS Enterprise Engineering Deck 13 Uncompressed.JPG
Engineering Deck 13 is better known as the “Hangar Deck Shuttlecraft” judging by the deck marker seen in
The Doomsday Machine. I believe that decks with a certain known function are not referred to by numbers but by alphabetic letters in crew’s lingo instead (like “B deck” in
Court Martial aka crew’s quarters “Berth deck” or main deck number 6).
I’m somewhat undecided whether to sacrifice the “Science Library” from
Dagger of the Mind for a later added brig cell. And I seem to be having a problem fitting Nomad’s top security cell from
The Changeling into the section. I also believe that the Medical Ward from
WNM should go to the port bow.
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x09hd/daggerofthemindhd064.jpg
Engineering Deck 12: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/42om8cmlxqta8hn/fSxjWCE2CH/USS Enterprise Engineering Deck 12 Uncompressed Version 2.2 001.jpg
Engineering Deck 12 is the one that started this project. Here we see two variations of the corridor set with the strange angle from
WNM (where three different locations of this corridor were shown in the beginning of the alternate version / edit!) of which I first didn’t know whether this corridor was a curse or a blessing. Near Janice’s cabin the angle helps to bring this kind of (upgraded) corridor to a nice conclusion parallel to the central axis on the port bow (possibly a medical ward there, too, as seen in
WNM). Alternately, in its original version it aligns nicely with the H deck corridor below and the turbo lift location from
Let That Be on the starboard stern. A last minute addition is the stern corridor from ENT. Why mirror universe Archer and his men needed to enter the tri-ladder tube here to get all the way to the main level of engineering a few decks above, I cannot answer as I’d rather expect this kind of tri-ladder tube in the neck pylon (similar to
TWOK: http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/twok/ch11/twok0874.jpg). I presume it added to the pirate theme of the episode and made it look as if they were climbing the mast of a ship (my 0.02 $).
http://ent.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/4x19/inamirrordarkly2_296.jpg
The engineering deck plan drafts for 11, 10, 9 and 8 will follow soon.
Bob
I thought the CGI shot captured the height of the Bridge personnel somewhat accurately and was more helpful to simulate available deck heights. 
).
