TOS Turbolift

[Koloth TOS]

The turbolift set was composed of 6 curved and 3 flat panels, plus a set of sliding doors which would be simply butted up again an existing set of doors on the Bridge or corridor.
In their standard configuration they looked like this:

However, when assembled for use on set this arrangement was not always followed. There are plenty of instances where the motion indicator panel ended up on the rear centre:
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x04hd/thenakedtimehd0617.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x13hd/elaanoftroyiushd0038.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x07hd/dayofthedovehd0279.jpg

Sometimes a partial construction seems to have been used, probably to allow the actors to walk on and off set. However the flats were not always aligned correctly to the doors, as seen in this particularly egregious example from Season One and a similar one from Season Three:

I could be wrong but I think the only time controls were seen on left hand panel (when looking into the turbolift) was in Wolf In The Fold, probably because the plot directly called for them. Most likely the right hand panel was just swapped to the left. I say this because when that side of the set was filmed a few episodes later, no controls were to be seen!

In-universe however I am more than happy to imagine the existence of different styles of turbolift cruising the shafts around the ship. It would also help to explain the numerous doorway inconsistencies (which I'm not going to go on about right now, don't worry!)

Excellent observations! Are the dimensions of the TOS turbo lift known? I‘d need them to build the lift in 1/6 scale.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Which has no artificial gravity, correct?

Yes, but I don't think that impacts on my point. Zero-G shafts are practical either way. I'm saying if we had all of Star Trek's technology and we set out to build a real Enterprise, we would omit the elevator cars. They'd never make it to the first sketches, let alone the construction drawings.

 

[Ssosmcin]

When people are traveling through wide zero-G shafts, they just have to watch where they're going, keep to a moderate speed, and stay in reach of the handholds. Astronauts doing that get along just fine and don't slam into each other. For a good portrayal of how it works, check out The Martian (2015).

This literally seems like too much damned work when standing in an elevator and having a conversation with your first officer while the lift does the movement and stopping is a lot easier.

 

[Phaser Two]

Yes, but I don't think that impacts on my point. Zero-G shafts are practical either way. I'm saying if we had all of Star Trek's technology and we set out to build a real Enterprise, we would omit the elevator cars. They'd never make it to the first sketches, let alone the construction drawings.

I normally agree with you on just about everything, but can't get there on this one. If you had an artificial gravity system, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't create supposedly isolated pockets of zero-G all over the ship just so . . . people could jump down or clamber up shafts? Just to take one issue, how does that work when someone wants to leave the bridge just to head back to their quarters after a shift - let alone in an emergency? The bridge doors open and a forcefield is there (energy waste) so the departee can jump out with a jaunty wave? There's a gravity airlock of some sort at every lift door? (Unnecessary construction costs.)

Someone mentioned The Expanse and how it tries to be more relatable/realistic than most popular space-set fiction. (And it's a great show.) But they have artificial gravity and elevators too.

 

[Koloth TOS]

The "reflective panel " in Mytran's sketch was actually a motion indicator itself:

and can be wateched here (at 0:40):

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[Ronald Held]

How many of the crew would be slightly I'll by going from one g to null gravity back to one g?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I normally agree with you on just about everything, but can't get there on this one. If you had an artificial gravity system, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't create supposedly isolated pockets of zero-G all over the ship just so . . . people could jump down or clamber up shafts? Just to take one issue, how does that work when someone wants to leave the bridge just to head back to their quarters after a shift - let alone in an emergency? The bridge doors open and a forcefield is there (energy waste) so the departee can jump out with a jaunty wave? There's a gravity airlock of some sort at every lift door? (Unnecessary construction costs.)

Thanks, we do hit a lot of the same notes most of the time. But I'm picturing a much simpler thing than you in this case: just step off the bridge into the zero-G shaft, take a handhold in there for a gentle push, and glide through the shaft. Then take a handhold at your destination to stop yourself, and step onto the deck. No force fields or airlocks would be needed. The shafts don't even need doors [Edit: except they do, because sometimes you need to close all airtight doors]. I'm picturing what they do aboard the Hermes in The Martian.

But they obviously can't do it in-universe on Star Trek, for gravity-technology reasons, or they would. The savings of doing it are just too great to ignore.

Someone mentioned The Expanse and how it tries to be more relatable/realistic than most popular space-set fiction. (And it's a great show.) But they have artificial gravity and elevators too.

I haven't seen it, but the guys at work said artificial gravity on The Expanse is created by the ship's acceleration, which is always perpendicular to the decks. Halfway to their destination, they turn the ship around and start slowing down, which again creates the sense of artificial gravity, experienced identically from inside the ship. Einstein taught that acceleration and gravity are indistinguishable in how they feel to us.

 

[1001001]

I'll just see myself out....

 

[Mytran]

The "reflective panel " in Mytran's sketch was actually a motion indicator itself:

and can be wateched here (at 0:40):

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Well spotted! The reflective panel pulls double duty as a motion indicator again in Is There In Truth No Beauty when a crazed Larry Marvick is headed towards Engineering
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x05hd/isthereintruthnobeautyhd0537.jpg
That's also an example of the reflective panel (or more accurately "translucent" panel) being situated on the side of the turbolift instead of the rear.

I suppose, since the reflective section was made of the same shiny shower curtain material used elsewhere on the sets it could just be stretched across the rectangular gap.
Interestingly it was only used as a motion indicator when the usual panel was in shot. In The Ultimate Computer when both were visible, the translucent panel is instead backlit with a lovely green hue.
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x24hd/theultimatecomputerhd0113.jpg

Excellent observations! Are the dimensions of the TOS turbo lift known? I‘d need them to build the lift in 1/6 scale.

I know what dimensions I came up with after studying the set blueprints and screencaps! These are from my ongoing deck plan project:

The turbolift interior is a circle 7 feet in diameter, with one end flattened for the doorway. I've estimated 3" thick for the curved walls but this is sheer speculation. The doors and entrance walls were all 2" thick with a slight gap in between each section to allow for free movement (I've not shown this in my diagram, instead making the doors a little thicker but this is solely for my convenience using Inkscape)

The inner doorway was 3'6" wide which matched the doorway on the Bridge and a couple of specially made doorways in the corridor set, as most pocket doors were built at 4' wide.
However, from Season Two it became more common to just butt the turbolift set up again standard 4' wide doors on the corridor (and just not open them fully).

Despite what the set blueprints show, all doors (except perhaps the Bridge) were built at 6'9" high once the series began. I cam to this conclusion following discussions here:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/tos-enterprise-internals.298185/page-28#post-13876497

If you want greater detail I also have this larger version with a 1-inch grid overlay

If you're after side views then I'm afraid I have none.

 

[Noname Given]

I agree that each light bar represents nothing more than progress in general. Or perhaps there's some other benchmark like meters/feet traveled, but it certainly doesn't seem to be decks.

Of course my favorite turbolift-related wackiness comes from The Enterprise Incident, an episode so silly that I prefer to write it off as a fever dream by Kirk or Spock while fighting off an illness, rather than reconcile it to existing continuity in any way. But in any event, Spock and the Romulan commander take about two minutes to go from the bridge to "Deck Two."...

^^^
Yeah that is one of the more egregious turbolift rides (time wise - and not to mention the fact that the living quarters were established as being on decks 5 and 6 in a number of previous episodes); but the above said:

The turbolift suffered from the same malady as the 1701 travel times from star system to star system or planet to planet - IE both traveled at a speed required by the plot or conversation of the moment.

 

[Noname Given]

I'll just see myself out....

The Enterprise 1701; conceived, designed and built by Disneyland Imagineers (and yes of course they still exist in the 23rd century...)

 

[blssdwlf]

The "reflective panel " in Mytran's sketch was actually a motion indicator itself:

and can be wateched here (at 0:40):

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Interesting - the motion indicator is only visible for a few seconds so we actually don't know what the turbolift was doing for the remainder of the time they were talking. Their turbolift easily could've been waiting somewhere else in the ship for another turbolift to get out of the way on Deck 2...

 

[Ssosmcin]

Interesting - the motion indicator is only visible for a few seconds so we actually don't know what the turbolift was doing for the remainder of the time they were talking. Their turbolift easily could've been waiting somewhere else in the ship for another turbolift to get out of the way on Deck 2...

The sound effects tho...they indicate the turbo lift is in motion for just about the entire conversation

 

[blssdwlf]

The sound effects tho...they indicate the turbo lift is in motion for just about the entire conversation

Yep their lift could've been in transit to a waiting location and back to Deck 2 the entire time and it would still work since the movement indicator is conveniently not visible for the rest of the dialogue.

 

[Koloth TOS]

Thank you very much, Mytran!

You mention, however, that the lift is 7 feet in diameter, whereas your detailed diagramm of 1 inch-grids show 16 grids, how does that fit?

 

[Ssosmcin]

Yep their lift could've been in transit to a waiting location and back to Deck 2 the entire time and it would still work since the movement indicator is conveniently not visible for the rest of the dialogue.

Or maybe Shatner was right and deck numbers go down like a building. Deck 2 was alllll the way at the bottom of the ship.

 

[Push The Button]

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[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I'll just see myself out....

Magic Mountain TurboLifts!

 

[XCV330]

You'd rather push yourself around a zero-g tunnel than stand still for a few seconds in a turbolift car?

You'd rather walk 300 meters from the bridge to engineering instead of just riding the turbolift horizontally?

and then you'd have to deal with zero-g hair. No wonder the beehive made a comeback

 

[BK613]

Or maybe Shatner was right and deck numbers go down like a building. Deck 2 was alllll the way at the bottom of the ship.

FWIW, on US Navy ships built after 1949, Deck 1 (the Main Deck) is the uppermost full deck* on the ship, with floors below it typically called decks and floors above it typically called levels. Decks are denoted with just numbers and levels with numbers with a leading zero. So, the bridge of a ship could be on, say, level 05, which would be five floors above the Main Deck and a berthing compartment could be on Deck 3, two floors below the Main Deck. The value of the numbers increases as you move away from the Main Deck (The thinking here is similar to a building; you come up out of the hull and down through the superstructure.)
The Main Deck of a modern US carrier is typically the Hangar Deck, for example.

*(port-to-starboard, stem-to-stern)