This is one of my favorite shots of the bridge:
Inspired Enterprise -- new behind-the-scenes book about TOS
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I started typing my arguments in opposition to some of your points, but then realized I would be adding more noise than signal. And I think there are a couple of related points that are more interesting than me just continuing the tennis volley.
A broader question that I have also wrestled with during my project is how many copies they would have needed of any given prop, furnishing, or set decoration piece. This comes in many forms; here are a few:
There also just might be a principle we can take from the landing-party props that could inform our speculation on the turbolift(s): the hero/midgrade/dummy distinction. What if there was one hero turbolift (attached to the bridge) and at least one wild midgrade? The latter would look the part, but there wouldn't be moving lights behind the screens, the handles wouldn't turn, the intercom wouldn't light up, and maybe not all of the side panels would be removable. Maybe the front panel wouldn't even have any buttons or intercom at all. For all the turbolift walk & talks and any other close-up work, you'd film in the hero lift; the midgrade would only be to show crew entering/exiting in corridor scenes, as its only working parts would be the doors. (In this paradigm, the midgrade's interior would indeed be functioning somewhat like the dummy insert in the TARDIS.) Maybe blue carpet means you're looking at the hero; green, the midgrade.
Now that I think about it, in this analogy there is actually even a dummy-grade turbolift in (at least) one episode, the identity of which I can't recall right now. We see Kirk come out of the rarely used Rec Room side door, which has been swapped to red (or a pair of reds?). The camera is at the other end of the straight transporter corridor, with a shallow angle on the RR door such that you can barely see inside. Kirk is depicted as exiting a lift, but the tiny piece of interior wall you can see is not curved, and the usual intercom and buttons are absent. Clearly it's just one wild, gray, blank sheet to create the illusion of a small space. (Or maybe it was just the 45° "foyer" panel that accompanies so many of the doorway interiors.)
Yeah, I'm gonna be thinking of this as the "dummy" turbolift from now on. And will keep my eyes open to see if the evidence supports or refutes the idea that the non-dummy, viewable corridor lift is actually a midgrade. (I kinda hope so, since it would save me some time on my project.)
A broader question that I have also wrestled with during my project is how many copies they would have needed of any given prop, furnishing, or set decoration piece. This comes in many forms; here are a few:
- Burke Chairs: Was there a set of these in every room that routinely used them, or were they ported around for each setup? Do you need 10 for the bridge, 2 for the crew cabin, 7 to 12 for the multipurpose room, 3 or 4 more for the sickbay complex ... like, 30 to 50 chairs on Stage 9? Or do you just need about 12 that are constantly in motion?
- 8-Switch Rocker Panels: After the first few episodes (where they were all white) these almost invariably used the same 8 colors in the same sequence. Were there dozens of panels and hundreds of painted, individual switches around the set? Or was each 8-switch panel a drop-in module that could be moved from the bridge to the transporter to aux control to Kirk's desk? (A few times the 8 colors were in the opposite order, suggesting that perhaps a module was dropped in backwards.)
- Intercoms: Same question. Do you need a full complement for the bridge and seven more for the briefing room, plus however many more are needed for all the miscellaneous consoles around the ship? Or do you just need the maximum number for any one scene, plus a few spares for emergencies? They could easily drop into slots on the surfaces and just be held there by gravity.
There also just might be a principle we can take from the landing-party props that could inform our speculation on the turbolift(s): the hero/midgrade/dummy distinction. What if there was one hero turbolift (attached to the bridge) and at least one wild midgrade? The latter would look the part, but there wouldn't be moving lights behind the screens, the handles wouldn't turn, the intercom wouldn't light up, and maybe not all of the side panels would be removable. Maybe the front panel wouldn't even have any buttons or intercom at all. For all the turbolift walk & talks and any other close-up work, you'd film in the hero lift; the midgrade would only be to show crew entering/exiting in corridor scenes, as its only working parts would be the doors. (In this paradigm, the midgrade's interior would indeed be functioning somewhat like the dummy insert in the TARDIS.) Maybe blue carpet means you're looking at the hero; green, the midgrade.
Now that I think about it, in this analogy there is actually even a dummy-grade turbolift in (at least) one episode, the identity of which I can't recall right now. We see Kirk come out of the rarely used Rec Room side door, which has been swapped to red (or a pair of reds?). The camera is at the other end of the straight transporter corridor, with a shallow angle on the RR door such that you can barely see inside. Kirk is depicted as exiting a lift, but the tiny piece of interior wall you can see is not curved, and the usual intercom and buttons are absent. Clearly it's just one wild, gray, blank sheet to create the illusion of a small space. (Or maybe it was just the 45° "foyer" panel that accompanies so many of the doorway interiors.)
Yeah, I'm gonna be thinking of this as the "dummy" turbolift from now on. And will keep my eyes open to see if the evidence supports or refutes the idea that the non-dummy, viewable corridor lift is actually a midgrade. (I kinda hope so, since it would save me some time on my project.)
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Quite a difference in shuttle interiors:
About that:
Memories…
The silvered up photo of the Enterprise was sometimes listed by itself in black & white advertisements towards the back of some comics, magazines and other periodicals—to the point that I thought it was an offering from another company—I forget when that first three ship set came out.Edit: Here’s their offerings for 1975
Even though there were actually more Trek models after ERTL got involved…it just didn’t feel the same….
The Estes rockets need more love from researchers.
The aft nacelle caps looked better than AMT.
The underside of the saucer is a disaster due to the realities of hobby rocketry. Put a long enough nose on a rocket..
The freshened up Playmates TOS Enterprise came with a clear lower saucer “raft” that might make for a better lower saucer. Some blow-molded McDaniels models might help.
The clear “raft” might endure a pie slice cut out of the back.
The lower front of the saucer won’t have the Letterman gap, but you could keep the aft of the neck tube as a mine-layer…a super impulse drive—aft deflector, etc.
The lower saucer of the Estes kit could be cut in half as scratch-bash fodder.
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I like these shots.Quite a difference in shuttle interiors:
In “The Immunity Syndrome” when we see the aft compartment walled off I always envisioned the aft compartment crammed with specialized equipment for Spock’s specific mission. It supported the idea the shuttlecraft could be modified for different mission roles—in this case detailed scientific investigation.
I should go back and add to my shuttlecraft drawings to further explore those possibilities.
Has this been discussed? I was not aware that this had been found from the tribbles ep:
I checked the current sci-fi page for The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle and it is not listed. Must be the family took it back. I can not make out the name. All I can read on that is Family Collection.
I checked the current sci-fi page for The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle and it is not listed. Must be the family took it back. I can not make out the name. All I can read on that is Family Collection.
Could that line of text read "From the Paul Allen Family Collection"? Kind of looks like that to me.Has this been discussed? I was not aware that this had been found from the tribbles ep:
I checked the current sci-fi page for The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle and it is not listed. Must be the family took it back. I can not make out the name. All I can read on that is Family Collection.
Thank you. That lead me to this:
The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation holds his extensive collection of science fiction memorabilia, which includes significant Star Trek items like Captain Kirk's command chair, a full-size model of the Starship Enterprise's bridge, an alien creature suit, and Nichelle Nichols' hand-annotated scripts , among thousands of other artifacts. These items are primarily held by the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle, which Paul Allen co-founded, and are sometimes loaned out to other museums and institutions.
So, it may very well be out on loan elsewhere at the moment.
From the pic, it could use a bit of restoration....most noticeable with the condition of the decals.
Has this been discussed? I was not aware that this had been found from the tribbles ep:
I checked the current sci-fi page for The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle and it is not listed. Must be the family took it back. I can not make out the name. All I can read on that is Family Collection.
It certainly wasn't on display the last time I was there. They had Leonard Nimoy's Spock uniform and a wall devoted to various phasers throughout the series when I was there. I might have overlooked some things, but I think I would have remembered the Enterprise and taken a picture of it.
As of 1975, when I bought my AMT Enterprise model kit, they had gone to the square box instead of the long box, but the kit was still molded in white and the end caps for the nacelles were still smooth, like this:
In December of 1979, I bought another kit. It was molded in light blue and the end caps were updated to include the rounded part in the centers.
I bought a third kit in 1986 and by then it was molded in gray.
In December of 1979, I bought another kit. It was molded in light blue and the end caps were updated to include the rounded part in the centers.
I bought a third kit in 1986 and by then it was molded in gray.
My in-universe ideas for the Galileo shuttlecrafts and timeline are below. Firstly, the Galileo NCC-1701/7 was lost only one time, during The Galileo Seven episode. At that time, it seemed that the Enterprise had only one other shuttlecraft on board, i.e. the Columbus. Later, a shuttlecraft was lost during The Doomsday Machine (perhaps the Columbus?) and I assume the Galileo was recovered in The Immunity Syndrome.
Evidence using original VFX and given Stardates (assuming 1000 Stardates = 1 solar Earth year):
Evidence using original VFX and given Stardates (assuming 1000 Stardates = 1 solar Earth year):
- Galileo lost in The Galileo Seven on Stardate 2823.8. Two Enterprise officers were killed in action.
- Galileo replaced. (Probably ~Stardate 2950 at Starbase 11 when the Enterprise pulled in for repairs after the ion storm).
- The new Galileo was used in Metamorphosis on Stardate 3219.8; Journey to Babel on Stardate 3842.3; and The Immunity Syndrome on Stardate 4307.1 when it was heavily damaged by the Space Ameba and assumed to be recovered.
- Shuttlecraft stolen from Starbase 4 by Lokai two weeks before Let That Be Your Last Battlefield on Stardate 5730.2. Happens to be the Enterprise's own Galileo (based on reuse of the canned VFX). (Enterprise was in the vicinity of Starbase 4 for the last 8 months, so, maybe the Galileo was sent to Starbase 4 for some reason like to ferry personnel or left here for repairs.)
- Galileo was rechristened as Galileo II. (Conveniently, this can occur on the three year anniversary, Stardate 5823.8, to commemorate the loss of the original Galileo and its two officers killed in action. Maybe the “II” is to honor the two officers lost.)
- Galileo II was last used in The Way To Eden on Stardate 5832.3.
Ohh... I just reviewed the transcript, and you're right -- they held onto the shuttle with a tractor beam, it survived the explosion, and Spock brought it back aboard. So it was explicitly recovered. I'd forgotten that and misremembered it as Spock getting beamed off the shuttle before it was destroyed.
I don't take stock shots like that literally, and they changed the registry of the shuttle in the TOS Remastered version.
That's a hell of a stretch.
Maybe a little sappy, but the timeline fits; and why else rename the shuttlecraft out of the blue three years after it was destroyed? It's nice to give it meaning and a backstory in my head-canon.
Maybe a little sappy, but the timeline fits; and why else rename the shuttlecraft out of the blue three years after it was destroyed? It's nice to give it meaning and a backstory in my head-canon.
I don't support inventing a nonsensical idea to "fix" some tiny production error. It doesn't make the universe more plausible, it makes it less plausible. Has anyone in history ever named something "II" as a way of honoring two people who died? Out of context, would you ever believe anyone would actually do that?
TOS was a work of dramatized fiction. It did its best to create the illusion of a consistent reality, but it was still an illusion, and of necessity an imperfect one. Sometimes it made mistakes. The best thing for the credibility of the universe is just to recognize the mistakes and not take them literally, not to call attention to them by trying to concoct convoluted, implausible explanations for them.
The Klingon cruiser is, perhaps, one of the most widely color-varied kits in the entire hobby. I have personally seen them in the following:
White
Black
Silver
Red
Orange
Green
Gray-Green
Gray
Light Blue
Silver-Blue
Dark Blue
Yellow
Tan
Brown
Light Gold
Dark Gold
Mine was Gray-Green.
100% this. When we make an in-universe justification, we "promote" the real-world problem to an in-universe problem — and it spreads.
The poster child for this, to me, is the Klingon "augment" hack. Once they contrived an excuse for why Klingons look different in universe, they threw open the floodgates to a hundred other questions. Okay then, how did Jadzia's pals get their ridges back? What caused Romulans (but not Vulcans) to develop forehead ridges by TNG time? Why did Andorian antennae used to look like silkworms and twitch all the time? What made them stop twitching, take on the shape of miniature planet killers, and spring deflector dishes on their ends? Why does Mr. Leslie look exactly like Mr. Connors... are they twins? Did he marry a woman from a culture where the man changes his surname? Was there an off-screen transporter accident or brain swap that never got resolved? Or are they triplets, since in one episode Spock calls him "Rand"? Why does Trelane's mom sound like Isis, who sounds like Mea 3, who sounds and looks exactly like Philana? And ... what in sto-vo-kor happened to Saavik's face??
Of course most of these questions and hypothetical answers are intentionally ridiculous. That's the point. We already knew why the Klingons looked different in the movies: it was all about a bigger budget and the desire to blow the audience's socks off. End of story. The reason the II on the Galileo monogram came along too late was probably as simple as nobody noticed earlier (or nobody thought we would notice later). Just like nobody noticed/cared/thought we would notice when dead redshirts like Leslie and Galloway showed up alive again.
Production errors, and in general production realities, are what they are. There's no benefit to "officializing" things that the writers and producers never would have deliberately written into canon. When the transporter split Kirk, it did not make the evil one occasionally "glitch" into a left-right mirror image of itself; the editor just flipped the frames for that one shot so his eyeline would make sense in the edit. And the one instance of an insignia mistake in The Omega Glory does not mean all starships (or even the Exeter) canonically have their own janky patches. These are just production limitations and mistakes, the same as when somebody wears the wrong rank braids. The same as when McCoy says "silicone" instead of silicon, or Kirk can't remember how to pronounce Benecia Colony, or the crew doesn't know what a shuttlecraft is in The Enemy Within.
A few of the many unfortunate production realities are worth a rationalization (and it sure is fun to think about them!), but most are not. IMO, YMMV, EIEIO.
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I mostly agree, but with one exception. If justifying an inconsistency or problem can inspire a story that's worthwhile in itself, as opposed to just being an attempt to handwave the inconsistency, then it's worth doing.
For instance: I've long hated "Miri," in large part because of the dumb story choice of establishing a mysterious exact duplicate of Earth and then never bothering to explore or explain the mystery after the teaser, giving away that it was just a lazy excuse to use the Culver City backlot as an alien planet. So I was content to ignore the episode, or at least to ignore that aspect of it. But when I was developing Department of Temporal Investigations: Forgotten History, I decided I wanted to do a parallel-timeline story, ideally one growing out of TOS, yet not about the Mirror Universe. And I remembered a handwave I'd thought of for "Miri" some years back, before I decided just to ignore it: that maybe Miri’s Earth had somehow crossed over from a parallel timeline. And that got me wondering how such a timeline would have developed without humanity to lay the groundwork for the Federation, and that was an intriguing enough idea that I was willing to overcome my distaste and acknowledge that "Miri" existed -- although I still kept it at arm's length and made no more references to it than I had to.
I never would've set out with the intention to write a novel justifying the huge plot hole in "Miri," since I didn't think the episode deserved the effort. But once I realized that explaining the plot hole could generate a different story that was worthwhile in itself, I went with it. Patching the hole was a means to a worthier end, not an end in itself.
Now, it's possible that the writers of "Affliction" and "Divergence" thought that acknowledging the existence of TOS-style ridgeless Klingons was just a means to the end of telling a worthwhile story, rather than the story being a means to the end of explaining the inconsistency. I don't know, though, and it's up to the individual to decide how worthwhile that story was.
Maybe Charlie X was in some way responsible for what happened on Miri's world. 
Great post. Is the ep where Kirk is supposedly exiting a lift but really coming out of the briefing room side door "Wink of An Eye"? Where Spock meets Kirk on the way to Environmental Engineering and does the cool phaser and communicator handoff?
I really doubt the bridge turbolift was moved around, mostly because the (vast?) majority of bridge scenes, excluding brief inserts like those showing Kirk/Spock/Scotty/Sulu/Uhura communicating with someone off the ship, involve someone entering or leaving. I bet that remained in place, and the cool TMOST pic supports that. I guess they had two in the corridor complex and at least one of them had wild walls.
I love the Burke chairs so much that I really hope they didn't drag them around the set. I like to think they had about 50 total and left them largely in place. I'd love any knowledge about that if anyone has some they want to drop.
I suspect the intercoms and rocker panels largely stayed in place too. (In the case of one panel showing up reversed as you mentioned, maybe they had just had to fix it or something and accidentally dropped it in backwards.) It's true that they could obviously move stuff—but in the case of "integrated" components, that seems like work better devoted elsewhere. Even if you're saving just a few minutes of time for one set dresser, that adds up.
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