Star Trek Phase II: Origins
- Thread starter S'kai
- Start date
Not to hijack the thread about the "Origins" cadet/midshipman costumes, but here's a little history about the "No Smoking" sign we have in our transporter room:
There were no "No Smoking" signs in The Original Series--neither on the bridge nor in the transporter room. The first appearance of a "No Smoking" sign (and fire extinguishers) is in the second Star Trek movie The Wrath of Khan. Director Nicholas Meyer wanted to add a few touches that make the Star Trek universe and the people in it seem a little more real and a little more "like us" and not quite so idealized people of the future. In an interview, Meyer said:
"One of the reasons I did this picture was to make the people real. That's all that interests me. Why can't Captain Kirk read a book? Why can't he do anything that we do? One of the things I had to back off on was having him smoke. There's a sign in the simulator that says "No Smoking on the Bridge." Somebody said they're not going to smoke in the 23rd Century. I said "Why Not?" They've been smoking for four hundred years. People haven't given it up despite the Surgeon General's warning. Why can't they drink a cup of coffee? I kept thinking that the bridge was like the bridge of a destroyer with fog around and guys in pea jackets coming up with coffee."
Indeed, the "No Smoking Anytime on Bridge" signage can be seen adjacent to each of the two turbolifts in the bridge simulator:
Here it is next to the port turbolift (with a fire extinguisher on the other side of the door).
And the starboard turbolift has the same signage:
You can read it a bit better here:
Of course, this same set had to be used as the bridge simulator *and* the Enterprise bridge *and* the Reliant bridge--so they had to make some changes each time it was redressed. Even the red fire extinguishers from the simulator were swapped out with silver colored ones for the "actual" bridge in order to make the sets look different. The "No Smoking" signage appears only in the simulator, not on the Enterprise bridge itself and not on the Reliant bridge. Here's a shot of the Enterprise bridge:
...and a shot of the Reliant bridge:
You can see that the signage isn't present in The Motion Picture at either turbolift:
And they aren't present on the bridge in The Search for Spock (and the fire extinguishers are gone, too):
So, where do we start seeing the "No Smoking" sign in the transporter room? Well, it's not in The Motion Picture (since the signs started with director Nick Meyer in the second movie). Here are some shots of the transporter room from TMP--with no "No Smoking" sign in sight:
Some signage does appear in the transporter room in The Wrath of Khan. But this "Caution" sign has just two rules on it--"Place feet in center of pad" and "Keep extremities within transporter field." (The word "Caution" is on the left and these two safety rules are one above the other over on the right.) But the sign doesn't have "Rule No. 1: No smoking." You can see the signs on both the left and right side of the transporter chamber on the Regula Lab space station:
...and in the transporter room of the Enterprise itself:
The "Caution/No Smoking" sign finally shows up in The Search For Spock. Two of them are in the transporter room at the Starbase (on either side of the transporter chamber). The word "Caution" is on top and the three safety rules are below it:
...and one of them is in the hallway outside the Starbase transporter room:
And then finally, the "Caution/No Smoking" sign appears in the Enterprise transporter room itself a bit later in the movie--as the Klingons beam aboard the soon-to-be destroyed Enterprise:
We get a good look at the sign in the wraparound documentary that was shot when "The Cage" was first aired for Trek's 20th anniversary in 1986:
So, that's the deal on the "No Smoking" sign. Its one and only canon appearance on the Enterprise is in The Search for Spock.
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Oh boy, now I remember why I took up running.
That reminds me of a skit idea we had when everything Picard says happens literally, except that Q prevents him from saying "Make it so!" We had "Make it sew," "Make it snow" and others like "Make it glow." Just an idea we tossed around.
I think the jacket looks more appropriate without epaulettes than it would with - that guy in "The Cage" may have had them, but for the most part that's the kind of detailing that other designers started adding to uniforms designed for the movies. Original TV series uniforms tended toward simplicity of detail.
I think for the most part, art design for television shows that reduces images to a small fraction of their original size on a little screen with a corresponding loss of detail requires one type of design aesthetic, while art design for a motion picture that enlarges images to greater than life size on a large silver screen probably requires a different design aesthetic. Although epaulettes were a TMP thing (except for where they were used in "The Cage"), it's not immediately obvious to me what artistic design approach should be used when the images will be just about life size on an HD monitor, shot with HD cameras with incredible detail. I think 21st century HD art design probably requires a bit more detail than was used in 1969 (but without becoming distracting)--but we'll probably grab some footage and do some screen tests in situ before we decide.
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The difference between HD and SD in terms of costuming is mitigated somewhat by the fact that you're adding little or no new detailing to standard duty uniforms and other costumes that are faithfully recreated from TOS, though. The new designs exist within an already-defined environment and context.
I think this very notion is one of the things that drove us to change the focus of our series somewhat from a slavish devotion to TOS "New Voyages" to a taking some liberties "Phase II." I think we have felt a bit liberated by the notion that we can change with the times somewhat. For Theiss designs that we are already "locked into," we try to stay faithful; for designs that we get to create on our own, we actually push the art design envelope a bit rather than *just* faithful to TOS. Also, we do have some motivation to work towards integrating the already-defined environment and context of TMP. So we need to be faithful to what comes "after" us, not just what came before us.
For what it's worth, our sets also exist in an already-defined environment and context, yet we've replaced all our winky blinky bridge displays with flat screen monitors--including some high def overhead monitors. The faithful recreation of the bridge set just wasn't cutting it under our HD cameras. So we can and do upgrade and push the art design envelop for our HD cameras when we find that it makes sense to do so.
Little? I was just asking how long it had been on your show and/or trying to be funny in the process.
There are too many dirty jokes that could be told about item #3.
Little? I was just asking how long it had been on your show and/or trying to be funny in the process.
There are too many dirty jokes that could be told about item #3.
Sorry if the post was overkill. I had that little write-up already done from months ago. It was easier to just grab it and re-post it in its entirety than to try and edit it down. (And it is moderately interesting anyway.)
The more specific answer to your question is that we've had that sign on our transporter room set starting with our very first New Voyages/Phase II episode "Come What May."
I just want to know what the next new name for the production will be, so I can keep ahead of the curve.
No, no, no. Like most of our production decisions, any name change would probably be done completely impulsively with little to no advance warning. Ahead of the curve? It's nothing *but* curves--like a merry-go-round. A constant, relentless merry-go-round.
Great nod to the DC Comics' Series 2 Kirk's Academy Days. 
Great nod to the DC Comics' Series 2 Kirk's Academy Days.
That's right! The "Origins" jacket does have a bit of similarity with the pullover that Kirk and company wore.
That's a great issue, drawn by James W. Fry (not the Oprah-reemed author) and Curt Swan, both of whom are inked by the incredible Arne Starr. Oh, and, of course, it's written by Peter David.
As long as they don't take the Frontier Guard take on Cadets in Space. "Look there's James T. Kirk, let him do anything that he wants like stealing starships, disrespecting superior officers, and disobey orders on a whim."
That's right, its a privilege, not a right. Dang too many rights in a sentence.
Starfleet cadets should be sporting Starfleet insignia, not Enterprise insignia, so my vote is for the starburst pin.
Unless, there's going to be a story point about cadets, as part of the familiarization training, being divided up into various dorms, identified as various "ships", like the various houses of a British boarding school (think Griffindor, Slytherin, etc.), and Kirk just happens to be assigned to the Enterprise dorm. THEN you'd have an in-universe, within canon, excuse for using that Enterprise insignia, so long as other cadets are shown with equally distinctive pins representing insignia for other ships, like the Exeter and the Constellation.
Unless, there's going to be a story point about cadets, as part of the familiarization training, being divided up into various dorms, identified as various "ships", like the various houses of a British boarding school (think Griffindor, Slytherin, etc.), and Kirk just happens to be assigned to the Enterprise dorm. THEN you'd have an in-universe, within canon, excuse for using that Enterprise insignia, so long as other cadets are shown with equally distinctive pins representing insignia for other ships, like the Exeter and the Constellation.
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