The TOS Recreation Room(s) Sets

[GSchnitzer]

Much like Will Smith ("Feek61") has done with Auxiliary Control (hi, Will!),I put together a little write up about the TOS "Recreation Room"--both the first and second season appearances of the redressed Briefing Room and the two appearances of the new third season Recreation Room set.

There's not much to say about the sets, actually, but folks are welcome to read a bit more.

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/?p=2825

Feedback is always welcome.

 

[Robert Comsol]

Great summary, beautifully illustrated.

Bob

 

[Irishman]

Really well-done article.

Bravo! As I read through it, I appreciated the concept art for the set you showed us. Little gems like that raise this article above many other fan attempts.

 

[alchemist]

I think it's excellent! Wonderful attention to detail.

 

[GSchnitzer]

I think it's excellent! Wonderful attention to detail.

Thanks! So much of the content was actually yours; I just regurgitated it, or, at best, put a slightly different spin on it.

Thank you for allowing me to grab those unused "Elaan of Troyius" shots. The whole article would have been just about pointless without them.

 

[feek61]

Great job Greg. As I'm sure you can imagine I really enjoyed the read (it's right up my ally)

 

[plynch]

. . . (it's right up my ally)

It sounds painful to be your friend.

 

[sbk1234]

Well done. After nearly 50 years, it's nice to still be able to learn something new about Star Trek.

 

[Mr_Homn]

can't wait to read this!

thanks

 

[Praetor Baldric]

Truly well-done!

 

[plynch]

That first rec room is SO stark I would rather not go there. Looks like the godforsaken break room of the supermarket I worked at in 1986. Bleak.

 

[GSchnitzer]

That first rec room is SO stark I would rather not go there. Looks like the godforsaken break room of the supermarket I worked at in 1986. Bleak.

Well, when screens were very small and black and white and there was lots of over-the-air transmission snow, making things fairly stark is understandable and appropriate, since details were going to get lost anyway. When transmission gets better and brighter and clearer and more colorful on larger screens, greater detail males more sense. And even more so in a large, digital, wide-screen, flat screen era

But yes, it was stark--just appropriately so.

 

[Warped9]

I like to think the ship had a number of recreation rooms or more accurately crew lounges as well as a main recreation room as seen in third season. Similar it's easy to believe the ship has more than one six-man transporter since we've seen the set dressed differently a number of times.

 

[GSchnitzer]

I like to think the ship had a number of recreation rooms or more accurately crew lounges as well as a main recreation room as seen in third season. Similar it's easy to believe the ship has more than one six-man transporter since we've seen the set dressed differently a number of times.

Yes, although I don't think the ship has, like, 30 different transporter rooms, and 5 different engineering rooms, three different briefing rooms, two different auxillary contol rooms, two different anti-grav/pressure chambers, and four different sickbays. It sounds like it migh become a ship that only has enough room for all the different permutations of every set we saw and no space left for all the stuff we didn't see.

I don't know if "crew lounge" actually is more accurate a term. I've never seen a script (or characters) call them that--only "Recreation Room."

 

[Robert Comsol]

I don't know if "crew lounge" actually is more accurate a term. I've never seen a script (or characters) call them that--only "Recreation Room."

Going by onscreen dialogue we do have the "Briefing Lounge" rec room in WNM (was the Briefing Lounge converted into a rec room but kept its original name?), a "Crewmen Lounge" Lokai and Bele passed between Deck 3 and Deck 5 in LB and a "Crew Lounge" where Kang and Klingon company waited for something to happen in DD.

Bob

 

[Robert Comsol]

Yes, although I don't think the ship has, like, 30 different transporter rooms, and 5 different engineering rooms, three different briefing rooms, two different auxillary contol rooms, two different anti-grav/pressure chambers, and four different sickbays. It sounds like it migh become a ship that only has enough room for all the different permutations of every set we saw and no space left for all the stuff we didn't see.

Arent't you feeling too pesimistic about that? Deck 5 does have plenty of space that still needs filling, not to mention the large Deck 6.

So is it you "don't think" or you "don't like"?

• considering the different variations of transporter rooms and their adjacent corridors (blue pressure door vs. red turbo lift door), we are looking at least at three different versions. The one from "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" is opposite "Briefing Room 2", the one from "This Side of Paradise" is opposite "Computer Statistics" and the one from "Elaan of Troyius" is opposite "Electrographic Analysis".
• The Season One engine room ("Engineering Control Room") differs noticably in many regards from the Season Two engine room ("Engineering Section"), e.g. height, alignment with the central ship's axis, outside corridors etc. In "The Naked Time" Scotty makes a ship wide call, apparently from the ECR, addressing "engine rooms" thus there are at least two or possibly three.
• assuming the "conference lounge" seen in WNM was actually Briefing Room 1 (removed along with Main Deck 2 prior to "The Corbomite Maneuver"), Briefing Room 2 moved up in rank and substituted for Briefing Room 1. I'm not aware of a "Briefing Room 3" door sign
• I only see one Auxiliary Control Room. Life Support Control ("By Any Other Name") featured a different position of the master control table and had two features on the wall ACR did not have (in "I, Mudd")
• The hyperbaric chambers suggest two different locations. The one from "Space Seed" "faces" the door of the Season One engine room, the one from "The Lights of Zetar" faces the briefing room.
• The "astro-medicine ward 4" door sign made its first appearance in WNM, the second pilot. Apparently there have to be at least four medical wards.
• And last but not least we have at least six recreation rooms judging by the door sign "Recreation Room 6". According to "Mark of Gideon" RR 6 is at a strange corridor intersection (my guess: Deck 4) where there's an "environmental ladder" on the mirrored side, too. This one is different from RR6 in "Let That Be..." where Spock listened to Lokai's speech though he open door. I presume this one to be near ACR ("And the Children...") and in the engineering hull as I don't believe myself that each deck has 6 rec rooms (just for the fun, I'd like to see all of these visualized on Deck 3... )

Bob

 

[plynch]

Yes, although I don't think the ship has, like, 30 different transporter rooms, and 5 different engineering rooms, three different briefing rooms, two different auxillary contol rooms, two different anti-grav/pressure chambers, and four different sickbays. It sounds like it migh become a ship that only has enough room for all the different permutations of every set we saw and no space left for all the stuff we didn't see.

Arent't you feeling too pesimistic about that? Deck 5 does have plenty of space that still needs filling, not to mention the large Deck 6.

So is it you "don't think" or you "don't like"?

• considering the different variations of transporter rooms and their adjacent corridors (blue pressure door vs. red turbo lift door), we are looking at least at three different versions. The one from "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" is opposite "Briefing Room 2", the one from "This Side of Paradise" is opposite "Computer Statistics" and the one from "Elaan of Troyius" is opposite "Electrographic Analysis".
• The Season One engine room ("Engineering Control Room") differs noticably in many regards from the Season Two engine room ("Engineering Section"), e.g. height, alignment with the central ship's axis, outside corridors etc. In "The Naked Time" Scotty makes a ship wide call, apparently from the ECR, addressing "engine rooms" thus there are at least two or possibly three.
• assuming the "conference lounge" seen in WNM was actually Briefing Room 1 (removed along with Main Deck 2 prior to "The Corbomite Maneuver"), Briefing Room 2 moved up in rank and substituted for Briefing Room 1. I'm not aware of a "Briefing Room 3" door sign
• I only see one Auxiliary Control Room. Life Support Control ("By Any Other Name") featured a different position of the master control table and had two features on the wall ACR did not have (in "I, Mudd")
• The hyperbaric chambers suggest two different locations. The one from "Space Seed" "faces" the door of the Season One engine room, the one from "The Lights of Zetar" faces the briefing room.
• The "astro-medicine ward 4" door sign made its first appearance in WNM, the second pilot. Apparently there have to be at least four medical wards.
• And last but not least we have at least six recreation rooms judging by the door sign "Recreation Room 6". According to "Mark of Gideon" RR 6 is at a strange corridor intersection (my guess: Deck 4) where there's an "environmental ladder" on the mirrored side, too. This one is different from RR6 in "Let That Be..." where Spock listened to Lokai's speech though he open door. I presume this one to be near ACR ("And the Children...") and in the engineering hull as I don't believe myself that each deck has 6 rec rooms (just for the fun, I'd like to see all of these visualized on Deck 3... )

Bob

You've watched a bit of Star Trek in your time!

 

[Robert Comsol]

You've watched a bit of Star Trek in your time!

I did back in the '70s and '80s, but my current project to reproduce onscreen accurate deck plans has given me a great opportunity to rediscover TOS and the glory of all its little details.

OT: There is a growing suspicion I can't get out of my system.

Looking at your comments and those of other TOS old-timers it almost seems to me that we prefer our lady to look nicely dressed with interiors that do not feel sterile but inviting so that we could picture ourselves taking an adventure cruise with her to explore the wonders of space.

In contrast there seems to be another faction that prefers the ship to be armed to the teeth with all kinds of weaponry, prefers a sterile look more reminiscent of a submarine and tries to rationalize exterior windows away on behalf of sensors and the like.

I don't think the latter one is anything Gene Roddenberry or Matt Jefferies ever had in mind...

Bob

 

[plynch]

I definitely prefer the rarely-used S3 rec dec as an inviting place rather than the bleak room with bare tables. I always thought people's quarters always look too neat and not lived in. I suppose they're military folks and it has to be ship shape. (Though the Coast Boat I toured was a pit inside.)

 

[Robert Comsol]

I always thought people's quarters always look too neat and not loved in. I suppose they're military filks and it has to be ship shape.

In the "Space Art in TOS" thread GSchnitzer provided some original interviews, according to which Gene Roddenberry himself felt the cabins to be too sterile which is why they bought these (lost ) space art paintings by Mike Minor to add some color and warmth.

It would have been nice to see more cabins in a fashion similar to Spock's in "Amok Time" and later.

Bob