Working on STTNG

According to the stage plans, the sickbay itself wasn't moved, but the windowed wall which it shared with the conference lounge was moved from Stage 9 to stage 8 (next to the bridge).

Links to stage plans:
Stage 9 season 1 plan with conference lounge walls in upper left
Stage 9 plan with conference lounge walls replaced by new sickbay walls
Stage 8 plan with permanent conference lounge in upper right

 

That carved off section of the ship from Q Who is absolutely adorable. Look at those tiny chairs!

But on the other hand, picturing myself sitting on those chairs only highlights how terrifying it must have been to be one of the 18 crew members seeing a gigantic green beam cut through the hull like paper and then get blown out into space.

 

No, the set was not moved to next to the bridge, a new set was BUILT next to the bridge! I have some photos of the sickbay, where you can see that they covered the plexi on the outside with paper, to make it look like a solid wall! That will come later.

Thanks for all the words of support, now for todays pictures. Here are some shots of the "emergency bridge", which was only seen once in this state. It was revamped for Data's trial. This is the only thing that was left of the STTMP bridge, by the way. The floors were the only thing that wasn't stripped down to nothing after this episode was over! I took a photo of the back side of this bridge, because it had one of the STTMP chairs sitting back there. I will display that later.....












Now, for my first "story" of working on STTNG, I thought that I would start with "Menage a Troi" situation, although by that time, I was no longer working for David. The last episode that I worked on was "Yesterday's Enterprise", but I made some metal bits that were part of the "Varon-T disruptor" that was seen in "The most toys" which was filmed before Meange a Troi, but aired after!

I had a friend "Edward", who worked with Majel, and had to go with her whenever she needed him. On this particular day, he had to be the person responsible for her black contact lenses. When I showed up at his office, he was WEARING THEM!!! He looked like some sort of vampire!

I told him that he should get them out of his eyes, before Majel saw them, but he said that she was not there, that she had gone ahead for wardrobe and makeup! So he drove us to the studio. His name was on the front gate listing, so we got to drive in and park on the "B" tank, that large painting of the cloudy sky that you see so often in shots of the studio, right next to the famous water tower.

We were informed at the "Star Trek" office that they were filming on stage 16, which was the "Planet stage", but they had extra room to put other sets, which included many Klingon prison sets for "Star Trek 6". When we arrived there, there was no red light showing, so we knew that they were not filming, but we opened the door slowly and silently, just in case. We went in, and they were still adjusting the lights. Majel and Marina were sitting off the set, wearing makeup bathrobes, and Majel yelled at Edward, wondering where the hell he had been, etc. I stayed back in the shadows, not wanting to get hit by shrapnel, or come into her firing range.Ed was told that there would still be about an hour or more before they started filming, so we took off to play around on the other TREK sets. It was very strange, because both stages 8 and 9 were totally empty, so we agreed that the rest of the cast must be doing some location filming, or simply had a day off!

After about 90 minutes, we went back into stage 16, careful to not slam the door or anything, and we were standing in the shadows, watching the crew behind the cameras. The odd thing that I noticed was that some of the crew, MOST of the crew were holding one hand up, as if blocking out the sun! It was at this point that I started to look back towards Edward, and he was just standing there, with a shocked look on his face. I followed his stare, and that's when I noticed that both Majel and Marina were totally NUDE! Now, I have heard stories where it's been told at conventions that they were NOT nude, kind of like the stories about the "Pyscho" shower scene, where she WAS nude also. But take it from me, there was not a stitch of anything. I had already seen Marina full frontal in "The Wicked Lady" so that was nothing new, but MAJEL???
OH



MY




GOD
I thought I was going blind! Hehehehehe

Just kidding, folks. Actually, for an older woman, Majel didn't have that bad of a body. Then it hit me, I knew what the crew was doing! They were holding their hands up to cover the sight of Majel, so they could look a Marina! I almost laughed out loud, but didn't want to have anyone look at me! Most of the crew were young dudes anyway, so what can I say?

I tapped Ed on the shoulder, and thumbed my hand back towards the door, and he nodded. We decided to go play on the bridge and come back in a couple of hours. I asked him why didn't he tell me that Majel and Marina were in a nude scene, and he said that Majel had not informed him!!!!


Such is life!

By the way, Edward informed me later that Majel had "Misplaced" her contact lenses that he loved so much, and I looked at him, and saw this look on his face, and a slight smile started to appear, and I knew that he had grabbed them. He later told me that they had become lost also, on one of his many moves from place to place, such is life!

And, a little side note for you people keeping track. On the episode where Picard meets up with his old girlfriend, played by Michelle from the "Mamas and the Papas", that was filmed on Stage 16! They had covered the "pit" with a wooden plywood floor, and had built the whole restaurant right there, and had a large white tarp on the back wall, where projected was a planet or moon, I don't remember, anyway the whole sky situation was actually there, not CGI later!

Just a little tidbit!

Greg Stone

 

Finally an explanation for an issue I had never understood.

A little while after I had visited the TNG studio sets in 1988 an ugly rumor was spread in German fandom that Paramount Pictures would no longer allow fans to visit the studio sets because Gene Roddenberry had supposedly felt annoyed that I presented to him my rationalization attempt for stardates (in case anyone is interested you'll find it here).

As a matter of fact I never saw Gene Roddenberry and the closest I got was Susan Sackett's door in that narrow corridor (but I left two copies of the theory at the Star Trek Art Department to which I had been invited. Too bad, Michael didn't read it, because I explicitly mentioned the 15 year time difference between "Space Seed" and TWOK).

Now, I understand why fans were no longer allowed to visit the studio sets, but apparently not because of me (What a relief! )

Other than that I must say that the pictures shown here are really great.
(The first thing I had to abandon at the studio gate was my camera)

Considering that we never got any book featuring the studio sets beyond some isolated pictures here or there, I can't be anything other than grateful, so please...carry on by all means if it's legal and not at the expense of other people or actors/actresses.

Bob

 

Isn't this the Ready Room from the battle bridge?

Also: didn't we see the battle bridge in this state in "Arsenal of Freedom"?

 

treknician, I hope you keep updating this thread until you're tired of telling stories. The anecdotes are great and I really like the way you write them.

 

Yes, this is the hallway leading to the ready room, you are correct. I will have to view that episode again to see, it is not one of my favs

Thanks, JD5000, I will!

GS

 

What a cute story about stealing.

 

I appreciate all the content you are willing to share, Greg. Not to mention the personal stories and encounters. TNG is legend now, so this kind of casual documentation of the glory years is very rewarding.

I've always wanted to see a detail of that piece carved out of the saucer from Q Who, even with the BR versions it doesn't show all the quality from that FX piece. I could never see enough of it... so that one is very, very awesome.

 

Fascinating stuff. Thanks.

 

Not to worry, Indysolo, Majel got another pair of lenses within a week! And Billcosby, I have a few more pictures of the core sample to post, so get ready, hehehehehe

You have to realize two things about that story, people.
One, this is a highly edited down version of the story as it appears in my book, and

two, if I did have any pictures of that day, and posted them here, I would get the BOOT!

GS

 

I said they moved the wall with the windows to Stage 8, not the whole set.

Season 1 sickbay ward (image) with some windows covered (link)

Replacement walls in ward post season 1 (link)

 

Here are two links for some work that I had been doing on Pinnacle, with the corridors and engineering room from TOS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oygpVUAgDM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTzkU6LHN5A

also there is a small Haunted Mansion video that I'm still working on that you can check out as well.


Let me know what you think.

Greg Stone

 

Oh for fuck's sake lighten up. He didn't steal anything, he said he figured Majel's assistant stole the black contacts.

 

No, and I'd guess that you and I aren't the only ones.