Worked the last couple of nights on nailing down the shape of the helm, then today I started detailing the astrogator. The details on the aft end of the astrogator were thankfully shown up-close on one of the docs with the DVD/Blu-Ray. Although I'm not a super big fan of the placard on the end there, it is nonetheless accurate to the set. Not sure what that silver knob thingy is for, so I decided to slap "Emergency Override" above it, since it's been reported that many operators had trouble finding the override on past iterations of Starfleet helm consoles. "Where's the override? THE OVERRIDE?" it was reported was often said frantically when looking for it in the heat of battle I surmise it also may double as antique dashboard cigarette lighter
I think Nick Meyer or Mike Okuda mentioned the silver knob thingie was supposed to be a gag ignition key to start the ship.
The closest you see it is a glimpse under Valeris's hand when she's flipping all the switches in Spacedock. It looks to me like there's a slot in the top of it, though in HD (this is the old blu-ray, not the new release, so beware of DNR) it's clear it isn't aligned like a keyhole. And I never noticed the mushroom-knob shape of it, I always figured it looked like this or this from the glimpse and the bit in the text commentary about the ignition, but I don't know if "motorcycle ignition" is something I picked up somewhere specific to this set, or if I had an idea what the part could look like from somewhere else and put two and two together. EDIT: I just realized, they haven't released the 4K remaster of TUC yet (heck, with the shipping delays, they've barely released the first four movie remasters), so that caveat was unnecessary unless someone is rereading this thread in the future.
I just talked to Mike a few minutes ago. He confirmed it was indeed a key ignition, but he doesn’t recall if it was meant to be a joke, suggesting it may have been an intentional in-universe addition to the console. He also is pretty sure it didn’t say “emergency override” but can’t recall what it said there either.
Perhaps just a way to lock out the helm from intruders. No key, no access to the helm. Or perhaps the entire bridge. Sure, it’s archaic but effective.
Seems a bit too easy to knock out the bridge controls too. A bad hit, flying person grabbing onto parts of the helm and whoops - bridge shutdown. I like the joystick idea more
Could work on a proximity sensor, tied into the security device on the back of the shoulder strap, which is why Khan's guys have those uniform jackets draped over their chairs.
Considering that the metallic knob is most likely a key ignition cylinder of some sort, and Mike's word that there was even a small key inserted, I've now noticed this detail I hadn't before: There appears to be four lines of text next to the knob, perhaps indicating positions the knob can be turned to once the key is inserted, similar to the four positions you can turn a modern day car's ignition to (LOCK (or OFF), ACC, ON, START).
I've decided to lean into what Mike told me today very literally, instead of trying to further speculate about the silver knob on the set of astrogator controls. I've also added a second key slot above the first, as I noticed today in the shot below that there's an additional obscure object on the panel above the knob. Whether each of you want to interpret this as an in-joke or an in-universe bit of trivia that there was indeed a need for a physical key to lock/unlock the helm of the TUC Enterprise-A is up to you. But since I have it from someone who worked on the set that there was key slot there, this particular interpretation stands in my project until the day that more concrete evidence comes to light.
Valeris hot-wired the ignition on the Enterprise since there is no key in the ignition switch. Surely that has gotta be a big red flag that she's the mole