Best and Worst Standing Sets in Sci-Fi TV

[Starkers]

Given it's relative budget it's pretty darn good though...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The orbital space station interior in 2001 uses the curved corridor design.

And was actually built that way - the centrifuge was real, all the way around.

 

[bullethead]

I always thought that the sets for seaQuest were very good. Compared to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the seaQuest felt more like a sub than the SeaView. I think that the only really great set on that show was the control room (and that was a left over from the movie).

Yeah, SeaQuest had some great looking sets. But they were pretty silly in terms of design. Half the reason I'd like to see a movie version of Startide Rising is to see the concept of water areas of a ship done with more focus and thought than on SeaQuest.

Yeah, seaQuest's sets were pretty good, although some areas looked a lot more plasticy than others (the docking area in the sphere and the captain's quarters had really doors that were obviously spray painted silver). That one corridor set with all the pipes and valves really sold it as submarine, since that's the kind of thing you'd see in a real sub. The only complaint I have with the sets is that the season 2/3 bridge is way more dynamic than the season 1 bridge, which is actually the one that's more practical (since the captain gets a good view of everything).

Out of all the Trek series, I would have to say that Enterprise had the best sets. I don't think any Trek series went to the lenghts Enterprise did to match interiors and exteriors. The bridge was beautiful and fit pretty much perfectly into the CGI model of the ship. The Corridors, Launch Bay, Engineering, even the Crew Quarters were all very well designed and matched the look of the NX-01 to a tee. Say what you will about the show, but the production team knew what they were doing.

That's what you get when you have a team of pros with years of experience under their belt design and build your sets. Honestly, all the interior stuff makes you forget the fact that the ship resembles an Akira because the suits thought no one would notice a blatant reuse of a ship that featured in the best TNG movie and the Dominion War battles. They really nailed the feel of a pre-TOS ship with the Enterprise sets. Doug Drexler's blog has tons of pics of the various ENT sets and you really get a feel for all the work they put into them.

 

[Sindatur]

Given it's relative budget it's pretty darn good though...

Absolutely it was really good for the money they had (As well as the Classic Doctor Who Console Rooms)

Heh, Relative Budget - That's when all the relatives kick in a Pound or two and you call it the budget, right

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Seaquest had great sets, true. Blake's 7 - terrible. Enterprise had the second-best Trek sets, next to the original series.

 

[backstept]

the worst I've seen are the sets from Starhunter

my pick for best would have to be the CIC from Battlestar Galactica . . . scratch that, all the standing sets from Battlestar Galactica were fantastic

 

[cylkoth]

I believe that you are referring to SB2 and 3 when you reference the interior side of the door.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:GalaxyShuttlebay.jpg

Thanks for the links. But for this screencap, the question screams...

Where does that tractor beam come from??!

With the Liberator from Blake's 7 mentioned, and the relative budget the show had for it's time, I guess I'll throw in Filmation's Space Academy too. They did a very nice job creating their main sets.

As for worst sets, as low as the budget for Starhunter was, Starlost beats it by a parsec.

 

[bullethead]

I think Space Mutiny set the bar way lower than that.

 

[mswood]

Out of all the Trek series, I would have to say that Enterprise had the best sets. I don't think any Trek series went to the lenghts Enterprise did to match interiors and exteriors. The bridge was beautiful and fit pretty much perfectly into the CGI model of the ship. The Corridors, Launch Bay, Engineering, even the Crew Quarters were all very well designed and matched the look of the NX-01 to a tee. Say what you will about the show, but the production team knew what they were doing.

Not my favorite Trek, but the best designed Trek for interiors in my opinion. I love the design work on ENT.

Probably my favorite for SCifi overall.

 

[Gepard]

The orbital space station interior in 2001 uses the curved corridor design.

And was actually built that way - the centrifuge was real, all the way around.

The space station? Surely you must be thinking of the Discovery's centrifuge, as the space station would have had a diameter of 560 meters if it were real.

And the Zocalo was a pretty good set, a nice attempt to replicate the curve of a rotating habitat, something that's rarely been attempted in SF film and TV (the centrifuge in 2001 is the only other example I can think of)

And the Mars II centrifuge set for the movie Mission to Mars, which if I'm remembering my DVD extras properly was inspired directly by the 2001 example.

 

[sojourner]

I thought Oscar Goldman's office was a masterpiece. It was the epitome of a middle government bureaucratic office.

 

[scotpens]

. . . The Jupiter II interiors never impressed me, though - and looking at them for reference a great deal back in 2007-2008 they just struck me (as with so much else on the show) as being TV-budget knock-offs of the C57-D.

Complete with a smaller and much simplified version of the C-57D’s bubble-topped astrogation device. And a robot that looked like Robby’s poor relation (designed by the same guy, Robert Kinoshita, as we geeks all know. )

 

[Starkers]

Seaquest had great sets, true. Blake's 7 - terrible. Enterprise had the second-best Trek sets, next to the original series.

I'd give you Scorpio's being pretty dire, but I still think the Liberator is impressive given the show's budget. It's huge, has designated areas and clear corridors leading off the flight deck. In terms of scale it's not what you'd expect from a cheaply made British sci-fi show.

 

[C_Miller]

Definitely the entirety of Deep Space Nine. It was alien and different enough from a regular Starfleet, but still functional. It definitely seemed very utilitarian, which fit the culture. And of course the Promenade felt like it was the crossroad of the galaxy.

Serenity from Firefly was also great. Anther very believable set and I think that if we ever create space ships with artificial gravity, the insides would probably look something similar to that. It just seemed very functional and spartan. If we ever do get to that point, we're going to be a long way off from the Enterprise (even the one from Enterprise).

And I love all the sets from X-Files, like Mulder's apartment, Skinner's Office and of course Mulder's Office. They're not especially "good" but there's something familiar about them, which I love.

 

[Ian Keldon]

I always thought that the sets for seaQuest were very good. Compared to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the seaQuest felt more like a sub than the SeaView. I think that the only really great set on that show was the control room (and that was a left over from the movie).

Which is odd, because many if not most of the Seaview sets (quarters, Bridge, corridors, etc) were pretty much copies of basic real Navy interior design.

 

[Ian Keldon]

Yeah, SeaQuest had some great looking sets. But they were pretty silly in terms of design. Half the reason I'd like to see a movie version of Startide Rising is to see the concept of water areas of a ship done with more focus and thought than on SeaQuest.

Odd notion, given that the designer was very much mindful of real life aquanautical considerations and tried to speak to them whenever and wherever possible.

A good example is the clamshell doors at the two bridge entrances.

Each "bulge" in the hull was a separate pressure sphere. In particularly deep dives, the idea was that the sphere's would seal up, and the connecting passages would be flooded to help the ship withstand the immense deep sea pressures it would encounter.

Thanks for the links. But for this screencap, the question screams...

Where does that tractor beam come from??!

Based on the location, I would posit the best place to put it would be a spot directly above that shuttlebay's door on the outer hull.

 

[bullethead]

Each "bulge" in the hull was a separate pressure sphere. In particularly deep dives, the idea was that the sphere's would seal up, and the connecting passages would be flooded to help the ship withstand the immense deep sea pressures it would encounter.

You can see that in these blueprints made for an aborted tech manual:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/modern_fred/2227858301/

Here's a blueprint of the season 1 bridge too. It's unlabelled, sadly, but it's a thousand times better than the one sketch of the season 2 bridge I've found:

 

[DarthTom]

One of the worst sets in my opinion were the one's designed for Star Trek Nemesis. The deep cavernous interior sets for the fight between Riker and the Reman Viceroy were utterly ridiculous wouldn't be a plausible design as part of a starship.

 

[MacLeod]

What could be even more ridiculous is that if Riker had said something like. "Computer, Lights" the Remen's could have been blinded given that race seems to prefer low light levels.

 

[Kelthaz]

I have to agree with Atlantis and I think that's one of the major reasons I never liked the show as much as SG-1. Stargate Command felt like home, while Atlantis was nothing more than a bunch of rooms without character. Sets don't have to be expensive or technically impressive; they just need to be homely.

My favourite sets:

Sunnydale Library (Buffy)
Hyperion Hotel (Angel)
Stargate Command (SG-1)
Enterprise-D
Voyager


Worst sets (aka. the ones that didn't feel like home):

Enterprise (Enterprise)
The Magic Box (Buffy)
Wolfram & Hart (Angel)
Deep Space Nine
Enterprise-E
The Hub (Torchwood)