Best and Worst Standing Sets in Sci-Fi TV

[Gotham Central]

One of the things that I have always appreciated about sci-fi TV is that for most shows, quite a bit of time and energy has to be spent on developing the standing sets. Unlike your typical police procedural or family drama, the standing sets in scifi are critical since they help to create an immersive environment. The sets usually have to be believable if we are to accept that the stories are taking place in these far off exotic locales.

Some shows pull this off better than others.

For instance, most of the Trek shows usually had outstanding a believable set designs. When you saw the shows you could actually believe that those people were on a spaceship or space station. Even better was the fact that, with the exception of TNG, the sets usually matched the miniatures perfectly.

A show with bad set design was Babylon 5. I love the show, but the sets left much to be desired. It was clear that the budget was well below what was needed to really bring JMS' vision to life. The CGI space shots were revolutionary for their time, but the sets felt cheap and never really matched the scope that the stories required.

Stargate Atlantis was another show where the sets seemed to fall far short of what was needed. In this case, for me, it ws less about lacking money, and more about poorly conceived sets that did not really convey the idea that Atlantis was a "city." Watching characters spend all their time in windowless rooms and wandering in narrow windowless halls makes sense on a show with a traditional spaceship (like SGU). Atlantis was supposed to be a city. It needed more "public" spaces or some form of "street" level.

TNG also seemed to have some set problems. Most of the sets were fine. However, the show did seem to struggle to match the sloping curves and graceful lines of the Enterprise model. In much the same way that the first shuttle mockup could not match the miniature, some of the standing sets could not match the curve of the ship. For instance, Picard's Ready Room is odd in that it has a perfectly vertical exterior wall. Yet that is not found anywhere on the ship. The same is true of the shuttle and cargo bays. Equally, the gentle slope of the saucer means that all of the windows in the senior officer's quarters should probably be on the ceiling (Voyager managed to fix this problem by having special windows that did not match the slope of the ship).

 

[Mr Light]

Deep Space Nine's vast Promenade set was extremely impressive.

I had no problem with the B5 sets, I thought they looked very look and really conveyed the sense of a huge station particularly given their budget limitations.

 

[Caliburn24]

I think Firefly probably had the finest standing sets of any sci-fi show in recent memory. They did a good job of establishing the geography of Serenity and letting the audience know(even if we never focused consciously on it) of how to get from room to room and how they related to each other. Except for the engine room, that bit always seemed separate from the rest of the ship. I was never quite sure how they got back there.

Some Treks and other shows had better looking sets on a purely aesthetic level, but nothing approaching the fully developed geography(and thus to me realism) that Serenity had.

 

[Kelso]

Stargate Atlantis was another show where the sets seemed to fall far short of what was needed. In this case, for me, it ws less about lacking money, and more about poorly conceived sets that did not really convey the idea that Atlantis was a "city." Watching characters spend all their time in windowless rooms and wandering in narrow windowless halls makes sense on a show with a traditional spaceship (like SGU). Atlantis was supposed to be a city. It needed more "public" spaces or some form of "street" level.

I disagree. I think the Atlantis sets were fab. While larger courtyard areas would have been nice to see, they weren't really needed. Atlantis was a space flying city-ship, it wouldn't have made a lot of sense to have outdoor areas.

I think Firefly probably had the finest standing sets of any sci-fi show in recent memory. They did a good job of establishing the geography of Serenity and letting the audience know(even if we never focused consciously on it) of how to get from room to room and how they related to each other. Except for the engine room, that bit always seemed separate from the rest of the ship. I was never quite sure how they got back there.

You go through the dining room and continue down the corridor, IIRC.

 

[cylkoth]

Stargate Atlantis was another show where the sets seemed to fall far short of what was needed. In this case, for me, it ws less about lacking money, and more about poorly conceived sets that did not really convey the idea that Atlantis was a "city." Watching characters spend all their time in windowless rooms and wandering in narrow windowless halls makes sense on a show with a traditional spaceship (like SGU). Atlantis was supposed to be a city. It needed more "public" spaces or some form of "street" level.

I disagree. I think the Atlantis sets were fab. While larger courtyard areas would have been nice to see, they weren't really needed. Atlantis was a space flying city-ship, it wouldn't have made a lot of sense to have outdoor areas.

While the show never really delved into the city's history as much as I'd liked, Atlantis was built on Earth-and that's where it remained for (undefined) thousands of years before the exodus to Pegasus. So the windowless corridors and rooms did seem odd and confining. Ideally, it should've been a city that was turned into a ship-the foundation transformed techno-magically into the stardrive platform. Outdoor areas-nay, each building, would have it's own force field generators or at the very least, shutters...the insanely huge force dome was just too wasteful, even if power were not an issue with the elusive ZPM factory down the road on the west pier.

The recent BBC series Outcasts, presented a very nicely designed colony, both in it's interiors and exteriors. Better realized than the bigger budget Terra Nova.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

B5's sets struck me as servicable. Crusade's were pretty limited.

 

[MacLeod]

Stargate Atlantis was another show where the sets seemed to fall far short of what was needed. In this case, for me, it ws less about lacking money, and more about poorly conceived sets that did not really convey the idea that Atlantis was a "city." Watching characters spend all their time in windowless rooms and wandering in narrow windowless halls makes sense on a show with a traditional spaceship (like SGU). Atlantis was supposed to be a city. It needed more "public" spaces or some form of "street" level.

I disagree. I think the Atlantis sets were fab. While larger courtyard areas would have been nice to see, they weren't really needed. Atlantis was a space flying city-ship, it wouldn't have made a lot of sense to have outdoor areas.

While the show never really delved into the city's history as much as I'd liked, Atlantis was built on Earth-and that's where it remained for (undefined) thousands of years before the exodus to Pegasus. So the windowless corridors and rooms did seem odd and confining. Ideally, it should've been a city that was turned into a ship-the foundation transformed techno-magically into the stardrive platform. Outdoor areas-nay, each building, would have it's own force field generators or at the very least, shutters...the insanely huge force dome was just too wasteful, even if power were not an issue with the elusive ZPM factory down the road on the west pier.

The recent BBC series Outcasts, presented a very nicely designed colony, both in it's interiors and exteriors. Better realized than the bigger budget Terra Nova.

I don't recall it being mentioned that Atlantis was built on Earth just that it was on Earth before it left for Pegasus. It was inferred though that Earth served as the capital world for the Ancients. Though when it left Earth is was a bit cool on the outside.

 

[Christopher]

Deep Space Nine's vast Promenade set was extremely impressive.

I agree -- that was my first thought for "best standing set." It was an extraordinarily vast and complex creation, and it cost 2 million dollars to build it (more than a whole typical episode cost).

But we should definitely give credit to the longest-lived standing sets in SFTV and film, the starship sets that were built for the Enterprise in the abortive Star Trek Phase II TV revival in 1978, then reworked into the sets for Star Trek: The Motion Picture and its sequels, then reworked again into the main ship sets for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager. The interiors of the sets were reworked heavily from one production to the next (though the corridors remained largely the same), but the superstructure of those sets remained standing for 23 years, which has got to be a record.

http://pat.suwalski.net/film/st-stages/stage9.php


I also agree that the Serenity sets for Firefly and the reconstruction thereof in the film Serenity were exceptionally good, though I think I prefer the series version. I think the Dollhouse complex from Whedon's Dollhouse was also a superb standing set, very elaborate, beautiful, and functional.


I second the criticisms of the Atlantis sets; I agree that they never really made Atlantis feel like the city it was supposed to be. They had the occasional balcony and window, but it would've been nice to see an "exterior" set that could be dressed to represent the various streets or plazas of the city. (Yes, it was a city that could fly in space, but only when encased in a forcefield bubble. So I don't buy the argument that it all had to be kept indoors.)

On the other hand, the SGC complex from Stargate SG-1 was a superb bit of set design and construction, this amazing 3-story complex with all these different rooms and halls that were actually interconnected the way they were supposed to be onscreen, at least where the Gate Room and the main sets abutting it were concerned. I love sets like that, where the different rooms and corridors are connected the way they're really supposed to be in fiction rather than being in different stages or whatever, and where a camera can actually follow characters through the whole complex of sets without needing editing tricks. (The Serenity sets were like that, although in the movie's introductory master take, they had to use one bit of trickery to mask the transition between the separate "upstairs" and "downstairs" sets.) Outside of SFTV, I always admired the sets for the sitcom Night Court, which had that kind of authentic interconnectedness (and which were apparently an accurate recreation of the New York City Criminal Courts Building).

As for Babylon 5's sets, I agree they were mostly rather bland, but I did respect the economy of the design, the way just one or two sets could be redressed to represent nearly any space on the station aside from C&C or the Zocalo. 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).

Otherwise, I'm not having much luck thinking of a "worst." The good sets stand out, the poor ones not so much. The Command Center from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was pretty crummy, but maybe that's too easy a target. Although it was bad even compared to later sets in the same franchise.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

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

 

[DarthTom]

TNG also seemed to have some set problems. Most of the sets were fine. However, the show did seem to struggle to match the sloping curves and graceful lines of the Enterprise model. In much the same way that the first shuttle mockup could not match the miniature, some of the standing sets could not match the curve of the ship. For instance, Picard's Ready Room is odd in that it has a perfectly vertical exterior wall. Yet that is not found anywhere on the ship. The same is true of the shuttle and cargo bays. Equally, the gentle slope of the saucer means that all of the windows in the senior officer's quarters should probably be on the ceiling (Voyager managed to fix this problem by having special windows that did not match the slope of the ship).

For it's time I think the original BSG series in the 1970's exceeded in terms of overall production quality anything that TNG had when you take into consideration when it was made.

As someone noted upthread, DS9 in Trek had IMO the overall best sets.

 

[cylkoth]

I don't recall it being mentioned that Atlantis was built on Earth just that it was on Earth before it left for Pegasus. It was inferred though that Earth served as the capital world for the Ancients. Though when it left Earth is was a bit cool on the outside.

You're right. It was never explicitly stated that Atlantis was built on Earth. The Ancients left their home galaxy, traveled for the typical 'unspecified long period of time' (tm), before arriving in the Milky Way, with Dakara being one of the first worlds they lived on before settling on Earth. Hence the assumption that the city was built there, as it was their capital afterwards.

For it's time I think the original BSG series in the 1970's exceeded in terms of overall production quality anything that TNG had when you take into consideration when it was made.

While the Galactica bridge was indeed a marvel, for me the rest of the sets seem pretty bland after the pilot.

And as impossible as it appears, we've yet to mention the often default champion of sci fi tv set design. Space 1999. The Eagle sets, travel tubes, and Alpha base control center still impress after 39 years.

 

[Takeru]

The Command Center from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was pretty crummy, ...

LOL, I love Power Rangers, but I think calling it crummy is one of the nicest way to describe the original command centre.

I think some of the later sets looked pretty good, they never compared to big budget shows but they weren't bad at all, I especially liked the clock tower from Time Force and ninja ops from Ninja Storm.

 

[davejames]

I'm still amazed at the style and artistry behind the original Trek sets. Especially when you compare with most other scifi shows (and even movies) of that time, where the ships and command centers consisted of little more than flat walls, random blinky lights, and spinning tape reels.

Even later shows in the 70s and 80s, like Space: 1999 or Buck Rogers, couldn't seem to do any better than that for some reason.

 

[Christopher]

For instance, Picard's Ready Room is odd in that it has a perfectly vertical exterior wall. Yet that is not found anywhere on the ship.

I forgot to mention this before, but the entire bridge/ready room/observation lounge complex does indeed match the exterior of the bridge module atop the saucer, since the sets and the miniature were designed to reflect each other. You can see a close-up of the module here:

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/galaxy-class-cruiser-sheet-8.jpg

The front of the ship is to the right, and the ready room is the upper bulge of the central structure, with the window being that little rectangular shape on the edge at about 11 o'clock.

The same is true of the shuttle and cargo bays. Equally, the gentle slope of the saucer means that all of the windows in the senior officer's quarters should probably be on the ceiling...

They pretty much were. The wall containing the windows is closer to horizontal than vertical. By my estimates, their slope is in the 20-25 degree range, which is a pretty close match to the blueprints.

The only thing that bugged me is that they didn't build the window wall to be invertible so they could show quarters on the underside of the ship.

 

[davejames]

There were definitely some rooms on the Ent-D where you would expect to see the windows either on the ceiling or the floor, based on what the model looked like. But I just assumed those were being used for other purposes besides living quarters.

 

[Klaus]

Can't believe we got this far w/o any mention of the various TARDIS control rooms...

 

[JoeD80]

Even watching B5 on my bigscreen now I like the sets. The only thing that's a little off to me is that it took me awhile to realize that the painting in Sheridan's office was actually his window and we were looking out to the garden. But the sets themselves are quite beautiful to me.

 

[wahwahkits]

The DS9 promenade set is indeed impressive but sadly the corridor set is lacking, you can easily tell that the back end of the corridor is a painting

 

[davejames]

The DS9 promenade set is indeed impressive but sadly the corridor set is lacking, you can easily tell that the back end of the corridor is a painting

Even so, I thought those were some cool looking corridors, with the angular shapes and moody overhead lighting.

 

[Gotham Central]

Even watching B5 on my bigscreen now I like the sets. The only thing that's a little off to me is that it took me awhile to realize that the painting in Sheridan's office was actually his window and we were looking out to the garden. But the sets themselves are quite beautiful to me.

I think that JMS got lucky that quite a few people thought that that was SUPPOSED to be a painting in his office. I had a friend that was shocked to learn that that was supposed to be a window. The window in CnC was often equally problematic since they rarely had the budget to show anything outside it.

One of the biggest problems with his office is that it also lacked a door. The council chamber also lacked a door (which is not all that surprising since it was the same set).

The thing that stuck me about B5 was that he was a show that was usually very practical and believable....and then, for some reason they stuck these crazy doors on crew quarters etc. The doors were so poorly designed that Kosh could not actually fit through any of the doors. There is a reason why door openings are sully rectangles or circles...they are practical.