Is that supposed to be the port where they jettisoned the pod in the image with the woman in the window above it?
Court Martial RM has some of the best images of the series!
- Thread starter RAMA
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I too thought that there should have been some sort of orbital platform then I remembered something that I read that Matt Jeffries had said. Jeffries said that the exterior of the Enterprise was smooth because it was worked on from the INSIDE. This means that any damage to the exterior would either be taken apart and brough inside or that repair crews would go out through the appropriate section and work on it back inside the ship. This would mean that all SB11 needed to do was send additional repair crew and supplies to the Enterprise to get her spaceworthy again.
And if that isn't enough for you to think about... here is something else I think is worth thinking about.
In William Shatner's "Star Trek Memories" book he talks to one of the effects guys, Eddie Milkis I think, and the interviewee says that they used the smaller model if they wanted "a pod to blow out". Now this could be false memory or just Milkis trying to illustrate a point, but what if they actually did make a "pod blow out" for this episode? It could be that somewhere amongst the trims that were sold by Rodenberry is a rejected SFX for this episode.
What do you think?
And if that isn't enough for you to think about... here is something else I think is worth thinking about.
In William Shatner's "Star Trek Memories" book he talks to one of the effects guys, Eddie Milkis I think, and the interviewee says that they used the smaller model if they wanted "a pod to blow out". Now this could be false memory or just Milkis trying to illustrate a point, but what if they actually did make a "pod blow out" for this episode? It could be that somewhere amongst the trims that were sold by Rodenberry is a rejected SFX for this episode.
What do you think?
Yes. In a later shot, you see what might be spacesuited workers moving a replacement pod into place:
http://img.trekmovie.com/tosrem/courtmartial/new_tosr015_03.jpg
(Would've been nice if it had been a pre-TMP-styled work bee.)
Which has me wondering what that part of the ship looks like normally.
Did anyone ever figure out what the name of that Starbase 11 shuttle is supposed to be? The one in "The Menagerie" used by Kirk and the illusory Mendez to get to the Enterprise was supposedly Picasso or some other artist.
As would Renoir.
Umm, the ringed moon seems to be the very same effect in both the shots - meaning that the light angle is the same in both shots as well. So I don't agree with Christopher on that the two night scenes should portray a different time of the day, or should have a different cityscape illumination level.
An excellent place for the pod, really, allowing Finney to slip into the maze of Engineering facilities unnoticed (as we well know that there never is anybody anywhere near the shuttlebay to stop unauthorized movement!).
There is no detail observable between the aftermost of the two round portholes and the "1837" marker there in the original model. OTOH, the R-team essentially seems to have turned the after of those two portholes into the ion pod, as we only see one lit hole there. I'm not sure they didn't jiggle the positioning of the 'hole, too.
I'm actually a bit disappointed they didn't turn both of those portholes into ion pods. As these things are by definition an expendable commodity, it would make sense for the ship to have several. (And perhaps more than two; if they had two on the port side as well, it would make more sense that the dialogue doesn't specify e.g. "starboard ion pod"; it's just one of the numerous possibilities that are clustered close to each other, no need to identify it more accurately.)
What I also wonder about is why the porthole to the right of the square ones with Denise in them is of such an odd, ill-defined shape, as seen in the first close-up.
That's probably a reference to the warp nacelles, which were "pods" in some episode dialogue as well. And the interviewee might even be in error or misinterpreted, remembering the time they used the ATM kit to show a ship with its "warp pod" torn open...
Timo Saloniemi
I always assumed the sensor pod was an automated probe of sorts launched through a torpedo-style tube or opening and that Finney was supposed to have been in the aperture/opening when the pod was allegedly launched...sucking him into the vacuum of space.
There was a fan reference book I used to have, the Enterprise Officer's Manual or something like that (probably one or two of our Trek Tech regulars here worked on it), which had a diagram putting the sensor pod in the dome on the underside of the saucer. I think it was supposed to be the little nub sticking out of the bottom of the dome.
But the TOS-R team had a point about it logically going in the engineering section, to make it easier for Finney to conceal himself there.
But the TOS-R team had a point about it logically going in the engineering section, to make it easier for Finney to conceal himself there.
Agreed. Besides, TOS-era Constitution class ships had only torpedo tubes and phaser banks in the underside of the saucer section didn't they? No apertures big enough for anything much bigger than a photon torpedo.
We never saw phaser or torpedo fire emerge from anywhere else, true. But there may have been a number of other emplacements, such as those employed by the Defiant in "In a Mirror, Darkly".
And something the size of a torpedo would be plenty for a crewed "ion pod"...
Finney was supposed to have been sent "into" the pod, as somebody was needed "in the pod for reading on ion plates", and he was to report "from" the pod, then stand by to "get out of there". The prosecution then claims that "the pod containing Lieutenant Commander Finney was jettisoned". I guess this could mean that Finney was there merely to prime the ion plates for an impending launch of a remote probe, and pretended to be too slow in evacuating before launch.
However, why would Red Alert be critical in that situation? Why would Kirk need to launch the pod ahead of schedule, before Finney got out? It looks as if the non-launch of the pod endangered the ship, which is difficult to explain if the pod was just another remote probe to be fired off. Was it perhaps rather that the ship would be endangered by the storm if the probe didn't start to transmit its crucial readings from outside the ship?
I guess this still makes more sense than the idea that the pod would, say, be extended beyond the shields for readings and therefore present a weak spot that had to be sealed, either by retraction or then (because time was short or the storm was increasing in strength faster than anticipated) by ejection. If ejection was always the only possible option and indeed the very goal of the operation, then almost everything makes reasonable sense...
...Except for the idea that one of the ship's highest-ranking officers would be needed to prep the pod. Granted that it sounds that any officer would do, and Finney was just the one on the list that day (by chance or by nefarious design), with Ensign Nowan from Recycling slotted for the next day. But why send a full officer to "take readings on ion plates" before the launch?
Obviously, the writer had no idea. But what could we come up with? cooleddie's "probe, not observation dome" idea is something I'd never thought of before, for example...
Timo Saloniemi
The detail they used is not a porthole. In real life it is a switch, used to turn the lighting on the 11 foot model on and off. IIRC it is a "button switch" -- push in -- lights on, and push again -- lights off.
The switch is lit and blinks, IIRC in a different sequence than the saucer's blinking lights.
I would really appreciate it if someone could provide a photo of the area in question. Ideally both one of the original miniature and one of the TOS-R digital version in normal (non-"Court-martial") configuration.
I'm sorry, but that is the best photo of that area of the model that I've taken, and I don't have the time to go searching for another at the moment. But I think you can see the feature just forward of the "1837" frame marker/load line on the model.
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Okay: Why would having someone in the pod, as it's being discussed, endanger the ship? A pod, attached in the position of the lighting switch or the nub on the bottom of the primary hull is always exposed to the local environment, ion storm or no, and doesn't affect the ship's safety. As depicted here, the ion pod's another room on the ship. Finney being in or out of it makes no matter.
I've sometimes imagined the pod was more like a diving bell, extended away from the ship so its readings were not distorted by its systems. If that were the case, it might be a problem--open hatches, a cable or arm connecting the pod which might conduct current back to the ship's systems (think the shuttle space tether experiments), etc. It's possible that might have been the arrangement the TOS-R team envisioned, but if it were, I doubt we'd see the scorch marks from where the explosive bolts holding the pod to the side of the ship detonated.
Admittedly, that's not the best way to go, but neither is the pod. A probe, as discussed above, remote and independent of the Enterprise, makes the most sense, but it doesn't set up the same potential for the story as does sending Finney up to the crow's nest in a typhoon to watch for rocks. The business with the pod's a contrivance, but one I'm willing to forgive as I do enjoy this episode.
I've sometimes imagined the pod was more like a diving bell, extended away from the ship so its readings were not distorted by its systems. If that were the case, it might be a problem--open hatches, a cable or arm connecting the pod which might conduct current back to the ship's systems (think the shuttle space tether experiments), etc. It's possible that might have been the arrangement the TOS-R team envisioned, but if it were, I doubt we'd see the scorch marks from where the explosive bolts holding the pod to the side of the ship detonated.
Admittedly, that's not the best way to go, but neither is the pod. A probe, as discussed above, remote and independent of the Enterprise, makes the most sense, but it doesn't set up the same potential for the story as does sending Finney up to the crow's nest in a typhoon to watch for rocks. The business with the pod's a contrivance, but one I'm willing to forgive as I do enjoy this episode.
Here's that area of the stern, cropped from a Galileo Seven screen cap, remastered before Court Martial. You'll notice no ion pod, no switch, no nothing.
Actually, its absence is in fine Star Trek tradition, along with Tommorrow Is Yesterday's transporter room food replicators and Space Seed's engineering levers, one of which became a Khan basher. File it under Props Used Once And Then Forgotten About.
Here's another pic of the stern of the model. It's been a while since this has been posted, but here is a really great site for pics of the model.
Actually, its absence is in fine Star Trek tradition, along with Tommorrow Is Yesterday's transporter room food replicators and Space Seed's engineering levers, one of which became a Khan basher. File it under Props Used Once And Then Forgotten About.
Here's another pic of the stern of the model. It's been a while since this has been posted, but here is a really great site for pics of the model.
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I envisioned it as Geoff Mandel portrayed it in his 1970s Enterprise Officers' Manual -- at the tip of the saucer's lower sensor dome. But the idea of it being in the engineering hull to allow Finney unhindered access to whatever engineering room is near "B" Deck... In or near Engineering... sections 18-Y through 23-D" is persuasive. (Of course, when Mandel wrote his book, fans were just as certain Finney's engineering room was in the primary hull as they now are certain it is in the secondary hull, having all read The Making of Star Trek.)
If that engineering room is near the junction of the two pylons, it could be argued that the ion pod is in some way crucial to the warp drive itself -- taking readings that would help determine when and if the drive would be impacted by the environment they were in. Such readings might necessitate extending a sensor to penetrate beyond the ships shields and collect physical samples that would need to be retrieved by...
Of course, it's hard to imagine any scenario where a robot tar couldn't climb the mast to take a gander at the coming waves better than a man. But hey -- dramatic necessity and all that.
Of course, "Galileo Seven" takes place before "Court-martial," so maybe the pod hadn't been installed yet.
Now, can anyone provide a screencap from an original TOS episode that shows that switch? Or was the TV resolution too low?
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