Don't know why Kirk would miss his old chair, that one looks pretty comfy.
Donny’s Late TOS Movie Era Interiors
- Thread starter Donny
- Start date
Maybe he meant his really old chair on the TOS Enterprise. (Though this looks more comfortable than that one, too.
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Yeah, I would totally trade my office chair at home for this.
I'd kill (OK, not really kill kill) for one of those Ergoform chairs.
I wonder if Shatner was largely concerned with comfort when he was picking a new chair for the TFF bridge set.
When discussing the bridge redesign in Lisabeth Shatner's book, they spend a little bit of time on the chairs used in TMP-TVH and explain that the back of the chair went straight up your back and wasn't very comfortable, and the aluminum panels that locked over their laps during emergency situations were a pain to unlock. So both the captain's chair and the Ergoform workseats used for the other bridge stations were definitely chosen with comfort in mind.
From Memory Alpha:
For Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Set Dresser John Dwyer made sure to acquire a new command chair for the Enterprise. "The old chair was flat up the back and had two aluminum panels that locked on your leg, with buttons on them," he recalled. "It was a real hindrance to the actors. Not only did you have to remember your lines and your moves, you had to get out of this thing... so we constructed one that was easy to get out of and looked semi-comfortable."
So John Dwyer says "...we constructed one" but the lead-in statement to the quote said he "made sure to acquire a new command chair". So I'm still not sure if it was a found commercial chair modified for the show, or a completely new one designed and built by the set dressers
For Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Set Dresser John Dwyer made sure to acquire a new command chair for the Enterprise. "The old chair was flat up the back and had two aluminum panels that locked on your leg, with buttons on them," he recalled. "It was a real hindrance to the actors. Not only did you have to remember your lines and your moves, you had to get out of this thing... so we constructed one that was easy to get out of and looked semi-comfortable."
So John Dwyer says "...we constructed one" but the lead-in statement to the quote said he "made sure to acquire a new command chair". So I'm still not sure if it was a found commercial chair modified for the show, or a completely new one designed and built by the set dressers
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Where else would it go? Up your front?
It would if you're Will Riker!Where else would it go? Up your front?
Going to do the TUC Excelsior bridge?
Thanks! I have a copy of that book, but I haven't read it in forever, so I'd forgotten that.
Answer is in the shots below
Finished texturing the command chair of the TFF Ent-A bridge today, and figured go ahead and knock out the two others while I'm at it.
From left to right, the Enterprise-A command chair from TFF, the Enterprise-A command chair from TUC, and The Excelsior command chair also from TUC.
Note: The keypad graphic is conjecture since we never really see the graphic, if there was one there.
Here's the TFF bridge as it stands now:
Actually only a few things left to go before I can call her done: the dedication plaque in the starboard side turbolift alcove, the data chip holders between a few of the consoles, and of course picking up where I left off with the LCARS I generated a couple years ago.
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Most definitely. The TOS and Refit bridges had so many damn buttons, and I of course endeavored to get every single one in the right place and the right color. However, generating all the different LCARS we see across the bridge is a monumental task as well, but with my newly acquired Illustrator and After Effects skills, it won’t take me too long to finish up this era’s bridge LCARS set I started two years ago.I'm guessing - but with the all-touch screen panels of the TFF bridge is it easier to model and texture vs the other bridges that have tons of buttons, switches and odd-shaped display screens?
On another note, I didn't know the butterfly/seashell chairs they used on the bridge set from Star Treks I - IV were that uncomfortable. They looked funky and were one of the unique parts in those movies, not to mention the lap restraints could have come in handy as a form of "seat belt," which was probably the original intention.
On David Kimble's TMP Official Blueprints (sheet 5), the little squares going up the middle of the back of the chair are labeled as "posture sensors," suggesting that the chair somehow adjusts itself to the body of the occupant, though we never see that in action (beyond the headrests adjusting up and down a couple times in TMP). Maybe that sort of tech wasn't practical or available back then, even on a film with a budget as big as TMP's.
So the dedication plaque. We only see it briefly in TFF. Once when Uhura comes on the bridge at the beginning of the film, and another when Chekov and Scotty are minding the shop while the rest of the bridge crew is away. Oddly, it is missing from the alcove in the scene when Kirk and Co arrive onto the bridge, which would've provided an excellent view of the plaque 
It definitely looks like it's got a copper feel to it.
I should note, that the two dedication plaques we see in TUC are completely different. They have a dull gold appearance, with black lettering and Starfleet delta, with an inset surrounding the text below the ship's name.
On the Excelsior, to the right of the viewscreen:
And on the Enterprise-A, above the viewscreen near the ceiling:
So, somewhere between 2287 and 2293, before (or when) the Enterprise got an upgrade / repaint / rearrangment to it's bridge module, we can assume that the TFF dedication plaque was lost, and replaced by the more up-to-date version we see on the Excelsior.
-OR-
I continue with my running theory that the TFF Enterprise-A and the TUC Enterprise-A are just the same ship but in slightly different timelines/realities
Anyway. We never get a good look at the dedication plaque in TFF, but from what we do see, we can definitely tell it's not the same type we saw on TUC. So I've portrayed it in the style I believe it to be.
It definitely looks like it's got a copper feel to it.
I should note, that the two dedication plaques we see in TUC are completely different. They have a dull gold appearance, with black lettering and Starfleet delta, with an inset surrounding the text below the ship's name.
On the Excelsior, to the right of the viewscreen:
And on the Enterprise-A, above the viewscreen near the ceiling:
So, somewhere between 2287 and 2293, before (or when) the Enterprise got an upgrade / repaint / rearrangment to it's bridge module, we can assume that the TFF dedication plaque was lost, and replaced by the more up-to-date version we see on the Excelsior.
-OR-
I continue with my running theory that the TFF Enterprise-A and the TUC Enterprise-A are just the same ship but in slightly different timelines/realities
Anyway. We never get a good look at the dedication plaque in TFF, but from what we do see, we can definitely tell it's not the same type we saw on TUC. So I've portrayed it in the style I believe it to be.
