Donny’s Late TOS Movie Era Interiors

[cardinal biggles]

Yeah, in the text commentary from Okuda for TMP and TWOK DVD (and maybe Blu Ray) - those video screens had to be adjusted for 24 frames per second. The CRTs I do admit are dated, I mean most likely it's like one huge LCD screen (LCD screens can take different shapes these days too!).

It's what they had to work with. I'm quite possibly wrong on this, but I think the Delta Flyer cockpit is the first time I can remember them using a live LCD display on set. By the time you get to Enterprise, they'd totally embraced LCD/plasma displays, and the Enterprise-E sets were similarly upgraded from CRT to LCD/plasma for Nemesis.

In the end, it's the ever-present juggling act between what looks amazing and what is time- and cost-effective; similar to TMP, 2001 used film loops run from projectors to depict the display screens on the Discovery, and they look incredibly clean. When they had to recreate those sets for 2010, Peter Hyams chose to use CRT monitors instead, and while it might be more efficient and you don't run into the noise and lighting issues that they had with TMP (and presumably 2001 as well), it just doesn't look as good. The videotaped versions of the TMP film loops used in TWOK at least still looked good, but the new ones they created for TSFS looked like shit.

 

[Firebird]

They wouldn't have been using regular off-the-shelf TV sets for that. You'd need ones that were specially rigged to match the frame rate of the movie camera (24 frames per second), otherwise you end up with flicker problems.

The production & filming nerd in me would wanna see a display mode for these monitors where they accidentally go out of sync with the camera frame rate. Makes me nostalgic for the on-set stuff filmed for making-of documentaries in the 90’s where you’d see all the screens in the set going nuts because the docu crew wasn’t synced up.

 

[cardinal biggles]

The production & filming nerd in me would wanna see a display mode for these monitors where they accidentally go out of sync with the camera frame rate. Makes me nostalgic for the on-set stuff filmed for making-of documentaries in the 90’s where you’d see all the screens in the set going nuts because the docu crew wasn’t synced up.

I think the first time I noticed that was when my local NBC station (which aired Voyager Sundays after midnight because there was no local UPN affiliate during the first season) aired a behind-the-scenes piece about the show, and all the CRTs on the bridge looked messed up. You can sometimes catch it in publicity stills from the movies, too.

 

[Rusty0918]

I remember seeing a behind-the-scenes Entertainment Tonight segment back in 1996 with "Star Trek: First Contact" and we see that in those shots, the Enterprise-E bridge monitors are flickering (and not synced up!).

There is one scene where things aren't so synched up in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," in this one shot where the Klingon is thrown over the helm console when the Enterprise self-destructs! Look at the monitors on the left to see what I mean! https://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tsfshd/tsfshd1262.jpg

 

[cardinal biggles]

That could be a shadow cast by the hood over the upper bank of monitors, between the lighting and the pyrotechnics going off.

 

[Rusty0918]

No I'm pretty sure it's an out of sync thing. If you watch the destruct sequence on playback on YouTube, you'll get what I mean.

 

[Commander Troi]

Almost there....

Here's a shot that kills the visual effect for sure
I dunno. I love having the CRTs, scan lines and noise and all. Just feels right, or at least more right here than it did when I tried it briefly for the Ent-E bridge. However, for these bridges, I have taken measures to have the option of all flat panels, btw. Will probably do that for depictions of non-canon bridges.

You continue to impress the hell out of me, sir!

 

[Lt. Washburn]

It's not just CRTS, the main viewscreen was rear projection at least some of the time. That has a particular look as well.

 

[ashleytinger]

They wouldn't have been using regular off-the-shelf TV sets for that. You'd need ones that were specially rigged to match the frame rate of the movie camera (24 frames per second), otherwise you end up with flicker problems.

Oh I know, just the scenario brought a chuckle.

 

[Rusty0918]

I was thinking of the "Star Trek V" rifftrax that Mike Nelson did with his MST3K alumni for "Star Trek V," mentioning stuff about CRTs, specifically rear-projection ones that went obsolete sometime in the 1990's only to make a comeback in the 23rd century!

I wonder about the TFF/TUC helm for the Enterprise-A - was that completely new or the TMP-TVH one redressed considerably?

 

[cardinal biggles]

I wonder about the TFF/TUC helm for the Enterprise-A - was that completely new or the TMP-TVH one redressed considerably?

The latter. The last time you can see it looking substantially like it did in TMP-TVH is on the bridge of the Stargazer in "The Battle."

 

[Rusty0918]

The latter. The last time you can see it looking substantially like it did in TMP-TVH is on the bridge of the Stargazer in "The Battle."

Yeah, I noticed that the helm console last looked like that in the TNG episode "The Battle" on the Stargazer bridge, with a few vertical greebles added to the center section. With TFF/TUC, it looks like they detached the upper section and re-adjusted it and put it on a newer support.

 

[Tuskin38]

I see you've adapted your TOS Miranda design for STO now Donny, nice!

 

[Donny]

I see you've adapted your TOS Miranda design for STO now Donny, nice!

Yep! I was given the task of creating a TOS Miranda for the game and was like "Ahem. Have you seen my existing take on the design?" It was a short week of work for me that week, I tell ya!

 

[137th Gebirg]

I'll have to look that one up. Has the model been deployed to the XBox version yet? Consoles usually get such upgrades a month or two after PC releases.

 

[Donny]

I wonder about the TFF/TUC helm for the Enterprise-A - was that completely new or the TMP-TVH one redressed considerably?

Yes, my studies have concluded that the TFF/TUC helm console was indeed the same console as the one seen in TMP-TVH. They filled in the gap at the console's user-facing edge and also added two raised strips to the top and bottom of the viewscreen-facing side of the console. As a matter of fact, I took the console geometry I built for my last iteration of the TMP-TWOK bridges and did just that to it: filled in the gap and added the strips to the front (my previous TUC version was off in a few places so I opted to just scrap it and repurprose my more accurate TMP/TWOK version)

The pedestal the console rests upon in TFF/TUC was a new construct, and in TFF, my calculations show that it was the same height as the TMP-TVH console pedestal. However, in TUC, they sawed the top of the pedestal off a bit and lowered the console, which resulted in a more natural sitting position for the helm operators relative to the console.

The astrogator, on the other hand, I'm still curious about. I'm pretty certain, although not absolutely, that the TFF astrogator was the same structure as the TMP-TVH astrogator, but with greebles removed, the unit angled slightly differently and then requiring the tops and bottoms sawed to be parallel to the floor. I say this because I did just the same with my models: I was curious and simply imported and re-angled my TMP-TVH astrogator unit and it matched the reference for the TFF unit. Could just be a coincidence but could also mean it was a modified re-use.

The TUC astrogator, however, appears to be an entirely new construct. Not only is it extended back quite a bit with a new aft "hump" that rests at the captain's feet, but it's also tapered back in a way the TFF astrogator wasn't. Unless this was just a heavy modification of the existing unit, I'm betting it was a newly built structure.

 

[Donny]

I'll have to look that one up. Has the model been deployed to the XBox version yet? Consoles usually get such upgrades a month or two after PC releases.

Not yet. Console releases require additional testing and certification before they can go live, explaining the delay.

 

[Tuskin38]

I'll have to look that one up. Has the model been deployed to the XBox version yet? Consoles usually get such upgrades a month or two after PC releases.

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[Tomalak]

The Miranda looks fantastic! Great to see her in action.

 

[137th Gebirg]

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Oooh that’s freakin pretty!