Y’know, I see something like that and I really have to wonder how it works as a useful interface tool. I see a few little gadgets that look like tiny buttons and blinky lights on the surface, but how is it supposed to function? The LCARS PADDs of TNG were much more intuitive from an interactive interface design POV, even with a static screen. At least we knew what the prop makers wanted us to think they were used for. I’ve worked with interface and web design since 1995 and this thing mystifies me as to its actual functional purpose. Likely a product of the times - TNG came out of the world of the Mac/Windows GUI paradigm that was established post-1984 and everything they built for it came from that pedigree. TMP, however, like TOS came out of the world of mainframes and electric typewriters. Big, boring boxes with many sockets for analog input and output and a few blinking incandescent light bulbs to tell people that something was happening. They had no idea what a GUI was yet.
Ironic, then, that TOS anticipated the idea of electronic handwriting tablets (which is what the clipboard-like thingies were supposed to be) decades in advance, yet the supposedly more futuristic TMP reverted to a more contemporary notion. Of course, these items were never meant to be seen in any detail, so there wasn't necessarily a lot of thought put into their function. Certainly some things in TMP were worked out in intricate detail, like Lee Cole's signage and the console designs, but maybe the prop department took a more impressionistic approach. (The clipboard design reminds me of the TMP tricorder design, which has a number pad and status lights but no display screen of any kind, even though the TOS version had one.)
Nice work on the datapad. But, unless you were going for an idealized look, it seems like the bottom edge is different on the reference photo.
And the "Input 3" circle certainly looks like it is meant to suggest a connector similar to a PS/2 female connector.
Ok! I've finished a few more datapads (sorry, it's the term I prefer) AFAIK, there are only two up-close reference shots of any others, and the photos I have are here: However, as I pointed out back in 2014, we see a bunch more of these hanging on the walls of the torpedo bay and sickbay in TWOK. I feel in sickbay, they were meant to be "clipboards" for each patient, much like in a modern day hospital. I'm not sure what the thinking was for the torpedo bay, other than clipboards that contained various information about torpedo bay duties, procedures, checklists, etc. Who knows. Using the graphics that are available on the two we do have up-close information on, I've extrapolated what the graphics of the ones hanging on the walls might be like, given that we don't have any clear reference for them:
The props all look vacuformed off a single original and painted to purpose. The insignia on those looks like a part of the whole surface, whereas the one photo where the insignia was missing is likely one of the master devices.
Wow these look fantastic. There's a reality to them that works even though we have tools now that do things that the people in 197x never dreamed of. They're specific enough to be real and vague enough to be magic. (I was just talking about this very idea and BAM here you go!)
I doubt that there was that much thought put into their function. Most likely, Nicholas Meyer just wanted some cool-looking greebles to put on the wall, and those fit the bill. Did you ever notice that the backpack gizmo that's apparently a vacuum cleaner at Starfleet HQ is suddenly being hauled around like a vital piece of equipment when the ship is at red alert later on? The folks working on TMP wanted to work out what every single button did on the Enterprise, while Meyer just went for giving an overall impression of high-tech stuff going on. And they're both valid approaches.
I'm going to be tying up some loose ends on the lounge tonight and move on tomorrow. I'll come back at a later date and flesh out the dining area and galley. I was struck with an odd motivation to remaster my existing sickbay set the other night. When I started this thread/revamp process, sickbay was low on the list of sets I cared to revisit, so I'll take advantage and strike while the iron is hot.
I still want to know what those lighted sticks everyone's carrying are. Will there be a rave after the battle?
I didn't go too overboard with the nautical memorabilia. I bought the globe and the model ship off the Unreal Marketplace, and the barometer on the table on the right was something I modeled in 2015. And, with that, I'm done with the lounges for now. I'll take final renders soon!
Good grief that looks cozy. Could we get a bigger image if some of us wanted to use it as desktop wallpaper? Clicking on the image sends me to a login page...
I like it. Having had dinner in an actual USN wardroom as a child, the wood and nautical touches feel right. (Context: my dad was an USN officer on a destroyer when I was growing up.)
Re what these devices are intended to be: "Diagnostic Clipboards" "We also built electronic clipboards," Price reveals. "The clipboard of the future was more than just a flat surface on which to write and work down a checklist. It was an electronic checklist with diagnostic functions. The board could be plugged into a console and lights would go on indicating the status of various circuits. You could touch various indicators and actually go through an electronic checklist. Chekov was using one in a scene that was cut, I think, and Scotty had a bit with one as well. We made a dozen, many of which were carried around in the San Francisco scene. "We tried to make them as thin as possible, but they ended up being wedge-shaped to accommodate the batteries. In almost every case, the circuitry could be made as small as was required, but the rechargeable batteries were. . . well, the size of batteries, so we wanted to cheat the effect by having power supply plugs running up the sleeves of the costumes, but then we found out that many of the costumes had short sleeves, so there wasn't any way of hiding the cord." —Brick Price, Starlog #47, "SFXf PART: XXXVII, STAR TREK—THE MOTION PICTURE, PROPS, by David Hutchison p59–60 Here's the source article on the Internet Archive. (link) Why some are basically blank? Probably just meant to be seen in the background.
A hero's welcome, son? Is that what you'd like? ...Well, God knows, there should be. This time we paid for the party with our dearest blood.
I've always read the scene as the guy was doing maintenance when the alert was called and now running to his alert duty station without having taken the time to ditch the vacuum cleaner. Beside could be worse, could be an ice-cream maker.