Donny's TOS Enterprise Interiors

[Sibyl]

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/donnys-tos-twok-enterprise-interiors.212119/page-48#post-10276825

This post, if it's correct, has just answered a question I've had since 1999: Control panels: Flat, Curved, or Hybrid.

Can I ask, what angle are you control panels at? Is it the 20° called for on the plan in the Phase II: The Lost Series book?

 

[MGagen]

I asked previously but didn't seem to get an answer on the one panel directly above the viewscreen that seems to be bumped out. I see that it exists in the set photos from TOS. Does anyone know what the reason for this feature?

The bridge is always assumed to be a circle divided up into 10 equal pie slices. However, drafting such a complex thing in a way that was easily buildable by studio carpenters and would form a perfect, complete circle was a daunting task. One surviving dimensioned sketch of a pie wedge (not the final version) shows not a single angle notation. In other words, all of the angles in this very angular set merely "fall out" of the drawing by the way dimensioned lines intersected. My guess for why this was so was that specifying angles to be extended several feet will always result in increasing inaccuracy the futher the line is extended. Far better to specify how long a side is and how high it reaches at its far end. But if you work this way, you are stuck with increments that are found on a ruler: 1/8", 1/4", etc. These don't always yield the perfect angle, which added up, makes a complete circle.

My guess is that they built nine of the wedges, then drafted the final wedge once they knew how much space they had left over. That final wedge was the view screen. Studio set diagrams bear this out. Here is one I examined back in 2005, when I first noticed this:

BTW, Petrie Blomqvist independently confirmed this based on trying to match camera angles with a 3D program. He couldn't get perfect alignment with the screen shots until he altered his model to have unequal wedges.

Here's the answer to your question after that long-winded set up: I believe the extra "box" structure over the viewscreen was placed there to cover where they had to split one of the equal-sized upper dome pieces to fit over the larger viewscreen wedge. Adding a structure was easier than seamlessly patching the split.

Why wasn't it visible in the two pilots? Probably because they hadn't built a complete circular set at that time. Keep in mind that the Pilot set, built at the Culver City studio (on a slanting, silent-era soundstage floor, no less) is not the same set that you see in the series. When they moved production to Gower Street, they rebuilt at least the outer ring of the bridge and made all of the pieces "wild" or movable. They also made the complete ring. The viewscreen section appears to be a completely different piece from before.

M.

 

[Sibyl]

The bridge is always assumed to be a circle divided up into 10 equal pie slices. However, drafting such a complex thing in a way that was easily buildable by studio carpenters and would form a perfect, complete circle was a daunting task. One surviving dimensioned sketch of a pie wedge (not the final version) shows not a single angle notation. In other words, all of the angles in this very angular set merely "fall out" of the drawing by the way dimensioned lines intersected. My guess for why this was so was that specifying angles to be extended several feet will always result in increasing inaccuracy the futher the line is extended. Far better to specify how long a side is and how high it reaches at its far end. But if you work this way, you are stuck with increments that are found on a ruler: 1/8", 1/4", etc. These don't always yield the perfect angle, which added up, makes a complete circle.

My guess is that they built nine of the wedges, then drafted the final wedge once they knew how much space they had left over. That final wedge was the view screen. Studio set diagrams bear this out. Here is one I examined back in 2005, when I first noticed this:

BTW, Petrie Blomqvist independently confirmed this based on trying to match camera angles with a 3D program. He couldn't get perfect alignment with the screen shots until he altered his model to have unequal wedges.

Here's the answer to your question after that long-winded set up: I believe the extra "box" structure over the viewscreen was placed there to cover where they had to split one of the equal-sized upper dome pieces to fit over the larger viewscreen wedge. Adding a structure was easier than seamlessly patching the split.

Why wasn't it visible in the two pilots? Probably because they hadn't built a complete circular set at that time. Keep in mind that the Pilot set, built at the Culver City studio (on a slanting, silent-era soundstage floor, no less) is not the same set that you see in the series. When they moved production to Gower Street, they rebuilt at least the outer ring of the bridge and made all of the pieces "wild" or movable. They also made the complete ring. The viewscreen section appears to be a completely different piece from before.

M.

Thank you for posting this. I plan on a physical model, eventually, and this will help, greatly.

Sorry to hijack your thread, @Donny

 

[Donny]

Hey Donny I;m curious how difficult would it be to Mirror the turbo lift to the opposite side and add a station behind the captain somthing along this
to your model

That wouldn't be hard at all!

 

[Donny]

Thank you for posting this. I plan on a physical model, eventually, and this will help, greatly.

Sorry to hijack your thread, @Donny

Not at all! This has been very enlightening. However, it also now shows that my bridge is wrong, as I have each of the slices at an even 36 degrees!

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Yes if you use the McMaster plans those are set at 36 degrees

 

[Tallguy]

Not at all! This has been very enlightening. However, it also now shows that my bridge is wrong, as I have each of the slices at an even 36 degrees!

Yeah, I spotted that right off. OK, no I didn't. Not a chance.

 

[MGagen]

Donny, it wasn't my intent to imply your bridge is wrong. I certainly imagine the "real" bridge to be symmetrical. This was merely a production shortcut and is the likely explanation for the extra boxy thing over the viewscreen.

You're building the "real ship," not the soundstage sets, right?

M.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

First things first; at work for the last year or so I have had a couple of your TOS bridge images across my two monitors, so thank you bunches for that

Anyway, as Tallguy posted earlier, here's a video of the updated bridge in real-time:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

The soundtrack has some pretty rough edits on the SFX but OMG what a stunning video!

 

[Lt. Washburn]

I just wanted to confirm the observation about angles not being specified. Having looked at a lot of the blueprints over the years, into the more recent shows, the angles are very rarely called out in any handy fashion. Maybe on a big overview just to show component alignment, and whatnot. But the details are usually called out as an intersecting x/y dimension. MGagen's point that they'd get more inaccurate the farther out you go is a good point. But, I also figured that the studio crews had really straightforward ways of laying out set pieces as they were built, and it was much simpler to just use one method with lengths rather than switching back and forth between lengths and angles and comparing against the two.

That said, it's also interesting to note that the angles often end up being fairly regular, instead of crazy numbers. So, maybe they are sometimes determined in the drafting process, but left out of the final plans.

 

[Donny]

The soundtrack has some pretty rough edits on the SFX but OMG what a stunning video!

I know. I was being lazy, and I'm not very savvy at video editing, believe it or not.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

I know. I was being lazy, and I'm not very savvy at video editing, believe it or not.

Well the video looks fab, for sure

 

[Jesse1066]

Have you ever done the bridge as it appeared in The Cage?

 

[Donny]

Have you ever done the bridge as it appeared in The Cage?

I haven't, but I want to.

 

[Donny]

Hey Donny I;m curious how difficult would it be to Mirror the turbo lift to the opposite side and add a station behind the captain somthing along this
to your model

I decided to do this tonight, since it literally took just a few seconds. Enjoy!

 

[Lt. Washburn]

That actually looks really good!

 

[KennyB]

I feel like unless I find myself in upstate NY, this will be as close as I ever get to walking around the 1701--amazing work Donny!

 

[TOMFAN]

That looks great!

 

[Tomalak]

I decided to do this tonight, since it literally took just a few seconds. Enjoy!

Actually looks pretty good, though it does break up the sweeping bank of consoles in a way the more segmented TMP bridge avoided. I wonder what it would look like with a more free-standing console like in TWOK?

 

[Mytran]

I'm not sure that would fit the TOS style - they mostly avoided the permanently standing up consoles because - well, common sense!