Donny's TOS Enterprise Interiors

[cardinal biggles]

I'm guessing the plastic they removed from the curved wall was in reference to the piece of wavy/frosted plastic they took off the one wall when they converted it into a second exit?

Because otherwise, apart from the revised pallette, the briefing room didn't change much between The Cage and WNMHGB.

 

[blssdwlf]

I'm guessing the plastic they removed from the curved wall was in reference to the piece of wavy/frosted plastic they took off the one wall when they converted it into a second exit?

Because otherwise, apart from the revised pallette, the briefing room didn't change much between The Cage and WNMHGB.

I'm assuming the 2nd exit is when both doors/openings are visible at the same time in this long shot from The Cage? We see a closed door in WNMHGB.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Add a couple or three extra zeroes on those numbers and you'll have it in today's adjusted dollars.

 

[cardinal biggles]

I'm assuming the 2nd exit is when both doors/openings are visible at the same time in this long shot from The Cage? We see a closed door in WNMHGB.

So it looks like there were already two doors and they just changed the orientation of the table between pilots. Now I'm confused as to what plastic they removed.

 

[blssdwlf]

So it looks like there were already two doors and they just changed the orientation of the table between pilots. Now I'm confused as to what plastic they removed.

I'm thinking the plastic is what covered the portion of the curved walls that had the colored pattern. In The Cage it seems to have more reflection or glossiness while WNMHGB it appeared more matte. In addition to the table orientation change the circular ceiling piece was also rotated.

 

[Maurice]

The Briefing Room set of the pilots had two doors: one into the corridor and the other to an elevator, and in the 2nd pilot it appears they rethought having a lift open into the room. My guess is that the set was open on one side so they changed the lift to a corridor so as not to have to shoot into the open end of the set.

The lenticular sheeting in the briefing room is translucent, and its color is determined by the lights (likely behind it), and you can see them slowly changing colors in the first pilot. In the second they are just one color, which means they might have painted the backs of them or replaced them with similar material that is not translucent.

 

[Professor Moriarty]

Apropos of nothing, the pilot briefing room with its cool light fixture was so much more interesting-looking than the bland, featureless conference room we got for "The Corbomite Maneuver" and beyond. Pfft.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Agreed, though I'd take the TOS conference table and put it in the pilot briefing room.

 

[plynch]

Why did they make it blander for the series?

 

[cardinal biggles]

To venture a guess — though @Maurice might know of some sources that back this up with facts — the more rectangular space was probably easier to shoot (especially without the low ceiling and the pillars supporting it) and easier to redress as other rooms (mess hall, chapel, rec deck, etc.).

 

[Maurice]

To venture a guess — though @Maurice might know of some sources that back this up with facts — the more rectangular space was probably easier to shoot (especially without the low ceiling and the pillars supporting it) and easier to redress as other rooms (mess hall, chapel, rec deck, etc.).

My guess is since they had to move the sets from Desilu Culver to Desilu Gower and figure out what sets they'd actually need for weekly series production that they looked at that round set and saw it wasn't a practical fit with the what they were going to build.

 

[Mytran]

Given the long, curved corridor that was built for the series, circular rooms (such as the conference room or Pike's cabin) were going to be tough to fit in.

I do miss that large ceiling fixture though.

 

[blssdwlf]

I wonder if they would've kept the circular room if it was built modular like the bridge and you could pull sections out as needed for the camera, etc?

 

[cardinal biggles]

The briefing room was on a corner of the T-junction that led to the transporter room. Assuming they placed the circular room in the same spot, only 1/2 to 2/3 of the walls could realistically be wild.

Desilu Stage 9/Paramount Stage 31

 

[blssdwlf]

The briefing room was on a corner of the T-junction that led to the transporter room. Assuming they placed the circular room in the same spot, only 1/2 to 2/3 of the walls could realistically be wild.

Desilu Stage 9/Paramount Stage 31

Yeah, to make use of a circular room it would be like the bridge where it needs much more room on the stage lot. That probably helped to nix the room's use

 

[Lt. Washburn]

The bridge needs room because of the platforms and large perimeter consoles. But other round sets might need no more room than a similarly sized square set, with thin wall elements.

 

[cardinal biggles]

I did some very quick and very dirty Photoshop work and put the pilot briefing room into the Desilu Stage 9 set layout as we saw it through the three seasons of TOS:



It would certainly have fit into the space, and you could even have the advantage of moving the second exit around so it links to the side corridor, and half the walls still could have been wild. But I definitely get why they changed what they did when moving the sets from Culver to Gower.

Sources:
Desilu Stage 9/Paramount Stage 31 map from Pat Suwalski's Star Trek Stages History
The Cage/WNMHGB briefing room from Firebird's WNMHGB Set Plans Reconstruction thread

 

[blssdwlf]

I did some very quick and very dirty Photoshop work and put the pilot briefing room into the Desilu Stage 9 set layout as we saw it through the three seasons of TOS:

It would certainly have fit into the space, and you could even have the advantage of moving the second exit around so it links to the side corridor, and half the walls still could have been wild. But I definitely get why they changed what they did when moving the sets from Culver to Gower.

I'm not so sure the pilot briefing would fit in that space. When I had did some camera-matching to that room it was a bit larger (around 35' in diameter) than what it appears in the drawing you've mocked up (22' in diameter in blueprint assuming corridor is 8' wide).

 

[Mytran]

The series production Briefing Room was around 24' front to back in S1, extended to 26' in S2
That circular room would have dwarfed all the others!

 

[cardinal biggles]

I'm not so sure the pilot briefing would fit in that space. When I had did some camera-matching to that room it was a bit larger (around 35' in diameter) than what it appears in the drawing you've mocked up (22' in diameter in blueprint assuming corridor is 8' wide).

I wasn't aware of that; doesn't that make it almost as large as the Bridge? I'll admit, when I was scaling the image of the briefing room to fit the stage plan, I was making sure the doors matched in size and assumed Firebird had gotten the measurements of the room correct.