What I have wondered since creating the corridor, in the show they seem to use the straight area of the corridor "opposite engineering" to access the shuttle bay which in my mind would be out in space, along with Engineering, unless I'm confused somehow. However I'm really looking forward to seeing this finished Donny.
In TOS, nothing every so concretely established For a start, no-one ever walked straight from the the Engine Room to the Hangar Deck. Next; the room that that the full sized shuttle prop is shown in has none of the background detail of the hangar miniature, to the extent that many (including myself) interpret it as a separate storage area on the deck below. The entrance can then be located forward of the storage area, where there is lots of space. If you choose to look beyond that (the creators of TOS-R did, with inconsistent results) then the next problem is that the alcoves on the side of the hangar deck do not line up with the turntable. Again, a solution is to place the doorway on the forward wall, facing aft. The alcove that appeared in the episodes Journey To Babel and The Immunity Syndrome bears a stronger resemblance to to the triangular doorway that is adjacent to the Transporter Room and indeed, this is what the director of TIS strongly implied. However, the shuttle storage room must have been elsewhere, as there simply wasn't any space on that part of Stage 9 for such a large set. Maybe if they cleared out the Engine Room set? In any event, the flats that formed the alcove were physically relocated from their home near the T-Room to film the shuttle scenes. This is clear in JTB where the wall by the triangular doorway extends way to far to the side (complete with a silver joining strip!) instead of the corner of the corridor wall that you would expect: On the right http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x10hd/journeytobabelhd0096.jpg No strip http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x15hd/letthatbeyourlastbattlefieldhd1401.jpg
Regarding the hallways connecting of the flight deck, I haven’t come up with a solution for my project yet, or a decision on whether the section of corridor in JTB would be connected to the flight deck (above) or the hangar deck (below). The flight deck/hangar deck has been the most challenging of sets to figure out so far in terms of layout, I will say that for sure ;-). At the end of the day, however, it’s more important to me that I capture the on-screen essence of the primary set over making sure all the connection points into the corridors we see are 100% accurate.
This is why I appreciate Star Trek V:The Final Frontier(1989) having built the 1701-A Flight Hangar Deck Set and two full-scale Shuttlecrafts. Imagine how impressive that would have been if it was a permanent standing set for TOS.
and then there is the confusing aspect of the curved corridor that led to Engineering, if indeed if Engineering was located in the secondary hull. I'm pretty certain that there were no regard to how the interior layout made sense to in exterior. The only thing we can be certain of is that the Bridge was located on top of the saucer section but even the angle of the Bridge comes into question when you look at the turbo shaft housing.
Looking at Scott Gammans’ fine work in capturing Jefferies’ intended design for the flight deck in this view, I am left to wonder whether opening up the forward wall above the cargo doors (and dispensing with the forward gallery) and continuing the hangar’s roof structure into an extended forward space that would be akin to Probert’s TMP cargo hold, would accomplish the goal of a huge hangar “big enough for a fleet of airliners” (sort of) while maintaining Jefferies’ hangar AND getting something of that huge look from the Datin hangar model. http://www.scottgammans.com/doomsdaymachine/hangar_640x480.jpg
There's so little context for the shots of people walking into and out of the hangar that I don't think we need assume said entrance was on the side.
Indeed, the Star Trek V set is the only cannon glimpse of this wall, and since that shuttlebay is clearly based on the pre-refit configuration, it seems a logical place to go for inspiration for the unseen TOS wall.
You know, looking at screen shots of TOS and looking at Scott's beautiful model, I can't help it. To hell with what actually fits in the ship. I love that TOS model SO much. Funny thing is, that cosier size is totally fine. It fits the craft it was designed for. It's attractive. It's as realistic as the Enterprise gets. I guess I've just been taught to love that big "set".
Was looking at my Enterprise model a day ago and realized that I'd somehow accidentally left off that faint brown band of discoloration near the front of the saucer in my final renders. I decided to take some updated shots, plus a few bonus shots:
Thanks for posting that comparison shot, @GNDN18! I'm glad someone noticed I endeavored to match camera angles of some of the more well-known shots.
If the AMT Constellation had been in your shot, I might well have thought it was from the episode. Really. Damn me, that’s good work.
Um... Yeah. TOS-R is looking kind of embarrassing (I realize that they were working on a production deadline and with tech from 12 years ago.)
Thing is, I actually liked the TOS-R Enterprise until I started researching for this build. I've seen too much now! Now any time I see a TOS Enterprise with aztec paneling, I cringe, whereas before I just thought it was a nice touch.
I remember when the publicity shots of the (first) TOS-R model came out, people flipped their shit about the little red cannon coming out of the lower dome. I think even when people found photos and screencaps proving it was always on the eleven-foot model, some people still didn't believe it.
Donny, your work just gets better and better. I am continually amazed at how quickly you work. My own TOS-E was the work of over ten years. Of course, much of that was dedicated to obsessive research into the details; as well as learning the various 3D programs and restarting the model at least half a dozen times. Your grasp of the esthetic of TOS is unmatched. If I may suggest a subject for the game setting, the MJ original K-7 design you posted earlier makes a great Starbase 4: There are great possibilities with this design. I am sure you could do more (and better) with it than I have. As for the hangar deck: It is possible to fit it into a 947' ship, if you stick with a shuttle craft of the size Matt Jefferies had in mind. His original interior design was altered when under construction when they "raised the roof" in order to allow the actors to stand erect within. This caused the disconnect between the interior and exterior (wrong front bulkhead angle, wrong proportions, embarrassingly low chairs). My philosophy for modeling these subjects is to get as close to the onscreen look, while altering what is necessary to "make it real." The hangar in my Enterprise is tight, but can look very much like the onscreen view with careful viewpoint and lens selection. When I get around to my shuttlecraft interior, I will definitely be making some compromises with what was seen onscreen to make it "real." However, given your guiding philosophy of duplicating the sets in as faithful a way as possible naturally gives you a different emphasis. I believe you are definitely on the right track modeling the hangar based on the miniature set and doing some transition "magic" to make it appear to fit. For an immersive environment that will make us feel like we are truly on the ship we saw on screen, your project will likely never be surpassed. Bravo! M.
Thanks for all that! You're too kind! I'm not too much of a fan of the original MJ K7 design to be honest, and if I build a station of some sort it would be either K7 itself or something more influenced by the design of that station as it appeared on-screen. But I do appreciate the suggestion and will take that design into some consideration if I end up conceptualizing and executing my own starbase! And yes, for the hangar deck, I've definitely decided to go with the scale as it appears on-screen, albeit with my 28 foot shuttlecraft, and making it "fit" into the exterior hull later. I'm falling in love with the screen-used set as is, and it would be too odd for me to break from my guideline of remaining as screen-faithful as possible at this point. However, as you'll see in my shots below, I do still have to make some minor concessions. Here's a early WIP of the observation corridor, sans greebles and red mesh gratings beyond the doorways. You'll see I've had to modify the windows overlooking the flight deck slightly in angle and depth for a few reasons, mostly in attempt to make it all fit in ways I'm too tired to demonstrate These windows, however, will remain their squarish shape I decided the get the framework of the observation deck nailed down first, as getting it screen-accurate it dictated (in again other ways I’m too tired to demonstrate) how far aft I could move the forward wall of the hangar deck to reduce the space just a smidgen (not too much, it turns out. About 2 and a half feet). Now that the structure is complete, I'll move on to detailing flight deck itself before coming back around to model the greebles. I've built the observation corridor into segments, as a modular kit that all interlocks together, so that I can reuse those pieces to perhaps quickly build another observation corridor of different length and layout of, for instance, a hangar deck on a space station or the interior of a different Starfleet ship. For those unaware, this is common in the game industry to use interlocking kit pieces for quickly building rooms and corridors. There aren't many places in the Enterprise that allow for this (the corridors of the TMP, TNG, and VOY sets, on the other hand, very much do), so I'm taking advantage of this here so I won't have to model an entirely new observation corridor structure later for other hypothetical settings. I’ve built out the corridor structure to completely wrap around the forward end of the hangar deck, as it is depicted in MJ’s original drawing, despite only showing this one corner we saw in “The Conscience of the King”. I’ll show other portions of the observation corridor later as they are detailed out.