It was indeed present in TFF, here. Is it the original booth from TMP though? I'm not sure. It's the same one as used in TUC.
Spoiler It was "slightly" changed from TMP to TWOK, don't recall if it made an appearance in TSFS. for TNG, they made some significant changes to "modernize" the look, including moving the doors, shortening the room and changing the wall surfacing. TFF and TUC both redressed it back to the "retro trek" look, aside from widening the room again to add the booth and repainting, little else was changed. After GEN the set was totally dismantled aside from the transporter chamber itself and completely redesigned for Voyager. So I wouldn't call it completely unchanged The TMP set was redressed for each subsequent movie and TNG.
The one in TMP was different to the one used in TFF & TUC, presumably it had got been junked/lost, between 1979 and 1989. TMP: TFF: Although I do like the funky blue neon strip lights they used in TFF!
I did say "virtually"! Obviously there were quite a lot of changes, but the basic shape of the room and the structures remained, as well as for the corridors, eningeering, sickbay and crew quarters.
The glass booth that was present in TMP, TWOK (camera shot from inside the booth itself), and (presumably) TSFS appears it was more an actual part of the set structure, rather than a moveable set piece that literally looks "dropped in" in TFF. In TUC, they placed the booth on a raised platform so it actually appears to be a more solid piece of the set. Anyway, I'll be starting on the glass control booth this weekend. Can't wait. Always wanted to model it.
Looking forward to seeing it! I'm liking the judicious changes you're incorporating. They make sense & they're not taking the look too far from what we saw in TUC.
The structure looks the same. Since they kept most of the other sets, with revisions, i'd imagine that maybe they lost bits and pieces but the basic set was the same. @Tomalak "virtually" is what threw me. Voyager was a totally new set though, although built on the same spot.
I've debated adding those in (I tend to not want to pay much attention to the TFF sets, admittedly). I'll do some tests with those as well. I've decided that I'm going to do two versions of each set, one that's screen-accurate, and one that's idealized. The screen-accurate perfectionist inside me demands that I keep a version that was as it was seen on film. Except for engineering. I see no reason to keep the TNG warp core on the set, since it seems SO out of place on a Constitution-class vessel.
ASFAIK, the only thing they kept from the TMP set for the VOY set was the chamber surrounding the transporter pad. I'll do some additional tests this weekend for you.
Didn't the round transporter pads, that they stood on for TOS, last all the way through to Voy, although by then, they were used for the celing instead?
I suppose because the transporter room was only seen briefly in TFF, and not for any major scenes, they could get away with turning the light down, and only having to modify it with the booth, and the blue neon strips. But since it was featured more heavily in TUC, they had to spruce it up a bit, and at least try to make it look a bit different from TNG.
The story that the transporter pad lenses in the ceiling of the TNG transporter pad were the same lenses as the TOS transporter floor pads was perpetuated by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens book The Art of Star Trek. I've heard that book contains many falsehoods, and I think this story is unlikely. The transporter pads in the floor of TOS were simply fresnel lenses from stage lights. I doubt these were actually kept and preserved between 1969 and 1986, as the production team probably just used similar fresnel lenses, as they are a common item found in movie and TV studios. It's far more likely, however, that the same lenses remained in the ceiling for Voyager as well. You can even buy fresnel lenses for pretty cheap
Why does everyone insist on calling the protective shielding in the transporter control area "glass"? It's CLEARLY transparent aluminum. Sheesh!
My understanding is that the thick TMP pads had the fresnel lenses under them (based on the half-disassembled version of the set from Roddenberry's Cage VHS intro). I agree that it's unlikely that six lenses were just sitting around waiting to be reused until '79, but that could be the origin of the myth, if they were present but hidden since TMP.
Okay, so before doing any more "tinkering", I decided to model the transporter room as screen accurate as possible (brought back the orange doors for these shots as well). Here are the finished shots. Sometime later in the week I'm gonna make my idealized changes and post those as well.
Here is a shot of the ceiling. The ceiling of this set was never seen in TNG or the TOS movies, so I had to invent one using design elements from some of the other TUC sets. You'll also see how I married the control booth with the existing support struts across the ceiling.
Absolutely amazing work! The amount of detail you have got in those shots is incredible, especially when you consider how much of it wasn't shown in any great detail on screen. Great job on the ceiling, I wouldn't have known it had never been seen if you hadn't said it, looks genuine!