• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Flint's living room.

MAGolding

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
Most of the action in "Requiem for Methusaleh" happens in Flint's castle or palace.

And much of that happens in a room which could be called Flint's living rooom.

I have often thought about some hypothetical rich eccentric Star Trek fan building replicas of the most important TOS sets in their mansion. And while they were at it building replicas of the best looking rooms from alien planets, like Trelane's living room, or the castle in "Catspaw", or Jaris's living room, or Flint's living room in "Requiem for Methusaleh.

So since watching "Requiem for Methusaleh" on Sunday, I have been wondering about the design of Flint's "Living Room".

Many of the angles between walls are less than 90 degrees. So the room should have more than 4 sides. It might be pentagonal, hexagonal, septagonal, or octagonal.

And I am not certain but I thought I glimpsed right angle -0 degree corners. Thus the room might be rectangular at oone end semi polygonal on the other end.

So I was wondering what is known about the design of Flint's "living room".
 
I find it amazing that Flint has a piece of the neutronium hull from the Doomsday Machine hanging on his wall. :crazy:
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x19hd/requiemformethuselahhd0472.jpg
He also imported some of that purple granite from Ardana. Very classy yet tasteful. :techman:
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x19hd/requiemformethuselahhd0437.jpg

As for the room shape, I counted at least 6 or 7 different background walls, so, maybe a hexagon. The pool billiards room seems "attached" to the main living room, so, an odd shape is possible like a skewed hexagon where the walls are not the same length.
 
Last edited:
Implicitly, Flint was wealthy by contemporary standards. He could have had materials shipped to the anet, along with a workforce. Or maybe he took decades to build it.
 
Building Flint's living room...

Interesting that Flint "collected things" over the centuries, much like Connor MacLeod of Highlander. Yet "John" of The Man From Earth, also written by Jerome Bixby, made a point of traveling very light. He had a few items, don't know that I'd class them as mementos. For example, the unknown Van Gogh was a gift. (John was not Van Gogh, but was other significant figures in history.) Otherwise, he considered "things" transient and of no intrinsic value—except in retrospect. He did not have the historian's or archaeologist's mindset, until it became a point of interest in later civilization. But John had been there. No need to be a pack rat about it. The world changed, and he did not try to nail it down.

John was also much, much older than the Flint character, yet seemed adjusted to living with transients. He did not try to "collect" them either, nor try to build one.
 
This is a good thread. However I'm wondering whether I'm supposed to respond from an in-universe perspective or an out-of-universe view. I mean, some usual suspect will certainly be along to argle bargle about how we're overanalyzing a TV show from the sixties no matter what, but I am still unsure how I want to go here while assuredly paying little mind to those elements. Looks so far like an in-universe discussion. Thoughts?
 
I find it amazing that Flint has a piece of the neutronium hull from the Doomsday Machine hanging on his wall. :crazy:
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x19hd/requiemformethuselahhd0472.jpg
He also imported some of that purple granite from Ardana. Very classy yet tasteful. :techman:
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x19hd/requiemformethuselahhd0437.jpg

As for the room shape, I counted at least 6 or 7 different background walls, so, maybe a hexagon. The pool billiards room seems "attached" to the main living room, so, an odd shape is possible like a skewed hexagon where the walls are not the same length.
An octagonal room under that main dome would be consistent with the obvious "Middle-eastern" design influences evident in the original matte painting.

The massive collegiate campus TOS-R used instead, not so much.
 
An octagonal room under that main dome would be consistent with the obvious "Middle-eastern" design influences evident in the original matte painting.



Looks like this discussion will be a mix of in-universe and out. Cool.

They loved that style. Jaris' sitting room, which might have been built in the same spot on set, bore similar hallmarks, as did Kara's cafe.
 
Me, me and me!

If I had limitless money and resources, heck I'd replicate his entire castle!

You would need a lot of money and resources, but not limitless money and resources. LImitless means infinite.

The castle in the original matte painting loolks like it might be 100 or 200 feet long.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rigel_system?file=RigelVII-Holberg917G_fortress.jpg
requiem-for-methuselah-remastered-review-video-screenshots


And the remastered building was much larger.
Portail:Arts


https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/fr/wiki/Portail:Arts?file=Holberg_917G_fortress%2C_remastered.jpg

The archway thing on the rock between the two segments of the bridge seems to be about 15 times as tall as the railings on the bridge, which shoul d be about 2 ot 4 feet high. Thus the archway thing should be about 30 to 60 feet high and about 25 to 50 feet wide..

There are two similar looking structures on each end of the building facade facing toward the bridge. The total width of that facade, including the arch like strurctures is about 3.75 times the width of each arch structure, and thus should be about 93.75 to 187.5 feet wide. It is also about the 3.75 times the height of the structures, and thus should be about 112.5 to 225 feet wide.

The facade between the two archlike structures seems to be about 2.25 divided by 3.75 as wide as the total width including the two structures. So it should be 0.6 as wide as the total width including the two structures. And thus it should be 56.25 to 112.5 feet or 67.5 to 135 feet wide.

The facade between the two archlike structures seems to be 5 or more stories high, and about 2.25 times as wide as it is high. If there are 5 10 foot tall stories the facade is 50 feet tall and 112.5 feet long between the archlike structures. If there are five 15 foot stories, the facade is 75 feet tall, and 168.75 feet wide. If there are five 20 foot stories, the facade is 100 feet tall, and 225 feet wide. And the total widthof the facade and the archlike structurees would thus be 187.5, 281.25, or 375 feet wide..

There are at least 21 windows in each of the upper three floors of the facade between the arch structures. Architects would describe ithe facade between the two archlike structures as as al teast 21 bays wide. If each bay is 5 to 200 feet wide, the facade of 21 bays would be 105 to 420 feet wide. And the entire facade including the two archlike structures would be 175 to 700 feet wide.

Combining al these calculations, I get the impression that the total width of the facade facing the bridge is proably about 187.5 feet.

Assuming that the building is 187.5 feet square and has no courtyards or light wells, the building would have a footprint of 35,156.25 square feet (3,266.1225 square meters) feet) and a total floor space of 175,781.25 square feet.(16,330.6125 square meters) on five floors.

That is similar in size to the largest house built in the USA, Biltmore, in Ashville, North Carolina which listed with 178,926 squae feet or 16,622.8 square meters. Of course if Flint's house has has many light wells or courtyards, it might be a lot smaller than that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_houses_in_the_United_States

And if the facade facing the bridge is as wide as 700 feet, and the building is square, and has no light wells or courtyards, it will have a footprint of 490,000 square feet (45,522.4896 square meters) and will have a floor space of 2,450,000 square feet (226,612.448 square meters) on five floors.

And that would make it a little smaller than the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria, which is listed with 2,583,389 square feet (240,000 quare meters) of floor space.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_largest_palace.

Of course, if Flint's hous ehas a lot of light wells and courtyards, it could be a lot smaller than that despite having a 700 foot facade. And of course I think that the facade was a lot closer to 200 feet than to 700 feet.

The Hofburd in Vienna is hardly the building with the largest floor space.

This list includes the buildings with the largest floor space:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_buildings#Largest_floor_area

The 60 buildings on the list go from 18,760,000 square feet (1,900,00 square meters) down to 4,280,000 square feet (398,000 square meters) and so there must be a lot of buildings smaller than them but larger than the Hoffburg.

And all of the largest buildings in the world, were built - like all the normal sized buildings - by persons or organizations with limited and finite money and resources. Nobody has ever had limitless and infinite money and resources for an building project or other purpose.

Therefore, you do not need to have limitless and infinite money and resources to build a structure as impressive as Flint's residence.
 
Last edited:
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top