I'm liking both sides of the McCoy cigarette argument. Both sides are making good arguments. We may never know. 
Hey, I never noticed that before....
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
I also tend to think the smoke was intentional. I'm curious if the actors were allowed to smoke on the set, especially during filming. OR if they had an area offset where people could light up
Known to the general public today as "Type 1".
@GNDN18 posted a picture upthread of Kelley smoking on the bridge set, which unambiguously proves that at least one actor, the one in question no less, did smoke on one set at one time.
Bahb Justman took David Gerrold to task for showing smoke caused by the wee bairns in an early draft of "Tribbles." I doubt that anyone would have either appreciated a visibly smoking piece of advanced surgical equipment or taken the time and budget to rig an effect of such little significance (much like my comments: extremely little, ensign.)
Also, sometimes cigarettes are incompletely snuffed out from time to time and continue to smolder. I watched the surgery scenes again last night and the smoke is visible only in one or to takes. Would Kelley take the opportunity to sneak a drag between takes when the ashtray was conveniently hidden? Who can know, but I think I would under the circumstances.
Leonard also smoked on set, now that I think of it. It was hard to watch Spock smoking (even though I knew it was between takes. )
I suppose that scenario, or something resembling it, was possible. But that would seem very amateurish of Kelly and the director to behave in that way.These were pros. They weren't getting paid to be slackers.
How is grabbing a smoke when you can during a 12 hour work day slacking?
I've also seen pix of Diana Rigg having a smoke on set of The Avengers. Like, while tied to a torture device, between takes. It was certainly not uncommon at the time. They were human beings, not gods who worked 12 hour days without a moment to eat, rest or smoke.
Emma Peel smoking while tied to a torture device? Sounds like heaven for those with certain fetishes!
It's worth pointing out that in those days, it wasn't uncommon for actors to be able to smoke in character on a lot of shows. I got a giggle watching an episode of Dark Shadows when Dr. Hoffman lit a cigarette on one of Barnabas's candles.
"Cigarette?"
"Yes, I know."
"....Well."
"Yes, I know."
"....Well."
What a perk!
Once in a while in the '80s you'd see a wisp of smoke from Johnny Carson's cigarette just out of frame, or catch him moving back from his ashtray. Of course in the '60s and (early?) '70s he and guests would just smoke openly. I heard an interview with the Amazing Randi and he said that when Johnny was at the desk and an act or something was going on the stage, Johnny would often be seen looking up toward the ceiling if the camera cut to him. That was because he was checking the monitor, so as soon as the shot switched off of him he could take a puff.
There's something mounted on a wall of the transporter room, that you can see beside Scotty's head in this screencap:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x22hd/thesavagecurtainhd0217.jpg
It's also visible beside Dickerson's head here:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x22hd/thesavagecurtainhd0187.jpg
What is it? It looks sorta like the head to an old goose-neck viewer from the pilots, but not exactly. Is it a camera interface for the intercom? Or what?
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x22hd/thesavagecurtainhd0217.jpg
It's also visible beside Dickerson's head here:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x22hd/thesavagecurtainhd0187.jpg
What is it? It looks sorta like the head to an old goose-neck viewer from the pilots, but not exactly. Is it a camera interface for the intercom? Or what?
The second half-ish of season two has them grey bathed in purple light, between seasons 2 and 3 they were instead painted purple. I guess as you say it was easier just to paint them if they liked the look.
Edit: Looking at some screen caps from latter half of season 2 it's pretty inconsistent:
A Piece of the Action: Neutral light
Return to Tomorrow: Purple light
Patterns of Force: Neutral light
The Omega Glory: Neutral light
The Ultimate Computer: Neutral light
Assignment Earth: Purple light
Edit 2: The purple paint only extends to the top in The Savage Curtain:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x22hd/thesavagecurtainhd0187.jpg
In Let That Be Your Last Battlefield the top of the wall is gray:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x15hd/letthatbeyourlastbattlefieldhd1443.jpg
Edit: Looking at some screen caps from latter half of season 2 it's pretty inconsistent:
A Piece of the Action: Neutral light
Return to Tomorrow: Purple light
Patterns of Force: Neutral light
The Omega Glory: Neutral light
The Ultimate Computer: Neutral light
Assignment Earth: Purple light
Edit 2: The purple paint only extends to the top in The Savage Curtain:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x22hd/thesavagecurtainhd0187.jpg
In Let That Be Your Last Battlefield the top of the wall is gray:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x15hd/letthatbeyourlastbattlefieldhd1443.jpg
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Yes, it's one of the old pilot-era gooseneck viewers. No explanation has been offered why it's there. It's too high to really look into it. My hunch is that is was meant to be trained on the transporter chamber so that people, say, on the bridge could watch people beam in and out. We never saw that, but I can imagine dramatic scripting reasons why that might be valuable.
Attachments
Maybe the Valiant wasn't completely destroyed, after all. It would explain why the Eminians had Federation viewers and computers.
Incidentally, I think the last time we saw a goose-neck viewer as a viewer was in "The Menagerie, Part I", which, as a kid, I thought was weird. Why would the super-cool goose-neck viewer be superseded on the Enterprise, but appear on Mendez's desk? And in the same episode? It was like some kind of spooky foreshadowing of the past events about to unfold, an odd chronic hysteresis loop.
^ Maybe it's the desk lamp.
