How many transporter rooms on TOS Enterprise?

[Mytran]

Foldable corridor segments would certainly help explain some of the weird side corridors that appeared during the series! (Little Girls, Mirror Mirror and so on)

 

[blssdwlf]

The Transporter Room in LTBYLB is different to every other one seen, in that the wall adjacent to the door (on your right as you enter) sweeps forward at a very sharp angle, instead of the usual 90 degrees. Add to that that we only see the front two pads, and I'd suggest that what we are seeing is a smaller, auxiliary room instead of the usual one(s).

Perhaps this is the Transporter Room that is used when saucer separation occurs? Those impulse engines are not in the same league as M/AM reactors, a small T-Room is probably all they can handle!

Hmm. The reason it sweeps forward is because of the computer station. It looks like the same old transporter room with the addition of a computer station attached to modified wall. It looks alot like the setup from "Assignment Earth"...

 

[Mytran]

It is the same layout of consoles, but the wall angles have been shuffled around a fair bit. From LTBYLB compare this:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x15hd/letthatbeyourlastbattlefieldhd1445.jpg

with similar shots from Assignment:Earth
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x26hd/assignmentearthhd0046.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x26hd/assignmentearthhd0058.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x26hd/assignmentearthhd0145.jpg

It should be noted that the setup from AE is the more common one and features in a lot of episodes in S2-3. However, it is also a setup that requires intrusion into the corridor, as shown in the set blueprints:

http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/Star-Trek-set-floorplan.png

 

[GSchnitzer]

It is the same layout of consoles, but the wall angles have been shuffled around a fair bit. From LTBYLB compare this:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x15hd/letthatbeyourlastbattlefieldhd1445.jpg

with similar shots from Assignment:Earth
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x26hd/assignmentearthhd0046.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x26hd/assignmentearthhd0058.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x26hd/assignmentearthhd0145.jpg

It should be noted that the setup from AE is the more common one and features in a lot of episodes in S2-3. However, it is also a setup that requires intrusion into the corridor, as shown in the set blueprints:

http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/Star-Trek-set-floorplan.png

I think the walls of the transporter room set were not wild and they didn't move. I think the only thing that changes from shot to shot is the position and angle of the freestanding transporter console.

 

[Mytran]

The straight wall (with the door) looks to have been fixed. The rest - I'm not so sure...

Certainly the rear wall must have been wild, otherwise there'd be large bits of it permanently sticking out into the corridor!

 

[blssdwlf]

Good observation Mytran. Yeah, that wall looks to be wild or modifiable given it's different configurations. Do you know offhand if there were any episodes where we were shown the version that sticks into a corridor and in the same episode see characters walk that same corner?

 

[Just a Bill]

I'm not really seeing that the "corner kiosk" setup would necessarily have to protrude into the corridor, at least as far as these screen captures are concerned. In the LTBYLB shot with Bele on the platform, the kiosk angles do not conform to the blueprint at all. The apex, for example, clearly points between the two frontmost transport pads, the kiosk base (as in the base of a triangle) is on an angle to the outer walls (like a corner cabinet), and the back wall of the room itself is not much worse than a 90-degree angle with the doorway wall; perhaps 100 or 110 degrees.

The blueprint, on the other hand, shows the kiosk's base flush against the doorway wall and its apex pointing directly at the far wall. However, this does not match what we see in the Bele image [delete]or in either of the two AE shots[/delete]. I don't know if the blueprint is actual or conjectural, but it is not a good representation of these visual references, so if the transport chamber did in fact violate the corridor space during filming, I would be interested in some corroboration.

Hmm, I wonder if the blueprint was the intended setup, but when it came time for the set redress, somebody decided to not break down the corridor and instead just re-angled the kiosk and moveable rear room wall to fit the available space. There are some very odd angles apparent in that Bele shot, supporting the idea of an on-the-fly "just make it fit" solution.

UPDATE: I see now that the kiosk angles are different between AW and LTBYLB. If you look at the angle between the kiosk and the wall it shares with the door, the angle is acute in the Bele shot but obtuse in the AE shots. I now speculate that for AE they may have done as the blueprint suggested, and then when they wanted to use the science console again for LTBYLB they either didn't want to, or couldn't, break down the corridor again, likely because the unusual reverse camera angle from the platform required a much longer (temporary) back wall to be put up than was normally seen. (The temporary nature of the wall is suggested by how it atypically mates directly to the floor.)

 

[Timo]

Hmm... The stage plan manipulation looks spot on for the "Assignment: Earth" setup, save for the minor detail that the transporter control console in the blueprint is at a 45 degree angle with the radial corridor, while the console in the episode is at a 90 degree angle to the corridor. That is, the wall angles look completely correct.

Whether the dimensions of the wall sections are off is another matter. If each segment were a tad shorter than suggested in the blueprint, the protruding might yet be avoided... But again the drawing looks like a good approximation of the dimensions we see in the episode.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Just a Bill]

Hmm... The stage plan manipulation looks spot on for the "Assignment: Earth" setup, save for the minor detail that the transporter control console in the blueprint is at a 45 degree angle with the radial corridor, while the console in the episode is at a 90 degree angle to the corridor. That is, the wall angles look completely correct.

I see now that my update wasn't very clear on this point, but I do agree that the AE configuration appears consistent with the set plan. (I was misinterpreting the images when I first composed the message.) But the realignment apparent for LTBYLB looks to me like it will easily accommodate the full corridor, so I would treat that as "more canonical" than the earlier appearance, since it doesn't appear to require space to fold in on itself.

 

[Mytran]

Good observation Mytran. Yeah, that wall looks to be wild or modifiable given it's different configurations. Do you know offhand if there were any episodes where we were shown the version that sticks into a corridor and in the same episode see characters walk that same corner?

My episode notes have yet to be unpacked, but I have a feeling that it only happens once, in the early part of Mirror Mirror. Even then, we don't really see that much of the offending parts of the Transporter Room, a bit of squinting might get us though that one.

 

[Robert Comsol]

"Add to that that we only see the front two pads, and I'd suggest that what we are seeing is a smaller, auxiliary room instead of the usual one(s).

Perhaps this is the Transporter Room that is used when saucer separation occurs? Those impulse engines are not in the same league as M/AM reactors, a small T-Room is probably all they can handle!"

Unorthodox but wonderful idea, I love it! (but that's probably not the only transporter room in the saucer?)

In "Mudd's Women" they used the transporter while without M/AM power. So maybe Spock's "How many coming?" doesn't refer to the amount of dilithium crystals, but shows a concern if they still have enough power to beam that many people from Rigel's surface.

Same goes for space station K-7. I believe this one to be powered only by nuclear fusion and the two transport pads in Mr. Lurry's office could suggest that fusion power will only allow beaming of two people at a time.

As for the transporter room studio set I'm not exactly sure what we are talking about. The Season Three set in general had this odd "kiosk" corner protruding into the room of whatever you'd call it, like in "The Way to Eden": http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x20hd/thewaytoedenhd0104.jpg

(hmm...shouldn't the console be visible in this shot: http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x20hd/thewaytoedenhd0166.jpg)

The scene in front of sickbay, however, doesn't look like the transporter room set extended into the corridor: http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x20hd/thewaytoedenhd0474.jpg

(I don't think they would have moved the wall back just for this scene, but I could be wrong, of course).

I can't shake the feeling that during Season Two they had this turbo lift access in the corridor at the expense of the back part of the transporter room set.

By Season Three the turbo lift got back to the end of the circular corridor and rather than re-assembling the transporter rom set as seen in Season One they came up with these design changes for Season Three. Measure?

Bob

 

[Just a Bill]

The scene in front of sickbay, however, doesn't look like the transporter room set extended into the corridor

I believe that it actually did extend into the corridor for Assignment: Earth (end of S2) as shown in the floor plan most recently linked by Mytran (disrupting your corridor set to get an unusual transporter shot needed for the last episode of a season doesn't seem too problematic), and then for S3 they tightened up the transporter room layout (resulting in the odd re-angling of that kiosk). All the reference images I've seen here seem consistent with this conclusion.

 

[blssdwlf]

It looks like in Assignment Earth they didn't show any corridor shots of that area immediately after entering or leaving the transporter room.

 

[BK613]

Screen shots of Is There in Truth No Beauty? could be informative as well.

 

[Just a Bill]

Interesting ... whereas the kiosk's angle with the doorway wall appears obtuse in the S2 set plan and Assignment: Earth screenshots, and acute in LTBYLB screenshots, the captures from ITITNB make it look close to 90 degrees.

S2e26 - Assignment: Earth
Obtuse (seems to match posted S2 set plan)

S3e05 - Is There In Truth No Beauty?
Near 90°

S3e15 - Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Acute

Could it be that these latter two are actually the same angle and I'm just seeing it wrong?

 

[Mytran]

I really can't see how - the acute angle is pretty obvious, which is why it first peeked my attention.

 

[GSchnitzer]

I really can't see how - the acute angle is pretty obvious, which is why it first peeked my attention.

It looks to me that the small wall with the gooseneck viewer on it is at a 90 degree angle to the wall with the door. And it looks to me that the wall with the "kiosk" is at a 90 degree angle to the small gooseneck viewer wall. It seems the only thing that is differing in LTBYLB is the *back* wall. It is not perpendicular to the wall with the door. Compare the LTBYLB shot with a very similar shot from Lincoln's POV on the transporter pad in Savage Curtain."

 

[Mytran]

Thanks, I'd forgotten about SC! Actually, it seems to demonstrate the acute angle in LTBYLB rather well:
Acute (and a shorter wall section that usual)

90°-ish

I must admit, I hadn't realised that wall moved around so much!

 

[GSchnitzer]

No, I think it's a right angle in all episodes. It only looks acute and like it's a shorter wall because the camera is way over to the side of the alcove in LTBYLB. I think the short wall is just foreshortening. The kiosk always seems up be parallel to the door.

 

[Just a Bill]

No, there are definitely (at least) three positions; I am convinced now with the Savage Curtain shot (thanks, Mytran!). GSchnitzer, please review the first and third images in my previous post, taking note of how the "gooseneck wall" and adjoining doorway wall meet at the floor; this should eliminate any camera-angle confusion. (If the angle in the Bele-transporting shot were truly 90 degrees with camera distortion, we would expect to see the other 90-degree angles in that shot similarly distorted, but they all look fine.)

Also, in the Lincoln image, the wall that supports Spock's science console cannot be parallel to the door; otherwise we would see that wall. The science console itself is angled toward the transport console, and somewhat away from the door (note that you can easily see the back of the top edge of the console, and the back of Spock's viewer).

It seems clear that the yellow-striped apex of the kiosk must be acute (in all the shots I've seen); I suspect that the two walls of the kiosk are fixed together, but the whole "prismic" thing was rotated relative to the transporter room walls on either side in whatever way was convenient each episode.