This is one of my favorite shots of the bridge:
Inspired Enterprise -- new behind-the-scenes book about TOS
- Thread starter Christopher
- Start date
I started typing my arguments in opposition to some of your points, but then realized I would be adding more noise than signal. And I think there are a couple of related points that are more interesting than me just continuing the tennis volley.
A broader question that I have also wrestled with during my project is how many copies they would have needed of any given prop, furnishing, or set decoration piece. This comes in many forms; here are a few:
There also just might be a principle we can take from the landing-party props that could inform our speculation on the turbolift(s): the hero/midgrade/dummy distinction. What if there was one hero turbolift (attached to the bridge) and at least one wild midgrade? The latter would look the part, but there wouldn't be moving lights behind the screens, the handles wouldn't turn, the intercom wouldn't light up, and maybe not all of the side panels would be removable. Maybe the front panel wouldn't even have any buttons or intercom at all. For all the turbolift walk & talks and any other close-up work, you'd film in the hero lift; the midgrade would only be to show crew entering/exiting in corridor scenes, as its only working parts would be the doors. (In this paradigm, the midgrade's interior would indeed be functioning somewhat like the dummy insert in the TARDIS.) Maybe blue carpet means you're looking at the hero; green, the midgrade.
Now that I think about it, in this analogy there is actually even a dummy-grade turbolift in (at least) one episode, the identity of which I can't recall right now. We see Kirk come out of the rarely used Rec Room side door, which has been swapped to red (or a pair of reds?). The camera is at the other end of the straight transporter corridor, with a shallow angle on the RR door such that you can barely see inside. Kirk is depicted as exiting a lift, but the tiny piece of interior wall you can see is not curved, and the usual intercom and buttons are absent. Clearly it's just one wild, gray, blank sheet to create the illusion of a small space. (Or maybe it was just the 45° "foyer" panel that accompanies so many of the doorway interiors.)
Yeah, I'm gonna be thinking of this as the "dummy" turbolift from now on. And will keep my eyes open to see if the evidence supports or refutes the idea that the non-dummy, viewable corridor lift is actually a midgrade. (I kinda hope so, since it would save me some time on my project.)
A broader question that I have also wrestled with during my project is how many copies they would have needed of any given prop, furnishing, or set decoration piece. This comes in many forms; here are a few:
- Burke Chairs: Was there a set of these in every room that routinely used them, or were they ported around for each setup? Do you need 10 for the bridge, 2 for the crew cabin, 7 to 12 for the multipurpose room, 3 or 4 more for the sickbay complex ... like, 30 to 50 chairs on Stage 9? Or do you just need about 12 that are constantly in motion?
- 8-Switch Rocker Panels: After the first few episodes (where they were all white) these almost invariably used the same 8 colors in the same sequence. Were there dozens of panels and hundreds of painted, individual switches around the set? Or was each 8-switch panel a drop-in module that could be moved from the bridge to the transporter to aux control to Kirk's desk? (A few times the 8 colors were in the opposite order, suggesting that perhaps a module was dropped in backwards.)
- Intercoms: Same question. Do you need a full complement for the bridge and seven more for the briefing room, plus however many more are needed for all the miscellaneous consoles around the ship? Or do you just need the maximum number for any one scene, plus a few spares for emergencies? They could easily drop into slots on the surfaces and just be held there by gravity.
There also just might be a principle we can take from the landing-party props that could inform our speculation on the turbolift(s): the hero/midgrade/dummy distinction. What if there was one hero turbolift (attached to the bridge) and at least one wild midgrade? The latter would look the part, but there wouldn't be moving lights behind the screens, the handles wouldn't turn, the intercom wouldn't light up, and maybe not all of the side panels would be removable. Maybe the front panel wouldn't even have any buttons or intercom at all. For all the turbolift walk & talks and any other close-up work, you'd film in the hero lift; the midgrade would only be to show crew entering/exiting in corridor scenes, as its only working parts would be the doors. (In this paradigm, the midgrade's interior would indeed be functioning somewhat like the dummy insert in the TARDIS.) Maybe blue carpet means you're looking at the hero; green, the midgrade.
Now that I think about it, in this analogy there is actually even a dummy-grade turbolift in (at least) one episode, the identity of which I can't recall right now. We see Kirk come out of the rarely used Rec Room side door, which has been swapped to red (or a pair of reds?). The camera is at the other end of the straight transporter corridor, with a shallow angle on the RR door such that you can barely see inside. Kirk is depicted as exiting a lift, but the tiny piece of interior wall you can see is not curved, and the usual intercom and buttons are absent. Clearly it's just one wild, gray, blank sheet to create the illusion of a small space. (Or maybe it was just the 45° "foyer" panel that accompanies so many of the doorway interiors.)
Yeah, I'm gonna be thinking of this as the "dummy" turbolift from now on. And will keep my eyes open to see if the evidence supports or refutes the idea that the non-dummy, viewable corridor lift is actually a midgrade. (I kinda hope so, since it would save me some time on my project.)
Last edited:
Similar threads
