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[Just a Bill]

Since it is so easy and routine to move a swatch of carpet, why (if there was only one turbolift) did they not do it?

Replying to myself here to correct myself. I've now had the time to complete my exhaustive review of turbolift scenes over the three seasons for my lift model project. I've cataloged 382 instances of a lift being entered, exited, ridden, and/or walked near. The data revealed some interesting surprises, and also showed me that all along I have been misinterpreting the blue-floor situation.

The carpet in the turbolift cabs — the actual turbolift cabs — has been green every single time, comprising 231 out of 234 instances where carpet color was observable. The other three observations, the blue ones, were all cases of what I call Turbolift D or the "dummy" lift. I know this has been discussed before, but I'll go into a little more detail for anyone joining this telecast in progress (and I needed to write this up anyway for my project notes).

In what I call position D, they faked a turbolift a few times by replacing the rec room's yellow side doors with red ones, with the camera placed approximately as shown so we couldn't see much of the rec room interior. Those three instances of blue carpet are simply the rec room floor.

The dummy lift makes an appearance in six scenes across three episodes, which were all filmed pretty close together. The Paramount+ timestamps are provided below. Three times they were just background doors implying a lift, and three other times a character taking a cab emerged from them after a camera cut.

episode (production order)	Pplus	time	characters	lift	mode	floor
3x13 Wink of an Eye	s3e11	08:15	Kirk joins Spock	D	exit	blue
3x15 Let That Be Your Last Battlefield	s3e15	20:50	Lokai sickbay escape	D	walkby
3x15 Let That Be Your Last Battlefield	s3e15	46:18	Lokai chase	D	exit	blue
3x15 Let That Be Your Last Battlefield	s3e15	46:30	Bele chase	D	exit	blue
3x17 The Mark of Gideon	s3e16	01:53	Kirk exits transporter	D	walkby
3x17 The Mark of Gideon	s3e16	04:27	Kirk exploring	D	walkby

FWIW, in rarely used lift positions like "D," I generally only consider a pair of red doors to represent a turbolift if some evidence thereof is shown somewhere in the same episode. This will be (a) the revelation of a lift interior behind the doors, (b) characters interacting with the doors in a manner consistent with a lift (i.e., entering or exiting them as part of a cab ride), or (c) a single-height black placque above the doorway. Thus, I consider the red doors barely glimpsed during Lokai's escape from sickbay at 20:50 to be a turbolift, because later in that same episode he, and then Bele, are each seen exiting those doors at the ends of their separate cab rides. (For double red doors in commonly occurring lift positions like "T1" on my plan above, I count them as lifts except when there is evidence to the contrary, such as a side-mounted room placque.)

Edit to add: I guess I should have included my "bookend" research to discover when those red doors showed up and went away. I believe they debuted in Wink of an Eye, as the doors were yellow in Day of the Dove and unseen in Plato's Stepchildren. Once in place, they remained for the rest of the series. We got little to no corridor scenes in The Cloud Minders, Requiem for Methuselah, and All Our Yesterdays, but the doors were still red in The Lights of Zetar, The Way to Eden, The Savage Curtain, and Turnabout Intruder. In those episodes, they were visible only briefly, and only from inside the transporter room as best I can tell. I don't consider these last four appearances to be supportable examples of "Lift D," because without an overhead "TURBO LIFT #" placque there was no evidence of them being anything other than just a room with red doors.​

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So anyway, in the earlier debate my point about the carpet was trash, so to set the record straight I thought I should point out that with this research I refuted myself on the rug argument. Back then I even said, inexplicably, that the dummy turbolift had the right carpet color. That's just wrong! The dummy lift is the entire explanation for the color conflict. All "real" turbolift cabs — the ones that have filmable interiors — have green floors.

 

[Henoch]

Because of the lack of any turbolift decor (i.e. double layer doors, gold horizontal stripe, light movement panel, handles, etc.), I conclude that this exit is a teal-colored, foyer/turbolift lobby with one or more turbolifts attached to this lobby. WIP Concept for a deck 3 layout with a turbolift lobby near middle of deck:

 

[Mytran]

Because of the lack of any turbolift decor (i.e. double layer doors, gold horizontal stripe, light movement panel, handles, etc.), I conclude that this exit is a teal-colored, foyer/turbolift lobby with one or more turbolifts attached to this lobby. WIP Concept for a deck 3 layout with a turbolift lobby near middle of deck:
View attachment 49560

Some good solutions there to the oddities depicted in the episode!
I especially like the layout of corridors and doors which explains why Lokai peers down the first available route but doesn't take it.

If I might suggest - that fore turbolift which is half-covering the vertical shaft could be moved so that it fully covers the shaft (it's blocked either way) which would increase available space inside the elevator lobby area.

 

[Henoch]

I especially like the layout of corridors and doors which explains why Lokai peers down the first available route but doesn't take it.

Back to the Lokai/Bele chase, I propose that Lokai was trying to get to the aft ladder to go down to deck 4; first he looks down the corridor but sees the red security gate shut, then runs to the fore corridor and sees that red security gate open and runs down the port side perimeter passage to the aft ladder. (Crazy, eh?)

The aft section of my deck 3 layout also displays the Engineering Level 3 location in the corridor at the Jefferies Tube in The Ultimate Computer (if nobody noticed ).

SPOCK: There is one possibility. The automatic helm navigation circuit relays might be disrupted from engineering level three.

The corridor scene starts with Daystrom exiting from below the tri-ladder, and Kirk and McCoy coming around the corner to join the others in the Jefferies Tube.

 

[Mytran]

Back to the Lokai/Bele chase, I propose that Lokai was trying to get to the aft ladder to go down to deck 4; first he looks down the corridor but sees the red security gate shut, then runs to the fore corridor and sees that red security gate open and runs down the port side perimeter passage to the aft ladder. (Crazy, eh?)

Thanks for confirming that those red meshes are security gates - they did look a bit different to regular doors on your plans and this explains why. Perhaps they were left open to funnel Bele and Lokai towards the transporter section, so Kirk could get the troublemakers off his ship!

The aft section of my deck 3 layout also displays the Engineering Level 3 location in the corridor at the Jefferies Tube in The Ultimate Computer (if nobody noticed ).

View attachment 49826
The corridor scene starts with Daystrom exiting from below the tri-ladder, and Kirk and McCoy coming around the corner to join the others in the Jefferies Tube.

I must admit that I didn't spot this first time - I tend to interpret the line as "Engineering, Level 3" rather than Engineering (in) level 3" but either can work depending on the requirements of the deck plan
Regardless, it's a nice inclusion and it fits really well into the aft of the teardrop!

 

[Henoch]

I must admit that I didn't spot this first time - I tend to interpret the line as "Engineering, Level 3" rather than Engineering (in) level 3" but either can work depending on the requirements of the deck plan
Regardless, it's a nice inclusion and it fits really well into the aft of the teardrop!

Another factor influencing my decision to make Eng. lvl. 3 on Deck 3 is that they are working to bypass the Navigation control circuits which works well if they are up on an upper deck under-ish the bridge/helm.