Mudd's Women: Kirk’s Quarters - Window?

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by Methuselah Flint, Nov 1, 2019.

  1. Shawnster

    Shawnster Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Ugly naked guy. Several episodes where they are looking from Monica's apartment into his.
     
  2. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Fair enough, my statement was a little hyperbolic. How about this?
    This is because although both the insets on the set wall and the windows on the model are rectangular, that's about all they had in common. Placement, angle of tilt, dimensional ratios and the radial corridor right next to Kirk's set which would lead right out into space are all marks against them being windows IMO
     
  3. uniderth

    uniderth Commodore Commodore

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    There was a corridor on the Enterprise in Discovery that did that. Sooo....

    So...it means we can totally ignore it. Bwaahahaha!!!
     
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  4. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The DSC set layout does indeed have such a corridor adjacent to the crew quarters set, but I've never studied any of the episodes enough times to see if it depicted as such in any given episode. It would be interesting to more closely analyse their use of the sets, which I recall had some peculiar edits in places. Perhaps, one day... :whistle:

    The same cannot be set for TOS of course, which showed straight corridors outside the captain's cabin on more than one occasion.
     
  5. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    Meh. The corridor is generic and used for all corridors. This isn't a real ship of course, so the sets are practical for shooting the show, not some accurate guideline for the fictional ship's actual layout. Most sets don't accurately fit into the building exteriors shown (I first noticed this in All In the Family a zillion years ago) after all.
     
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  6. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    You could say the same about all the sets, though.
    Even the infamous off-centre Bridge was likely only that way because it made for easier framing! In all likelihood a "real" Enterprise Bridge would have the single entrance at the rear of the room, just like an aircraft cockpit (and having the extra benefit of allowing the captain easy visual access to all the stations). Yet in every recreation, cutaway and blueprint the Bridge appears in the classic offset position. Sometimes, things on screen are just as they appear after all, despite all logic to the contrary.
    But if you squint hard enough, everything fits - in which case, why worry at all? :shrug:
     
  7. uniderth

    uniderth Commodore Commodore

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    Because it hurts my eyes to squint through 79ish hours of Star Trek. :scream: :ouch:
     
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  8. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    This is a great find. Thanks, guys!
     
  9. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    Indeed...Shat sporting a hairless chest doesn't seem to have been Roddenberry's idea:
    12och13.jpg
    From his 1965 guest appearance on 12 O'Clock High.
     
  10. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The set designers didn't think the entry should be right behind the captain's back, because that's a very irritating arrangement for the boss. And I can tell you first hand, it is troublesome to work in an office whose entrance is right behind your back.

    In my head canon, the TOS Enterprise is scaled up enough so the captain and navigator face forward, and the elevator is offset 36 degrees. The exterior Bridge housing just has to be a bit bigger, and the external cylinder at the aft end of the Bridge housing becomes something other than the elevator housing.
     
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  11. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    That’s exactly what I’m saying. Was I unclear?
     
  12. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    In-universe, I kind of like the idea that the turbolift alcove was at an angle so that it was more difficult for a hostile to simply exit the turbolift and shoot the captain in the back of the head.
     
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  13. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Jimmy wouldn't go that far. :eek:
     
  14. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I doubt they cared one jot about Kirk's viewpoint of the door - people come and go on the Bridge all the time and the captain's attention should be focused on the instruments or on the task at hand. Also, Matt Jefferies camee from an aviation background and wouldn't have found putting the main access into the control centre being behind the the pilots all that unusual IMO.
    What television set designers and especially directors DO care about is how shots are arranged to appear on screen. The offset doors make all this much easier

    Which is why I mentioned the oddity about the Bridge set.

    It's still pretty easy though - the door opens facing the centre of the Bridge, right where the captain is! :eek:
     
  15. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ...Which is a pretty odd setup to begin with, as nobody can see the Captain without ceasing work and pivoting!

    The bridge is not a practical working environment by any imaginable standard, not with its nonfunctional and indeed downright dangerous "safety" railing, its obstructed paths of movement or view, or its many unnecessary steps and levels. But we can always argue we aren't imagining hard enough. That's something we can't do with corridors that lead into outer space or overlap, though.

    In DSC, many of the sets redressed from the one that has the "corridor past the windows" have the windows replaced by opaque wall ornaments; these are a standard feature of many sets that never would have been intended to feature windows, such as Sickbay. But Burnham's quarters specifically have the windows to the left of the door looking in, and a corridor continuing to the left as well, with people seen walking past at a brisk pace and risking serious injury if said corridor suddenly truncates in a wall not covered by a thick mattress...

    However, that ship also has the saving grace of transverse spokes between the two rings, so we only need assume that Burnham lives in the outer part of the inner ring, right next to a spoke. Well, almost - the spoke would still be level with the inner part of the outer ring, parts of which thus ought to be showing through Burnham's windows, despite those admittedly being angled up.

    The other cop-out is the fact that the ship's non-ring parts have several corridors that graze the outer hull, with windows to one side. Perhaps the corridor past Burnham's door makes a really sharp turn to the left right after the doorway.

    Windows on Kirk's ship are a slightly different issue. We don't have to worry about what would be visible through them, as nothing ever is. Some shots in the remastered episodes look in to reveal people standing or walking by, never suggesting the presence of a cabin behind the window, and often possibly suggesting a corridor - something that goes well with "Mark of Gideon" where the only TOS set window ever to actually open to the outside (alas, to a fake outside here) is indeed in a nondescript corridor, and shuttered when not in use. A corridor is also involved in "Conscience" even though we never get an actual glimpse at those windows. It is probably telling that again Kirk takes his guest to see the stars in a utility space...

    It is thus fine, well and perhaps desirable to say that Kirk's quarters shouldn't have windows out into space. Perhaps space psychology textbooks tell that no cabin ought to provide an outside view? Or perhaps windows are major weaknesses, but corridors dangerously close to the hull are vital for some other reason and thus are also entitled to having these extra weaknesses.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  16. Qonundrum

    Qonundrum Vice Admiral Admiral


    Drat! :guffaw: (Here's where I'd most recently read of the macho Roddenberryism involving chest hair: https://io9.gizmodo.com/more-weird-facts-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-orig-1635546015 I'd read it elsewhere, in a few places and even a book (I'll try to find it and page number when I get time), about chest hair or lack thereof in the future... at least for Kirk...

    But I definitely didn't know that about being topless, but considering the author of that piece didn't even get the title of "Charlie X" correctly...
     
  17. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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  18. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    :o

    And :adore:

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  19. Henoch

    Henoch Rear Admiral Premium Member

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    I thought that's why there are those two guys in red shirts standing next to the turbolift door :techman: , even though I can't figure out when they are on duty or not? :shrug:
    [​IMG]
    They were already on duty when the episode started in the Doomsday Machine (they may already be at Yellow Alert since they are investigating a destroyed solar system). They perk up at Red Alert, then maintained when Kirk called Yellow Alert but stand by battle stations. Other Red Alerts bring out no guys. I'm confused..
     
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  20. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That's the power of starlight for ya! :biggrin:

    We've seen guards (or a guard) by the turbolift before, but for some reason they always face AWAY from the doors...and are sometime attacked as a result :brickwall:
     
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