Observations on Janice Lester's isolation room

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Yes, it was the standard designation - the label "Transporter Room" was never used or seen.
It can be glimpsed in several episodes but here's another clean appearance from This Side Of Paradise

https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season1/125-this-side-of-paradise/this-side-of-paradise-br-355.jpg

And the pointer-sign version from Journey To Babel

https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season2/215-journey-to-babel/journey-to-babel-br-018.jpg

If they had, it would have looked more like this:

But sadly, no chicken soup dispensor.

 

[blssdwlf]

Yes, it was the standard designation - the label "Transporter Room" was never used or seen.
It can be glimpsed in several episodes but here's another clean appearance from This Side Of Paradise

https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season1/125-this-side-of-paradise/this-side-of-paradise-br-355.jpg

And the pointer-sign version from Journey To Babel

https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season2/215-journey-to-babel/journey-to-babel-br-018.jpg

If they had, it would have looked more like this:

The "Savage Curtain" floor plan appears to have added another wall segment? and rotated the segment with the camera to a more 90 degree angle. Hmm, if I understand the old layout, it would seem that it is possible to change the angle of the walls to fit for "Mirror, Mirror". I sketched in red what it might be based on the earlier floor plan but with a change in angle on the wall. If I ever get around to modeling the transporter room I might try and see if it will fit

 

[Mytran]

The "Savage Curtain" floor plan appears to have added another wall segment? and rotated the segment with the camera to a more 90 degree angle. Hmm, if I understand the old layout, it would seem that it is possible to change the angle of the walls to fit for "Mirror, Mirror". I sketched in red what it might be based on the earlier floor plan but with a change in angle on the wall. If I ever get around to modeling the transporter room I might try and see if it will fit

I think you're right; the room depth in both those setups may not be too dissimilar after all!
Perhaps the Transporter Room which Space-Lincoln materialises in doesn't fit the set either?

Here is another angle from MM which confirms that there is only the "door wall" panel adjacent to the angled wall with the mini-scanner on it (above the guard on the left).

Interestingly; 7 episodes before Space-Lincoln turned up the Transporter Room set was configured like this:

The wall with the mini-scanner angles toward the T-platform even more severely and the back wall is noticeably closer to the main console (than in Savage Curtain), meaning that the whole area might just fit correctly!

 

[blssdwlf]

I think you're right; the room depth in both those setups may not be too dissimilar after all!
Perhaps the Transporter Room which Space-Lincoln materialises in doesn't fit the set either?

"Savage Curtain" does avoid showing the corridor outside of the transporter room where it would stick out... so very likely?

Here is another angle from MM which confirms that there is only the "door wall" panel adjacent to the angled wall with the mini-scanner on it (above the guard on the left).

Interestingly; 7 episodes before Space-Lincoln turned up the Transporter Room set was configured like this:

The wall with the mini-scanner angles toward the T-platform even more severely and the back wall is noticeably closer to the main console (than in Savage Curtain), meaning that the whole area might just fit correctly!

Indeed!

 

[Maurice]

Jumping back to the signs seen in the corridors, I designed a handful of those for use in the corridor set for the second Starship Exeter fanfilm, one of which was designed to indicate where intruders were headed, and also to suggest there were more facilities for extra-vehicular activities than the transporter or shuttles. That sign gets its closeup here (at 24:04 if the video doesn't start in the right spot).

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[Christopher]

I think you're right; the room depth in both those setups may not be too dissimilar after all!
Perhaps the Transporter Room which Space-Lincoln materialises in doesn't fit the set either?

We can presume that the different configurations represent different transporter rooms, even though they tend to refer to "the transporter room" as if there were only one. But there must be more than one, since only one has a food dispenser in it.

Here is another angle from MM which confirms that there is only the "door wall" panel adjacent to the angled wall with the mini-scanner on it (above the guard on the left).

I wonder what the "mini-scanner" is for. Is it just a camera? It would make sense to have a security camera in the transporter room, although there are cases where someone beams up or down clandestinely without anyone being alerted. So what else could it be?

 

[Maurice]

Can anybody say where they built the Observation Deck (over the shuttle bay)? Where on Stage 9 I mean, or was it on Stage 10?

According to the shooting schedule for "The Conscience of the King", the "Int. Observation Corridor" was on Stage 9.

According to the shooting schedule for "Journey To Babel," a "Hangar Observation Room" was specified for scene 4D of the teaser, but it was omitted, but appears to have been Kirk and Co. looking at the Shuttlecraft door opening (off camera).

sc. 4D: Kirk,-Spock-McCoy enter Observation Rm-(Teaser)

CONSTR: Galileo ship platforms.

EFX: Galileo doors to open.

The next location is "Int. Hangar Corridor", which is where Sarek's party is greeted. The schedule specifies the day to begin on Stage 10 (planet/swing set), and then for a crew move back to Stage 9 (Enterprise sets), though it doesn't specify that crew move til after the Engine Room scene with Spock's parents, which is probably just an error. But it seems like the hangar corridor and shuttlecraft were meant to be shot on Stage 10, which would have enough room for the shuttlecraft and the ante-hangar corridor.

 

[Phaser Two]

I think you're right; the room depth in both those setups may not be too dissimilar after all!
Perhaps the Transporter Room which Space-Lincoln materialises in doesn't fit the set either?

Here is another angle from MM which confirms that there is only the "door wall" panel adjacent to the angled wall with the mini-scanner on it (above the guard on the left).

Interestingly; 7 episodes before Space-Lincoln turned up the Transporter Room set was configured like this:

The wall with the mini-scanner angles toward the T-platform even more severely and the back wall is noticeably closer to the main console (than in Savage Curtain), meaning that the whole area might just fit correctly!

It's a bit hard to tell because of the angle, but it almost looks like they moved some things around for the Lincoln-on-the-pad shots versus the Cheron-guys-running-for-the-pad shots. But that's probably just due to Lee Bergere being taller than both Antonio and Gorshin by something like four to six inches. The shots from the pad of Losira killing poor Ensign Wyatt are tighter so there's not as much to be seen. I'm just thrilled that they shot from the pads—other fun S3 staging choice.

 

[Christopher]

But that's probably just due to Lee Bergere being taller than both Antonio and Gorshin by something like four to six inches.

Not counting the hat.

 

[Maurice]

To get the shots from within the transporter chamber, they probably just popped one or more of the lenticular panels out and put the camera against the back of the transporter platform.

 

[Christopher]

To get the shots from within the transporter chamber, they probably just popped one or more of the lenticular panels out and put the camera against the back of the transporter platform.

Yeah, the set diagram shows the rear panels were just a thin wall with nothing behind them but the corner of the soundstage (and presumably the stage lights that made them glow).

 

[Maurice]

You can still buy those lenticular sheets (Rowlux Illusion Film), though the ripple patterns aren't a perfect match to the 1960s. They're like a mm thick.

 

[Firebird]

If it's of any benefit to the thread, here's some additional set plans from my collection:

My attempt at reconstructing the layout from Desilu Stage 15 during filming of "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

Another reconstruction I did to approximate what the sets looked like during "Corbomite Maneuver," including the extra door in the corridor next to Kirk's quarters that can be seen on the detailed construction plans of the conference room and Kirk's quarters. It would be removed before "Balance of Terror" would be shot.

And finally, the set layout for filming of "The Enemy Within," which very clearly shows the extra corridor door I mentioned:

 

[Mytran]

And finally, the set layout for filming of "The Enemy Within," which very clearly shows the extra corridor door I mentioned:

That set plan is a new one to me, thanks!
Since this was the first appearance of the Engine Room set it's fascinating to see how it was originally envisioned:

The entrance foyer was wider and seemed to have made use of the curved wall section (from Pike's cabin in The Cage) which popped up here and there during Season One. Of course, this would have made it impossible to fit into the corridor set without a bit of clever editing, which sounds strangely familiar...

The big boxy "energiser" units are in the centre of the room and the vertical power conduit (which Evilkirk damages with his phaser) is much larger than the one in the final episode.

I think the design was attempting to reflect the description in the script, with engineering as a maze of sorts, with plenty of spaces for an intruder to hide in. The gorgeous forced-perspective tube structure would have been vastly more obscured however, which may be why the design was revised.

 

[Phaser Two]

That set plan is a new one to me, thanks!
Since this was the first appearance of the Engine Room set it's fascinating to see how it was originally envisioned:

The entrance foyer was wider and seemed to have made use of the curved wall section (from Pike's cabin in The Cage) which popped up here and there during Season One. Of course, this would have made it impossible to fit into the corridor set without a bit of clever editing, which sounds strangely familiar...

The big boxy "energiser" units are in the centre of the room and the vertical power conduit (which Evilkirk damages with his phaser) is much larger than the one in the final episode.

I think the design was attempting to reflect the description in the script, with engineering as a maze of sorts, with plenty of spaces for an intruder to hide in. The gorgeous forced-perspective tube structure would have been vastly more obscured however, which may be why the design was revised.

Your description of engineering as a maze is spot-on and exactly what the script in "The Enemy Within" was trying to convey IMO. (Same with "Court Martial.") It's also one of several reasons why I believe that was an engine room in the secondary hull, while the one we usually see was in the primary hull. But anyhoo . . . .

Getting back to set design questions, does anyone know of an in-universe or out-of universe explanation for the placement of the transporter console at such an intriguing angle to the platform? For whatever reason, as filmed, it doesn't usually look as though the angle was quite that much of a diagonal, though it clearly was. Did they anticipate the need for action sequences in the room, and wanted the console out of the way a bit?

 

[Christopher]

It's also one of several reasons why I believe that was an engine room in the secondary hull, while the one we usually see was the one in the primary hull.

It was only in Franz Joseph's blueprints that the engine room was asserted to be in the primary hull. TOS was always consistent that Engineering was "the lower levels." The Making of Star Trek also makes it clear that there are no engineering facilities on decks 7-8, only in the secondary hull. Doug Drexler's Constitution-class cutaway graphic from ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly" confirms the position of Engineering in the secondary hull, directly under the nacelle pylons, with the triangular pipes being the bases of the power conduits extending into the pylons, and with the dilithium chambers on the engine room floor connecting to a horizontal intermix shaft running directly underneath it. (In my novel Forgotten History, I chose to interpret the "nacelle interior" seen in "One of Our Planets is Missing" as actually being this intermix shaft.)

I've always hated that Franz Joseph completely missed the point of the forced-perspective tubes and depicted them on the blueprints as actually being short and tapering like the real structure on the set, rather than being the much longer, straight tunnel that the designers intended it to represent. It's weird that he replicated that so literally while also depicting the corridors outside the engine room in a configuration that contradicted the actual set.

 

[Maurice]

In that "Enemy" plan, the "energizers" appear to be in the position needed to do the shots of eKirk up on top of them, where the curved ceiling is visible. They were wild units and moved around as needed. I wouldn't read too much into their position on that plan.

Also, was that curved Pike cabin wall moved there for a prior episode? It was planned to be used for Charlie's quarters (blueprint) in "Charlie-X", but if it was used, it didn't end up on camera.

 

[Mytran]

In that "Enemy" plan, the "energizers" appear to be in the position needed to do the shots of eKirk up on top of them, where the curved ceiling is visible. They were wild units and moved around as needed. I wouldn't read too much into their position on that plan.

Fair point, but that vertical column is still WAY bigger than how it ended up in the episode!

Also, was that curved Pike cabin wall moved there for a prior episode? It was planned to be used for Charlie's quarters (blueprint) in "Charlie-X", but if it was used, it didn't end up on camera.

• The curved wall (with the recesed bookcase) first appeared in Kirk's closet in a deleted scene in The Corbormite Maneuvre.
• Then it was due to appear in Charlie's cabin but never made it onscreen.
• However, the same cabin configuration was used for Kolos in Conscience Of The King and the bookcase shelf is plainly visible (alone with the fancy sofa from Talos V!)
• The bookcase shelf also appeared as a wall section of the brig, in The Changeling and Mirror Mirror.

 

[Just a Bill]

• In Mirror, Mirror it also shows up in Kirk's "closet" again, but in this universe that space is deeper and serves as Marlena's changing room.

 

[Mytran]

• In Mirror, Mirror it also shows up in Kirk's "closet" again, but in this universe that space is deeper and serves as Marlena's changing room.

Good point!
Although in this case the "changing room" would also have to share floorspace with the side corridor which runs alongside Kirk;s cabin in this episode.

Perhaps the little table is for a security guard to monitor the side entrance?