Reused sets in the TOS movies

[Mr Silver]

The lights in the reactor room look awfully similar to the lights we see here

 

[Christopher]

The lights in the reactor room look awfully similar to the lights we see here

Uhh, no, because the lights in that second screencap are not on a full-size set, but on the miniature of the drydock frame. The array of lights you're referring to is a hexagonal "tractor beam emitter" that in real life is less than a foot across.

 

[Mr Silver]

The lights in the reactor room look awfully similar to the lights we see here

Uhh, no, because the lights in that second screencap are not on a full-size set, but on the miniature of the drydock frame. The array of lights you're referring to is a hexagonal "tractor beam emitter" that in real life is less than a foot across.

Ok, but I seriously swear that the lights in the reactor room have been reused from something else. The closest I could get was the lights in the drydock model.

 

[Ryann866]

The lights in the reactor room look awfully similar to the lights we see here

Uhh, no, because the lights in that second screencap are not on a full-size set, but on the miniature of the drydock frame. The array of lights you're referring to is a hexagonal "tractor beam emitter" that in real life is less than a foot across.

Ok, but I seriously swear that the lights in the reactor room have been reused from something else. The closest I could get was the lights in the drydock model.

The lights from the reactor room remained intact on those two top sections of the wall through TREK IV (where it was pretty much the exact same set, painted brown and with Klingon graphics)
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tvhhd/tvhhd0435.jpg

and then through most of the early seasons of TNG:
http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s1/1x10/battle085.jpg

Later on when those walls were used for the Klingon ship of the week they replaced the bank of lights with a solid lit piece, usually red:
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:IKS_Pagh_bridge.jpg
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Duras_sisters'_Bird-of-Prey_bridge.jpg

 

[inflatabledalek]

FOr all the fuss made at the time about its cost (however unfairly because of the Phase II stuff being included), TMP must have wound up one of the most cost effective films ever made, they got twentyish years of use out of various things built for it in the end.

 

[Ryann866]

In our discussion to figure out where the Klingon BOP bridge seen in Trek III came from (based on Nimoy's assertion on the dvd that the set "came from somewhere else") I went back and watched the blu-ray...

Could it be that the set was cobbled together from an un-used wall from sickbay built for Phase II along with sections of the torpedo bay from TWOK?

Below is a Mike Minor drawing of sickbay as it was supposed to appear in Phase II:
http://www.ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/images/phase 2/interior.gif

The wall of consoles on the right side of the drawing ended up as the side wall to McCoy's office in TMP and later as the back wall of Geordi's office in the engine room on TNG.

However the wall with the console behind the desk chair in this sketch doesn't seem to have been used in the film's sickbay set and it reminded me of the back wall of the BOP from TSFS:
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tsfshd/tsfshd1517.jpg

Also, in the screen grab above, outside the hatch to the door we can make out the "shock absorbers" from the torpedo bay (originally TMP Klingon ship) and in an earlier shot you can clearly see the torpedo hatch.

If you match the bulkhead supports to the rear section of the torpedo bay that held the upper level only seen at the end of TWOK it looks like Kruge's ship could have been constructed from the left over sickbay parts and that rear section of the torpedo room.

I know it's a stretch, but there always are possibilities...

In my hunt for shots of old Phase II sets, I checked an old Starlog from 1977 which states that the briefing room, Rec Room, Admiral's office, and Klingon ship were all built for Phase II and completed. It's amazing that we've never really seen pictures from these sets as they originally stood. And as we've seen through this thread, they probably used every bit of them to save money over the years.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

As I understand it, some parts from the admiral's office were used to build the partial cargo bay set in TMP.

 

[Ryann866]

I think I've figured it out... further "archeology" uncovers that the Trek III Klingon BOP bridge was actually a re-dress of the torpedo room.

Look at the curved arch in this shot and the console on the right side near the officer walking in.
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/twok/ch13/twok0986.jpg

Compare that to the Trek III shot:
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tsfshd/tsfshd1517.jpg

It wasn't a Phase II set but again, the original Klingon set built for TMP that was used as the BOP. Seems to be why we never saw the torpedo room again after this.

 

[Christopher]

But the torpedo room itself is assembled from pieces of other sets. Those distinctive diagonal struts ending in spherical bases are taken from the TMP Klingon bridge.

 

[Ryann866]

But the torpedo room itself is assembled from pieces of other sets. Those distinctive diagonal struts ending in spherical bases are taken from the TMP Klingon bridge.

Right -- for TWOK they added the rear section with the docking ports and the walls from the airlock set from TMP to make the Amar bridge the Enterprise torpedo bay.

From what I can tell, they re-worked that rear section again to build TSFS BOP bridge. You can see those struts you mention outside the door - that wall with the arch and console are the same from the torp bay as are the bulkhead supports that run up the wall to the ceiling. All they really added was the platform for Kruge's chair, the main consoles where the Klingons sat in front, the round hatch door, and that overhead lighting fixture.

Amazing after seeing these films a million times there are still new things to discover about their making

 

[Christopher]

Hey, you know, you're right. The torpedo hatch at the front end of the bay is actually inside the frame of the viewscreen from the Klingon bridge.

 

[Ryann866]

Hey, you know, you're right. The torpedo hatch at the front end of the bay is actually inside the frame of the viewscreen from the Klingon bridge.

Exactly! There's not a screengrab of it online but if you watch the door opening in the shot where Torg is heading out with the boarding party over to the Enterprise, you can clearly see the top vents on the torpedo hatch (Amar viewscreen) behind him as they walk out.

They actually built the BOP bridge inside that rear section of the set. The moulding in the ceiling above Kruge is the same opening that Spock's torpedo is lowered down through at the end of TWOK.

 

[Basill]

Heh. Cool. The Klingon bridge comes full circle (though facing the opposite direction?).

 

[JonnyQuest037]

That is cool, but it again makes me wonder why they didn't restore it to something closer to its original configuration.

 

[Maurice]

Speaking of the Klingon bridge from TMP, has anyone ever seen a photo where you can see much of the side rooms next to the captain? They're lost behind the suspended transparent side screens (edge-lit etched plexi).

 

[Christopher]

^Not photos, as far as I know, but they're shown in the 1980 blueprint set. There's not much in them -- just a communications console to starboard and a damage control console to port, and an exit to corridors on the fore wall of each. The transparent screens you mention are labeled as "targeting coordinates display." Oh, and the diagonal struts are "acceleration cushions," basically big shock absorbers.

 

[David cgc]

I don't quite get that, honestly. They look cool, but it seems to me that if the floor of your bridge is heaving into the ceiling, then you've got bigger problems. Plus, they're surrounded by fixed bulkheads.

 

[Christopher]

I don't quite get that, honestly. They look cool, but it seems to me that if the floor of your bridge is heaving into the ceiling, then you've got bigger problems. Plus, they're surrounded by fixed bulkheads.

Even a "fixed" structure can be flexible, especially one as large as a starship (or a skyscraper -- very tall buildings often sway, even though they have fixed walls and floors and such). And that flexibility is good, since bending is better than breaking. Probably the shocks the columns are absorbing are much subtler deformations than you're suggesting. The walls themselves could be designed with sufficient flexibility to cope with that.

 

[Maurice]

I don't buy what those blueprints say. After all, Andy Probert told me where "Bolognium engine shields" came from, and it's nonsense.

 

[Christopher]

With a name like "bolognium," I assume it was supposed to be baloney.

Anyway, the labelling is redundant. It's obvious just by looking at those struts, with their telescopic structure and round bearings at the bases, that they're designed to compress and change their angles. There's no other reason for them to be designed that way.