Star Trek 1955

[The Lensman]

Welcome to the new Star Trek 1955 thread! The other thread was almost five years old and I resurrected it from the dead when I should've started a new thread. Here's a link to the original thread which has lots of information about the various models and conversations about them. I will repost all of those images here over the next few days.

At any rate, if you're new to this Star Trek 1955 thing, the gist is that several years ago I was watching a lot of 1950's "dawn of the television age" scifi like Space Patrol and Rocky Jones, the latter of which has some great sets and fx for it's day, and wanted to create a version of Trek as if it had been made in that era. Congrats! You're up to speed!

Initially I didn't plan to do "sets", but over time I found the idea compelling since the ship is smaller than the regular ship. Also, once I realized that the some of the "sets" in old space shows don't necessarily "fit" into the ship models properly, that made it easier to do what I wanted without stressing over whether or not it fits right. I'm going to repost the transporter room since it was the post that resurrected the old thread. I plan on playing around more with this set over the weekend as I've got some tweaks and details I want to add.

And here's a modified version of the Klingonian Cruiser. Gave the engines some new fins and fiddly bits. Tightened up the rings on the laser canon, narrowed the main body and made the top fin like bits on the more pronounced (not visible in this image).

For comparison, the original version

 

[scifieric]

This is a VERY neat idea!

 

[fireproof78]

As a fan of Space Cadet I welcome this idea.

 

[Santaman]

I do remember your old thread, really nice work, the 50's indeed had that certain style to them.

 

[Redfern]

Reposting what I said upon Deviant Art where The Lensmn also has an account...

This would an ideal solution from a production POV circa 1955. The door, having an "obscured" window in some fashion, is opened by the performer who then steps inside the chamber. Sound effects are looped into the footage as another actor "operates" the standing console. No opticals needed. Maybe the audience sees a glow from the window.

(Upon DA, The Lensman provided an explanation involving a simple "lapse dissolve" and a stagehand flickering a light illuminating the interior of the chamber. I was thinking of a solution that need not require any special editing.)

The problem is the "destination". Unless the script calls for the character to beam (teleport, whatever) to a locale like another spaceship that also has a similar station, they'll have to contend with some sort of "reintegration" effect.

Likely I'm missing an "obvious" solution. As this is your setting, how would you resolve the production issue?

BTW, it's great to see "earlier takes" on Trek again!

 

[The Lensman]

This is a VERY neat idea!

Thanks!

As a fan of Space Cadet I welcome this idea.

Nice! I haven't watched as much Tom Corbett as I have Space Patrol and Rocky Jones: Space Ranger.

I do remember your old thread, really nice work, the 50's indeed had that certain style to them.

Thanks! They did indeed indeed!

Reposting what I said upon Deviant Art where The Lensman also has an account...

This would an ideal solution from a production POV circa 1955. The door, having an "obscured" window in some fashion, is opened by the performer who then steps inside the chamber. Sound effects are looped into the footage as another actor "operates" the standing console. No opticals needed. Maybe the audience sees a glow from the window.

(Upon DA, The Lensman provided an explanation involving a simple "lapse dissolve" and a stagehand flickering a light illuminating the interior of the chamber. I was thinking of a solution that need not require any special editing.)

The problem is the "destination". Unless the script calls for the character to beam (teleport, whatever) to a locale like another spaceship that also has a similar station, they'll have to contend with some sort of "reintegration" effect.

Likely I'm missing an "obvious" solution. As this is your setting, how would you resolve the production issue?

BTW, it's great to see "earlier takes" on Trek again!

I suppose the most obvious, or at least immediate, solution would be to do what they did often enough in Star Trek, and that was to have the camera focused on a part of the destination (but not the beam down site) and play the transporter sound. Then the camera pans over to the landing site and by the time it gets there, the sound fx have stopped and the landing party is done beaming. So the only thing used for beam down was the sound fx.


Well, I didn't work on the transporter room today, that'll be tomorrow. What I did work on today was the Engine Room. I wanted to kick out the idea that's been kicking around this old head for the last couple of years alongside the transporter room.

Think of this as a "rough sketch". I also wanted to experiment with creating some textures (those oscilloscope panels and the engine lights) in Procreate, which I've been using for awhile now and really love. But I don't love those panels as of right now. The engine lights are supposed to have a sort of counter-clockwise rotating effect, so that's gonna take more work. Really I need to use a more updated program like Blender instead of this dead ass old program because the lighting effects are beyond what I'm working with.

Here's a slightly updated cutaway of the Rocketprise. The transporter machinery and emitter is housed in the underside dome. Looking at the cutaway, the rooms in the saucer are much larger than I like and the "sets" will be smaller.

The Rocketprise herself with astronauts for scale.

The Klingonian ship (original version) with astronauts for scale

And the Romeulan ship with astronauts for scale

Space Station-7 with astronauts for scale

And Space Station-7 with Enterprise for scale

 

[publiusr]

That makes sense to me:

“Captain, the Sub-Aquarians require the high pressure materializer….”

 

[The Lensman]

Updated version of the transporter room. Widened the control console as it takes two people to operate it. Added a door and alert status lights above it. Gonna take a break from this and refine the engine room next.

 

[scifieric]

I absolutely love this! I would watch a show that was designed like this!

 

[The Lensman]

I absolutely love this! I would watch a show that was designed like this!

Thanks! Yeah, it would be pretty cool!

 

[publiusr]

I absolutely love this! I would watch a show that was designed like this!

There is a mystery element... storytelling is helped by not knowing quite what might be on the other side of that door....