The "side" of Spok's station....

[Grant]

I’ll use any excuse to rewatch my TOS Blu-rays and this is as good as any.
I watched all the bridge scenes from episodes.....

2. WNMHGB
3. Cobomite
4.Mudd’s
5. Enemy
6. Man Trap
7. Naked
8. Charlie
10. What Are
11. Dagger
12. Miri

First as far as those who said they never saw the station to Spock’s left in place….
I say…......
WTF? It is clearly visible in eps 3-8 and beside WNMHGB all the remaining episodes spend very little time on the bridge.

It’s very interesting to watch the episodes and paying strict attention to the set and not the actors.
There are 5 stations to Kirk’s rear/right and 3 to his left.

The stations on each side of the view screen are “half-stations” and rarely seen.

The episode that shows the most of the bridge is of course Corbomite.

All 10 episodes have camera POVs where they removed the station to Spock’s left.
4 episodes have “errors” where the side or back of stations are seen.
WNMHGB has an error that I’ve never noticed before.
The station to Spock’s left has only the top section removed and one camera shot has the BACK of that station visible.
The other episodes that have errors all have the same error where the side of Spock’s station are visible.
In a couple of shots it’s not just the lower portion visible but the side of the upper part of Spock’s station is visible too.
When they removed the section allow the camera in----they also remove the entire pie wedge including the raised portion. But in doing so the have to move the step so the actors can step down from the remaining Spock station down to the lower level.
Therefore in Naked Time there is a shot of the step where it has been moved into the missing section’s spot so Nimoy could step down.

In Mudd's Women Shatner's hand drapes over the edge of the console. It's the only time I saw that in the episodes I watched.

Corbomite had the most camera angles and they also removed at least one section closer to the view screen to allow the camera in.
Other interesting trivia is that, in Corbomite at least, the two “half-stations” closest to the view screen have no chairs--so there are only 6 seated stations on the “ring section.” I’m pretty sure in other episodes I’ve seen the stations nearest the view-screen with seats and crewmembers seated.
Also Spock and Uhura’s stations have two view screens above them and the other 6 have only one. Some of the “above station” view screens are “widescreen” and others are 4:3 ratio.

And just a few quick observations from the episodes I scanned………..
It blows my mind to see the extra at the Communication console in WNMHGB DEAD ASLEEP in the final scene of the episode. WOW! The director must have whispered “Action” when the scene started for him to be sound asleep!
In Naked Time the director informed Shatner, Whitney, Kelley and Nichols to show there were in extreme pain due to the high pitched whine but he clearly forgot to tell the Helm/Nav/engineering station extras who do not react at all in the same shot!
And lastly, the completely useless security guard who bursts onto the bridge in Dagger and then faces front (not the door) so Van Gelder can take him by surprise is a blond with a crew-cut, but in the shot right after Van Gelder knocks him out they replaced him with brown-haired Eddie Paskey (Leslie).
I guess stunt guys cost more than extras and they didn’t want to pay him to hang around on the floor pretending to be knocked out!
A fun couple of hours I had---I must say!

 

[Christopher]

It’s very interesting to watch the episodes and paying strict attention to the set and not the actors.

Indeed. As research for material set on Vulcan in the Trek novel I'm currently writing, I recently rewatched "Yesteryear" and studied the background scenery more closely than I ever have before -- and it's startling how beautiful it is. You'd expect Vulcan to be an austere place, but they made ShiKahr look like a huge art gallery filled with abstract sculptures everywhere you looked. People badmouth the animation in TAS, but the production design and background art were spectacularly imaginative.

And then I watched Enterprise: "Home" for the same reason, and was struck by how much the set design for T'Pol's home was directly influenced by the design of Sarek's home in "Yesteryear." Both had a walled courtyard containing a fountain, sculptures, and plants, and in both cases the front wall of the house consisted entirely of windows looking out on the courtyard.

 

[Richard Baker]

Sets are often distorted for filming- when you see the plan view of a home there are no right angles on the back corners. The Bridge was unique in it's day- a fully circular set with removable slices for access. I am not surprised the edges of the segments showed up at times due to getting the shots quickly and moving to the next type of constraints. I never really noticed them before now.

 

[Green Shirt]

. . .on Lost in Space, where the interior walls of the Jupiter 2 seemed to expand when the script called for it, even as the exterior set sold a hard, fixed structure of limited interior space.

It got even worse than the walls. In one episode from the final season (I think), the ship suddenly had a deck below the living quarters, just so the monster of the week could fall to his death into the power core.

IIRC, that episode was also famous for the monster saying "Id, Id!! to Will Robinson, and his childish reply was "You don't scare me with your big words!"

 

[Melakon]

...In Naked Time the director informed Shatner, Whitney, Kelley and Nichols to show there were in extreme pain due to the high pitched whine but he clearly forgot to tell the Helm/Nav/engineering station extras who do not react at all in the same shot!must say!

Not sure if you can blame the director for that. With motion pictures, the Assistant Director usually gives instructions to extras, the Director is primarily concerned with the main cast. It might be the same for television.

 

[Christopher]

The Jupiter 2 became bigger on the inside as soon as they built the lower deck set (which I think was added for the new material shot after the pilot). The ship exterior wasn't big enough to fit a full-sized lower level. Then in season 3, yes, they added a third level and a space pod that hadn't been there before.

This is one advantage that Space: 1999 had. They operated from a moonbase, so they could easily justify adding new sets and resources.

 

[Grant]

Another really rare angle from Corbomite is the fact that in a couple of shots they removed the vertical section of Spock's science station and had him look directly at the view-screen above his station.

So in effect he was looking right in the direction of the camera--only just above it.

I think it was pretty rare for them to show the actors looking at the console be removing the console.

 

[Melakon]

I love Corbomite Maneuver, and much of it is due to Joseph Sargent's direction. He also directed one of my favorite Man from U.N.C.L.E. episodes, "The Project Strigas Affair", where Shatner was the guest star and Nimoy was one of the bad guys, it was their first time working together. Sargent later directed one of my favorite films, the original The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, with Seinfeld's Jerry Stiller in a featured role.

 

[Ssosmcin]

And just a few quick observations from the episodes I scanned………..
It blows my mind to see the extra at the Communication console in WNMHGB DEAD ASLEEP in the final scene of the episode. WOW! The director must have whispered “Action” when the scene started for him to be sound asleep!

Or he has his head down in grief because Gary was a friend of his...? That's always how I took it. Having an actor sound asleep on a set during a shot is pretty unlikely.

 

[Grant]

And just a few quick observations from the episodes I scanned………..
It blows my mind to see the extra at the Communication console in WNMHGB DEAD ASLEEP in the final scene of the episode. WOW! The director must have whispered “Action” when the scene started for him to be sound asleep!

Or he has his head down in grief because Gary was a friend of his...? That's always how I took it. Having an actor sound asleep on a set during a shot is pretty unlikely.

Are you serious?

They instructed a background extra to face-plant on the communications console in the background of a scene between Kirk and Spock?

 

[NTRPRZ]

I now can't refrain from telling this anecdote I once read about "Lost in Space":

One episode had run out of budget and the production manager came to Irwin Allen, telling him they couldn't afford to built the antagonist alien's spaceship anymore. Allen supposedly got very mad, but then he said "Then the alien is going to walk."

Bob

Sounds like something Irwin Allen would say ...

 

[GSchnitzer]

As indicated, this probably would have been the choice of the Assistant Director (Bob Justman). My hunch is that it's meant to indicate exhaustion on the part of the Communications officer, rather than the actor dozing.

We saw the same thing in "The Corbomite Maneuver," when Kirk indicates that "We've been here, held motionless, for eighteen hours." We see that Sulu and Uhura are both pretty beat:

Also, I don't think it's Eddie Paskey doubling for the bridge security guard. In a brief shot, Paskey (who had been sitting at Engineering) is visible, while the bridge guard is still lying on the deck.

And just a few quick observations from the episodes I scanned………..
It blows my mind to see the extra at the Communication console in WNMHGB DEAD ASLEEP in the final scene of the episode. WOW! The director must have whispered “Action” when the scene started for him to be sound asleep!

Or he has his head down in grief because Gary was a friend of his...? That's always how I took it. Having an actor sound asleep on a set during a shot is pretty unlikely.

Are you serious?

They instructed a background extra to face-plant on the communications console in the background of a scene between Kirk and Spock?

 

[Grant]

As indicated, this probably would have been the choice of the Assistant Director (Bob Justman). My hunch is that it's meant to indicate exhaustion on the part of the Communications officer, rather than the actor dozing.

We saw the same thing in "The Corbomite Maneuver," when Kirk indicates that "We've been here, held motionless, for eighteen hours." We see that Sulu and Uhura are both pretty beat:

Also, I don't think it's Eddie Paskey doubling for the bridge security guard. In a brief shot, Paskey (who had been sitting at Engineering) is visible, while the bridge guard is still lying on the deck.

Or he has his head down in grief because Gary was a friend of his...? That's always how I took it. Having an actor sound asleep on a set during a shot is pretty unlikely.

Are you serious?

They instructed a background extra to face-plant on the communications console in the background of a scene between Kirk and Spock?

If you want to pretend it's the same thing as a scene where they explicitly mention everyone is exhausted and have one of the principal actors obviously napping in the foreground to a shot where everyone is awake except for one background extra----great.

As for the guard being replaced--it looks like Paskey's hairstyle but in any case it's not the stunt guy who Van Gelder knocked out.

**** I double checked you are 100% right Leslie is standing in the scene where the replacement guard is laying down knocked out---so it's not Paskey subbing for the stunt guy.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The Jupiter 2 became bigger on the inside as soon as they built the lower deck set (which I think was added for the new material shot after the pilot). The ship exterior wasn't big enough to fit a full-sized lower level. Then in season 3, yes, they added a third level and a space pod that hadn't been there before.

 

[Maurice]

Yes, the A.D. usually directs "background". Before the director calls "action" the A.D. calls "background!" to tell the background players to start doing their thing. "Action" is a signal to the actors, not background.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Or he has his head down in grief because Gary was a friend of his...? That's always how I took it. Having an actor sound asleep on a set during a shot is pretty unlikely.

Are you serious?

They instructed a background extra to face-plant on the communications console in the background of a scene between Kirk and Spock?

And you think it's MORE plausible that an actor fell dead asleep sitting at a console on a loud, noisy set? And worse, and nobody noticed? In a shot with the two leads?

I'll take "bad directorial choice" over that very highly unlikely scenario, thanks.

 

[Christopher]

I watched the shot in question, and the guy is only on camera for a second or two as the camera swings by. Let's remember that they didn't have HDTV in the '60s, so we notice a lot of details today that were essentially invisible in the original broadcasts. Plus, reruns were less common back then, so nobody ever expected that viewers would see these episodes more than once or twice -- certainly not that they'd have the opportunity to peruse them a hundred times and catch tiny details they missed the first 99 times. Maybe the extra was instructed to keep his head down so that his presence in the background wouldn't distract the eye from the motion of Spock stepping across to Kirk, or something. It was meant to be subliminal, something the audience wouldn't be paying direct attention to because they were watching the lead actors in the foreground.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Much like Lt. Palmer in the background of the Doomsday Machine, when Spock and Sulu are urgently talking about the planet killer pulling them in at the end of act 2. She's standing there furiously holding her ears. Does her head hurt? Is she totally panicking? She's not making a sound and she really looks odd. One of the extras beside her even glances at her, as if wondering "what the hell is she doing?" It's a strange choice, but it only became obvious when I saw the episode multiple times due to home video. Obvious to me, that is. I'm sure at least 3 people here will say "I noticed it from day one."

 

[Richard Baker]

The Jupiter 2 became bigger on the inside as soon as they built the lower deck set (which I think was added for the new material shot after the pilot). The ship exterior wasn't big enough to fit a full-sized lower level. Then in season 3, yes, they added a third level and a space pod that hadn't been there before.

This is one advantage that Space: 1999 had. They operated from a moonbase, so they could easily justify adding new sets and resources.

The Jupiter 2 was originally designed as a single level ship called the Gemini 12- it was just supposed to get people someplace and not be used as a traveling house. A pilot was started with it like that but was revised, the second living level was added and the front viewport altered. The Chariot was supposed to be carried disassembled - IIRC there were several references about 'assembling the Chariot' in the show. Space Pod was just stupid- they even had to make a special SFX 'Pod Drop' miniature in a different scale to make that thing fit.

Star Trek has some TARDIS issues- the Hangar Bay being the biggest one as it would not fit into the secondary hull if the interior was sized as it is shown. Still, for television back then, it did strive to keep things logical and realistic.

 

[scotpens]

Star Trek has some TARDIS issues- the Hangar Bay being the biggest one as it would not fit into the secondary hull if the interior was sized as it is shown.

Star Trek's biggest TARDIS issue was the Galileo shuttlecraft itself. We all know the interior set couldn't possibly begin to fit into the exterior mockup, and there were discrepancies between the full-size mockup and filming miniature as well.