TOS shuttle bay set question
- Thread starter Irishman
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"The Galileo Seven" was the first appearance of the shuttlebay miniature set. The same footage of the shuttlecraft being launched and/or retrieved was used in "The Doomsday Machine," "Journey to Babel" and "The Immunity Syndrome." A few other episodes used the stock miniature shots of the shuttlecraft in flight but not the hangar deck footage.
The remastered Shuttle Bay in LTBYLB is pretty cool. It shows the Shuttle being brought in by tractor beam in a not so normal landing.
*sigh*
Not seen the TOS-R shuttlebay but it has to be an improvement on the original model. The shuttlebay is the only bit of the original Enterprise I didn't like and made it look like a toy. It looks like they just fastened some roller-shutter doors to the rear end of the secondary hull.
The remastered version in LTBYLB looks kind of cartoonish, but the way the Shuttlecraft wobbles into the bay is interesting. It also offers the option of adding variety to the standard Shuttle recovery shot.
I've always thought the shuttle and its associated set pieces and miniatures are a big part of what sold the "reality" of Trek. There was the full-size (or make that 3/4 size) mockup, the interior shuttle set, the shuttlecraft miniature and matching hangar bay miniature (with opening clamshell doors that match those on the back of the ship), the observation deck seen in "Conscience of the King", even the partial view of the hangar bay (with shuttle inside) in "Journey to Babel", all designed to work together to convey the general placement and scale of the shuttlebay and craft within the Enterprise. Some have taken their calipers out to compare the hangar bay miniature's shape and dimensions to its placement within the Enterprise (itself of course a miniature), and of course point out that the shuttle itself is bigger in the inside, or the differences between the shuttle miniature and mockup, but I think all of the different elements used to convey the "reality" of the shuttle work amazingly well together. The shuttle was never shown entering or leaving the ship from an outside view (until remastered came long at least), but we understood and accepted what the creators had in mind.
I like the shuttle departure in the TOS-R 'The Doomsday Machine'. Decker was unhinged and in a hurry to leave- the shuttle wobbly lift off and exit fit the scene perfectly.
The original Hangar Bay miniature set was not sized correctly to remotely fit into the secondary hull, the remastered version to me looks better in that respect. I prefer physical models over CGI - I just wish the team back in the sixties had time and technology to have done things a bit differently.
The original Hangar Bay miniature set was not sized correctly to remotely fit into the secondary hull, the remastered version to me looks better in that respect. I prefer physical models over CGI - I just wish the team back in the sixties had time and technology to have done things a bit differently.
If I'm not mistaken, the employees at AMT who built the full size Shuttlecraft also made the miniature Shuttlecraft bay.
They built the shuttle miniature, but it was Richard Datin who built the hangar bay miniature (sized to match). I don't think it is stated explicitly in the book she wrote about her father, but his daughter sold a few spare decal sheets as used on the shuttle miniature on Ebay over the last year (one of which I was fortunate enough to have purchased), and I have assumed that Datin applied the decals to the miniature AMT corp. built.
I see a lot of criticism of the original shuttle bay footage; a cheap joke, absolute crap, etc.
Question. WHO on television, circa 1966-69 was handing us better special effects? WHO was handing us better special effects and continuously intellgient and compelling story lines?
Question. WHO on television, circa 1966-69 was handing us better special effects? WHO was handing us better special effects and continuously intellgient and compelling story lines?
Doctor Who?
Agrred. With the low budget and limited technology that TOS had to deal with, I think they worked wonders in the episodes. I always compare TOS to Lost In Space if I need a good laugh....LIS had 1950's style B-movie not-so-special effects
I beg to differ. While "Lost in Space" certainly had a different tone than Trek, some of its special effects were, to put it mildly, awesome. All of the shots of the Jupiter II flying were done live -- not mattes -- and the scene of the ship crashing also was incredible. I'm a fan of both Trek and Space, but really think Space had the better SFX.
Agreed wholeheartedly. Like many later Star Trek spinoffs it was not the model work production values that let LIS down, it was the writing.
If anyone is interested, Datin's Flight Deck miniature dimensions were made public on this forum a few years back. He apparently scaled it to the shuttlecraft miniature, which was 1:12. This puts the Flight Deck at 122' long
If anyone is interested, Datin's Flight Deck miniature dimensions were made public on this forum a few years back. He apparently scaled it to the shuttlecraft miniature, which was 1:12. This puts the Flight Deck at 122' long
The miniature work-- on both Star Trek and Lost in Space-- played a huge role in making me a loyal fan starting in the 1970s. Along with the music scores on both shows, the fx shots always gave me that extra enjoyment to prop up well-memorized plots and dialogue.
MeTV started running LiS in order a few months back. They came on late so I DVRd them.
After watching about the first dozen episodes, I've come to two conclusions:
!. The Robinson family must have been selected as being the dumbest family on Earth. I guess the authorities figured if they could succeed then anyone would.
2. By the third or fourth episode, Dr Smith should have been shoved out the airlock or beaten to death with a shovel. Besides his directly threatening the members of the family and getting them into mortal danger. It was blatantly obvious that he intentionally caused the robot's malfunction that stranded them in space to begin with.
After watching about the first dozen episodes, I've come to two conclusions:
!. The Robinson family must have been selected as being the dumbest family on Earth. I guess the authorities figured if they could succeed then anyone would.
2. By the third or fourth episode, Dr Smith should have been shoved out the airlock or beaten to death with a shovel. Besides his directly threatening the members of the family and getting them into mortal danger. It was blatantly obvious that he intentionally caused the robot's malfunction that stranded them in space to begin with.
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