Turbolift Entrances

[FalTorPan]

I can't imagine that TNG would have had more than a single turbolift set, simply because there would almost never be a need for multiple turbolift sets.

As for two sets of doors, that seems unlikely, too, since a mechanism to keep them in lock-step (necessary, since to my recollection, it never appeared that there were two sets of out-of-synch doors) would have been complicated and required costly maintenance over the seven-year run of the show.

 

[scotpens]

I always wonder what they do in the turbolifts. You see them go in; you see them come out.

Do they break out the iCommunicate and sext each other?

What happens in the turbolifts, stays in the turbolifts!

It would seem to me there'd at least have to be a track in the floor for the sliding set doors to work.

The sliding pocket doors in many homes and commercial buildings today don't have floor tracks, so why would they have been needed on the Star Trek set?

As for those “levers” inside the TOS turbolift cars, did we ever see a passenger actually lift, push or twist them? I always figured they were simply grab handles to brace yourself against the rapid acceleration and deceleration when the car moved sideways, so you wouldn't fall flat on your ass.

 

[FalTorPan]

It would seem to me there'd at least have to be a track in the floor for the sliding set doors to work.

The sliding pocket doors in many homes and commercial buildings today don't have floor tracks, so why would they have been needed on the Star Trek set?

As for those “levers” inside the TOS turbolift cars, did we ever see a passenger actually lift, push or twist them? I always figured they were simply grab handles to brace yourself against the rapid acceleration and deceleration when the car moved sideways, so you wouldn't fall flat on your ass.

I do believe they were seen, on a number of occasions, to be twisted.

Floor tracks for turbolift doors? Unlikely.

 

[FormerLurker]

Re: twisting the handles in the turbolift

IIRC, in Trials and Tribble-ations, Sisko, Dax, etc. step into the turbolift and tell it where they want to go, and it does nothing. Then Sisko remembers he has to twist the handle.

 

[DonIago]

Close...he remembers after an actual crewman comes into the turbolift and twists a handle.

You may have been thinking of Sisko tapping at his non-combadge insignia before remembering to take out his communicator?

 

[Tom Riley]

I can't imagine that TNG would have had more than a single turbolift set, simply because there would almost never be a need for multiple turbolift sets.

Honestly, that would depend on whether the turbolift sets were stationary or could be moved from place to place. Considering we see them access turbolifts many different places, they would need multiple if they were straight up attached to one spot each, but they could have had only one if it was separate and they could move it from location to location.

As for two sets of doors, that seems unlikely, too, since a mechanism to keep them in lock-step (necessary, since to my recollection, it never appeared that there were two sets of out-of-synch doors) would have been complicated and required costly maintenance over the seven-year run of the show.

Agreed, I don't think there were two sets of doors. There wouldn't be a need.

 

[DonIago]

Wouldn't there either have to be two sets of doors or the occasional open shaft? It's not as though when someone boarded a lift from the bridge we saw the shaft open, nor did we see the shaft from the inside of the lift.

 

[Timo]

The doors and their rather bulky mechanism would naturally be built into the set wall of the bridge set or the corridor set, not into the turbolift set itself. That set would probably lack doors altogether; they'd film it with one wild wall removed but with the lift set attached to the bridge or corridor set when they wanted shots of a certain type (showing the doors), but with the lift set pushed apart from the other sets, the wild walls in place, and the camera sitting where the doors used to be, in the usual case.

It's possible that the turbolift set would have an optional wild wall element that looked like a pair of doors, though. But those would probably be non-moving for simplicity. Every scene where the doors would be seen opening would require a set behind the doors, after all; there'd be no point in building opening doors for the turbolift set alone.

So, probably just the one set of doors, built into the walls of the bridge/corridor. But a thick set, suggestively colored, so that we can well imagine that it "in reality" consists of inner and outer doors. We do know for certain that a moving turbolift retains doors that move along with that lift; many scenes of turbolift rides confirm this.

(...As opposed to the Cardassian lifts which lack inner doors and, at Ops, the outer ones as well, having just pieces of railing there to keep one from cheese-grating oneself against the shaft walls. That was a nice bit of design to drive home the "brutality" of Cardassians in every aspect of life...)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Willieck]

I have sometimes pondered these things but I decided a long time ago that there was no real explanation and it best just to accept things as they are illogical as it might seem.

PS But it is fascinating.

 

[Michael]

Wouldn't there either have to be two sets of doors or the occasional open shaft? It's not as though when someone boarded a lift from the bridge we saw the shaft open, nor did we see the shaft from the inside of the lift.

We're talking about the real world set aspects here. In-universe there were always two sets of doors, yes.

 

[FormerLurker]

Re: twisting the handles in the turbolift

IIRC, in Trials and Tribble-ations, Sisko, Dax, etc. step into the turbolift and tell it where they want to go, and it does nothing. Then Sisko remembers he has to twist the handle.

Close...he remembers after an actual crewman comes into the turbolift and twists a handle.

You may have been thinking of Sisko tapping at his non-combadge insignia before remembering to take out his communicator?

No, I just forgot about the other guy.

 

[Michael]

^ You're both wrong. It's actually Bashir and O'Brien who don't know how to use the turbolift until a female crewmember (Lt. Lieutenant Watley from the USS Lexington ) comes in and twists the handle.

 

[perci2112]

And the lift is always on that level when someone on the bridge walks towards it, they don't even pause to see if the doors will open for them, they just assume it will open and the lift will be there

From an In-Universe POV...

It could be that there is always a turbolift at the bridge, when one turbolift goes to the Bridge, the Bridge Turbolift moves to allow this Turbolift access, unless of course theres two turbolifts going to the bridge, in which case the one that gets there first causes a slight delay for the second

the reason there is always a turbo on the bridge is because there are sensors near the turbolift door are activated when some one passes them so that there is a turbolift at the door.

-perci2112-

 

[DonIago]

^ You're both wrong. It's actually Bashir and O'Brien who don't know how to use the turbolift until a female crewmember (Lt. Lieutenant Watley from the USS Lexington ) comes in and twists the handle.

You passed my test.

 

[swaaye]

Personally, I like how that engineering turbolift transforms into Jefferies tube access sometime around season 4?

I suppose that this could be seen as a legit change though. Better repair access in that area? Reroute the lift elsewhere. The vertical access is still there with the ladder. Maybe it's also more secure than having a lift go right past that open reactor core.

 

[Trekker4747]

Personally, I like how that engineering turbolift transforms into Jefferies tube access sometime around season 4?

I suppose that this could be seen as a legit change though. Better repair access in that area? Reroute the lift elsewhere. The vertical access is still there with the ladder. Maybe it's also more secure than having a lift go right past that open reactor core.

What the doors on either side of the Engineering "pool table" go to never really remained cosnsitant. It seems to be whatever it needs to be (and when it became a jefferies tube the horizontal tube appeared to extend in to engineering! We could probably assume some-kind-of remodeling or minor refit occured that turned that turboshaft into a jefferies tube which seems like it'd be an easy enough transition. But, pretty much, the only time I really recall it being used as a turbo is in "Q Who?" when Beverly walks out of it treat Q's injured back and that was likely done for some silly production reason because it was easier/quicker to do than to have her walk from around the corner where the "real" turbos are.

 

[DonIago]

The Jeffries tube/turboshaft are actually part of the ship that can be rotated, so you can access whichever one you need.

Also, you're confusuing "Q Who?" with "Deja Q".

 

[FormerLurker]

^ You're both wrong. It's actually Bashir and O'Brien who don't know how to use the turbolift until a female crewmember (Lt. Lieutenant Watley from the USS Lexington ) comes in and twists the handle.

You passed my test.

I haven't seen it since it aired.

 

[Timo]

Personally, I like how that engineering turbolift transforms into Jefferies tube access sometime around season 4?

Well, we know Crusher arrived through those portside doors to set Q's back in "Deja Q", but we didn't get to see what was behind those doors. Perhaps Crusher was in the Jeffries tubes at the time the alarm was sounded, trying to disentangle Ensigns Lusty and Smolder or something, and climbing down a few decks was faster than crawling out and getting a 'lift?

It would make sense for Picard to decree that all medical emergencies pertaining to Q be handled by the CMO and the CMO alone... No matter where she happened to be.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Trekker4747]

Personally, I like how that engineering turbolift transforms into Jefferies tube access sometime around season 4?

Well, we know Crusher arrived through those portside doors to set Q's back in "Deja Q", but we didn't get to see what was behind those doors. Perhaps Crusher was in the Jeffries tubes at the time the alarm was sounded, trying to disentangle Ensigns Lusty and Smolder or something, and climbing down a few decks was faster than crawling out and getting a 'lift?

It would make sense for Picard to decree that all medical emergencies pertaining to Q be handled by the CMO and the CMO alone... No matter where she happened to be.

Timo Saloniemi

IIRC we do see the inside of those doors and it is clearly a turbolift.