SCA probably expands to Science Lab(s) A and SCB to Science Lab(s) B, assuming the layout was vaguely inspired by FJ’s which in turn referenced The Making of Star Trek.
Quite so - but in-universe constraints would be a bit different. Did we ever get any indication that Decks 2 and 3 might have held science functions, labs or pop-out telescopes in-universe? Did FJ base all that on the "hatch" that so nicely accommodated his telescope, or was that more a consequence of him accessing TMoST? Timo Saloniemi
Not in so many exact words, but it can be logically deduced that the Botany Lab from "The Man Trap" was on deck 3. The reasoning goes something like this, Uhura is on this same deck for some unknown and unspecified reason. So perhaps she's on her coffee break and headed to the nearest and/or favored rec room? We have on occasion seen her in rec room 6 on deck 3 ("Charlie x") and what appears to be the same place again in "The Conscience of the King", so it makes sense that she would frequent a break room close to the bridge. It seems this is what FJ and his research assistants (his daughter and her friends -all avid fans who took notes from the episodes) came up with since he puts the botany lab on deck 3 and provides a "general utility room" on this same deck in his U.S.S Constitution plans, which is evidently being used on the Enterprise as a rec room, thus neatly compromising between the onscreen info and TMOST. Anywho, here my translations of the decks from TMP trailer; BRG=Bridge SCA=? Science lab A level SCB=? Science lab B level OFQ=Officer's Quarters QRT=Quarters MCL=? Miscellaneous? CRA=? CGO=? Cargo STG=? Storage HLD=Holds
Now enter Probert and his assignment of fitting a three-storey Rec Deck in the ship. And then recall "Let That Be" and its reference to a Rec Deck spanning decks 3 through 5, supposedly right between the Bridge and a Transporter Room. And then see what Probert came up with, a facility with twin turboshafts forward, nicely matching the pair on the bridge... So in-universe, anybody sipping a cup of coffee on Deck 3 would merely be exploiting the main recreational resource of the starship, presumably its upper-level Officers' Lounge which later will feature a nice set of aft-facing scenic windows (although in TOS already has a pretty skylight which just happens to be covered by a yellow hatch most of the time ). Even if said somebody happened to have her duty stations on the Bridge, or down at Comms Lab on Deck 8½. Conversely, Deck 3 is already burdened with so many Rec Rooms that declaring it a Science Deck would be complicated... Although I could see a disconnect between official Starfleet intent and what use Kirk made of the facilities during the five-year mission to deep space. "Do we really need a botanical lab up here? We already transferred that meditating chick down to Deck 15, isn't there a hot and moist storage hold there right next to the secondary coolant loop? I already have all the gym machinery on preorder from Jose..." Timo Saloniemi
SC could be for Security or Security Control or Security Complex (levels A and B). Those two security guards always show up very quickly when called to the bridge. Spock took the Romulan Commander to her "quarters" on Deck 2; complete with security guards I bet.
McCoy hops the turbolift from the Bridge. Kirk has the alert continuing on connecting decks from the bridge which are decks four through eleven. Since a short amount of time passed, decks two and three were probably cleared quickly due to their small sizes. I take the deck range to imply that the saucer has 11 decks. It makes no sense to have alerts in the dorsal decks and stop at deck 11 and not continue down the neck into the engineering hull, so, I get the sense that the alert of "connecting decks" only applies to the saucer.
Makes great sense, especially in the context of all that is otherwise known onscreen and accepted backstage. The top of the neck could be closed off by a single security team no doubt. But it might be either futile or then impractical to slam shut all doors within the saucer: this might prevent vital alert-status operations, but also still leave open enough alternate routes to locations where McCoy could do harm or self-harm. (We don't see any signs of alertness at that transporter room, though. What gives? Were comms partially down?) Timo Saloniemi
Why should Kyle be concerned? He knows crack Security Teams are sweeping the corridors, so, he is completely safe.
The interesting thing about this deck specific dialogue is it didn't have to be there, the script writer could have just had Kirk say "put all decks on alert" and been done with it. But the "connecting decks" and "decks 4 though 11" dialogue seems to suggest they wanted to hint to the viewers that they had decided -by this point in production- that the saucer section has 11 decks. This is supported by the fact that in the Blish adaptation of this episode -which we know was based on early script drafts- all this deck specific dialogue is missing, suggesting that it had not yet been added, and so was something someone (Fontana?) added later when the final drafts were being polished. This might also explain the reason why McCoy was able to elude security and use the transporter, because in the early scripts (as indicated by Blish's adaptation) McCoy had already reached the transporter by the time a search was organized.
This actually gives a reason that the turbo-shaft was closed, even. What if the decks are numbered from the bottom up? At one, time Jefferies did consider the idea that the bridge would be on the bottom. There is no dialogue that says the bridge is on Deck 1 in TOS. Would any of these issues be improved if the deck numbers were reversed?
Hah, I've thought of that too, but I'd rather just chalk it up to Fred Freiberger and/or Arthur Singer not knowing (or caring) what they're doing, since one of them would have been most likely to put this deck destination line in the script. The Blish adaptation of this episode -based on an early script draft- has Spock and the Romulan Commander's conversation taking place on the bridge, and her leaving with a security guard to escort her to her "quarters" while Spock stays behind, so the audience isn't privy to what the deck destination was. So it wasn't until the scene was changed that a voice command to the turbolift needed to be added to the dialogue, and no thought was given to the need for a much lower deck to account for the lengthy conversation. D.C. Fontana is on record complaining about how her story for this episode was heavily rewritten, and so I don't think she would have let such an obvious mistake happen on her watch back when she story editor/script consultant.
It would have been just as easy to quickly ride to Deck 2 (or even simpler to use a bigger Deck number), have the turbolift stop and Spock just hold the door closed to finish their conversation. Then we can get a comment from McCoy about "Who's been holding up the damn elevator?"
In TOS, you don't need to hold the doors Khan style, with your palms and your fantastic muscular strength - you manipulate the handle doodad on the wall instead. And we don't see what Spock is doing with his hands... And the plot really yells for holding the elevator for conversational purposes. (However, this is the single turbolift ride in all of TOS where Kirk should actually be concerned if it does not arrive at its destination in time, and would do well to have a pair of heavily armed redshirts knocking on the door at the slightest delay. Perhaps the Commander neck-pinched Kirk's XO? Perhaps the two are planning on taking over the ship and eloping with it? Perhaps there was a vial of nerve gas in the Commander's <tech> and everybody will be dead in a matter of minutes?) Timo Saloniemi
I know that accommodating varying lengths of time for conversions in T/Ls was explained by the idea that T/L sometimes had to be rerouted around other T/Ls etc. So, another possibility is that since deck 2 is such a small deck, it may be serviced by a single T/L station, and someone else is holding up that one, thus delaying Spock and co. arrival? But this would seem to be stretching coincidence to the breaking point.
FWIW, turbolifts seem to do their own thing above and below C Deck in TWoK. Possibly the bottleneck is between Decks 3 and 4, and above it there's lots of shaftage crisscrossing and allowing for multiple cabs to efficiently serve the single (later double) bridge station. Turbolifts do work extremely well at Deck 1, allowing people to arrive or depart seconds after the previous cab has done its thing. Inventing a bottleneck between 1 and 2 takes some doing... While, conversely, having Spock stall his lift on Deck 2 would be unlikely to inconvenience anybody. Timo Saloniemi
Maybe the sign was meant to read 1B and it was in italics so it was read incorrectly as 78 by the monkeys. It was Turbo shaft number 3 after all, so 1 and 2 presumably took precedence.