Unseen TOS....
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
They could have, and I can possibly make it look like a matte painting, but I still need to design it first.LOL. TOS could've made a matte painting instead of going for a model.
Still, given the conceit of this project, I’m going to try envisioning something they could have used with the 33in. Enterprise miniature. At that scale it would be far easier, and much cheaper, to build than something to be used with the 11 footer.
Presently I'm trying to keep some degree of distance from the TMP drydock with its wired scaffolding look. I am thinking of some sort of cage like structure, but somewhat more streamlined (Hey, it's TOS and the 1960s) with a structure on the top like a miniature station or such. The structure on the top (hmm...or on the side?) could house operations, workshops, workpod bays and even a hangar(s) for periodic berthing of shuttlecraft. I also envision a form of galleria or observation corridor or lounges looking down on the vessel berthed within the dock.
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I seem to remember Matt Jefferies designing the Enterprise to have everything serviceable from the inside so personnel didn't have to go outside to do repairs. I'd imagine a space drydock would have a similar approach and could be completely enclosed to protect the ship and workers.
Ouch!
Makes sense.
Although it's a later episode, what physical size was the K-7 station they built?
Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever known the size of that miniature. All I can say is I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in scale with the 11 footer.
Smaller K-7 saucer/cone up top…maybe the whole thing circular?
I could see an annular dock..saucer up top…all ships face inward.
Lower saucer quite flat…central rotating dish on a stalk in the middle that lines up in front of the Enterprise’s dish…both pointing to one another like Soyuz radar. Dish rotates to other ships to guide them in.
Dock top and bottom inner plates have arms on racetracks.
Think dry dock that thinks itself a small TOS Spacedock. Not very large…tubes come down to back of bridge turbo lift nub. Above, you see tubes running along top of saucerdock that is like a B/C deck with more layers.
I could see strikes sliding around to enclose everything.
I could see an annular dock..saucer up top…all ships face inward.
Lower saucer quite flat…central rotating dish on a stalk in the middle that lines up in front of the Enterprise’s dish…both pointing to one another like Soyuz radar. Dish rotates to other ships to guide them in.
Dock top and bottom inner plates have arms on racetracks.
Think dry dock that thinks itself a small TOS Spacedock. Not very large…tubes come down to back of bridge turbo lift nub. Above, you see tubes running along top of saucerdock that is like a B/C deck with more layers.
I could see strikes sliding around to enclose everything.
Yup.Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever known the size of that miniature. All I can say is I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in scale with the 11 footer.
Odd thing, Memory Alpha doesn't mention the size of the filming miniature of the originsl TOS K-7
I started with a cylindrical form, but it had far too much empty space above and below the ship, so I lopped off the top and bottom.
The initial version was more enclosed, as I stated earlier, with only a few openings to see inside. But that limited seeing the ship within the dock. Also a more enclosed structure would be more like the shuttlecraft flight deck miniature with one end open to see the vehicle inside and limiting your viewing angle. Now if thats the shot someone would want then fine, but then you’re only building the inside of the dock. And you wouldn’t be able to photograph the structure in orbit… Actually thats not strictly true. If you have one end open you might still be able to photograph it from the other end where the open end wouldn’t show.
The drydock in TMP took the idea of a terrestrial drydock and flipped it over to make it more “spacey.” On Earth a ship drydock is basically a box with the water drained out. And there is no top or cover to the box. The sides and bottom of the box are solid to hold water to float the ship in and out of the dock. In space you don’t need solid sides and bottom so you can make it like a cage with the ship seen hanging inside.
Making the drydock like an oversized hangar strikes me as rather absurd and unnecessarily complicated. To that end I have long thought the spacedock as envisioned in TSFS to be ridiculous—it’s essentially an orbital harbour. It would make far more sense, and be less complicated, to dock the ships outside the station. And note how in TNG they had the 1701D enter into a spacedock. In TSFS it’s obvious the D could never get through that bay door so the spacedock in TNG, although it looked the same, would have been crazy massive.
The TMP drydock wasn’t based on a then relatively recent idea given drydocks have existed for a long time, easily several decades. So it’s not unreasonable to imagine the TOS production crew making the same connection. The distinction is approaching it from the perspective of the 1960s and keeping the TOS aesthetic in mind.
The concept I posted upthread isn’t done. There is still a fair amount of detail to be added. There remains structure to be added to the upper surface. There will be hangar doors on the ends. There will be panels suggesting berthed workpods. I might also include some form of movable cranes. Perhaps there should also be mooring lines or fixtures.
Note, too, that just because we saw one space station in TOS that that should dictate all Federation stations in-universe would or should look that way. Just as we cannot or should not assume all Federation starships all look almost exactly the same. Variety makes it more interesting when envisioning things “beyond the bulkhead.”
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I like the look of your open spacedock. It looks like the sides slide out to accommodate a wider ship.
The main reason you'd want the repair space enclosed is to provide protection to a ship that is taken apart and has her vulnerable insides exposed from space elements. Any power failure that would lose deflectors would by default protect the ship and the repair crew from small meteorites and perhaps a random ion storm. A secondary reason would be for hiding sensitive equipment being installed from surveillance. Imagine assembling the Enterprise in an open spacedock and a spy ship parking on the outside of the system recording every part that gets installed or repaired...
An open space dock would be good for superficial exterior repairs or for a final inspection point where the ship is already put back together. All IMHO.
The main reason you'd want the repair space enclosed is to provide protection to a ship that is taken apart and has her vulnerable insides exposed from space elements. Any power failure that would lose deflectors would by default protect the ship and the repair crew from small meteorites and perhaps a random ion storm. A secondary reason would be for hiding sensitive equipment being installed from surveillance. Imagine assembling the Enterprise in an open spacedock and a spy ship parking on the outside of the system recording every part that gets installed or repaired...
An open space dock would be good for superficial exterior repairs or for a final inspection point where the ship is already put back together. All IMHO.
I had entertained that thought, and it’s a notion that can easily be left open to interpretation. Another notion I had was to make the curved sides of the dock a collection of flat segments so they could change shape to accommodate different vessels.
But I come back to the conceit of considering these things from a 1960’s television production perspective rather than a contemporary one based on so much of what we’ve seen since—at least as best I can.
Assuming that they had built a dock to encompass the 33" mini, what materials do you invasion the effects teams would use for your basic current framework?
Assuming some minor changes (which I considered) it could well be made of wood, some metal and possibly some plastic. It’s not really an elaborate structure—essentially a glorified box or basket.
I’m thinking you could likely use light weight wood, possibly balsa. This wouldn’t be a structure that has to hold up for very long. Then again if it was decently well made it could possibly be utilized in a later episode.
It feels like a homage to TMP. I always imagined any docking design would be more in line with K7 or architectural designs from TOS. It looks nice BTW.Preliminary look. Quite a bit more work to do.
Yeah, that's why I suggested that aluminum grille work they were so fond of. It allows things to be a little more enclosed, while still being able to see through it, plus they would have had the stuff on hand.
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