Where the heck did that travel pod come from?

[Workbee]

Okay, this is something that bugged me for awhile.

In TMP, after Kirk beams aboard the Orbital Complex, he and Scotty take like 5 steps and they are in a travel pod. What's the problem? In the initial shot, there seems to be so much wide space around them:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=6

Yet once Kirk enters the travel pod, it seems like it is too close to the transporter pad:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=13

Am I seeing this wrong, or did they make some changes to the set in the middle of filming this scene?

If you look at the second picture, there is a white square on the wall just left of the transporter chamber. But this square does not seem to be present in the first picture.

Anyone else see this?

 

[CorporalClegg]

More importantly, where did all the people go?

 

[Workbee]

^Good point -- apparently people felt it best to clear out of the Admiral's way.

You know, I just noticed how pretty the transporter effect is:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=9

Amazing how much texture they got in the beam. Look at the "surface" of the light column. Was this spruced up for the DE, or is this a pure, unadulterated 1979 effect?

 

[Timo]

Looks like the original to me... Agreed that it's very sweet.

Also, I think the sets in those two shots could be identical, although certainly the first shot creates the impression of there being a bit more room. At first I thought this thread was supposed to be about the fact that this travel pod isn't there in this establishing shot, and originally wasn't in this shot, either, until added in the DE version. But it need never have been a continuity error: those pods could be capable of fully automated flight, and could arrive at that empty docking port by Scotty's push-button request. Or then one of the people rushing by would in fact have just recently arrived on that pod.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Indysolo]

It seems there were plans to add the travel pod to the establishing shots of the floating office. You can see them here.

Neil

 

[SmoothieX]

You know, I just noticed how pretty the transporter effect is:

I'd take anugly looking beam rather than getting beamed up inside out like those 2 crewmembers did.

 

[Christopher]

Workbee said:
Okay, this is something that bugged me for awhile.

In TMP, after Kirk beams aboard the Orbital Complex, he and Scotty take like 5 steps and they are in a travel pod. What's the problem? In the initial shot, there seems to be so much wide space around them:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=6

Yet once Kirk enters the travel pod, it seems like it is too close to the transporter pad:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=13

Am I seeing this wrong, or did they make some changes to the set in the middle of filming this scene?

Aside from the white square you point out, I don't see any inconsistency. The first shot looks like it was taken from just a little closer, with the camera about where the right-hand side of the travel-pod door frame is located in the second shot. Of course that would've required not having that door frame there when the shot was made, but it's quite common in film and TV to remove walls that should be present in order to get a shot. (Note all the TOS episodes where you can see the edge of Spock's console in the frame even though it's supposed to be flush with an adjacent console that was removed to admit the camera.)

Workbee said:
You know, I just noticed how pretty the transporter effect is:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=9

Amazing how much texture they got in the beam. Look at the "surface" of the light column. Was this spruced up for the DE, or is this a pure, unadulterated 1979 effect?

No, that's the original effect. I'm not certain, but it looks to me like the light-column effect was created using techniques similar to those used to create the light effects inside the engine-room intermix shaft, using complex light reflection/refraction patterns.

 

[Maurice]

The transporter effects in TMP were a combination of a laser effect (the blue cyclinder) and light effects shot through shattered crystals to make moire patterns.

 

[Jon1701]

I've never liked the transporter effect in TMP. I'm not sure why...

 

[Trekker4747]

jon1701 said:
I've never liked the transporter effect in TMP. I'm not sure why...

Yeah. I'm not a real fan of it either. I think it's the "column of light" part I don't like.

The best transporter effect, for me, was in First Contact (which I think a similar version of it was used for Enterprise.) It seemed the most "realistic" to me.

 

[sbk1234]

You know, I just noticed how pretty the transporter effect is:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=9

Is it my imagination, or was that the same effect as the inside of the Planet Killer in Doomsday Machine, albeit a different color?

 

[Indysolo]

Perhaps you think it's a similar look but I'm sure the technique to create them was totally different. John Dykstra talks on the commentary about how the transporter effect was done for TMP. (If you skipped over DS9Sega's post ).

Neil