Why was engineering walled off?

[Ottens]

There was also a lower level added "below grade" but I think it was done as a special effect.

Now that you mention it, I also remember a scene in which a crew member could be seen one level lower, but I wonder how that was done? The whole set can't have been one floor up. Did they drill a hole in the sound stage?

Here's a view down in "Heart of Glory":

Here's another useful view:

But I can't tell from the set photos I can find if that third level that's in this schematic was actually built?

 

[Christopher]

As I said, Kirk entered engineering on the upper level, then took the one-person lift down to the main level to speak with Decker.

 

[Jedman67]

*shrug* it's something that I remember bits and pieces of but not the precise details

 

[Ottens]

Here's a shot from "Encounter at Farpoint". I can't tell if there's actual space below the main floor or if that's an effect.

Also from "Encounter at Farpoint", look at the 2nd level:

 

[Mytran]

Here's a shot from "Encounter at Farpoint". I can't tell if there's actual space below the main floor or if that's an effect.

It was certainly designed that way, even if the basement level was only 7' high and not the full 12' of the main level. However, that is a feature they inherited from the TMP sets.

The shot down from Heart Of Glory clearly shows the basement level through the transparent floor panels of the main level:
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x20/heartofglory_hd_451.jpg

If anyone's interested, there are lots of good shots in The Naked Now which show off the TNG Engine Room as it was originally - i.e. just the area around the warp core which opened up into a double-width but otherwise perfectly standard corridor junction. Here's the POV from the Engineer's office:
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03/nakednow_hd_212.jpg
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03/nakednow_hd_215.jpg
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03/nakednow_hd_237.jpg

And here's Riker walking straight out of Engineering, right through the area where the "pool table" would be situated just a few episodes later:
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03/nakednow_hd_282.jpg

 

[Ottens]

^ That suggests there's "half" a floor beneath all the sets? After all, main engineering is on the same level as the corridors, transporter room, sickbay, etc.

 

[Ottens]

Also of interest: this is a proposed Stage 9 floor plan for TNG:

Interestingly, here engineering is NOT open to the corridor. So they chose to open it up to the corridors when they build the set... and then, just a few episodes in, decided to wall it off.

Also note there's a pool table penciled in here, which wouldn't appear until a few episodes in either.

 

[jackoverfull]

It was certainly designed that way, even if the basement level was only 7' high and not the full 12' of the main level. However, that is a feature they inherited from the TMP sets.

The shot down from Heart Of Glory clearly shows the basement level through the transparent floor panels of the main level:
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x20/heartofglory_hd_451.jpg

If anyone's interested, there are lots of good shots in The Naked Now which show off the TNG Engine Room as it was originally - i.e. just the area around the warp core which opened up into a double-width but otherwise perfectly standard corridor junction. Here's the POV from the Engineer's office:
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03/nakednow_hd_212.jpg
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03/nakednow_hd_215.jpg
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03/nakednow_hd_237.jpg

And here's Riker walking straight out of Engineering, right through the area where the "pool table" would be situated just a few episodes later:
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03/nakednow_hd_282.jpg

right, it’s pretty evident in this episode that outside the warp core area there is just a quite normal large corridor.

Thinking of it, they probably turned it into an extension of engineering in WNOHGB because the office area is a bit too cramped to make for good group shots.

 

[HappyMcWonderful]

I can't do anything with "why the wall suddenly appeared mid-episode." But let's look at why the ship was suddenly refit, possibly on the fly.

We have two other Galaxy class ships in service according to the manual, USS Yamato and Galaxy. With the Enterprise nearly getting clobbered, and the experience of the other two ships combined, it was determined that there needed to be greater manual override and monitoring of critical systems -- the automation and control systems weren't up to snuff. Who knows what other problems cropped up with the first two ships. Engineering had intended to be largely automated, but retrofits and upgrades were quickly designed, replicated and integrated into the existing ships... with all ships currently under construction being built to the new specs.

 

[Mytran]

Also of interest: this is a proposed Stage 9 floor plan for TNG:

Interestingly, here engineering is NOT open to the corridor. So they chose to open it up to the corridors when they build the set... and then, just a few episodes in, decided to wall it off.

Also note there's a pool table penciled in here, which wouldn't appear until a few episodes in either.

I've often wondered about that sketch and when it was drawn. There's features from Season 3 like the trapezoid area opposite the Transporter Room (which would often be used as Troi's office) alongside blatant Season 1 stuff like the Observation Deck Sickbay!

Thinking of it, they probably turned it into an extension of engineering in WNOHGB because the office area is a bit too cramped to make for good group shots.

I think that's really it in a nutshell!
The original TMP Engine Room might have occupied the same footprint on the soundstage but the change in shape from rectangular to octagonal, the addition in TNG of the fatter warp core, the twin plasma conduits and the Engineer's office made it all seem much more cramped, plus physically reduced the available shooting space.

We have two other Galaxy class ships in service according to the manual, USS Yamato and Galaxy. With the Enterprise nearly getting clobbered, and the experience of the other two ships combined, it was determined that there needed to be greater manual override and monitoring of critical systems -- the automation and control systems weren't up to snuff. Who knows what other problems cropped up with the first two ships. Engineering had intended to be largely automated, but retrofits and upgrades were quickly designed, replicated and integrated into the existing ships... with all ships currently under construction being built to the new specs.

Certainly a believable explanation in-universe.
What's amusing is that Troi apparently didn't remember a time when those wall panels were NOT there, as during her hallucination section in Eye Of The Beholder we get this scene in Engineering:

WORF: You were Lieutenant Kwan's supervisor at Utopia Planitia?
PIERCE: That's right. I was sorry to hear what happened.
TROI: Did you ever spend time in the nacelle control room while it was under construction?
PIERCE: I worked all over the ship. In fact, I remember running a power conduit right behind this wall here.​

And yes, Pierce is gesturing at the wall plug as he says that

 

[Ottens]

Speaking of refits on the fly, between Seasons 1 and 2 nearly all the doors on the ship were changed, from grey to orange, and given rounded corners. That alone must have been quite an undertaking.

 

[jackoverfull]

I can't do anything with "why the wall suddenly appeared mid-episode." But let's look at why the ship was suddenly refit, possibly on the fly.

We have two other Galaxy class ships in service according to the manual, USS Yamato and Galaxy. With the Enterprise nearly getting clobbered, and the experience of the other two ships combined, it was determined that there needed to be greater manual override and monitoring of critical systems -- the automation and control systems weren't up to snuff. Who knows what other problems cropped up with the first two ships. Engineering had intended to be largely automated, but retrofits and upgrades were quickly designed, replicated and integrated into the existing ships... with all ships currently under construction being built to the new specs.

Well, the change happened in an episode where a guy comes on board to improve the engines, so it even makes sense in universe that he had asked modifications to engineering. And let’s face it, on the enterprise such a modification would have taken less time than it did to change the set.

What's amusing is that Troi apparently didn't remember a time when those wall panels were NOT there, as during her hallucination section in Eye Of The Beholder we get this scene in Engineering:
WORF: You were Lieutenant Kwan's supervisor at Utopia Planitia?
PIERCE: That's right. I was sorry to hear what happened.
TROI: Did you ever spend time in the nacelle control room while it was under construction?
PIERCE: I worked all over the ship. In fact, I remember running a power conduit right behind this wall here.And yes, Pierce is gesturing at the wall plug as he says that

luckily it’s an hallucination, so it’s not an issue at all. Last night I dreamed that my previous flat opened up into my grandparents’ garden, it’s not that it even did. Another to mention that I don’t remember how my living room was when I moved in, before I rearranged the furniture, troi doesn’t even spend much time in engineering in the first place.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Speaking of refits on the fly, between Seasons 1 and 2 nearly all the doors on the ship were changed, from grey to orange, and given rounded corners. That alone must have been quite an undertaking.

Interesting to know…

 

[HappyMcWonderful]

Certainly a believable explanation in-universe.
What's amusing is that Troi apparently didn't remember a time when those wall panels were NOT there, as during her hallucination section in Eye Of The Beholder we get this scene in Engineering:

WORF: You were Lieutenant Kwan's supervisor at Utopia Planitia?
PIERCE: That's right. I was sorry to hear what happened.
TROI: Did you ever spend time in the nacelle control room while it was under construction?
PIERCE: I worked all over the ship. In fact, I remember running a power conduit right behind this wall here.​

And yes, Pierce is gesturing at the wall plug as he says that

Wonder if that was a jab at the fans -- things like the internet and Nitpicker's Guide were coming into play at this point... perhaps they did that as a "Haha try this one on for size."

 

[Eckauskas]

I've said something like this before but feels like I have to say it (once) again;
Enterprise-D was almost a character in the series, that's where everything was based on, taking something like that away changes too much. (<< opinion)

A better alternative to blowing it up imo. The engineering set for the Ent-E felt really bland.

 

[HappyMcWonderful]

First they had those awesome "safety injection" tanks modeled after the high-pressure accumulators in a nuclear reactor.

Then they didn't because the plot didn't call for it.

Then they finally showed a forcefield around the core prior to combat... but it did little good.

Ah well. I "grew up" with the TNG engine room being largely static and fell in love with that. The inconsistency in the TNG movies drove me nuts.

 

[Takeru]

Also of interest: this is a proposed Stage 9 floor plan for TNG:

Interestingly, here engineering is NOT open to the corridor. So they chose to open it up to the corridors when they build the set... and then, just a few episodes in, decided to wall it off.

Also note there's a pool table penciled in here, which wouldn't appear until a few episodes in either.

Are we sure this was drawn before the series? To me it looks like it could be a proposed change to the sets for season 2, it adds a separate conference room set, expands the corridor (both things that were actually done for season 2 in different ways) but also includes features that were only added during season 1 like the pool table and the walled off engineering.

With the corridor circling around engineering like this there would have been no room to connect the shuttle bay/holodeck set to the main corridor, were they planning to put it on a different stage?

 

[Ottens]

I believe it's an early set design, from when they were figuring out how to best utilize the movie sets. After all, there hadn't been a cargo- or shuttlebay set for TMP in the upper-right of the floor plan. That was built for TNG.

Notice that the plan still has the circular "sonic shower" in what used to be Kirk's quarters and become the set for Data's, Geordi's and Worf's quarters in TNG. That was actually removed for Season 2, when the junior officers' quarter's set was redressed and slightly expanded.

Notice also the number of beds in sickbay, which correspond with the number of beds they had in TMP (seven), but not the number they had in TNG (four).

I've also never read there were plans to build a conference room separate of the observation lounge for Season 2 of TNG. My assumption then would be the plan for the observation lounge either came after this floor plan was made or the observation lounge wasn't yet anticipated to be/double as conference room.

In any event, it all argues for this plan being from the very beginning of TNG's production.

 

[Ottens]

Here's another great 3D view of main engineering:

 

[Orphalesion]

Certainly a believable explanation in-universe.
What's amusing is that Troi apparently didn't remember a time when those wall panels were NOT there, as during her hallucination section in Eye Of The Beholder we get this scene in Engineering:

WORF: You were Lieutenant Kwan's supervisor at Utopia Planitia?
PIERCE: That's right. I was sorry to hear what happened.
TROI: Did you ever spend time in the nacelle control room while it was under construction?
PIERCE: I worked all over the ship. In fact, I remember running a power conduit right behind this wall here.​

And yes, Pierce is gesturing at the wall plug as he says that

I mean retcons are a thing.