Donny’s Late TOS Movie Era Interiors

[Donny]

This 1992 poster drawn by Herman Zimmerman might be of some help, Donny:

Thank you for posting, @Firebird! Unfortunately, this drawing isn't accurate much at all, at least when it comes to the dimensions of the consoles. It doesn't take into account some very inconspicuous spacer ribs seen below (which flank both of the forward sets of consoles) or the fact that the large support ribs (with vertical light strips) are not all centered on every 30 degree mark, but instead rest inside the 30 degree mark. Therefore, I can only conclude this is a general drawing and is not an accurate schematic of the actual set.

Spacer ribs:

Support beam offest:

These findings threw a wrench in my original roughing out of the bridge, since I modeled the consoles to fit snugly inside the 30 degree spaces. I tried taking these things into account (especially the support beams being inside the 30 degree intervals) but I can't get it all to match up for other reasons difficult to demonstrate via this thread (or just because I want to get back to work and don't want to spend the night making graphics explaining them )

As it stand currently, I may be fudging things a bit to get it all fit nice and neat, unless someone can get me some accurate construction blueprints

 

[137th Gebirg]

Never liked the TUC E-A bridge layout with the turbolift locations. Those blueprints tried to squeeze them in at the edge of the outer bevel, but it really would have put the shafts outside the hull. DanGovier's thread pretty much proved it when he built the refit bridge complete with hull supports. There wouldn't even been enough room for a crawl space back there, much less two turbolifts!

I like the overall aesthetics of the newer design well enough, but keeping the lifts in their original TFF configuration honestly would have made more sense, IMO.

 

[Tomalak]

Never liked the TUC E-A bridge layout with the turbolift locations. Those blueprints tried to squeeze them in at the edge of the outer bevel, but it really would have put the shafts outside the hull. DanGovier's thread pretty much proved it when he built the refit bridge complete with hull supports. There wouldn't even been enough room for a crawl space back there, much less two turbolifts!

I like the overall aesthetics of the newer design well enough, but keeping the lifts in their original TFF configuration honestly would have made more sense, IMO.

I half agree. You're right that the TUC layout doesn't fit the ship unless you upscale it (not that I'm against that), but I can see why it was done. The bridge looks better on film with the bank of consoles behind Kirk, and it means you can get all the regulars in the same shot. I think it's one of the best-looking Enterprise bridges.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Yeah, that final shot of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhura & Chekov together on the bridge as Kirk narrates his final log entry just gets me right here everytime. Sorry, but my feels > real world constraints.

 

[Mytran]

The positioning of the doors makes a lot more sense from a security point of view.
Having said that, I do miss the dramatic swivel of the chair that Kirk used to have to do

 

[137th Gebirg]

Huh...it didn't even occur to me that the decision to spread out the lift doors was for the final "family shot", but it makes sense. They just did a Trek movie marathon on one of the Starz channels last weekend and I caught the tail end of TUC. I too felt that twinge of emotion for the final Captain's Log. Yes, it's still quite powerful.

With regard to the lift positioning, I also have a suspicion that, due to the budget-saving repurposing of the E-A bridge for the Excelsior scenes, they needed to spread them out to fit that "alcove" in the back. All of which, of course, would have made more sense for Excelsior, considering it would have had more available space for all those enhancements. I guess the whole thing could be chalked up to some experimental TARDIS engineering on the Constitution platform.

 

[Star Trek Apolgist]

I will dig up some auction sources that give measurements and post it here soon. Did you read my post about making blueprints from your 3D models. Red General has a method of doing it. You should check out his Post Blueprint Exchange. Unfortunately he does not have any blueprints for the Enterprise A bridge. The Entrance to the Turbolifts is the only confirmed prop that goes all the way back to the Enterprise Refit bridge. BTW my source says the little panel with the 7 white buttons are 7.5 by 3 inches.

 

[Tallguy]

Yeah. We all saw TUC on opening night. And we all sat through the end credits crying. Then the lights came up. We all went out for ice cream. Then someone (um, me) said "Hey. We can go see the next show." Then we did it all again. I forget how many times I saw that movie on opening weekend alone.

 

[Donny]

Preliminary material test to be used for the vinyl padding found on the bridge consoles:


The Enterprise-A in TUC was the dirtiest and most lived-in we've ever seen the Enterprise, so I'm going heavy on the edge wear and dirt. Which makes me happy because materials like this result in a more realistic believable space.

 

[Mytran]

Looks very nice, but I can't help thinking that if the designers of the ship had thought to put some chairs with seatbelts there, maybe there wouldn't be a need for so much padding...

 

[Donny]

I'd like to include some interactivity with some of these pads where you can remove them for maintenance like we see in TFF, but I can't quite make out the design of the graphic printed underneath. I know it's a stretch, but does anyone have any rare behind the scenes photos of this particular techy-looking graphic?



I also plan on including a "service mode" for the consoles as well:

 

[Workbee]

Another motivation for the placemen of the turbo lifts in TUC may have been for the scene when Kirk comes on the bridge when they are approached by Kronos 1. The POV follows from just behind Kirk’s head and the shot is framed so we see Spock and Valeris emerge from the other lift. It is a cool moment and seems like a very “film-y” thing: showing Kirk literally confronting the characters actors embodying his opposition - Spock’s idealism and openness for peace in conflict with Kirk’s hardened prejudice and distrust of the overtures, and Valeris’ yet to be revealed betrayal undermining the mission and threat to kirk’s life, freedom and reputation. I can see that specific choreography of the scene being envisioned in the early stages of production.

 

[Donny]

Another motivation for the placemen of the turbo lifts in TUC may have been for the scene when Kirk comes on the bridge when they are approached by Kronos 1. The POV follows from just behind Kirk’s head and the shot is framed so we see Spock and Valeris emerge from the other lift. It is a cool moment and seems like a very “film-y” thing: showing Kirk literally confronting the characters actors embodying his opposition - Spock’s idealism and openness for peace in conflict with Kirk’s hardened prejudice and distrust of the overtures, and Valeris’ yet to be revealed betrayal undermining the mission and threat to kirk’s life, freedom and reputation. I can see that specific choreography of the scene being envisioned in the early stages of production.

I love that entrance. I imagine it was Nicholas Meyer that ordered the re-arrangement of the bridge modules. He did so with the TMP bridge before taking over the director's chair for TWOK. Both instances of the re-arrangement proved to be better cinematically, IMO. The original arrangement of the TFF and TMP bridges both were, if you ask me, boring.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I do love the color palette that Meyer used in his movies, opting more for a warm reddish-burgundy over the cooler palette of previous designs. So sick of beige!

 

[Workbee]

I love that entrance. I imagine it was Nicholas Meyer that ordered the re-arrangement of the bridge modules. He did so with the TMP bridge before taking over the director's chair for TWOK. Both instances of the re-arrangement proved to be better cinematically, IMO. The original arrangement of the TFF and TMP bridges both were, if you ask me, boring.

I feel the same way. I think Meyer had a good eye for making quick and dirty changes that would create a sense of "bustle" even in the calmer scenes. Just making Kirk walk a couple steps to talk to Spock or using lighting and paint to create negative space around the stations somehow made there seem to be more activity even with the actors just sitting there. Ironically, appreciate the TMP aesthetic and consider it to be superior to TWOK. I just don't enjoy seeing it as much as TWOK. By the later half of TMP, the bridge feels like this undifferentiated room with a bunch of people standing around and talking. Likely the near constant script revisions being made at this stage in filming did allow time for more creative framing and staging. What I wonder is why no one (especially Roddenberry) didn't see any problem with placing Spock's station behind Kirk. Look at how TOS staged the characters. Behind Shatner sat not Nimoy, their number two star and fan favorite character, but Nichols. The fact the producers kept Spock's station where it would be off-screen for most establishing and medium shots of Shatner should have indicated the potential logistical and framing problems that staging him behind Kirk would have created.

But I think I really got off topic. I don't know if any of this factored into Meyer's thinking for TWOK. Or maybe it was something as simple as wanting the scene where Kirk looks over and sees Spock's empty chair after escaping the Genesis explosion. It retrospect, it is a shame he didn't throw a bone to Nichols and put Uhura's station between the two turbolifts, returning her to her traditional position in TOS. I wonder how that would have worked out....

 

[137th Gebirg]

I think the only reason Spock was put behind Kirk in TMP was due to the fact that his two outer consoles retracted into the wall you can see them move in at least one of the scenes that I can recall. There was room to do this back there because of the new superstructure attached to the rear of the bridge containing the docking ring. If they had put that station off to the side they would have had to scrap the idea of the sliding consoles, lest they slide too far outside of the outer hull of the bridge. Since they needed to retract (because they probably spent extra money on the set to make it do that), it had to be where we saw it, irrespective of how bad it actually looked. Once the TWOK bridge was built, you never saw the consoles move - they were always fixed open. Yet another example of TMP putting function over form.

 

[Mytran]

Star Trek has a long history of rearranging Bridge sections to make the best looking scenes - going all the way back to the offset turbolift in TOS

 

[GNDN18]

Star Trek has a long history of rearranging Bridge sections to make the best looking scenes - going all the way back to the offset turbolift in TOS

Not to mention the helm/navigation station which was moved off the centerline in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, “The Corbomite Maneuver”, “Is There in Truth No Beauty”, and most noticibly in “Spock’s Brain”.

The sight lines rule.

 

[Sibyl]

It's typical in all productions.

This is just a minor example, but even within episodes, things are changed for better blocking.

A helm station on apple boxes for a better camera angle:

 

[Maurice]

The problem I have with the bridge arrangement in TWOK is that it feels cramped and aesthetically awkward, especially jamming the engineering station next to Uhura's.