posted
This was posted on TrekBBS. Someone asked Mike Okuda about the issue ot the TOS sets looking more primitive than the ones on ENT. I thought some people might be interested.
Marian
quote: With regard to your observations on the unlabeled TOS controls:
I shared your concern that the original bridge controls were not labeled. This never bothered me when I was watching the original series. Still, for the re-created set, we were a little concerned that modern audiences now know what real computers and real spaceships look like. Manny Coto, Mike Sussman, and Herman Zimmerman were all very clear in wanting to be as faithful as possible to the original set, while introducing subtle upgrades where necessary.
On the re-created Defiant bridge, I actually had little clear stickers applied to nearly all the "jellybean" buttons. Each of those stickers had a numeric code printed in small black letters. The stickers were designed to be relatively inconspicuous, so they wouldn't be apparent in most photography, except in closeup. Despite all this effort, I was amused to note that while they were clearly visible in person, they were virtually invisible, even in high-definition photography. This probably has something to do with the fact that the jellybean buttons were lit from the bottom as well as with the set lights, combined with the angles of the facets and the intense colors of the resin. In other words, had such stickers existed on the original bridge, you probably would never have seen them in the original series!
We did something similar with the blinking "icon" panels. Each of the colored squares was also labeled, but in a manner that nearly disappeared in most shots. I think these were more successful than the button labels, in that they were faintly visible in some of the closer bridge angles, but not in the wider shots.
The goal, of course, was to imply that these labels were always there, but you just hadn't noticed them before. We tried this on the "Relics" bridge replica, as well as the one we did for "Trials and Tribble-ations." In each of those cases, I thought the lettering on the icons was just a little too prominent, so I made it smaller and lighter for "Mirror Darkly." Whether or not I was more successful this time there will remain to be seen.
We are all in awe of Matt Jefferies' genius, and we very much hope that this new re-creation will be seen as a testament to his artistry.
posted
But is it me or when I saw the Defiant bridge pictures the displays kinda reminded me of how the TNG screens looked like in the early seasons?
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Hey, um, look I'm about to post. Not really a double post.
Or is it?
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i've reviewed the episode more closely -- there's not much more to see -- we know that there were no dead bodies in the areas of the bridge occupied by the landing party - Kirk and Spock stayed by the helm and beam-in area, and the science station, while the others used the turbolift.
The dedication plaque was uncovered, seen in a longshot, camera being just starboard of the viewscreen, stationed near the nav station.
On the matter of the unifrom patches, the two visible in sickbay and ones half visible in engineering don't really convince me - we know the uniforms were enterprise insignia, but i don't think the insignia was very clearly seen -- it could easily have been another design.
If anyone ends up reviewing the entire episode, one of the fun things i noticed is if you look at the Defiant corpses, you might spot their still-living identical twins in group scenes aboard the Enterprise.
Plus Lieutenant O'Neil (Sean Morgan) also played Ensign Harper, who died in "The Ultimate Computer" -- but he had even played O'Neil before that, in season 1 -- i wondered if they planned when he would be Harper and when he would be O'Neil -- or if it just depended on whether he got a redshirt with stripes out of the laundry that morning -- but which was he when he wore a yellow command jumpsuit in "Balance of Terror" as the phaser room officer/technician? Who i ask you!
It's also odd -- Dr. Mulhall's uniform is seen on a woman in the funeral scene -- with lieutenant commander stripes. I wonder if this extra could be a security chief.
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"On the matter of the unifrom patches, the two visible in sickbay and ones half visible in engineering don't really convince me - we know the uniforms were enterprise insignia, but i don't think the insignia was very clearly seen -- it could easily have been another design."
Y'know, there was never any real evidence that the patches were unique to each ship. Perhaps the insignia denoted "1st Fleet", "2nd Fleet", etc. Therefore, there would be no problem with two ships that have the same insignia.
Not to mention that it would make far more sense for the symbol of one of the fleets to become the generic Starfleet emblem, than the symbol of just one ship to do so.
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Yes, even if the Defiant had a unique insignia, there are still at least two other starship officers with the enterprise patch that didnt serve on enterprise -- kirk and ben finney's academy friends at the starbase 11 bar in "court-martial."
it would make sense for this to apply to an entire fleet (perhaps dozens or hundreds of ships) all wearing that same insignia. After all, we know that the starbase command shared an insignia between separate postings -- all starbase officers seen had the starburst assignment patch -- shared with the academy as well. cestus 3 and the romulan outposts had the same uniform patch, as well as a modern, black collared, beige variant uniform. The Antares insignia was worn after that ships destruction by a man at the space station K-7 bar.
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-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
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