U.S.S. Enterprise studio model visit

[JohnGay]

Originally Posted by SCEtoAUX

Fire! Fire! Fire! Class Bravo fire in compartment 5-95-0-E!
Something I heard only in drills.

And my recurring nightmares 0-8

[JohnGay]

Originally Posted by JohnGay

As a sailor, I would suggest these are frame numbers. Those are used as location markers on most ships. Any space on a ship is identified by:
Deck number - First Frame number - The an even or odd number identifying whether it's port or starboard.
Though 705 and 102 seem extremely close together in this image.

COMPARTMENT DESIGNATION/DECK NUMBERING SYSTEM - 14325_205

Cheers,

John Gay

Just did some quick measuring and calculating . . .
the 1/400 scale Enterprise measures 2 20/32nds from 705 - 102
2 20/32 * 400 = 1050 Inches. 87.5 Feet
1050 Inches / 603 frames between 705 -102 = 1.75 Inch frames?
I measure the overall length of the secondary hull to be 321.875 Feet total.
But I'm terrible with scale.

[gotham]

Loving seeing so much detail that I did not know existed - 'hinge' mount on the deflector dish, who knew.

[THE DC]

Glad its helpful. I am a real fan of quality and thought into any fiction. I wanted to share the detail with you all, to help increase the quality of our model work.

Gotham; it is interesting, about the hinge potential. It suggests more purpose than just slapping together shapes for appearance.

What I really respected about Jefferies was that he didn't just design things to look neat; he really sketched out purpose and reason. As a pilot himself {as was Roddenberry} he recognized the concept of function increasing the suspension of disbelief. Even to on-pilots, creating reasonable function would cost the shade of believability, even if on merely a subconscious level.

Later designers were not nearly so invested in reason over the "oooooo" factor.

I'll try sorting and sharing more about the interesting underside of the secondary hull for you next. These were hard pics to make but I thing I salvaged some of them, despite the bad angle and poor lighting.

[THE DC]

Here' my next contributions to detailing the Enterprise...

1] The stern: showing the control bay above the hangar doors, the doors, the three lower bay beacons [red green, & yellow], the red fantail marking, and note how much hull cowling surrounds the hangar doors and the sharp point where the hull breaks away on either side.

2] Underside, ventral of the secondary hull:

Hard to photo due to limited access and lighting limits.

Two undersell bays; first rectangle and the other "T" shaped.

The yellow lower sensor pad (note the red circle outline).


3] Just for your curiosity: here's the unfinished port side, never photographed during the series.

4] The inboard side of the starboard engine, never photographed either.

These last two photos show how it was wired up when used in the series.


5] The original bussard globes, made of wood. This model was revised during the series a few times; this revision made the bustards light capable, as they were replaced with clear globes and rotating lights. Note where the spike originally was placed, now missing.

[THE DC]

Here's the original stand for the studio model.

[THE DC]

Here's couple more details.

1) This view of the fore of the secondary hull illustrates some interesting detail:

-note the depression at the end of the deflector dish spike end.
-how deep the deflector bay recesses into the hull.
-the double rings around the edge of the deflector bay well, before the main bay cowl juts out?
-just how pronounced the antenna/sensor away, on the underside of the primary hull, is at the base of the "V".


2) The lit interplanetary sensor dome.

-note the ride detail in the frosted dome that leads to the solid bottom cap.
-note the extended probe or weapon's bay (not sure which) with the red tip that was never shown in the series, this view from behind.
-note the red tip appears partially translucent.
-note the layered effect of the housing that the frosted sensor globe is housed in [all in shadow due to the lighting effect needed to illustrate the detail of the lit globe.


3) Close up of bridge housing

-note again the red bulb extending from the side of the bridge housing.
-the row of rectangular lit windows in the hull below the bridge housing.
-the circular window/port
-that the bridge sensor dome illuminates.
-the lettering detail.

There's also some nice detail of the inner, port nacelle!

[southwestforests]

Originally Posted by THE DC

2) The lit interplanetary sensor dome.
-note the ride detail in the frosted dome that leads to the solid bottom cap.
-note the extended probe or weapon's bay (not sure which) with the red tip that was never shown in the series, this view from behind.
-note the red tip appears partially translucent.

Was the reason it was never seen merely because of TV screen image resolution?

With the budget and the writing there would have been so much which could have been done with that ship - but physical sets for new areas of the ship require money and sometimes quite a bit of it.

One thing I would have liked, and in no way influenced by being related to Navy pilots, was if there had been an episode with extended operations of multiple shuttles and scenes set in what I call flight control there above the bay door. Though I would likely have not watched it the stills and diagrams and models, hopefully, would have been nice.

There are so many ST novels I can't know if my desire has been addressed in one. And here at 01:10 at night I'm not totally sure that cylinder and dome above bay door was flight control. It is what I like to imagine it as.

[THE DC]

Originally Posted by southwestforests

Was the reason it was never seen merely because of TV screen image resolution?

With the budget and the writing there would have been so much which could have been done with that ship - but physical sets for new areas of the ship require money and sometimes quite a bit of it.

One thing I would have liked, and in no way influenced by being related to Navy pilots, was if there had been an episode with extended operations of multiple shuttles and scenes set in what I call flight control there above the bay door. Though I would likely have not watched it the stills and diagrams and models, hopefully, would have been nice.

There are so many ST novels I can't know if my desire has been addressed in one. And here at 01:10 at night I'm not totally sure that cylinder and dome above bay door was flight control. It is what I like to imagine it as.

Good points.

You have to remember that there was not a concept of resolution back in '64. They used film and the projection was never anticipated to be as sensitively rendered as we can accommodate with digital resolution. Film actually is more clear and accurate than a digital image but the sensitivity of TV screens was never anticipate to accommodate the level of detail that was even possible over a decade later when the fils started, and were projected onto a big screen.

Also remember that for years the show was re-run in syndication with aging and even damaged film, traded station to station. Over time, poor atmospheric conditions, and re-use, the image became even less clear to the TV viewer.

What is amazing is the level of attention paid to the 11 ft model, given they never perceived the quality of digitized film, as we have with blares today. The thought, put into the various parts of the model, are a real testament to the quality of fiction they were creating, and to the level of respect that they had for their viewers. The team felt it necessary to have the quality of thought and detail to appeal to the smartest viewers.

As to the hangar bay; you are right. The tubular section above the doors, with the lit window, was supposed to be the control tower, or sorts; hangar control. Jeffrey's detailed this in his working plans. This was never shown on screen, as a large set, but one of the internal hangar observation decks may be seen in the episode Conscious of the King, as a practical set, and then in miniature in several episodes, notably Journey to Babel or Immunity Syndrome.

What is often forgotten about the series is the extremely limited budget that cut down on showing sections of the ships, or as you'd have liked, multiple shuttle launches. In fact, a single scene of shuttle footage was reused throughout the series for both hangar activity and even space flight.

Hope you're enjoying the details...

[airdave]

Of course there was a "concept of resolution".
Maybe not the same type of specs as we refer to today (pixel resolution).
But there was still an understanding of how to film things with quality.

TV broadcast was magnetic tape...not film.

TV shows were shot on magnetic tape. Cassette Tape basically.
Not film.
This is where the lower image quality begins and how lighting plays a big part in what was filmed.

Tapes were not reused to deterioration, but tapes did get damaged and were quickly replaced.

Image quality was the best technology could offer...on magnetic tape.
Studios did not assume you couldn't see the details, they still attempted to offer high quality imagery.
There were higher quality colour TVs available, but the average family had cheaper B/W sets.

Actually, by the time Star Trek aired in the US in the 60s, there were just as many households with better quality Colour TVs as with B/W.

Extreme lighting was needed on TV production sets to give better imagery ...but this also washed out the colours.
Note the Enterprise is actually gray in colour.
I always thought it was white growing up.
I believe the model was painted gray for this reason...
the special effects people knew it would photograph much brighter under studio lighting.

Its known that the limited budget changed many aspects of the show.
For example, the transporter was invented so no ship to shore scenes were required and to speed things up.
Shooting less miniature scenes was more a time factor than cost.
It took days to shoot simple scenes.
So reusing footage made more sense timewise.

The left side of the ship was in pretty rough state before this recent restoration.
It looked like it had never been modified over the years (unlike the rest of the model).
The model was only ever filmed from one side, but multiple angles were shot.
They used mirrored lettering and decals on the model to make it appear from the opposite side.
(Just reverse the tape image after filming!)