Friday 03 September 2010

Designing the Cargo bay

The Landing- or Shuttlebay occupies Deck 16 and 17 in the aft section of the refit Enterprise engineering hull. Underneath the Landing Bay, Andrew Probert facilitated a Shuttlecraft Hangar, located on Deck 18. An elevating section leads into the Cargo Storage Bay, which, three decks high, spans Decks 17, 18 and 19 and almost the entire width of the engineering hull. Escape pods are mounted into the sides of the hull, and a port side airlock provides access into the Cargo Bay, as shown in Star Trek: The Motion Picture when Kirk boards the vessel this way.

Conception

“Thoughts on the new Enterprise cargo decks [had] already [been] visualized by Star Trek veteran Mike Minor,” says Andrew Probert, before he had a chance to work on it. “The thinking, then at Paramount under Production Designer Harold Michelson, was that the cargo bay would be a space 30 feet high that had two walls with twelve holes containing cargo pods,” adds Probert. An impression by Mike Minor shows additional cargo pods simply stacked or lined up on the deck, leaving a huge open and unused space above. Furthermore, the walkways along the sides were rather old-fashioned looking.

The cargo bay scene would be part live-action and part matte painting. Matte paintings are begun by filming a plate; a shot of live-action scene in which elements, too expensive to build, are needed. What Andrew Probert was required to do, was get a frame of plate film and have it printed at a pre-determined size. “Part of this frame,” says Probert, “required for the live action element would be cut out and pasted to a piece of illustration board.” The remaining blank board, intended to be the matte, would then be painted around that piece, blending the two together.

Following a discussion with Special Effects Director Donald Trumbull about how the cargo pods would get in and out of the cargo deck, Andrew Probert produced an elevation sketch of the Enterprise engineering section. He presented the sketch to Trumbull as a solution to that problem, and Trumbull approved.

The next step was for Probert to get some plate footage, and start his matte renderings. “A matte rendering is simply a painting that illustrates what the final scene might look like,” says Probert. “Once that image is approved by the director and producers, it is sent to the Matte Department so that a “matte painter” can paint the actual “working” matte.”

What Probert proposed was that the landing bay and cargo bay be connected, allowing the easy passage of cargo trains. “The landing bay doors remain open but atmospheric integrity is maintained with a force field,” he says. “The idea is that shuttles would normally take off from and land in the landing bay. They then could be lowered (E-1 or E-2) to the Hanger Bay level (which you see lighted in red), or lowered another level to shuttle maintenance. A multi-paneled 2-story door, between the elevators and cargo bay, has been opened to the sides allowing the transfer of cargo.”

From a lower angle, one can see the secondary rollaway decks protruding somewhat from the sides of the bay. “In their current retracted position, they serve as a walkway at that level,” according to Probert. “The idea here was that, once the main deck was filled with free-standing pods, the second deck could slide together, doubling the available deck space. Not an ideal solution,” he says, “but one that worked with the plate footage that had already been shot.”

Construction

The Cargo Bay set was built under the supervision of Production Designer Harold Michelson by recycling parts of an old set that had been under construction for Star Trek: Phase II. “In the original script there was a Japanese admiral,” Michelson explains. “The guy who was on before me, Joe Jennings, was a very good art director. He designed a place for the admiral. I don’t know exactly what he was going to do with them, but he’d built these section they’d ended up storing. I can’t stand to waste, so I used them in the cargo hold [...]”

 

N. Ottens
25 June 2007
Last updated: 28 October 2008

Sources for this article include:
• Johnson, S., Mr. Scott’s Guide to the Enterprise (1987)
• Probert, A., “Cargo Bay,” Probert Designs
• Probert, A., “Landing & Hanger Bay,” Probert Designs
• “Production Design,” Star Trek: The Magazine, volume 2, issue 8 (December 2001)