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The restored star trek enterprise-d bridge goes on display in may, the bridge is going on display at sci-fi world musem in santa monica, california..

Jonathan M. Gitlin - Mar 22, 2024 4:48 pm UTC

More than a decade has gone by since three Star Trek: The Next Generation fans first decided to restore the bridge from the Enterprise-D . Plans for the restored bridge morphed from opening it up to non-commercial uses like weddings or educational events into a fully fledged museum , and now that museum is almost ready to open. Backers of the project on Kickstarter have been notified that Sci-Fi World Museum will open to them in Santa Monica, California, on May 27, with general admission beginning in June.

It's not actually the original set from TNG , as that was destroyed while filming Star Trek: Generations , when the saucer section crash-lands on Veridian III. But three replicas were made, overseen by Michael Okuda and Herman Zimmerman, the show's set designers. Two of those welcomed Trekkies at Star Trek: The Experience , an attraction in Las Vegas until it closed in 2008 .

The third spent time in Hollywood, then traveled to Europe and Asia for Star Trek: World Tour  before it ended up languishing in a warehouse in Long Beach. It's this third globe-trotting Enterprise-D bridge that—like the grit that gets an oyster to create a pearl—now finds a science-fiction museum accreted around it. Well, mostly—the chairs used by Riker, Troi, Data, and some other bits were salvaged from the Las Vegas exhibit.

Unlike the actual set, which was made from wood, the replica is made of metal and fiberglass. The restoration was originally supposed to take up to two years , but the project ended up being a far bigger challenge.

When Ars checked in with the Enterprise-D bridge restoration in 2014, the science-fiction museum plan had taken shape. But that change of plans did not sit well with some of the project's original supporters, particularly after an imperfect re-creation of the captain's chair—which remained lost until recently—was sold on eBay.

Things got even uglier in 2018 when Huston Huddleston, who led the project, was arrested and then convicted for possessing child pornography. Although Huddleston still appears listed as the project's CEO on its Kickstarter page , that appears to be an artifact of its creation, and John Purdy is listed as the CEO of the Sci-Fi World Museum on its About Us page . However, Huddleston's mother remains as the museum's Chief Financial Officer.

The Enterprise-D isn't the only bridge you'll be able to find at the museum —there's also a replica of the bridge from Star Trek: The Original Series , which previously lived in a wax museum in Buena Park, California. Other exhibits include a hall of robots, as well as the "Bubbleship" and a drone from the movie Oblivion .

It's also not the only recent re-creation of the Enterprise-D's bridge. Okuda and his wife Denise both helped Paramount re-create the iconic set for the third season of Picard . The new Enterprise-D set can even be explored on Google Maps .

And earlier this month, it looked like Jean-Luc Picard's long-lost chair might be sold at auction. However, the day saw an agreement between CBS Studios and the auctioneer Propstore, which will return the chair to CBS's Star Trek Archive, which plans to restore and display it in the coming year.

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Published Dec 9, 2012

Guest Blog: Rescuing The Enterprise-D Bridge Replica

My name is Huston Huddleston. I am the madman behind rescuing the Paramount-built Star Trek: The Next Generation U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D bridge replica from destruction, and attempting to restore it and turn it into a non-profit educational museum. This is a project by fans/for fans, and will be available to anyone who wants to visit, take photos, watch movies, make fan films, have meetings, even get married on the bridge! And admission will be free of charge, with donations given to keep the lights on. Plus, we’ll be doing fundraising for Make-A-Wish and Habitat for Humanity .

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The web portal will allow fans to virtually explore the many dozens of evolutionary iterations of the famous Starship Enterprise bridge, across every epoch of Star Trek‘s history, with each bridge made accessible in the timeline as a 1:1 scale, “in-universe,” 360 recreation. De Lancie, who has portrayed extra-dimensional being Q since 1987’s Star Trek: The Next Generation, narrates a supplementary documentary, offering a deep dive into the evolution and legacy of the bridge — from its inception in Pato Guzman’s 1964 sketches, through its portrayal across decades of films and TV series, to its latest incarnation on the Enterprise-G, as revealed in the final episode of Star Trek: Picard.   This combined documentary and exploratory online experience brings the legacy and history of the starship Enterprise to life through meticulous recreations of the filming sets used for production as well as the aforementioned “in-universe” life size, functional immersive virtual interiors. The recreations were produced for the Gene Roddenberry Estate, and overseen by veteran Star Trek artists including Denise and Michael Okuda, who authored The Star Trek Encyclopedia, as well as Daren Dochterman, Doug Drexler and Dave Blass.   The Archive will also, for a limited time, allow fans to try an experimental technology preview through the web portal, enabling them to walk onto the bridges of the Enterprise (boasting working turbolifts and consoles) and explore them in every detail, all from an instantaneous livestream.

You can find out more about this engrossing project at the Roddenberry Archive website and through the OTOY YouTube channel.

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How ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Resurrected an Iconic Set

By Scott Mantz

Scott Mantz

• ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Team Built a ‘Museum Quality’ Enterprise D to Make Things as ‘Cinematic as Possible’ 11 months ago
• How ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Created the High-Tech Bridge of Its Newest Starship 1 year ago
• How ‘Babylon’s’ Cocaine-Snorting Opening Sequence Came Together 1 year ago

SPOILER ALERT:   This story discusses major plot developments in Season 3, Episode 9 of “ Star Trek: Picard ,” currently streaming on Paramount+.

All season long, the producers of “ Star Trek: Picard ” have boldly pulled out all the stops to make the third and final season one for the books. To that extent, it seemed like only a matter of time until we finally got to see the Enterprise — that is, the Enterprise-D, the Galaxy-class starship that made its first appearance in 1987 with the premiere episode of “ Star Trek: The Next Generation .”

Popular on Variety

Executive producer Terry Matalas went through hoops to make sure history never forgot the name Enterprise. Speaking with Variety, and sharing photos of “The Next Generation” cast on the ship, Matalas says, “Everyone tried to talk us out of doing this, because financially it’s a nightmare, and the timing was tight. To the moment we started filming, we were still gluing pieces together. But you can’t have a ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ reunion without one of its major characters, which is the Enterprise.”

As for how it was even possible for the Enterprise-D to exist after it was virtually destroyed in 1994’s “Star Trek: Generations” (only the top saucer section was still intact after crash-landing on the planet Veridian III), it turns out Geordi La Forge took it upon himself to completely restore it for the Starfleet Museum.

However, despite the prominent presence of the Enterprise-D bridge on seven seasons of the TV series that ran from 1987 to 1994 (as well as the 1994 “Generations” feature film), construction guidelines were scarce for production designer Dave Blass and art director Liz Kloczkowski, who spearheaded the project.

Blass pivoted to another invaluable resource when he recruited “Star Trek” legends Mike Okuda and Denise Okuda (from Herman Zimmerman’s “Next Generation” production design team) as consultants.

“The Enterprise from ‘The Next Generation’ was the first Enterprise on which I was the principal graphic designer,” Okuda says. “I got to work with [‘Star Trek’ creator] Gene Roddenberry on making that bridge come to life.”

But even with that deep-dive knowledge and experience, finding the source materials to reconstruct the bridge still proved to be a daunting challenge.

“The first thing we did was to go in the garage and dive into boxes and see what we still had,” Okuda says. “We had some original drawings and art, but large chunks of it disappeared. You realize you’re going to have to reconstruct a lot of this from scratch.”

It took three months and a team of around 50 people to completely rebuild the bridge, which was a physical build and not done on a green screen or in VFX. It measured exactly the same as the original set: 50 feet wide and 100 feet long.

All this work was in addition to every other set built for Seasons 2 and 3, which were shot back to back. “We were doing all the interiors of the starship Titan – like the bridge, the transporter rooms, the crew quarters, the hallways and sickbay – as well as [the enemy ship] the Shrike, Daystrom Station and the Borg,” says Blass. “So, all that all on top of each other.”

The goal was to re-create the look of the LCARS panels, as closely as possible to their appearance in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

“We took advantage of the huge advances in real-world computer display technology to make a few subtle upgrades to the displays,” Okuda says. “In a scene where one of our officers is using the science equipment, if the director wanted to show the scan itself, we would have had to insert the animation in post-production, back in the day. Now, it’s easy to do the animation and have it play back on the set, so the cast could see it in real-time.”

When it came to challenges, Blass says, the wood archway was one of the hardest pieces to recreate. “It’s a complex curve that arches and changes thickness,” he explains. “You can only get so much information off a blueprint. The construction team printed out a full-size paper plan to lay it out and then used a number of templates to shape the final piece.”

The chairs were another set piece in recreating the Enterprise-D that needed to be taken into consideration. “We had to sculpt the right shape based on the basic form, then do a deep dive on the right materials that have the right color and texture,” Blass says. “Each chair has four different materials.”

Blass adds that the infamous carpet, referenced by Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard in the episode, “was very hard to find as it’s a pattern that has been out of stock for decades.”

“That was tricky because you’re talking about lighting that was much more intrinsic to the 1990s,” Matalas says. “Now we have different cameras in a different cinematic style to the show. We had to find a hybrid of the old style and the new with our director of photography, John Joffin, and I think we found a really great sweet spot.”

When the cast saw the bridge for the first time, they got right down to business.

“This season was so ambitious, and we only had two days to shoot on this thing,” Matalas says. “It was literally, like, get everybody on, you got your four minutes of nostalgia, and then we have to boogie. But it was all very natural for them. It was like being back on Stage 8 at the Paramount lot. Patrick Stewart even did the ‘Picard maneuver,’ which he was very proud of.”

And what of the ship today?

Their work remains intact. “There were lots of interested parties who wanted to save the set,” Blass says. “Luckily it has a home in the Star Trek archives.”

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Imagine having your own replica of the Star Trek: TOS bridge

By rachel carrington | jan 22, 2021.

The bridge from Star Trek: The Original Series is iconic, known for its bright colors and systemic sounds

Whenever Captain Kirk sat in the captain’s chair, at that moment, all was right in the Trek universe. This series started the juggernaut that is the current franchise so it’s understandable why fans are so enamored with this particular bridge and why some are even so invested that they recreate the iconic stage for themselves. Just like Allan Quick , an Oregan-based Star Trek fan did.

It all started with the captain’s chair. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek in 2016, Quick decided to build himself a chair. He got help from his friend, Bruce Boyd, poured over the specifications, and visited Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture to see the actual chair several times. Once the chair was built, though, there was an obvious need for more replications. After all, what is the captain’s chair without the bridge?

First, Quick built the transporter platform, and last year, he completed the Enterprise’s navigation console which has working lights and the familiar sounds. And right now, this replica of the bridge sits in a spare bedroom in Quick’s home where it awaits display at the next Eugene Comic-Con. In the meantime, though, Quick loves having his childhood memories so close. He can sit in the captain’s chair and pretend he’s on the bridge of the Enterprise which he calls “my happy place.”

I can’t imagine the cost to recreate this piece of history, but Reddit users have speculated that the cost to build a replica of the Enterprise-D bridge would cost at least $20,000 if not more. Of course, they are talking about the entirety of the bridge, including the carved wooden arch. Still, Allen Quick’s project couldn’t have been inexpensive, but then, what is the cost of a dream?

Next. A trek to Riverside, Iowa is a must for all true Star Trek fans. dark

General Information

Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour is Located in Historic downtown Ticonderoga, New York.

When the STAR TREK television series was canceled in 1969, the original sets were dismantled and largely destroyed, only a few small items of the actual sets remain today, and those that have survived are in private collections. Trek superfan James Cawley began the process of rebuilding the sets just as they would have been seen 50 years ago when the series was being filmed, a 14 year journey has culminated in the most accurate rebuild of the original sets, and is now open and welcoming STAR TREK fans from all over the world!

Our sets are complete recreations built using the original blueprints, hundreds of hours of serious research and thousands of photographs – both period images and images culled from extensive review and capture from the original episodes. The sets will NOT and were NOT designed to move from one city to another and are fully licensed by CBS. The Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour Invites you to come see the Desilu Studio as it looked during the years between 1966-1969 while Star Trek was in production.

Terms and Conditions

Terms and conditions for ALL sales, regardless of how the sale is accomplished (phone, online, or face-to-face) are at this TERMS AND CONDITIONS page.

Admission Prices are:

• Adult: (Ages 14-54) $23.00
• Senior: $21.00 (Age 55+)
• Child: $12.00 (Ages 5-13)
• Child: Free   Under Age 5, No ticket required
• Military, Police, Fire – Active or Retired with ID $21.00
• Family: 2 Adults, 2 children (5-13), special price of $65.00
• Family: 2 Adults, 4 children (5-13), special price of $90.00
• Special requests will be priced based on nature of request.
• Prices above DO NOT include sales tax and ticketing fees

Tickets Now On Sale!

• You may buy tickets at the door, cash or credit card. Email receipt available.
• Alternatively, you may buy tickets online (see button below) priced as shown.
• Tours last about an hour.
• Groups of 20 or more please call ahead to (518) 503-5497.
• Lots of time for photo ops. No photos of unfinished sets.
• Tour guide will remind you where photos are NOT permitted.
• No food or beverages on sets; no backpacks or packages allowed in studio.
• Free parking in the lot at the studio.
• Star Trek Tour at 112 Montcalm Street – Ticonderoga, New York 12883 USA

Contact us:

Star Trek Tour email: [email protected]

Please check back for further information.

All prices (except free) plus 8% sales tax.

All prices (except free) may incur handling fee.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The star trek: tng bridge replica from star trek: the experience.

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'Star Trek' Set Replica Gets Permanent Home In Ticonderoga, N.Y.

Visitors to this past weekend's "Trekonderoga" Star Trek convention in Ticonderoga, New York, got to tour a near-perfect replica of the original series set, housed in a building downtown. Now thanks to a gift from the wife of an heir to the Mars Candy fortune, that building will become the set's permanent home.

James Cawley, a Ticonderoga native and Star Trek superfan, is behind the set replica and also the internet series Star Trek: Phase II, in which he formerly played Captain Kirk.

"There's a ridiculous number of tourists that go through here who are always looking for something to do other than Fort Ticonderoga and/or the lakes," Cawley told Vermont Edition Monday. "And you know, you'd be surprised how many of them are Star Trek fans."

Cawley says  Star Trek was "one of those childhood passions" for him, adding that he "always wanted to be a part of the show" and that desire to experience it firsthand eventually led to the creation of the replica set.

"It speaks to so many people that once we did build the set, the thrill of being able to share it with so many, you know, like-minded, kind, terrific people was just an amazing thing to feel," he says.

Cawley said he wanted for the set to be located in his hometown, expressing a desire to contribute to Ticonderoga's downtown community.

The ability to give the replica a permanent home is thanks to a unique partnership. A monetary gift made to the Ticonderoga Revitalization Alliance was intended for Cawley as a loan to buy the building, he explains — so now as Cawley pays back the loan to the alliance, that money can again be dispersed to other parties. 

"It's a win-win for the community," he says.

As far as what lies ahead for  Star Trek  attractions in Ticonderoga, Cawley has some ideas.

"We're always looking at different ways to add," he says. "There's a couple of other sets from the series that we would like to realize in the future. You know, we're talking about maybe doing a Star Trek bed-and-breakfast to connect to the tour, to make it even more of an event.

"You know, there's no limit really. I mean, there's no limit to your imagination, so that's kind of my philosophy."

Broadcast live on Monday, Aug. 28, 2017 during the noon hour; rebroadcast during the 7 p.m. hour.

Elvis impersonator explains why he built 'Star Trek' replica in Upstate NY (photos)

• Updated: Dec. 07, 2016, 8:08 p.m. |
• Published: Dec. 07, 2016, 7:08 p.m.
• Geoff Herbert | [email protected]

" Star Trek " fans can boldly go visit the Starship Enterprise in, of all places, Upstate New York.

Elvis Presley impersonator James Cawley created a life-size replica of the sci-fi TV show's set for the "Star Trek: Original Series Tour" in his hometown of Ticonderoga, N.Y. He rebuilt all the details of the fictional spaceship, including the bridge, sick bay and transporter room, inside a former supermarket and Dollar Store located at 112 Montcalm Street.

But why? And what does Elvis have to do with "Star Trek?"

"Elvis and Captain Kirk are both charismatic ladies' men," Cawley, 50, tells Wired magazine .

The lifelong fan explains that he grew up with the series and used money from his career as an Elvis impersonator to buy original items from the show, including a Klingon costume and Scotty's wrenches. He also used his grandfather's barn-turned-workshop to build other set pieces, including Capt. Kirk's chair, starting two decades ago.

Cawley got his hands on the "Star Trek" set blueprints when his friend William Ware Theissis, the original series costume designer, left him a copy in his will in 1996. According to StarTrek.com , he also spent years researching and refining other details with help from other Trekkies (or Trekkers), mainly intending to use it for filming a fan fiction series known as "Star Trek: Phase II."

"As a character, the Enterprise is every bit as important as Kirk and Spock," Cawley says.

The Port Henry, N.Y.-based project drew thousands of fans, including involvement from past stars George Takei (Mr. Sulu) and Walter Koenig (Chekov), before CBS set new rules prohibiting the use of its intellectual property. However, the network did allow Cawley to open up his creation to the world.

"Star Trek: Original Series Tour" opened this past August after Cawley leased a 13,000-square-foot space in Ticonderoga three years ago to create an hour-long, immersive experience with guides. Fans can sit in Kirk's chair, play with phasers, search for signs of intelligent life and ask to be beamed up to another galaxy.

The tour is also now a highlight of the annual "Star Trek" fan festival Trekonderoga , based in Ticonderoga, roughly 100 miles north of Albany.

Cawley told Wired he hopes his Enterprise, open every weekend, helps fans relive their fantasies but, more importantly, learn a big lesson. He credits "Star Trek" with teaching him to accept each other's differences at an early age, an

"I got older and I realized this is teaching me not to hate people because they're strange," he told the publication. "It says, 'We're gonna get through all this nonsense, it's gonna be a better tomorrow.'"

See inside the recreated Starship Enterprise in Upstate NY

The Star Trek Original Series Tour in Ticonderoga houses original props and meticulously recreated sets from the 1960s sci-fi phenomenon.

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Public tours sets of South Georgia's own 'Star Trek' series

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Sep. 25—KINGSLAND — From the outside, the building is anything but remarkable: a large, prefab warehouse sitting off a cluster of residential streets a few miles from a Navy base.

On the inside are strange new worlds.

Many people may not realize it, but for several years, the adventures of the crew of the starship Enterprise were filmed on a soundstage about two hours' drive from Valdosta.

"Star Trek Continues," a webseries, was filmed in Kingsland in South Georgia from 2013-17.

Officially, "Star Trek Continues" was quite unofficial. It was a fan-created and fan-filmed nonprofit operation, from the building of the sets to the writing of the episodes to the creation of costumes and special effects.

Vic Mignogna , who developed the show and starred as Capt. James T. Kirk, told tour groups at a recent fan weekend at the studio that his intention was to finish what the original "Star Trek" series left uncompleted.

Mission cut short

"Star Trek" — the original series — debuted Sept. 8, 1966, and ran for three years on the NBC television network. The show followed the adventures of the heroic Capt. Kirk, his cool and reserved half-alien first officer Mr. Spock, crusty Southern ship's doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy and the rest of the U.S.S. Enterprise 's crew on their "five-year mission" into the unknowns of deep space.

Then NBC cut the cruise short after only three years.

Mignogna had been involved with an earlier "Trek" fan-film project, "Starship Farragut," and decided it was time to carry out his childhood dream to "play Capt. Kirk." He wanted "Star Trek Continues" to finish out the Enterprise's original five-year mission.

Money was raised through fundraising campaigns, including the Kickstarter and Indiegogo platforms, and 11 episodes of "Star Trek Continues" were produced and distributed online for free. All the episodes remain available for viewing on YouTube.

With special guest stars

The webseries even scored some top-drawer talent familiar to television audiences. Guest stars included John deLancie (The devilish Q from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Star Trek: Voyager" and the upcoming "Star Trek: Picard"), Lou Ferrigno (TV's "Incredible Hulk"), Jamie Bamber ("Battlestar Galactica"), Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis (Worf and Troi from "Next Generation") in voice roles, Jason Isaacs (the movie "The Death of Stalin" and the first season of "Star Trek: Discovery") and Colin Baker (the sixth Doctor in Britain's own long-running science fiction series, "Doctor Who.")

Chris Doohan, son of original series actor James Doohan, followed in his father's footsteps by playing the ship's miracle-working chief engineer, Montgomery Scott.

The high-power talent wasn't just In front of the camera. Doug Drexler, a special-effects artist for the official "Trek" shows in the 1990s, contributed visual work to six "Star Trek Continues" episodes. In a video interview, Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks gave high praise to the production values of the webseries.

The end, and afterward

The end came with the filming of the final story, "To Boldly Go, Parts I and II," in 2017. Standing in the Enterprise's main engineering set, Mignogna told a tour group that another fan-film effort unrelated to "Star Trek Continues" raised a good deal of money in the fan community — but that project never materialized and the money vanished.

That was when CBS — the current rightsholders to the "Trek" franchise — decided to clamp down on fan productions, he said. However, since "Star Trek Continues" had always been forthright about its fundraising efforts, CBS gave Mignogna some leeway.

"They basically contacted me and asked 'How long do you need to wrap up your project?'" he said.

After the series folded, Mignogna sold the studio sets to Ray Tesi of Boca Raton, Fla., who now operates the property under the name Neutral Zone Studios (In "Trek" lore, the neutral zone is a no-man's-land border between the good guys, the United Federation of Planets, and the bad guys, the Romulan Star Empire. Entry into the zone by ships of either side is an automatic act of war.)

Tesi — who describes himself as "a 'Star Trek' fan since day one" — operates as a nonprofit, renting the sets out to other fan groups who want to make their own films, as well as birthday events, weddings and even as the backdrop for a rock video. All funds raised go toward upkeep of the studio.

"I don't have a license from CBS," he said.

Instead, he said he scrupulously follows rules crafted by the television network for fan productions.

In the wake of the above-mentioned fan-film fundraising scandal, CBS laid down rules for "Trek" fan-film groups to follow to keep the network from coming after them. These include limiting films to no more than 15 minutes ("Star Trek Continues" filmed one-hour episodes), using all-amateur casts and setting a cap on budgets at $50,000.

Aboard the Enterprise

During the open house weekend in September, groups of about 20 visitors each were ushered through the sets in the Kingsland facility.

Fans were stunned by the exacting detail of the sets, replicating to the smallest detail the original 1960s props and fixtures.

The layout of the sets within the building largely follows the pattern of the sets built in the 1960s by Desilu, the Hollywood production firm that launched "Star Trek." Most of the sets for the individual rooms branch off from a long, curved ship's corridor.

Among the locales shown to visitors were: — The ship's brig, a small jail cell for prisoners. Instead of a barred door, a brightly lit door frame hints at a force field to hold miscreants inside. — Main engineering, the location of the Enterprise's antimatter powerplant and Scotty's domain. — The ship's sickbay, complete with three "biobeds," hospital beds with built-in diagnostic sensors to take blood pressure, temperature and other medical readings, which are displayed on overhead screens. — The Jefferies Tube, a long, vertical crawlspace packed with ship's circuitry. — A small "turbolift" (elevator) set. — The briefing room, where the ship's senior staff can hold conferences. — An all-purpose private quarters set which could be quickly redecorated to serve as any crewman's bedroom by swapping out personal effects. — Auxiliary control, an emergency backup control room for the Enterprise, for use if the main bridge was damaged beyond repair. — The transporter room, where the crew used teleportation to "beam" to and from planetary surfaces and other ships. — The bridge. At the end of the tour was the crown jewel, a full-size replica of the iconic filming set for the control room of the U.S.S. Enterprise. As visitors posed for photos, listened to Mignogna's tales of filming the series and sat in the captain's chair, familiar electronic noises generated by the scanners, computers and other bridge equipment could be heard.

Fans wrapped up in the fun of it all almost didn't notice the sweltering heat — almost. There was no air-conditioning and little air moving around. The starship Enterprise was in a pitched battle with a South Georgia heat wave. Tesi said the cost of air-conditioning a huge warehouse structure was prohibitive, which is why the studio generally closes in May and reopens In September.

In an interview a few days after the tour, Tesi explained what appeals to him about "Star Trek."

"I like it's optimistic view of the future," he said.

The next fan weekend is planned for Oct. 23-24. For information on the free tours offered on these weekends, go to neutralzonestudios.com .

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Commercially Available Chairs in Star Trek

by Tadeo D'Oria , Eno Farley , Bernd Schneider and Jörg Hillebrand

Lounge Seating Dining Chairs Stools Office Chairs Vehicle Seats

Countless off-the-shelf office chairs, lounge chairs or car seats appeared in Star Trek productions. Here is a list of the models that we found, among them many design classics.

See also a list of unidentified chairs and help us track their origin.

Lounge Seating

Dining chairs, office chairs, vehicle seats.

Unidentified Chairs in Star Trek - noteworthy chairs we couldn't identify yet

Re-Used Props - Furniture - tables, chairs, lamps, other furniture

The Evolution of the TOS Captain's Chair - from the pilot episodes to the series and special variants

Variations of the Runabout Interior - a detailed look at the changes to this regular DS9 set over the years

Galleries - Original Enterprise Interiors - incl. refit and Enterprise-A

Galleries - Enterprise-D Interiors

The following designs were originally identified by Eno at Star Trek + Design : Swivel Lounge Chair designed by Milo Baughman, Rocking Chaise designed by Milo Baughman, LC2 Petit Confort Sofa and Armchair, First Chair, Serpentine Sectional designed by Milo Baughman, MR Cantilever Chair, Landi Chair, Jamaica Stool, Modern Modular Sofa designed by Vladimir Kagan, Tubular Stool by Amisco, Paperclip Stool, Metrik cantilever, S44 Chair, Kilkis Lounge Chair, Charlie Swivel Chair, Brigadier Sofa, Cobra Chair, Barcelona Chair, Sylvie Chair, Dr. Glob Chair, Von Vogelsang Chair, Suspense and Suspension Chairs, dining chair by Robert Josten, Ed Archer Chair, Lincoln Lounge Chair, Papyrus Chair, Meridiana Chair, Cobra Pipeline Sofa, Dimple Closed Shell Chair, Fasem T38, Arrben chair, Frenesí Stool, Jakobsen side chair, Oh Chair, Hannah Chair, Follia Chair, Peanut Chair, Nautilus Chair, Bubble Chair, Canasta Swivel Chair, Brno Chair, Optima Chair, Lila Hunter Chair, Graph Swivel Chair, Field Lounge Chair, Star Trek Chair, Dining chair (II) by Constantini Pietro, Human Being Chair, Mayan Sofa, Real Good counter stool, Lucite Stool, Tucker Chair, Kicca swivel chair, Lobster Chair, Egyptian Revival Chair, Sancarlo Armchair.

The Model 248 Chair was found by annaph_m , the Platner Stool by prepostnyc , the Turner Chair, Balzo sofa set, Velox Chair, Panton Chair, Pearsall brutalist dining chair, Revers Chair, Ox Chair, Prince Aha Stool, Series 7 Armchair, Prosim Sedni Lounge Chair and Prosim Sni Chaise by sideofbeans , the Constantini chair by Furnish Me Vintage , the S33 Chair by Places & Spaces , the Wau chair by Tragic Sense of Life , Monarch Specialties I 7271 by @AnthonyPriv99, Fasem P40, Cardona and Thinline by Michael Landsberg, Vitra Park, hm85, Fina Lounge and Ray Soft by Rygel, EJ6 by Luc , DS-1025 by Reddit user Frond_Dishlock via Trek Time.

Some of the chairs were identified by David Van Brink, Derek Ellington, Gregor Wittrick, Jeff_the_Sloth, Maik, Makrum Pro, Lt. Washburn, Masaki Taniko, Olav Rokne and Donny Versiga . The IKEA chair in Quarks's Bar was found by The Ferengi Costumes Of Star Trek . Special thanks to the curator of the Thunder Bay Museum for the research about the Ergoform chair!

The information about the following chairs comes from the book Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier : Swivel Rocker Club Chair, Model 576, T-Chair, Model 2123.

Several episode screen caps from TrekCore . Some photos from Live Auctioneers , Pamono , 1stDibs and The Swanky Abode . Product images shown in accordance with Fair Use exemption.

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/database/chairs-trek.htm

Last modified: 20 Apr 2024

© Ex Astris Scientia 1998-2024, Legal Terms

This website is not endorsed, sponsored or affiliated with CBS Studios Inc. or the Star Trek franchise.

Fleet Yards

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• VFX and MoGraph

Preserving Gene Roddenberry’s legacy and history of “Star Trek”

• Posted by Michelle Galina
• April 26, 2024

This post originally appeared on the  Adobe blo g  on March 21st, 2024.

The Roddenberry Archive is a collaboration between OTOY, The Roddenberry Estate, and iconic Star Trek artists Denise Okuda, Mike Okuda, and Daren Docterman to preserve Gene Roddeberry’s legacy in all media, but especially the history and cultural contribution of all eras of Star Trek . In a multi-pronged approach, the team is documenting Star Trek through interviews with cast and crew members, 3D scanning original props, costumes, and sets, making walk-through digital recreations of the sets from the series and movies, and producing documentary featurettes.

VAD supervisor Mark Spatny, senior hard surface artist Donny Versiga, and motion graphics artist Andrew Jarvis, are a few of the members creating this experience. Check out how they are using  Adobe Creative Cloud  to keep Gene’s legacy alive.

You can check out this project and immerse yourself in the world of Star Trek  here .

How did you first get into VFX design? What drew you to it?

Spatny:  I started working in live theater in the late ‘80s in Los Angeles as a set and lighting designer, and in the early ‘90s began using architectural previz software to design my scenery. I soon found that I enjoyed doing computer graphics as much as the physical theater production, so I transitioned into visual effects where I can combine all those skills. I have since worked on more than 50 TV series and films on-set and in post-production as a VFX supervisor and producer, specializing in both action/stunt/superhero VFX and complex set extensions.

Versiga:  I got my start back in 2000 when I was 16 years old, creating my own custom levels in first-person video games like Doom and Dark Forces . At first it was just rearranging pre-existing assets in a level map, but soon I learned the basics of modeling, texturing, and lighting to achieve more customized results. After a year or so of being active in the video game modding community, I realized that I could merge this newfound hobby with my lifelong love of Star Trek by bringing to life my favorite Trek sets in a 3D digital world via real-time rendering.

Jarvis:  I really took the long way around. I graduated with a degree in philosophy and psychology and started working as a cashier at a coffee shop doing web design jobs on the side. But each job was a little better than the last, and in my free time I was learning  Adobe After Effects , 3D animation and ZBrush sculpting. One day a friend of mine met someone who did screen graphics for film and television, he gave me their number, and I never looked back.

What was the inspiration behind the VFX work on this project? What were you trying to achieve?

Spatny:  Space-themed TV shows have always been my passion ever since I was a kid — Star Trek , Battlestar Galactica , Lost in Space , Stargate , Doctor Who , and anime shows like Space Battleship Yamato and Macross . In 2018, as a member of the Television Academy board, I helped champion giving the Star Trek franchise the Academy’s Governors Award Emmy. So, I’m super excited to finally be working in that genre, helping preserve the history of a show I’ve loved for 50 years.

Versiga:  My goal on the Roddenberry Archive is to not only simply create CG replicas of the sets and props of Star Trek , but also to immerse the end users in a highly detailed and exceptionally immersive virtual tour of some of the most beloved ships and settings of the fictional universe. I want users to feel like they are actually stepping onboard the “Enterprise” via the comfort of their digital devices, in awe of the degree of accuracy.

What Adobe tools did you use on this project and why did you originally choose them?

Spatny:  Premiere Pro is a key editing platform for our documentaries and concept videos. Since we’re dealing with footage transferred to video across many eras and standards, we depend on Premiere Pro’s ability to easily handle a variety of video formats and standards natively.

Versiga:  I am a huge fan of the  Adobe Substance  suite of Adobe tools, particularly  Adobe Painter . I have used the tool for nearly a decade now to add more fidelity and customization to the materials I apply to my models. I originally started using it during the interview process for a job in the video game industry because I recognized that my biggest weakness in my skill set at that point was texturing. I learned via the official tutorials on YouTube and fell in love with the incredibly powerful program. Since then, I’ve been an advocate of Painter in every job I’ve had, even giving tutorials and lessons for those new to the software.

Jarvis:   Adobe Illustrator  is where I spend my most time, but I also use  Adobe Photoshop  and After Effects. I’ve been using the Adobe suite as an FUI (fictional user interface) designer for nearly a decade now so it was the natural choice.

How did you begin this project? Can you talk about the collaborative process with the art department teams from the TV shows and films, and the process of creating your work from start to finish?

Spatny:  The Archive is a decades-long passion project from Jules Urbach, the CEO of OTOY and the Roddenberry Estate. The CG team currently consists of artists in 6 countries, some of whom previously worked on Trek series and games. They work in a variety of DCC tools, and Star Trek art department legends Denise and Michael Okuda and Daren Dochterman review and approve all the assets we recreate for authenticity.

We work mostly from publicly available reference sources such as screen grabs from the series, blueprints and technical drawings that have been published, and photos from the internet. We also have teams that work with private collectors to scan original props and costumes, and we can scan actors in our Lightstage capture facility in Los Angeles, CA.

Eventually, the finished models are converted to ORBX files to render on the  Render Network , a decentralized high performance GPU computing platform. Real-time environments that users can explore are rendered on Amazon cloud servers and streamed to user’s local devices, such as the Apple Vision Pro , via OTOY’s X.IO streaming service.

Describe your favorite piece or component of the project. How did it come together and how did you achieve it?

Versiga:  My favorite piece so far that I’ve created for the Roddenberry Archive would have to be the Enterprise — a bridge scene at the very end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . Fans were only provided with a glimpse of this new bridge in the film, but we knew the set was a heavy redress of the bridge set seen in the preceding three films. However, the big unknown factors were the details of the hundred or so display graphics that adorned the bridge’s control consoles, of which only a handful were ever seen on screen.

Fortunately, Mike Okuda was able to provide us with a copy of the original overview document of the displays that he created during his work on the film, which I used as a guide for creating our digital representations of each display in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. It was a huge honor for me to work on that project, as for the first time we were able to provide fans with an accurate representation of the new Enterprise bridge set from that film.

What were some specific challenges you faced? How did you go about solving them?

Spatny:  Because our artists come from different backgrounds and industries, they use a variety of workflows and tools. One of my biggest challenges ahead is helping standardize procedures and simplify communication with the international team. That way, we can more easily scale the team and pivot our work to new platforms, using the best practices I’ve learned from the VFX companies I’ve worked with previously.

If you could share one tip about any or multiple Adobe tools you used, what would it be? (e.g. favorite Photoshop/AE/Premiere Pro “hack”)

Spatny:  Every week we have a 3-hour art review session with Daren, Mike, and Denise, and sometimes the notes come in hot and fast. We record the sessions and then use Premiere Pro’s transcription tool,  Speech to Text , to help gather and summarize the most important points to relay to our art team. One advantage of this over other transcription tools is that it works on my local machine, not in the cloud, so it has no security issues. That’s a huge plus for companies that depend on proprietary IP.

Versiga:  When I first started using Adobe Substance Painter, I was excited at the ease of adding things like dirt and edge wear to my models’ textures, so much so that I overused it in my early days. I’ve since learned to make my application of those effects far more subtle. For instance, if I’m modeling a clean Starfleet prop, I’ll add very  subtle  roughness variation in the form of light scratches, smudges, and fingerprints to make them appear only slightly used and have a level of realism for up-close inspection. On the other hand, I’ll save the heavier rust, metallic edge wear, dirt, and grime effects for the Klingon props and sets.

Who is your creative inspiration and why?

Spatny:  I keep David Mack’s Kabuki comic books in my office. He’s a brilliant artist who sometimes uses wildly different art styles on every page of his comic. It’s a reminder that we always need to be innovating in both design and technical approaches in our industry. You can never be satisfied with doing the same thing the same way twice.

Jarvis:  For this project, it’s got to be Michael Okuda. His dedication to the franchise and the consistent design style he brought to the screen graphics made Star Trek such a cohesive universe. His work really helped spark my interest in digital art as a boy. Decades later it would be my honor to collaborate with him on Star Trek: Picard , and now at The Roddenberry Archive.

What’s the toughest thing you’ve had to face in your career and how did you overcome it? What advice do you have for people aspiring to get into the VFX space?

Jarvis:  Creating screen graphics for on-set playback can be a very stressful job. In many ways, it’s more difficult than post VFX because you have to be ready for the day of shooting instead of doing your work after the scene is shot. You’ll get conflicting feedback from multiple departments, day-of requests from set, and ridiculous deadlines.

In many ways, it’s more difficult than post VFX because you have to be ready for the day of shooting instead of doing your work after the scene is shot.

My advice to anyone who wants to get into VFX is to just do it. Don’t wait for someone to hire you, just start making things. The barriers to creating your own content have never been lower, and with free software you can create really polished work without a formal education. Put something out that shows off your style and expertise and don’t be afraid to reach out to people who are doing the kind of work you’d like to be doing.

Share a photo of where you work. What’s your favorite thing about your workspace and why?

Spatny:  Working from my home office in L.A. full-time now is a huge improvement over filming on a frozen lake in Canada or at night in pouring rain in Wales. My favorite thing about my home office is my signed photo of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast hanging over my desk.

Versiga:  My favorite thing about where I work is that it’s from home. Although I miss the social component of working in an office, there’s a very comforting quality to working from home, and I find that I’m able to maintain a greater degree of concentration while I work compared to an office environment.

Jarvis:  That would of course have to be my framed poster of Christopher Cushman’s iconic Enterprise D cutaway poster that hung on my bedroom wall all through grade school.

Michelle Galina

Michelle Gallina is senior product marketing manager, Creative Cloud: After Effects and Character Animator at Adobe.

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The o.j. simpson movie that owen wilson (among others) won’t be starring in.

Plus, legendary Hollywood agent Harry Abrams spills all (or at least some) in a new memoir, Star Trek beams into Santa Monica, and Cate Blanchett bears arms.

By Edited by Benjamin Svetkey , Edited by Julian Sancton April 24, 2024 10:00am

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A New O.J. Movie Stars the Controversial Charlotte Kirk (But Definitely Not Owen Wilson)

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When Harry Met Jaclyn

Talent agents find talent in the oddest places. For instance, back when he was getting started in the business in the early ’70s, veteran 15-percenter Harry Abrams — who has a freshly published memoir, Let’s Do Launch, in bookstores — was picnicking with his wife and three young kids in Central Park when he stumbled on a stunning young brunette doing pirouettes in the grass. “My 3-year-old wandered over to her, and I had to go rescue her from him,” he tells THR . “We started talking, and it turned out she was in town auditioning for the New York City Ballet. She had a Southern accent so thick, you could cut it with a knife. But I was struck by her natural beauty, so I gave her my card and told her to call me if she didn’t get into the ballet.” Jaclyn Smith didn’t get in, did call, and next thing you know she’s one of the original Charlie’s Angels. Abrams has a zillion of these stories, but you’ll have to buy his book to learn about the ones involving Liam Neeson, Jennifer Lopez, Katie Holmes, Jason Alexander and William H. Macy.

Santa Monica Makes It So

Cate blanchett, armed and dangerous.

Sure, she’s one of cinema’s most lauded thespians, an eight-time Oscar nominee and two-time winner. But, according to horror maestro Eli Roth, you haven’t really seen Cate Blanchett act until you’ve watched her brandish a flamethrower. “She’s obviously brilliant,” says the director, who first worked with Blanchett in 2018’s The House With a Clock in Its Walls and more recently shot her as an intergalactic bounty hunter in his video game adaptation Borderlands . “But I was like, ‘Cate, let me throw a hundred stunt guns at you and have you fight all these people and run up on all these boxes and flip around and jump down.’ I threw crazy stuff at her. She’s in this snakeskin suit twirling guns. I gave her a flamethrower. She has an amazing stunt team, but when you see her twirling guns, doing fights and using the flamethrower, that’s her. She’s incredible.” — CHRIS GARDNER

This story first appeared in the April 24 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe .

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