As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I visited the Star Trek exhibit at Seattle’s EMP (Experience Music Project) museum over the weekend – and thoroughly enjoyed it.
One of the more interesting exhibits I didn’t cover in yesterday’s post was a set of original bridge panels from the original (1960’s) Star Trek TV series.
All those futuristic-looking panels were actually composed of simple plastic, with translucent bits and buttons glued on to create the glimmering lights.
One thing that really stood out to me, seeing them in person: the set creators didn’t even bother to glue the pieces in a way that avoided smearing, or to keep the glue from showing on the finished pieces. TV cameras filmed with low enough resolution and detail that it didn’t matter, because the smears of glue would never show on-screen.
An interesting reality-check for those of us who dreamed of one day sitting on the bridge of the Enterprise, watching the computer do its job!