Trekyards EP50 - Cage Constitution Class 

To this day, I absolutely love Samuel's blatant rejection of the "coded displays" theory.

Pike's room seems more like in that rounded bit under the bridge dome.

Yes, I liked the Cage version of the bridge too. It had that sleek functional look about it.

The triangle thing in the captain's quarters is a Television. You can see the TV screen, in the episode. Pike loves antiques I guess.

happy 50th and I wish you 1701 more

Yup, small personal screens just look so dated... while holding my small personal screen and com device. lol

I was watching this video. You guys mentioned all the extra holes around the impulse drive on the primary hall. I remember that there is a line when Spock said to switch over to rockets, so some of those holes could actually be rocket ports.

“The Cage” bridge looked a lot better, more serious, more realistic (aside from the goose-neck mars viewer intercoms) because the color scheme was more believable, not that it was more sleek. I would have kept that look and just added the new chairs with the high backs, that would have been better.

I can remember seeing the very first pilot of Star Trek and remember that in the beginning the camera zooms toward the bridge and gets so close that it almost looked like the people responsible at the time for creating certain effects were trying to bring that camera zoom right into the top "window" of the bridge. After the camera had gone as far as it could go a circular film frame popped up with all the bridge crew sitting around their work stations. This must have been very much of which Gene Roddenberry meant by using the bridge as a point for scale and the only way they could have pulled that camera shot off at the time was to build a slightly out of scale bridge that was to big to match up effectively with the ship. Check the pilot out again for reference. -Jason

That things on bussard collectors are Warp Deflector Dish. Normal collectors from series model are underneath red metallic enclosure (whole things is a deflector). Main deflector dish was in first concept long range communication array.

Some minor bits. The triangle thing was a television set (somebody else covered that). Reference for it came from "The Art of Star Trek" hardcover book from the 1990s. Fan done prints and the like have implied that Pike's quarters was actually inside the B-C deck teardrop. As for Pike's spartan quarters, I suppose it is because he likely spent most of his time on the bridge anyway. As for Kirk's homey touches, well he is known to have women visit him in his quarters (which also appear bigger). So he likely did some things to make his quarters appear more "attractive" (nudge nudge, wink wink). The black areas on the saucer were second pilot. They had a more muted palette for Cage (almost hull color). The recessed rectangle area on the front of the bridge was also second pilot. Details were different on the Cage version (seen briefly in the tight bridge pull in shot, also seen somewhat in Filmation's animation of that shot from animated Trek). Second pilot ship also still had what appeared to be two large impulse engine ports, but they were faded in color while the smaller squares were added (probably an attempt to give the area more detail without altering the physical model, which they wouldn't do unless Trek got green lit for a series). As for the Mirror Mirror flip flop sequence, the "port" side of the ship seen is really the starboard side of the 11 foot model. When the lights were added, only the starboard side could be filmed. So to compensate, a set of reverse image letters and numbers were printed for the engine pod (images taken of an unused E "decal sheet" from that period at one time shown on the IDIC page showed it) and the film would be flipped during processing to make the ship appear to go the other way. It appears that the flipped shot was filmed during the effects session from the second pilot, but wasn't used for that episode, probably because the model had to be filmed somewhat tight and flat so as not to show any reversed letters on the top or bottom of the saucer. If you look at the rest of the shots from "Where No Man..." they appear to use more dramatic filming angles and lighting. But when production work on "Mirror Mirror" took place, somebody remembered the old footage and it ended up getting used. As for the size of the bridge dome, production notes in "The Making of Star Trek" book from the 60s and other references implied that the ship as it was seen in "The Cage" was big, but not too massive and it only had a crew of 200 to 300 (300 spoken in the episode). When Trek entered production, the idea was to make the ship appear physically bigger, so the bridge was sized down proportionally and the crew was bumped up to over 400 (and some weathering was added to the studio model). Whether Matt Jefferies actually had the dimensions for the "actual" ship finalized by "The Cage" I have no idea. But the goal there was to get the pilot episode in the can, not necessarily flesh out every little detail. That would happen when the show made it into production.

I prefer the Cage bridge too, Captain ;)

Happy 50th Ep, guys, it's been great - entertaining and informative - here's to 50 more! :)

Congrats on 50 guys, nice milestone. I agree the grey bridge looks like it means business, but like you also said they wanted to show off color TV. I think it worked for the time. It might even have swayed a few viewers into not changing the channel.

Congratulations on 50 episodes! Here's to many, many more from the best Trek duo on the web!

Captain the triangle table you were talking about is like a television like device in Pike's quarters.

I agree the Cage bridge has awesome computer terminals

Congratulations on the 50. episode. I have so much catching up to do. Thank you.

The Constitution class starship is one of the things that got me to fall in love with the series. It just looks sci fi sexy.

Great job. Looking forward to the next 50.

As for the question concerning the "spikes" on the Bussard Collectors, they are actually Hydrogen Intake Flow Sensors, during the refit for the production version of the Constitution, the "spikes" were replaced by a more accurate version of the Hydrogen Intake Flow Sensors that were contained internally inside of the domes.

A glorious start to the 50th episode anniversary! It was great! Since I haden't seen the first and second pilot for the longest time and was first introduced to Star Trek with much later series, I of course had not really any big opion about this very first version of this ship. Most of the time I agree with your opinion, especially with captain foleys thoughts about the colours and monitors on the first bridge. This definetly does look like a bridge that would fit in with the rest of the universe, the later movie refits and so on quite a bit better than the production bridge. With the bigger bridge module, the collectors, engines and bigger deflector dish, to me this ship looks like there are just a lot of parts that were experimental in the first designs and later became more thought out and more efficient technology wise. You know whats funny? When I first saw the scematics, the black hull markings on the saucer section actually reminded me of phaser strips from TNG and later eras. I thought "What the hell? is this some kind of experimental...what?" Luckily, I am now better informed :D But I have to say: there ist just SO much that bothers me about that last picture in the dry dock. The fact that they simply put a shuttle on that tiny platform of the space dog that is definetly not supposed to hold a shuttle just bothers me so much. Don't they have proper parking lots in space? On the upper left side, there is just cables or stuff that seem to be hanging there...do they have artificial gravity in that area just because... ? The little pre-work-bee looks nice, but since there were always so many versions of work bees (as I learned in the Trekyards episode about them, yay!), I think it is safe to assume that starfleet had more than one model of them. And since this one is more closed up, it looks almost more TNG-like to me, at least not as utilitarian as the later TMP ones. Finally something I have to say, just because I see it in the picture: I like TOS. Really. I like those designs too. But...please...could anybody please explain to me how in fraking hell they came up with that banner for the UFP ? Red and white or golden just looks so aggressive to me, the whole shape has something of a war-like banner from the middle ages to me and just having random-feeling stars around their letters...I don't know, it was the sixties but...I mean, you had proper flags back then, right? Did really anybody think this was futuristic back then? Okay, I might be exaggerating here, but as much as I want to, I just can't take this flag seriously. It just looks so amateurish and unfitting for a futuristic setting to me. Maybe that is my primitive ape-brain speaking, but it also has so nothing to do with any starfleet or federation symbol introduced later that I guess the officials weren't too happy with it, either.

I wish we saw more of this era, all we got was the cage/menagerie and where no man has gone before

19:10 The only problem with that line of thinking if that the 1st pilot, 2nd pilot, and "production" version of the ship were used and reused constantly throughout the episodes. For the remastered they decided to use the 2nd pilot model with tweaked markings on the hull. Incidentally they cheated slightly and gave the bussards a slight glow in both The Cage and Where No Man.

Ooo, I'd forgotten how different the bridge looked in _The_ _Cage._ I agree that it looks really nice in those colors!

Happy 50th guys. And many more ... please.

The "bar" in Pikes quarters actually has a TV screen facing Pikes bed, if you look at the original production art in "The Art Of Star Trek" by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.

It looks like a window. For the Mirror Enterprise, the 1960s version was the same model as the Enterprise. With the remastered version, Mike Okuda made it the Cage version to differentiate the two, and to make it more menacing.

I know this video is a few years old....but when I built my 1/350th TOS Enterprise, most of it was the production version but I added the spikes to the bussard collectors and the large deflector dish from the 1st and 2nd pilot episodes. I loved those two things and always thought it was weird seeing such a small deflector dish on the TOS Enterprise. I kept the production bridge because I just never cared for the huge ass bridge piece from the pilot versions.

Congrats on 50.Love the show keep up the good work

The 'Bridge' may be heavily armored, and the saucer smaller too. Pike recounts the number of crewmen on his ship, then fast forward to Kirk's account of the crew aboard his ship. The size may be smaller. As for the Deflector Dish. Pike's Enterprise may have more primitive or designed for Galactic Exploration. By the time Kirk gained Enterprise, She was faster, more powerful, her systems were more compact, and the need for the Larger Nav Dish was gone. Something smaller with improved modular equipment worked in Kirk's favor. Upon examining the aft of the Nacelles, each worked as the technology improved. I noticed a couple of episodes where the aft seemed to 'morph' from one type to another. I looked at the back of the STMP Enterprise and it too had a panel on its exhaust location. To me, this would have made Pike's version the immediate predecessor. Holes being most primitive- like Gold Key's version. Then the Bubble for the other seasons, then the panel...An idea that transitioned well to the STMP refit . BTW: Am I the only one who noticed the Federation decided to dump the cylinders and adopt the Klingon rectangular engines? Couriouser and couriouser huh?

The large wooden furniture in Pike's quarters is supposed to have a viewscreen in its center. Which that illustration does not have. It does look like a TV set from that era.

The real world reason for the nacelle spikes is probably to balance the design with the spike on the nav deflector. There must be an in-universe reason though as the NX-Refit incorporates them too. Also the black bars on the saucer were for docking clamps to attach to iirc, NX-01 has those too as seen here - trekazoid.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/nx-01b.png

Nice Plymouth!

IMO the cage Connie rocks. It is the militaristic feel that I like. Same with the Cage bridge. Thought its supposed to be the future, it draws on the warship feel in the naval WW2 movies

The nacelle spikes always brought to mind pitot tubes on aircraft. Obviously pitot tubes, used to measure static and dynamic pressure in order to calculate airspeed, would be useless in that regard, but it's possible that they're hydrogen/particle density sensors. Regarding the bridge, I agree... the Cage bridge was sleeker, in my opinion. The other interiors, not so much. Nor the "lasers" as opposed to phasers.

Stuart after reading these commits about the spikes on the bussard collectors they are sensors I think they are Space Energy Field Sensors. Those little dimples on the dome next to the main nacelles are the new sensors, after looking in my Star Trek tech manual for TOS ship on the warp nacelle these dimples are there, but not on the pilot ship just the sensor spikes. My roommate pointed this out to me first.

The view you showed of the Captains quarters is different than we see in the filmed version. I think the bar showed as a floor TV that was popular in the 60's through to the 90's. And a very interesting chair shown at that angle.

The spikes were supposed to match the pointy part of the deflector (The Making of ST - S Whitfield)

The triangular table Samuel was asking about is, I believe, Pike's TV. If you look in his cabin, he actually has a 60s television.

The curve of the hull in Pike's quarters, while you speculated he was in the Secondary hull, that fits with the windows on Deck 2. I'd think you'd want the captain and senior crew real close to the bridge.

Very cool video.

The black striped part was called a docking hard point. The Enterprise NX-01. has them also.

When you're passing a star and have to toast some marsh melons....

The bridge on the production version has no back projected motion graphics like on the pilot because union rules stated that each projector had to be operated by a projectionist - they weren't allowed to automate them - so it would have cost too much.

I suspect that the exteriors from "The Cage" and those from "Where No Man Has Gone Before" are actually of two different models. Before the 11-foot model was built, another model of approximately 2-3 feet was built. It can be seen in several publicity shots of Shatner and Nimoy taken prior to the first season. I believe this model was actually used for "The Cage" exteriors. The 11-foot model was delivered to the set in December of 1964 and "The Cage" was completed in January of 1965. I doubt that was enough time to film the new model and get it into the film prior to it being shown to NBC execs. Additionally, most of the views of the Enterprise from The Cage are high-speed flybys, which would have been impractical to be done with the 11-foot model. There are two slower flybys, both shown in the video (at 11:14 showing the squares on the back of the nacelles and at 13:17, which is the ship establishment shot for the episode.) In both of these shots, the perspectives end up being relatively cramped, and you don't really get good close ups. Of these two, you only ever see the second one again, and that's only a few times (specifically, it's in the galaxy's edge footage from "Where No Man. . .", "By Any Other Name", and "Is There in Truth No Beauty".) Once they got the 11-foot model, they did a lot of filming with it from a lot of angles and close ups (though, not as close as they would with the production version). This gives us the much nicer flybys from the first season credits, the standard side view in orbit, and most famously, the "fly into the stars" shot (seen at 16:52 with the galactic edge effect). The original version of the 11-ft model was fully two sided, so they already had the reverse orbit shot they would use for "Mirror, Mirror" (24:03 on the video), even though that shot does not appear anywhere else in the series (not even in "Shore Leave" where the ship is shown orbiting backwards in the original version--they use a reverse of the normal shot and don't show the registration numbers on the nacelle.) Another unique view of the port side can be seen in "Dagger of the Mind" where Enterprise is approaching Tantalus the second time--See 1:38 of TrekkieChannel's side by side comparison of that episode, if it's still available. After the refit to the production version was done, the port side of the secondary hull was cannibalized and all views were of the starboard side (this was done to upgrade the wiring and could clearly be seen when the model was last on display at the Smithsonian.)

I love this Bridge!!

The model of the MARS Viewers reminds me of the Martian machines in the 1953 George Pal's "War Of The Worlds" film starring Gene Barry.

I just find it incredible how you can talk so much about just a Constitution class with spikes on the Bussard collectors. But it's cool, Continue like that.

Technically, this is "Starship Class," as denoted by the gold plaque on the bridge, as well as the Stephen Whitfield's book, "The Making of Star Trek." It wasn't labeled "Constitution Class" until 1975 in Franz Joseph's "Starfleet Technical Manual."

The original incarnation of the ship was scaled to around 200 crewman. As they moved into the series, they re scaled the ship to be a larger ship. I really like the original version.

I think that the amount of view ports remain the same. The view port armor cover panels were probably simply closed over the ports. They showed Kirk open the observation deck one on Mark of Gideon and on the shuttlecraft viewports. I read that the hole in the center of the impulse engine was actually an aft photon torpedo tube.

the spikes on the Bussard Collectors are called Inlet Flow Sensors

Guys, on the image of the Ortho view of 'The Cage' variant, the bottom has various scales to indicate size. According to the first scale, those Bussard Spikes are 35-40 feet long. Using that scale, it feels correct based on other measurements. All I can say is, "Damn".

Agreed about the Cage bridge. Seems more modernized than Kirk bridge.

Doesn't the doctor pull some strong drink out of that triangle? Gives Pike a drink. Backs the bar concept

You can see the linage from Enterprise to TOS thru this bridge set up.

Also (because I can't shut up tonight) - the Cage version was used for 'Mirror Mirror' as the large-scale production model was only detailed with decals on one side of the secondary hull, which is why close-ups of the Enterprise in profile always feature it flying from left-to-right (all close-ups in 'Mirror, Mirror' show it moving right-to-left because ... well, because mirror). Presumably the Cage model had detailing either on both sides or at least on the opposite side.

A possible explanation for the "spikes" on the Bussard Collectors. They are lasers. In the original COSMOS episode "Journeys In Space And Time", Carl Sagan describes a Bussard Ramjet. A Bussard Collector collects free hydrogen atoms in space. These are moving at tremendous speeds relative to the ship, and produce induced cosmic rays, harmful to the crew. The lasers are used to strip electrons off the atoms and make them electrically charged while still some distance away from the ship. A strong magnetic field is then used to deflect them into the collectors. (BTW, the spikes on the nacelles are the same as the spike on the deflector dish.)

error with the model at 9:40 the science station was not in that location In the first pilot. It was actually two and a half stations down right near the screen. This is made clear in the part where the Talosians read the Enterprise's databanks. Reviewing my Flight recorder for this episode there really is nothing in the episode to lead us to believe the science station was next to communications in the first pilot. That was a second pilot bridge configuration.

The reason that ortho shows only two windows on the B/C deck is because that's how many the studio model had, the 11 foot model wasn't finished on one side to save money. So for that reason that particular ortho isn't 'canon' to how the ship was supposed to be.

I wonder if they reduced the size of the bridge to make the Enterprise seem bigger. Recall that Pike mentions there being about 200 people on the ship in “The Cage.” During the series, that number doubles to around 400. Besides looking sleek, having the smaller bridge dome makes the scale of the rest of the ship seem bigger.

lol I bet most of the Terran ships from the TOS Mirror universe actualy have those same spikes as seen on the Cage version of this ship :3.

Love it, do prefer the Cage version!

The Cage Bridge was physically smaller and built in a different stage. When it was moved to the new stage and reassembled, they added sections to make it larger. This is all in the Whitfield book.

Pike's quarters look like they are in the domed portion right under the bridge.

I get a lot of utilitarian WWII warship vibes from this shot at 13:49

i forget where i read it but it was one of the technical manuals that said those black strips under the running lights on the saucer were sensor pallets

The Triangle table thing in the Captains qtrs contained a TV screen. (this is fun.. LOL) Re: the rear shot of the ship...notice the bottom of the saucer has a different profile. This is the 3 ft model...looks different.

Watching this in 2024 -everyone is so young ;-)

I wished that TOS had kept the individual station screens past the second pilot. They replaced them in some areas with the large bulky workstation monitors that look just as dated now.

The idea of turning the viewer into a window goes ALLLL the way back to Nick Meyer, who wanted to make it a window, but they wouldn't let him. Not for any practical reasons, simple because "It's the Star Trek viewscreen." Also April was in command 2245 to 2250.

Watch "The Cage" and count how many times Spock smiles. It's disturbing.

Hey captain and commander. Awesome episode . Just tossing this out there do you think maybe Pike's Enterprise is actually smaller say about half the size? They do say in the cage the crew is only 200 and something ( I forget the actual number ) that would explain the lager bridge exterior. Please don't hate me just a thought

Hey Guys, had anyone considered the 'Spikes' may be Lightning Rods to protect the Warp Engines from the massive energy in Ion Storms? Going through space, the ship may generate static electricity...the Bussard Spikes may be manipulated into discharging the excwss into space. Such a field could screw with Transporter emmitters ...just a thought.

My biggest issue with the Cage version of the Enterprise is the back story created by the dialog. References to Rockets and having just broke the light barrier really through off the rest of the so called "Canon" Story line. Maybe a voice over on the remaster version might have fixed that issue. The remaster should have at the very least fixed the holes that can be clearly seen on the aft end of the nacelles which I am betting were the Rockets being referenced in the Cage. I think the Spikes are OK but betting the reason for them was that spikes were standard for sci-fi rockets in the 1950's (think Flash Gordon). I love the inside and it works towards showing a progression in tech going from Pike to Kirk.

Just noticed the Autobot symbol behind Capt. F :)

24:30, nooope! The Cage model has no lights in it! That is the second pilot version, where they finally lit it. Watching The Cage with the original effects is rather unfortunate. I love some of the shots of the ship themselves, but they very clearly had no time to actually light the model. So that was really the chief upgrade going into the second pilot.

The Cage Constituion class Enterprise has 200 men on it Kirk's ship has 400

Regarding the MARS displays: Keep in mind when those were designed IRL. No one was even thinking of flat screens yet, so the design would have allowed for a "picture tube" CRT. The Bussard collector design has always been a stretch. The physics involved is the generation of a huge magnetic field, to draw in interstellar hydrogen. They would have to used at sublight speeds. Once the warp wield is generated, the ship would be sitting in it's own little bubble of spacetime, and unable to draw in hydrogen from the "outside." www.bisbos.com/images_spacecraft/bussard/ramjet_1_l.jpg

I was hoping they would have put on the yellow markings on the Mirror Enterprise in the remaster. Seems like a wasted opportunity.

Guys, The bridge wasn't bigger. The ship was originally supposed to be smaller.

I'm sorry Captain but i prefer the production version of the bridge. i love all the bright colors. im a child of the 60's, my first exposure to Star Trek was in 1973 when i was only 9 years old. so those bright colors stuck with me. like you though, i prefer TOS over the newer incarnations.

Looks to me that only the 3 ft miniature appears in The Cage. I was looking at the episode today. The interconnecting dorsal looks shiny. And there is no dome at the bottom of the saucer. Was the 11 footer not built yet, maybe because they didn't know if this show would be approved by the network?

The workpod could also be a one man shuttle craft

I find the cage virsion to have a much more early 60s/late 50s asthetic like a lot of early sci do movies from the time. Greys, chrome, the wooden tv thing in pikes cabin... sad you guys didn't cover the conference room which shared the same disk lighting feature as pikes cabin.

The original filming model was just under 10 feet long. the scale is literally 1/86.77, I can go on but essentially 1/87 scale, rounded off. so if you put a HO model train next to it will give you a size comparison. I have devised a set of line drawings in 1/72 scale for it and it comes out at scarily near 13 feet. I mean like 12 foot, 11 and 15/16th of an inch in length.

The MARS Viewers were made to resemble voice tubes. Traditional nautical look

I see a strong influence from the 1950s flying saucer films in the initial design, especially with the larger center dome. I wonder how many of those model parts were simply reused from earlier props. I also like the bridge with the muted colors. From a practical perspective, it makes the buttons and any displayed data easier to see due to the higher contrast, and the matted panel finish reduces glare.

I'm wondering what the sound of the bridge was like. I noticed that the tos' were reused from previous scifi and also later. I think Lost in Space used them.

I know why they had 8 Impulse engine ports!! Its the late 60's and it was all about the muscle cars! One way or the other they were implying that it had a V8!!!

Restoration/conservation blog for the original 11-ft USS Enterprise model from Star Trek: TOS => blog.nasm.si.edu/conservation/uss-enterprise-conservation-begins/ Sounds like they're doing a mixed restoration... I HOPE they decide what to do with the paint scheme soon (in a positive way)! The model should be restored to Production appearance IMHO. Agree with the decision on the lighting setup and LEDs. They need to think long-term with the stability and health of the model. The original lights are too hot and destructive and the nacelle motors are just a PIA for a display that might be running all day. I think LEDs can reasonably replicated the original lightning effects of the motorized bussard scoops.

Interesting.

Its possible I misread/misremembered, but it seems I read somewhere that the Connie actually underwent 2 major refits, one we all know about in TMP, and another between when April and Pike commanded her, the first doubling the crew compliment/size of saucer. Anyone else familiar with this?

happy 50th love the show. just found it a few days ago and have been on a spree ever since. been looking for something like this for a long time. permission to sqwee captin?

The deflection properties of cherry tree’s was staggering in tests... so they built the deflector out of cherry wood

I recall that (off screen) the ship was doubled in size (not the models) between "The Cage" and the series. Don't remember where I read or heard that.

thats from an episode of Star Trek New Voyages!

The "points" discussed at the end SHOULD have been torpedo launchers.

Pike had a security guard standing by the turbo lift.