Welcome! As part of its ongoing mission to document the Art and Production History of Star Trek, this site will present technical articles on Star Trek prop and costume authentication - focusing on The Original Series - with detailed photos and episode screenshots to complement the information presented; as well as feature pictorials to showcase Star Trek memorabilia in private & public collections, present rare Behind The Scenes TOS imagery & discuss other topics.
Gerald Gurian is a 40+ year collector of screen used Star Trek memorabilia and a passionate fan of TOS
     
- Star Trek TOS At Auction Part I - Gurian Collection Highlights - Greg Jein TOS Hero Type II Phaser
-Authenticating a TOS Communicator -6 Myths About Star Trek Prop Design -Star Trek 3rd Season Command Tunic
- Design Features of TOS Tricorders -Star Trek Props At National Air & Space - TOS Leatherette Tricorder
- TOS Federation Sciences Dress -Desilu Studio TOS Prop Fabrication - Unreleased Allen/Gurian Prop Photos
- The Beautiful Women of TOS Part I -TOS U.S.S. Enterprise 11' Filming Model - Captain Kirk's Chair from TOS
- Spock Ears -TOS Control Panels & Displays - Mr. Spock's Science Station
- TOS Soundstage at Desilu -TOS Shatner Romulan Pants - The Beautiful Women of TOS Pt. II
- TOS Galileo Shuttlecraft -Greg Jein TOS Cage Laser Pistol - TOS 3rd Season Midgrade Type II Phaser
- Dr. McCoy's Sickbay on TOS -TOS Balok Puppet Head - Captain Kirk "Mirror, Mirror" Tunic
- Greg Jein TOS Hero Tricorder -1992 Smithsonian TOS Cast Video - TOS 1st Season Command Tunic
- TOS "Where No Man" Silver Contact Lenses -TOS Special Effects: The Transporter - The Art of Matt Jefferies
- TOS "Space Seed" Gold Mesh Jumpsuit -Gorn Costume from "Arena" - Rare TOS Behind-the-Scenes Videos
- TOS Stunt Type II Phaser -1993 Bill Theiss Estate Auction - TOS Shatner Command Dress Tunic
- TOS Elasian Royal Guard Tunic -TOS Finnegan Silver "Shore Leave" Tunic - TOS Science Officer Tunic "The Cage"
- TOS Shatner Early 1st Season Command Tunic -William Shatner TOS Tunics At Auction - TOS Shatner Late 1st Season Command Tunic

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Star Trek: The Experience TNG Ops Chair Measurement Study

Presented below are several photos providing approximate dimensional data on one of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Ops Chairs that was formerly on display in the full scale Enterprise D Bridge recreation at the Star Trek: The Experience attraction in Nevada; which completed an 11 year run at the Las Vegas Hilton in September, 2008.  While this chair was not screen used in the production of the television series; it was constructed by the Paramount studios prop department and likely is an accurate representation of the size of the screen used chairs.  This replica stands approximately 39.5" in height, is 21.5" wide (based on the measure of it's widest cushion section; ignoring the irregularly shaped wood base which protrudes several inches from one side beneath the upholstered sections), and is approx. 41.5" in length from the back of the headrest to the furthest leading edge of the frontmost pillow section.

Unlike the previous ST:TE furniture measurement studies presented on this website, which contained many images where a ruler is shown to verify the dimension each time, I thought it best to display multiple measurements taken on the Ops Chair simultaneously as annotations on a smaller set of selected photos in this presentation.   That is due to the fact that the Ops Chair is almost entirely designed as a collection of curved surfaces - all of its light beige pillows have rounded ends along all four sides and the top of each pillow is rounded, so it was necessary in many cases when measuring to extrapolate where an imaginary line extended from the center of the pillow (the highest point) would hit the tape measure positioned along the edge of the chair geometry.  And given that there is built in perspective from an imperfect camera angle - the measures one would conclude just by looking at a photo of the ruler against the chair in many cases for this study would be deceiving and incorrect - and read perhaps up to an inch or more off the true value achieved by looking straight on from close beside the correctly positioned tape measure.  I initially attempted to photograph every individual measurement, and some of the better (less affected by perspective) examples are presented after the annotated images for curiosity sake, but it is suggested that the reader just rely on the annotated dimensions presented in the initial photos.  

Below then are the detailed measurements for the Next Generation Ops Chair ...








Below are some of the individual measurement photography attempts.  The first four suffer worst from camera angle, while the remaining ones tend to confirm the earlier annotations.