Building the Bridge 2

Once we determined the location, we knew it was time to set about to construct our set. Meeting with Van Buchanon (one of our producers and the set construction manager), we ironed out the new dimensions of the bridge. Again, we were downsizing the set, however, it would be in ways we agreed would be acceptable for the production.

The first thing we had to do was to determine the actual size of the sections of our dodecagon-shaped bridge. To that end, we experimented with a variety of measurements, testing the available space. We needed a reasonable station control panel size, room for our actor to sit in a 22" chair, room for the another person to walk behind them, and the railing. The result looks as though it will work nicely with the space available.

After measuring the available space to the set design, we were convinced we would have enough room complete the set. Note that the center console section was not completed. This was because we were unsure of what style of Helm/Nav/Astrogator we wanted to use.	We decided to superimpose the stations over the construction diagram to illustrate our intent. The blue sections are the stations as we intend to position them around the set. The turbolifts will be located at 1 & 8 o'clock. The mainviewer will be at 4 & 5 o'clock. The back of the bridge will be an exit to the ready room, head and docking port.
	Van went about to design how he wants to build the sectional frames (we're going to be using 12"x2" boards and 3/4" plywood for the upper deck). He created a full-size section using 2"x4"s that we planned to use as a template to construct the actual sets. I set about to construct the frame for the helm/nav station. I had been sketching designs all week on a 6"x9" pad, and finally decided that I would synthesize between the Classic Trek design and the Movie-era consoles. Originally, I thought we would angle the console's sides or the console itself. However, I soon decided to abandon that approach late Friday evening. The angled sides just don't add anything visually to the console, and actually appeared to be somewhat nonsensical and impractical.
	Framing was relatively easy to complete. We simply built a table and attached the angled panel top to the table. Then we secured it with 1-1/2" and 3" screws. The table itself would've been unstable without additional supports, but we knew that adding the astrogator would solve that problem as well as keep the weight down. (You can see the paneling we intend to use to cover the frame on the left.) Once the table was ready, we brought forward the astrogator section (made of 3/4" plywood and a 2"x12" board). The resulting helm/nav/astrogator console is not too heavy to move about and yet extremely sturdy.

So here's how the revised helm/nav/astrogator fits into the plans of the bridge. As you can see, it's going to be a little tight with the railing, but it's definitely workable, and with the darkened color scheme of the bridge, we don't think its shortcomings on size is going to be very noticeable.	On Sunday afternoon, Van and I met with his completed frame. Using the frame as a guide, we sketched out the entire bridge. A quick examination told us that though easily workable, we could actually make the bridge larger than originally planned. To that end, we refigured things a bit, and next weekend we'll try out the new frame. If it works, construction of the raised platform will begin. A few notes: the original math we did worked for the most part (it appears to be about 1" off per section, resulting in an odd-sized twelth section), but the original math was clearly too small. We want to be able to walk between the railing and the helm. Revising it as we've done will definitely work out better, and our cast won't have any trouble traversing the distance between rail and console. We've also decided we need to purchase and hang a tarp on the open end of the carport to prevent inclement weather from damaging our efforts. That's it for this week's update. Hopefully, construction will continue to go as smoothly as it did this week. If you'd like to help out, we definitely could use some Lowe's or Home Depot giftcards!