What can I say about this, except that BABloggee John Bono Smithy Satchmo made it so.
Cooool.
Wil, you watchin’ this?
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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April 8th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Wil is in fact familiar with this particular bridge; he did an interview there at last year’s Trek convention.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Make it so
J/P=?
April 8th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I have to say, it’s going to be tough to top that one!
April 8th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Gee, I didn’t they know they needed Bad Astronomy in the 24th Century! I wonder what edition it is.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Someday…
http://www.hvcomputer.com/temp/ba-in-space.png
April 8th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
How did you get the pic? I thought they wouldn’t allow photo’s there…
April 8th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
BadMA, I checked out your site…very cool!
April 8th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Ken B,
You can pose in the chair for a fee. I guess he posed his book.
My wife and I went to Quark’s after my wedding to celebrate. I’m really surprised I’m not divorced already.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Sorry…meant Janiece, not Ken B.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
@ Monsignor Henry Clay
You are correct; that’s why it has the logo in the corner. Well, except I work there, so I didn’t pay a thing. I told the boss I wanted to take one of the book and she gave me the thumbs up on the grounds that it’s free advertising.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Impressive..
But there is one thing I mght say..could..not..resist..
“This looks shoped!!1″
:))
April 8th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I find your lack of faith…disturbing.
(Yeah, yeah, I’m mixing my sci-fi geek references. So stun me.)
April 8th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I find your lack of faith…disturbing.
(Yeah, yeah, I’m mixing my sci-fi geek references. So stun me.)
April 8th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Frak.
The first post threw an error, so I didn’t think it made it. Sorry for the double post.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Call back when it’s on the set of the new Star Trek feature
April 8th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Thanks Ken B. I am really hoping we can see that photo for real some day soon.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
yes, the scary thing is , this person paid the $21.95 to pose the book on the captains chair.
LOL..
Dedication.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Were no book has gone before…
April 8th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
sorry it was suppose to be, Where no book has been before…
April 8th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
There are no books in the 24th Century. The problem of public education has been solved in that far-off time with passage of the Universal Illiteracy Act. Some riders in that bill are such clauses as a repeal of the infinitesimal calculus, and officially defining pi = 3.0.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
@John Bono
“(…)she gave me the thumbs up on the grounds that it’s free advertising.”
Worked on me !
April 8th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
I’d be much more impressed if the book were sitting in a Romulan commander’s chair.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Hey, thanks, Gnat!
Phil, I’ll be more impressed when the book makes it to engineering. That’s the real center of the ship.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:47 am
I’ll be impressed when TMA-1 is dug up and discovered to be Phil’s book.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Engage!
April 9th, 2008 at 7:08 am
I suppose we should be glad they didn’t take of pic of it in Wesley’s chair, or we’d never hear the end of it!
April 9th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Does the original set still exist? I mean, this is cool and all, but it is just a Vegas recreation.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:27 am
The original set was deliberately trashed for shooting the crash scene in Star Trek: Generations. At the time there was a slight stink at the Smithsonian, because the series producers had earlier promised the set to the museum.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I’d never heard about the Smithsonian part, but yes; most of the original sets (including the bridge) were trashed.
The bridge you see in the picture is actually remarkably similar to a season 1 or 2 bridge, with a few exceptions necessary for bringing the general public through.
The drop-off between tactical and the chair is shorter, and so the stations up front (helm and ops) are spread farther apart to not obstruct the view screen. There are a couple emergency exit signs, fire sprinklers, every screen is an actual tv screen (because there’s no post-production for a live performance), the doors the crowd doesn’t use don’t slide apart, but give an illusion that they do when stationary. Nothing swivels to increase part endurance, the two little mini-benches on the insides of the tactical arch are missing, and there are no pull-out seats at the back stations.
On this specific bridge (though you can’t see it here) the conference room and turbo lift doors are labeled backwards. This is because both Klingon Encounter rides (there used to be 2 that ran simultaneous to handle the traffic) are a mirror of each other, so some things have to be inaccurate to accommodate. 2 cameras pop out of fairly inconspicuous bubbles to keep an eye on attraction-goers.
Make no mistake though, it’s pretty damn accurate. The initial construction was supervised my Mike Okuda and the gang (the set designers for TNG).
Anyone that can spot the props that originally came from Babylon 5 gets a gold star.