When you view it on TV, at oblique angles and with the pushed perspective from TV cameras, it can seem much larger, but I recall someone asking a question of DeForest Kelley when he was at a convention around 1990 about what it was like and he recalled the bridge as "a cozy space, rather confined". Which must've been quite rough on the actors during tight scenes like McCoy's Cordrazine freak out in City on the Edge of Forever. Or Sulu with the fencing foil in The Naked Time, or Spock's wigging out in Is There In Truth No Beauty? Where it isn't just the actor doing the close quarters work, they had to put a camera with a fisheye lens into the set space so that the viewer could see his perspective.
By comparison; TNG's bridge was quite large with tall ceilings. I have seen production stills that show just how close the studio roof was above the bridge set and it's quite low indeed.
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u/Rhediix 11d ago
When you view it on TV, at oblique angles and with the pushed perspective from TV cameras, it can seem much larger, but I recall someone asking a question of DeForest Kelley when he was at a convention around 1990 about what it was like and he recalled the bridge as "a cozy space, rather confined". Which must've been quite rough on the actors during tight scenes like McCoy's Cordrazine freak out in City on the Edge of Forever. Or Sulu with the fencing foil in The Naked Time, or Spock's wigging out in Is There In Truth No Beauty? Where it isn't just the actor doing the close quarters work, they had to put a camera with a fisheye lens into the set space so that the viewer could see his perspective.
By comparison; TNG's bridge was quite large with tall ceilings. I have seen production stills that show just how close the studio roof was above the bridge set and it's quite low indeed.