The later seasons cockpit of a Danube-class runabout.

one thing I really appreciate about rtd era doctor who is just how NORMAL the sets often look:

there have been at least three separate people I’ve known whose bedrooms had this vibe: the incredible clashing between different shades of pink, the dark carpet, the messiness, the poor lighting filtering through that dark curtain—I know how it feels being in this room.

I painted my room this exact color in 2008/2009. martha’s organized, but she’s a student and it’s a cramped space—she arranges her shelves the best she can, but her stuff is just stuff and doesn’t perfectly match. when I’m at school I have to dry my laundry in the middle of my room exactly the same way!

yup, that’s what every break room I’ve ever had at work looks like, with the mismatched tupperware and posters and questionably-clean microwave.

sylvia’s house is obviously intended to be coordinated, but with a nonprofessional’s taste. you can see the little pumpkins in the background from halloween, there’s a printed tablecloth at the table, the counters are that realistic mix of cluttered and clean. 

even in a fancy office, we’ve got the ugly fluorescent lighting that’s not really doing anyone favors, the crooked potted plants, the sporadic beige and white walls, the random workplace posters above the printer and trash cans.

people sitting in weird places because there aren’t enough seats around the tv! the cat tower with kitty litter shoved in the corner! the overstuffed table! the slightly-crooked picture frames! this IS the vibe of being stuffed into a too-small room with company over.

I don’t know, I just love how they unapologetically show the messiness of normal life on camera?? I feel like the unglamorous-ness of it grounds the show so much?! it’s just so much fun watching a bunch of fantastical sci-fi things play out against mundane settings I see every day.

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Like the Bridge, the Transporter Room in  Star Trek: The Next Generation was always evolving. It started, in part, with the The Original Series’ transporter room:

As I recall, the bottom disks had been either been salvaged or kept in storage and incorporated in the design of TNG’s transporters, flipped upside down so they were now at the top. The bottom had a glossy lightable circle with a smaller blue circle. The alcove panels were also meant to echo the frosted glass TOS transporter and they always looked a lil cloudy. As seen in Encounter at Farpoint:

Problem was, no one knew where to stand on the pad when the cameras were rolling!  So after keeping the clean configuration for the entire first season, the first redesign came in season 2:

Now we have basic lines delineating each individual pad. it’s not bad but it’s still missing something. It will remain that way throughout the 2nd and 3rd seasons as well as Star Trek V (we’ll get back to that).

The next major redesign came during the 4th season episode Remember Me:

Now people are sure to know where to stand! Each individual pad space has been shrunk, including the central blue one, while also making it pop more visually. When in doubt, add lines (The interior design of the runabout would also follow that rule). This configuration would stay on for the remainder of the 4th and 5th season (and Star Trek VI, we’ll get back to that too). until one more change would be brought for the season 6 premiere:

Speaking of making things pop, the backlit wall panels have been replaced.Gone is the frosted glass aspect, now the lines are cleaner. However, a small accident during Star Trek Generations’ production would damage those same panels, and a replacement was needed.

Nearly identical, but lit differently. And only there for about 7 seconds on screen. The TNG transporter room doesn’t stop there. The top and bottom elements would be recycled for Voyager’s otherwise brand new transporter rooms:

Voyager’s transporters would remain unchanged for the entire 7 year run. the top roundels that started in the 1960s would last until Voyager end in 2001.

Finally, the TNG transporter room sets also saw some use for the last two original series films. For Star Trek V:

Filmed during TNG’s second season, includes a barely seen transporter control blast shield and some blue neon strips in the transporter bay. The isolinear stack that’s usually off to the side has also been removed.

Star Trek VI would dispense with the blue neon strips:

Filmed between TNG’s 4th and 5th season, The transporter room is again a re-use of the TNG set. The blast shielded transporter controls are trotted back out, signage on the door is changed and, because it’s Nick Meyer, a fire extinguisher next to the door. The lighting elements to the right and left of the pad have also been swapped.

Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927) miniature movie set, as seen in the German cinema museum (Deutsche Kinemathek) in Berlin.