Star Trek special effects question
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Star Trek special effects question
How do they create the consoles and displays seen in Star Trek ? Are they real plasma displays ?
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Re: Star Trek special effects question
Uh no. They are a layer of specialy designed plastic with illumination under them. Though I think the most recent LCARS itterations are somewhat different in the way they do it.evilcat4000 wrote:How do they create the consoles and displays seen in Star Trek ? Are they real plasma displays ?

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Re: Star Trek special effects question
some displays are video monitors as early as ST2, but the LCARS are mostly backlit screens.Chris OFarrell wrote:Uh no. They are a layer of specialy designed plastic with illumination under them. Though I think the most recent LCARS itterations are somewhat different in the way they do it.evilcat4000 wrote:How do they create the consoles and displays seen in Star Trek ? Are they real plasma displays ?
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Recently there has been a move from the original backlit LCARS screens towards plasma screens (IIRC). It started about the time Enterprise began, so it could very well be in Nemesis.
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It'd make sense considering that Plasma/LCD/TFT screens are cheap and easy these days, obviously in TNG with their wonderful static displays it was back lit perspex but I reckon they stretched to Flat panel for Nemesis... Good to know they won't use spanners or electricity in 400 years but the good ol' TFT monitor will more than suffice.
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Plasma screens cost a fortune compared to backlit Plexiglass. Maybe one or two prominent ones might be plasma screens so they can do fun things with them in the background, but they're not going to spend tens of thousands of dollars on generic Okudagram panels for no appreciable gain.

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Plasma screen monitors didn't exist when they started production on TNG in 1987, and even now with the things being generally available, they aren't cost-effective compared to simple backlit gels.
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