TNG Desktop Viewer

Eric Ardros

Eric Ardros

Sr Member
Hey all, I was going through what screencaps and other reference pics I have of the style of Desktop Viewer used on TNG, and decided I was finally going to start planning out a scratch-build of this rarely-seen item.

As far as I know, there was only two versions; the black one we see in Picard's ready room and the beige/tan one seen in Dr. Crusher and Troi's offices. I'm thinking I'd like to do up one of each colour seen aboard the Ent-D.

I've more or less finalized the 1:1 scale templates I'll be working from to scratch-build my own TNG Desktop Viewer:

vtp4.jpg

9wfc.JPG


I apologize for the graininess of the pics. The camera kept slightly blurring whatever I was trying to take a pic of, for whatever reason :p

Anyway, I plan on using 1/8" sheet styrene for the majority of the build, and employ some of the same techniques and components that someone on another prop forum did on a couple kit builds a little while ago.

Waiting on some funds to come in for much-need supplies, at which time I will purchase all the materials I need to get this build started :cool
 
I bet you have enough room to put one of those digital picture frames inside. Make some spiffy graphics that way...and they could change on the screen.
Just a thought.
 
Nice to see TNG getting some love!

I remember back in the day how cool the Viewers were.

They really did forsee the future on that show!
 
Brilliant as always, I wanted to have a go at one of these myself, but I couldn't find any measurements etc, and I'm no good at this working out scale stuff from screen either lol.

On another note my wife has banned me from looking or posting on your threads from fear of bankruptcy, so I'm sneaking on here now :ninja:lol:thumbsup
 
TheSt.LouisKid said:
I bet you have enough room to put one of those digital picture frames inside. Make some spiffy graphics that way...and they could change on the screen.
Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I'm sure there'd be enough room inside to fit a digital picture frame. That's a pretty nifty idea, too. I wonder if I could just upload one of those animated LCARS screensavers for the changing images?

As I'll be making more than one of these I can certainly look into incorporating that design element, but the first one I want to make screen-accurate, so it'll simply have a light-up LCARS graphic like the screen-used originals.

Apollo said:
Nice to see TNG getting some love!

I remember back in the day how cool the Viewers were.

They really did forsee the future on that show!
Click to expand...

Thanks! This is another one of those "holy grail" props for me, so I'm excited to get it done. And yeah, TNG really was right on the money with a lot of the gadgets we saw on screen. It's amazing how many things that were sci-fi back then are now just regular, everyday devices.

Drac said:
Brilliant as always, I wanted to have a go at one of these myself, but I couldn't find any measurements etc, and I'm no good at this working out scale stuff from screen either lol.

On another note my wife has banned me from looking or posting on your threads from fear of bankruptcy, so I'm sneaking on here now :ninja:lol:thumbsup
Click to expand...

Thanks, Drac! I've run into the whole not-finding-any-screen-accurate-measurements issue more than once myself (ie. TNG Medkit), so I know what you mean about that. It's frustrating sometimes. I've always been good at eyeballing stuff to get the right size, so I find it's worked for me in more than one project.

Sorry to hear about your wife, lol. Hopefully you won't get in trouble for this one :p

silverskyes402 said:
Very cool! If I remember correctly there is a red-ish version as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I always thought so. A red-ish version you say, huh? I don't recall seeing that one off the top of my head. Where onboard might it have been seen? And any idea what episode(s)?
 
Wow! Thanks for posting that link, Angelus. Quite a lot of info to be gleaned from it. One thing I found interesting was the existence of a light grey variant of the TNG Desktop Viewer with the white pinstriping like the black version. Never really noticed that on screen before. Guess I'll have three to do up then, lol.
 
Looking forward to seeing your progress. Your blueprint looks pretty spot on to my screen-used viewer. However, it should be noted that my viewer seems to be a bit shallower in the lower portion than the hero models. I think they used the same mold, but just poured less material into it. If you look at some of the hero versions, some look taller than mine. I suppose both are technically accurate, but I think the taller version is more common. I haven't researched this in a while though.
 
You know, I take that back. The hero versions I've seen might not be any taller. I think the ones I've seen had narrower tape used to do the white lines and slightly different configurations that gave the illusion that the base part was taller. But they're probably pretty close in size. So I think you did an bang up job with the dimensions.
 
Thanks, Ryan! It's nice to hear I got my blueprints pretty close. Been wanting one of these forever, much like the TNG Medkit I now own. My graphics guy already managed to do up a screen graphic for this, even though I haven't begun building it yet, lol.

He got it spot-on to the one screen-accurate screen graphic I wanted to use for mine. I had a couple good close-up pics for him to base it on. It's the "Starship Mission Status" one, with a listing of starships, their class, registry numbers and current assignments.

I'm thinking of having him add my ship, the U.S.S. Axis (in signature below), to the list just for fun :)
 
I've been entertaining building a Ready Rooms Type office in my basement and integrating one of these into the desk that raises up and down much like what you see in First Contact and the two lesser movies after.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Well, Christmas came early for this little boy; the graphics arrived today! *does happy dance*

zp3y.jpg


My good friend "ecl" included both a screen-accurate version matched to the reference pics I sent him and a version with my own ship, the USS Axis, listed at the bottom. Just what I wanted :D

The colours are pretty vibrant on both with the white-backing, and once there's a thin sheet of smoked plexi in front and lit from behind it should really look the part, I think.

Below are just a couple pics showing how it'll look on the Desktop Viewer:

sxzr.jpg


The great thing is that he sized it to the interior dimensions of the screen area, including the lip running along the edge of the viewscreen. That means this is perfectly sized to simply drop into the screen area without any shifting around:

qx3t.jpg


Seeing the awesomeness that are ecl's graphics, and how they could look on the finished piece, now I really want to get this done, lol. But, I know I need to pace myself and not take on too much at once. Have those Geordi PADDs to finish up with first before I should get into these personal projects.

Anyway, just wanted to share this bit of an update on this :)
 
Yeah, "ecl" really does some beautiful graphics work! He's never failed to impress me every time I put an order to him, lol.

There aren't any "inside" jokes on these ones. The reference pics of the screen-used LCARS graphic I provided him with to make the final version from didn't have any.

With the exception of the USS Axis added to the bottom of the list on the second one, they don't deviate from the screen-used original.
 
Last edited:
I realize this thread is quite old now but curious to find out if it was ever completed and what it looks like. Thinking about making this myself. I have the toy Bank version but it is ofcourse smaller and not accurate.
 
This thread is more than 4 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.

Similar threads

JamesTalon
Blade Runner Optical Viewer Build
Replies
5
Views
659
eiri1234
eiri1234
Snow Builder
TNG Ready Room Enterprise Painting Dimensions?
2
Replies
33
Views
2,004
Snow Builder
Snow Builder
Jastor00
Star Trek: TNG MkVII Science Tricorder Build
2
Replies
24
Views
2,166
Jastor00
Jastor00
B
Star Trek TOS Desktop Console
Replies
1
Views
944
Captain Dunsel
Captain Dunsel
Redrocirt
Star Trek: TNG/DS9/VOY Hypospray Vials
Replies
6
Views
1,104
Astyanax
Astyanax
Back
Top