Star Trek / Mission Impossible Prop Mash-up

Star Trek / Mission Impossible Prop Mash-up (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog)

While riding the train back from a conference, I spent some time watching early episodes of Mission Impossible. This screen capture shows the characters prepping for a mission.

Because I recently designed 3D models of Star Trek furniture in order to teach myself Blender 3D, my eye immediately picked out the funky curves of the chairs in this scene. Paint the body of the chairs blue, make the legs black, and add a big back cushion, and you’d have Star Trek bridge chairs.

But my Trek nerdiness doesn’t stop there… I also recognized the oval table from the court martial scene in “Menagerie” (a two-part episode built around the original failed Star Trek pilot).

Star Trek and Mission Impossible were both produced by Desilu studios, and I understand they were filmed on neighboring sound-stages. I had heard that Star Trek prop designers sometimes looked in the MI trash bins for materials to scavenge, but this is the first actual evidence I’ve seen that suggest any sort of cross-over.

The MI image is a photo I took of my laptop screen, which is why it’s so crappy. The Star Trek images come from TrekCore screen captures.