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scotpens wrote:

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TomWeaver999 wrote:

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From the outside, judging from scenes of guys coming in and out via the stairs, the inhabitable part of the FORBIDDEN PLANET spaceship must be the size of a couple living rooms. What about bathrooms, sleeping quarters, kitchen and eating area, etc.? It's just too small, once you see people in the same shot as the spaceship.

The hypothetical full-size ship was supposed to be 160–170 feet across, but the exterior mockup had to be built smaller, given the limited space on a Hollywood soundstage .

Back in the early ’80s, an outfit called The Noron Group published a set of C-57D plans drawn by Shane Johnson. They show a whole bunch of stuff that was never seen in the movie, but would be essential on an actual interstellar spacecraft -- like officers' quarters, a sickbay, a galley, cargo holds, and TOILETS! And it all fits nicely into the canonical dimensions of the “real” saucer. There are a whole bunch of technical specs, too, regarding the ship's capabilities, its propulsion technology, and the makeup of the crew. The plans are long out of print but a copy occasionally shows up on Evilbay.

Scot, thanks so much for posting these plans. Ever since I saw "Forbidden Planet" as a kid, I have always been fascinated by the design of the C-57D saucer. Would love to see the key to the numbered references in the diagrams.

Regarding the issues touched upon, I have some issues/observations:

1) Is the hatch located by the bunks, the single exit from the cabin? The only reason I can see for locating such an exit by the sleeping quarters is dramatic license, due to the scene where the ID monster enters the ship and one of the crew wakes briefly to see the apparatus moving.  If so, then to get out of the saucer, you climb through a hatch and down a well to another level and then take the proportionally huge staircases. Not exactly an elegant design.

2) There's no getting around the fact that the rooms designated in the cabin diagram are tiny. If you were claustrophobic, you would be nutty in no time as a crew member.

3) Are those the toilets by the sleeping quarters? And are those showers to the rear of those? Does anyone know what the crew size was supposed to be? My guess would be no more than ten, altho the diagram seems to present seating for a lot more. Ten seems to me to be a reasonable number for the space given.

4) I guess one of the areas on the right side of the cabin diagram represents the kitchen. How in the world could you store food enough to feed ten men for a year? The mind boggles at the logistics, because it is hard to believe they could get a hydroponic garden in this tiny a space.

5) I am guessing that the tractor was packed away in pieces and then assembled after unpacking, because assembled I don't see where they would put it.

6) I gather that the "humps" positioned on the ship's flange are the blaster cannons, and that they are retractable. Meaning that for the scene where the ID monster attacks the landing area, the crew had to remove the cannons from the ship structure and re-configure them for "land use".

7) I see the "core" in the engine compartment. The prop comes across as totally low-tech, though admittedly up-tech for a Fifties sensibility.

The impression I had of the drop-down staircases the first few times I saw FP was that they doubled as landing gear, but it became clear with a little thinking that two structures 180 degrees from each other will not support the huge disc with any stability. So how were they supposed to have kept the huge thing from falling over?

Anybody have any comments about these points?

And the plans for the main section are incredible. These look to my unschooled eyes like set plans. There are areas that weren't filmed, but were developed just in case(?). Would love to know the process involved in that development.

Thanks, again, Scott.