Most people peg the retro blinking lights and switcher lever seen in A New Hope’s Death Star control room as belonging to some sort of video production facility. An intrepid fan, however, found the Death Star control room in Los Angeles last Christmas, and snapped a bunch of reference photos for his Flickr account. Here’s what he’s got to say:
Last year I spent Christmas Eve joining a friend of mine at his work party at his steam plant near LAX. One of the control rooms of the plant also happened to be used as the set for the Superlaser Fire Control Room on the first Death Star! I just posted some photos from my tour. Not much has changed there in the past 30+ years.
Check out the ominous blinkiness over at this link here!
Get hopping, diorama builders! This is valuable reference material.
Commence primary ignition!
That guy is lucky!
I bet he felt he was in the death star.
That’s wack….. i wish i could find stuff like that!
Wow.
I wonder if it is run by Ewoks?
Or Stormtroopers
Mabye even Wookies
But probably Sith
This is Dave Prowse Saying That The I am Still in Control Of that Death Star.
What makes me happy is that its in L.A.!!!!!!!!!!!!
That things operational!!!!!!
Sweet!! i stood gaurd in that station before i had a weekend pass that got me off the station.funny story some joker gave me a 3 day pass top alderaan. so there i am leaving the death star as it enters the rebel system clutching liberty at alderaan in my fist . well you get the irony.
The control room at North Anna Nuclear Power Plant, in Mineral VA, looks almost exactly the same as the pic above of the steam plant control room. I worked there as an operator a few years ago, until I moved too far to commute. Same console design, same style motor controllers, same annunciator lights, same style gauges and meters on the walls, everything. Of course, my plant wasn’t the actual movie set…
Though I don’t see the actual switcher lever that the technician threw to fire the laser. That switch itself looked EXACTLY like a switch on a video switcher control board…
I would be so tempted to show up to work dressed as a Death Star gunner…
Oddly enough, I have David Prowse’s autograph on my wall… right next to Lou Feregno.
Also, I think finding part of the remains of the Death Star is boss… shame Skywalker’s shot wasn’t a little more on the money…
What’s this red button for?
Funny to discover something like that. I am a little what older to remember we worked in de seventies and eighties with such boards in all branches. Control panels, as I remember these were called. But good here is one what indeed gives the feeling to be on some kind of star-destroyer. Maybe more of these old control rooms are around, where we can dwell (with imagination) between the stars. *g*
Wow! Awesome finding, I’d love to find such a treasure. I love those 70’s-80’s control panels flooded with lights and switches, always remind me of old classics like the DeLorean in Back To The Future. I agree with Darth Yencoron, it would be tempting to show up disguised as a Death Star gunner or even as a Stormtrooper guarding the entrance.
I sure if you keep looking you may find some locations from THX-1138, also a section of the Deathstar computer console showed up in Superman the movie in Lex’s underground fort.
“Though I don’t see the actual switcher lever that the technician threw to fire the laser. That switch itself looked EXACTLY like a switch on a video switcher control board…”
That’s because it was a video switcher. Grass Valley Group to be exact.
The lever that’s pulled is from a Grass Vally switcher used in TV production. That’s why you don’t see it in the pics here. I used to work with these switchers some years ago and I knew exactly what they looked like! They are pretty neat!!! But these pics are very cool. I’ve always wanted to see exactly where that control room really was.
What a little lighting, the proper lighting will do, huh? Totally great. Looks rather drab and worn without the ambiance of a helmeted operator and the perfect noir shading. Superb story board people isn’t exactly a disadvantage either.