A closer look
Stagehands on the set of the original Star Trek television series had to physically pull the futuristic automatic sliding doors open using a complex system of hidden ropes and pulleys. Sometimes the exhausted crew members would miss their cues, resulting in William Shatner repeatedly walking face-first into pieces of painted plywood while trying to look like a stoic starship captain. The show was supposed to represent the absolute pinnacle of twenty-third-century human technological advancement, but behind the scenes, it relied on the exact same manual labor mechanics used in medieval theater. It perfectly summarizes the magic of sci-fi television, where selling a grand vision of a utopian spacefaring future entirely depends on two underpaid guys yanking on strings
