Scott Atwell Star Trek Discussion thread (Series and Films) (5 Viewers)

[ScottRE]

Yeah, remember taking pictures and waiting weeks to find out they all pretty much sucked?

Good times at the Fotomat.

 

[Worth]

Any camera can take a selfie, you just have to hold it facing a mirror as she is doing.

You didn't have to shoot into a mirror - you could have held it up in front of you just like people do now with phones, but you'd be guessing at the framing.

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/these-turn-of-the-century-selfies-are-fantastic-162018

 

[Nelson Au]

I was curious about that photo and after doing a search, the selfie posted has been cropped in. Here’s an image I found on the web:

 

[Osato]

Lee Meriwether took a selfie in her Star Trek dressing room.

View attachment 63732

That’s fantastic!!!

 

[Harry-N]

Here's Lazerus taking a selfie!

 

[Osato]

Here's Lazerus taking a selfie!

kill! Kill! Kill!!

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Here's Lazerus taking a selfie!

On the Tilt-a-Whirl!

 

[Nelson Au]

I just read a review on trekmovie of a new book, a guide to Star Trek The Animated Series. While I’m not a super fan of TAS, this book looks interesting and I bet it would induce me to re- watch the series. It looks like a well done guide.

https://trekmovie.com/2019/10/09/book-review-star-trek-the-official-guide-to-the-animated-series/

 

[bmasters9]

I just read a review on trekmovie of a new book, a guide to Star Trek The Animated Series. While I’m not a super fan of TAS, this book looks interesting and I bet it would induce me to re- watch the series. It looks like a well done guide.

https://trekmovie.com/2019/10/09/book-review-star-trek-the-official-guide-to-the-animated-series/

Looking at it from that review, it seems a well-done insider's view of everything there is to know about TAS-- I think it'll go very well with either of the all-in-ones (DVD or Blu).

 

[ScottRE]

It’s a fun book, but a few easy to catch errors made it to the printing stage, such as Nichelle Nichols providing the voices of male characters. Or saying the first 3 production episodes were done with the entire cast in the studio and then a few episodes later noting the Magicks of Megus-Tu was one of them....bringing it up to four.

it’s a very pretty book, but not as accurate or as comprehensive as I had hoped it would be.

 

[bmasters9]

It’s a fun book, but a few easy to catch errors made it to the printing stage, such as Nichelle Nichols providing the voices of male characters.

Why would they say that Nichelle Nichols played the voices of male characters?

 

[ScottRE]

I can’t say. But on page 60, under “The Survivor” it lists “Romulan Commander” and “Mr. Gabler” as “voiced by Nichelle Nichols.”

it could’ve just been a formatting issue. Neither of those characters were voiced by any of the regulars, so perhaps “performer unknown” was left off.

 

[John*Wells]

I’m looking forward to the Picard series. But I’m not liking the premise that he was ostracized from the federation. Discovery already did that

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It doesn’t seem an unreasonable starting point if you look at where the 24th century was after TNG.

DS9 depicted key alliances splintering and the Federation encountering many scenarios where it gives up on its ideals and trades pieces of its soul to win individual skirmishes. They win the battle but the institution compromises and sacrifices its principles along the way.

Voyager shows the Federation making new enemies on the other side of the galaxy.

Star Trek ‘09 shows the Vulcans and Federation trying and failing to stop a supernova, which destroys Romulus and destabilizes the region.

So with all of that context...it doesn’t seem a big leap to me that Picard might have issues with the Federation’s choices and feel compelled to leave.

I’m excited that the show doesn’t attempt to do more of the same simply as a nostalgia exercise, in the way that (for example) Lucille Ball was doing the same gags from her 1950s sitcom in her 1980s show.

 

[Jason_V]

I’m looking forward to the Picard series. But I’m not liking the premise that he was ostracized from the federation. Discovery already did that

A lot can happen 20 years post Nemesis. Picard, more than Kirk, Sisko and Janeway, was always a straight shooter, the moral center. He would bend a rule here or there, but never flaunted them. In a post Trek 09 world, like Josh said, a lot can change and happen. A falling out with Starfleet Command, one too many "are you sure, admiral?" conversations, a general weariness overall after being in space for his entire life, ready for a new challenge, maybe an illness of some kind, one too many personal losses, maybe Starfleet didn't want him to retire/leave...

Picard entered Starfleet Academy in 2323. Nemesis happened in 2379. That's 56 years in Starfleet. Per Countdown, he left Starfleet by 2387...that's 64 years. That's a good, long career and devotion to one organization by any measurement.

 

[Nelson Au]

I just got to The Alternative Factor in my TOS re-viewing. One nice thing about always skipping this episode, it’s almost like watching it for the first time. I’d seen it many times on syndication, but rarely on disc. So much of the dialogue sounds new. Though I know the story and what happens, I actually must confess, I forgot some lines. Id forgotten Lazarus is a time traveler. That’s a big deal.

And there’s some other cool stuff. We never see Sulu or Scott, but we get a lot of Red Shirts on the landing party and we meet Masters and her colleague in the engineering section. This is a new set or re-dress of an existing set to be the dilithium recharge station. That’s a nifty set. And in the sequence when Lazarus sabotages the recharge room, there is music heard that’s very low that i’ve Never heard used in an episode before, but it’s on the La La Land Star Trek TOS series soundtrack set, the Romulan Agitato theme. Maybe it’s never been used in the entirety. There of course the never before seen or used shot of the Enterprise firing phasers on Lazarus ship from orbit but seen from the rear.

I did have to wonder, why while on the planet when Lazarus was being drawn into the rip, the planet experiences all the wind and disturbances. But on the Enterprise, there isn’t all that distortion going on the ship. Maybe because he was off the planet.

On the whole, since I understood that Lazarus A and Lazarus B was jumping back and forth, it helped to enjoy the episode a lot more and the ending had more weight for me this time. It really felt like an Outer Limits episode ending too.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys, I’ve just completed the second season. It’s been interesting to revisit Star Trek with the original effects and mono sound. As I said before, I’ve been watching with the remastered effects the last decade or so. What I was surprised by was during the second season’s later half, the Enterprise filming miniature was filmed with new shots. And the quality of the new effects shots made during the later half of the second season are pretty clear. And I’ve studied the original filming model so I can actually see the details of the paint job and weathering done on the model.

Besides the effects, the season I always thought had a strong start, some weak middle episodes and then a few really good stories towards the end. But I was also enjoying the image quality. There is some pretty nice work done on the series from Jerry Finnerman with the lighting as we know. Bread and Circuses I’ve seen a million times, but watching the sequence in the cave was pretty cool as I was admiring the way it’s so well lit and the background is lit with the colored lights. And I was noticing the same thing in Omega Glory for the interior sets on the planet. Also I always wonder about the village sequence, given that Paramount took over from Desilu at this point, the production had access to more backlot options perhaps. It looks like a western set.

Overall, I always liked the first season the most. But rewatching the second season in broadcast order gave me a new appreciation. I’d sort of overlooked episodes like Patterns of Force and A Piece of the Action because I felt they were not as strong episodes. But at least they had a strong basis for why things were the way they were.

Just watched Spock’s Brain tonight. Another one I’ve seen a million times and I had a different reaction. I suddenly thought of the science fiction B films from the 1950’s and Queen of Outer Space came to mind, I’ve never seen that movie before, but I had seen maybe one still from it. The notion of a planet ruled by women seen in the 1950’s films was what I thought of when we first see Luma and Kirk stuns her. But the episode has a strong first half while the crew searches for Spock. And then another reaction I had, i thought of Star Trek 3 and the refusion. In a sense, the Katra being re-fused with Spock was sort of like having his brain re-installed. But in a more elegant way then Spock’s Brain.

I’ve never really ever stopped watching Star Trek, but this round of viewings is more in-depth then In recent more casual viewings.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It’s funny what comes out when you’ve lived with these episodes for so long and keep looking into them. And the thing is, or at least one of the things is, that many were written by really good sci-fi writers who did think about their work in terms of having multiple layers. And then you’ve got some episodes written by TV writers with little sci-fi experience and some of them really throw their heart into it and some of them just saw it as another week’s check. And it’s interesting to see how all of those different backgrounds blend together onscreen, and how there are probably episodes that had massive amounts of ideas in the writing that didn’t take off, and others that were written just for the sake of getting pages down to the set so actors could shoot, and some of those off the cuff things have become foundational blocks of a thing that’s more than half a century old.

The episodes that often intrigue me most at this point in my life are ones that hint at a different kind of show, like The Man Trap where we see more of the ship and how people live on it - I don’t love the writing on that one but I love that it gives a snapshot of more than just the Big Three.

I find The Cage endlessly fascinating. It does seem like there’s a whole unexplored world there which is one of the reasons I’m so happy that Pike has been revived (twice!) in recent times.

And since I didn’t have access to many of the season three episodes when I first got into the show, many of them still feel “new” to me. I guess when you’ve seen other episodes dozens of times each, only seeing an episode five or six times is barely seeing it at all!

If you guys have never seen Roddenberry’s prior show The Lieutenant, it’s worth checking out. Never mind that it has guest appearances from future Trek actors, it’s a fun trip just to watch a show that feels like Roddenberry without being Trek.

 

[Jack P]

And then another reaction I had, i thought of Star Trek 3 and the refusion. In a sense, the Katra being re-fused with Spock was sort of like having his brain re-installed. But in a more elegant way then Spock’s Brain.

Now I've got visions of Trek 3 ending with Spock acting like he does at the end of "Spock's Brain."

 

[Blimpoy06]

Now I've got visions of Trek 3 ending with Spock acting like he does at the end of "Spock's Brain."

"Katra! Katra! What is Katra!?"