Star Trek:Animated and Enterprise coming to dvd.... (1 Viewer)

[Jay Pennington]

Actually, according to TV Guide, Paramount lowered what they charge UPN per episode, from $1.7 million to $800,000. For all we know Paramount might continue to spend as much as before to produce the show.

 

[Jay Pennington]

Actually, according to TV Guide, Paramount lowered what they charge UPN per episode, from $1.7 million to $800,000. For all we know Paramount might continue to spend as much as before to produce the show.

 

[Tony Whalen]

Whoops! Looks like a number of us mis-read that little tidbit. So we still don't know what the PRODUCTION costs are, or if they've been slashed.

And here I was looking forward to "T'Pol's Brain".

Can't you see it?

Synopsis:

T'Pol's Brain
The Enterprise crew is knocked unconcious by a race of mini-skirt-clad vixens purple Chip-N-Dale dancers. When they awaken, Captain Archer and Doctor Phlox are horrified to discover that T'Pol's brain has been stolen. The crew must pursue the dancers, and recover T'Pols brain before her body expires!!!

(Thankfully, the deadline on T'Pol's body is extended due to a fascinating treatment that Phlox creates, involving decon-gel liberally applied by most of the male crewmembers ... who fight over taking shifts.)

 

[Tony Whalen]

Whoops! Looks like a number of us mis-read that little tidbit. So we still don't know what the PRODUCTION costs are, or if they've been slashed.

And here I was looking forward to "T'Pol's Brain".

Can't you see it?

Synopsis:

T'Pol's Brain
The Enterprise crew is knocked unconcious by a race of mini-skirt-clad vixens purple Chip-N-Dale dancers. When they awaken, Captain Archer and Doctor Phlox are horrified to discover that T'Pol's brain has been stolen. The crew must pursue the dancers, and recover T'Pols brain before her body expires!!!

(Thankfully, the deadline on T'Pol's body is extended due to a fascinating treatment that Phlox creates, involving decon-gel liberally applied by most of the male crewmembers ... who fight over taking shifts.)

 

[Will_B]

On the contrary, I think they are expecting that the DVD release will acheive a "Family Guy" situation, of the surprising box set success.

I'd like to think they took the Digital Bits advice in that regard - that to release Enterprise on DVD would boost the show - but, there is also the fact that they've already released the other series and this is what they have remaining.

I'm definately "on board" for all box sets of Enterprise.

In fact last night I had a dream about Tpol, prompted by hearing this news. In this dream, the Vulcans on Earth (San Francisco mainly) were seperated from the Vulcans on Vulcan - something had wiped out Vulcan or something, so there were very few Vulcans left, mostly on Earth. And TPol was upset and getting hysterical (with her emotions) because she saw that the few Vulcans left were becoming so assimilated into the human culture that they were becoming analogous to the American Indian. She was distraught over the loss of the Vulcan culture, and besides being upset about it, the repressed traits of paranoia and suspicion were emerging - she yelled at Archer about it and ran off.

Neat episode, er, dream. Fun to see it in living 3-D.

...About UPN only paying half of what it had paid for seasons 1 2 and 3, that does not neccesarily mean that the production budget will be cut by half. It would be reasonable to expect that Paramount will cut the show's production budget back, but what UPN pays does not directly translate to that.

 

[Will_B]

On the contrary, I think they are expecting that the DVD release will acheive a "Family Guy" situation, of the surprising box set success.

I'd like to think they took the Digital Bits advice in that regard - that to release Enterprise on DVD would boost the show - but, there is also the fact that they've already released the other series and this is what they have remaining.

I'm definately "on board" for all box sets of Enterprise.

In fact last night I had a dream about Tpol, prompted by hearing this news. In this dream, the Vulcans on Earth (San Francisco mainly) were seperated from the Vulcans on Vulcan - something had wiped out Vulcan or something, so there were very few Vulcans left, mostly on Earth. And TPol was upset and getting hysterical (with her emotions) because she saw that the few Vulcans left were becoming so assimilated into the human culture that they were becoming analogous to the American Indian. She was distraught over the loss of the Vulcan culture, and besides being upset about it, the repressed traits of paranoia and suspicion were emerging - she yelled at Archer about it and ran off.

Neat episode, er, dream. Fun to see it in living 3-D.

...About UPN only paying half of what it had paid for seasons 1 2 and 3, that does not neccesarily mean that the production budget will be cut by half. It would be reasonable to expect that Paramount will cut the show's production budget back, but what UPN pays does not directly translate to that.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

I thought Paramount owned UPN. (Doesn't UPN stand for United Paramount Network?) I don't understand how these big corporations work.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

I thought Paramount owned UPN. (Doesn't UPN stand for United Paramount Network?) I don't understand how these big corporations work.

 

[Mark Lx]

Thanks Nelson, I was going to ask about TAS. I saw them as a kid but may have an inflated opinion of the writing quality having been young at the time. I actually probably saw TAS before I'd seen all of the TOS episodes.

A couple questions. Are they hour or half-hour episodes? Was there anything particularly silly added to TAS, such as a sidekick talking monkey or a robotic dog that follows them around?

 

[Mark Lx]

Thanks Nelson, I was going to ask about TAS. I saw them as a kid but may have an inflated opinion of the writing quality having been young at the time. I actually probably saw TAS before I'd seen all of the TOS episodes.

A couple questions. Are they hour or half-hour episodes? Was there anything particularly silly added to TAS, such as a sidekick talking monkey or a robotic dog that follows them around?

 

[Nelson Au]

Mark-

TAS is a half hour program.

There were no goofy animals or such juvenile antics, it was still a serious science fiction show and won a few awards. The specific ones I don't know off the top of my head.

TAS introduced new characters, one was a cat like race seen on the bridge at navigation since they could not afford to hire Walter Keonig. They used James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett for additional voices.

Overall, it was a good effort and worthy of the Star Trek name. You could look at this way, TOS has dated special effects, and TAS has dated animation and sometimes bad design, both don't really get in the way of the enjoyment. The main thing were the stories. (But some of the animation and alien designs does look bad!) My favorite shows were Yesteryear, Beyond the Farthest Star and Counterclock Incident if I recall the titles correctly.

Nelson

 

[Nelson Au]

Mark-

TAS is a half hour program.

There were no goofy animals or such juvenile antics, it was still a serious science fiction show and won a few awards. The specific ones I don't know off the top of my head.

TAS introduced new characters, one was a cat like race seen on the bridge at navigation since they could not afford to hire Walter Keonig. They used James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett for additional voices.

Overall, it was a good effort and worthy of the Star Trek name. You could look at this way, TOS has dated special effects, and TAS has dated animation and sometimes bad design, both don't really get in the way of the enjoyment. The main thing were the stories. (But some of the animation and alien designs does look bad!) My favorite shows were Yesteryear, Beyond the Farthest Star and Counterclock Incident if I recall the titles correctly.

Nelson

 

[Bill Williams]

To answer your first question, Mark, each of the 22 episodes of TAS are half-hour episodes, so minus commercial time each episode would come out to about 24 minutes apiece.

As for your second question, believe it or not, nothing overtly silly was added to the series. Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana had creative control over this series and gave it the same approach that TOS had, bringing in writers such as Samuel Peeples, Larry Niven, and Walter Koenig (Chekov) to write episodes for TAS. Initial production sketches for the series had Kirk and company paired up with young children for outer-space series - you have to remember, this was Filmation we're talking about here, and everything they produced was geared toward the kiddies - but thankfully those plans were scrapped. Even worse, none of the characters looked like their live-action counterparts! Thankfully, that was also scrapped in favor of closer semblances to the original actors. What was added were two new characters - Lt. Arex, a three-armed, three-legged crewman, and Lt. M'ress, a feline crewman - and a slight update to the bridge with an additional turbolift door near the main viewscreen.

The animation was done in the typical Filmation style of the 70's, with lots of repeated facial, body, and ship shots, to keep the show within its budget, not to mention all of the recycled music in each and every episode. But it held up fairly well under the times, earning an Emmy nomination or two along the way.

 

[Bill Williams]

To answer your first question, Mark, each of the 22 episodes of TAS are half-hour episodes, so minus commercial time each episode would come out to about 24 minutes apiece.

As for your second question, believe it or not, nothing overtly silly was added to the series. Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana had creative control over this series and gave it the same approach that TOS had, bringing in writers such as Samuel Peeples, Larry Niven, and Walter Koenig (Chekov) to write episodes for TAS. Initial production sketches for the series had Kirk and company paired up with young children for outer-space series - you have to remember, this was Filmation we're talking about here, and everything they produced was geared toward the kiddies - but thankfully those plans were scrapped. Even worse, none of the characters looked like their live-action counterparts! Thankfully, that was also scrapped in favor of closer semblances to the original actors. What was added were two new characters - Lt. Arex, a three-armed, three-legged crewman, and Lt. M'ress, a feline crewman - and a slight update to the bridge with an additional turbolift door near the main viewscreen.

The animation was done in the typical Filmation style of the 70's, with lots of repeated facial, body, and ship shots, to keep the show within its budget, not to mention all of the recycled music in each and every episode. But it held up fairly well under the times, earning an Emmy nomination or two along the way.

 

[todd s]

If you watch the courtroom scene from Trek 4:Voyage Home. You see a Catian based on the M'ress' race in the gallery.

Also, the TAS also had voice appearances by the actors who played Harry Mudd and Cyrano Jones.

Here is a pic of a Catian from Trek 4

 

[todd s]

If you watch the courtroom scene from Trek 4:Voyage Home. You see a Catian based on the M'ress' race in the gallery.

Also, the TAS also had voice appearances by the actors who played Harry Mudd and Cyrano Jones.

Here is a pic of a Catian from Trek 4

 

[Mark Lx]

Thanks guys. I look forward to seeing TAS again. Can't ever get enough of the TOS characters.

By the way, the $100 price for TOS Season 1, while still high compared to many TV sets, is a lot better than what I've come to expect from anything "Star Trek". Maybe they have a new marketing strategy that involves them selling to more than just the die-hard trekers(ies). It actually comes out to more minutes/dollar than the Columbo or Happy Days sets which come out that same month.

 

[Mark Lx]

Thanks guys. I look forward to seeing TAS again. Can't ever get enough of the TOS characters.

By the way, the $100 price for TOS Season 1, while still high compared to many TV sets, is a lot better than what I've come to expect from anything "Star Trek". Maybe they have a new marketing strategy that involves them selling to more than just the die-hard trekers(ies). It actually comes out to more minutes/dollar than the Columbo or Happy Days sets which come out that same month.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Actually, it's more a case of Viacom owning both. While it is, to a certain extent, a case of shuffling money from one pocket to another, the individual divisions of a corporation are evaluated in terms of income and layout, and $15M could be the difference between UPN looking profitable and like a drain.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Actually, it's more a case of Viacom owning both. While it is, to a certain extent, a case of shuffling money from one pocket to another, the individual divisions of a corporation are evaluated in terms of income and layout, and $15M could be the difference between UPN looking profitable and like a drain.