Trek trivia detail items -- do you know these?

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by Mister Atoz, Jun 22, 2013.

  1. Mister Atoz

    Mister Atoz Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Watch the bum's fingers in City on The Edge of Forever (actor John Harmon). He's missing the fourth finger on his right hand. But when we go in for the close up as he's playing with the phaser (just before he zaps himself out of existence), his hands magically show a full 10 digits.

    Amok Time: Among the most severe glitches in this episode occurs in Spocks quarters as Kirk says "I haven't heard a word you've said" as the statue in Spock's bedroom in the background flames out -- the gel in the light has melted and there's a huge plume of smoke coming out of it.

    You will recall, "Robert April" was one of the suggested names for the Captain of the Enterprise when TOS was first developed. Roddenberry also used the name Robert April for a character in a Have Gun Will Travel episode he wrote, season 2 ep 32, chaplain Robert April, of whom Paladin said "I respect him more than any man I ever met”.

    ~ Mister Atoz
     
  2. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^And "Robert Wesley" was a pseudonym Roddenberry used early in his career -- Wesley being his own middle name (hence Wesley Crusher). He seemed to like the name Robert.

    And this isn't TOS, but the name William Riker probably comes from William Rice, the lead character of Roddenberry's first series The Lieutenant.
     
  3. xvicente

    xvicente Captain Captain

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    Cool! is there a screen cap or videoclip around?
     
  4. MarsWeeps

    MarsWeeps Fleet Captain Premium Member

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    I always thought it was just a twist on Willard Decker from TMP. The whole Riker/Troi romance scene where they first meet and then mention "not being able to say goodbye" was very similar to the Decker/Ilia scene.
     
  5. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^Yes, that too. Riker and Troi are a rehash of Decker and Ilia; indeed, Picard's elder-statesman mentor role to Riker was based on what Kirk's relationship to Decker was intended to be for Phase II. And Data is half based on Xon (unemotional being seeking to understand humanity) and half based on the title android from The Questor Tapes.

    But William T. Rice, William T. Riker -- no way is that a coincidence, especially given how often Roddenberry recycled his ideas and character names. (William Rice's middle name was Tiberius.)
     
  6. MarsWeeps

    MarsWeeps Fleet Captain Premium Member

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    Like Khan Noonien Singh and Dr. Noonien Soong. I had read an article once, not sure if there was any truth to it or not, but supposedly Roddenberry had an old friend with a name similar to that. He lost touch with him and by using those names as characters, he was somehow hoping that his friend would notice it and get back in touch.
     
  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^Yes, according to recent research, his name was Noonien Wang (not Kim Noonien Singh as earlier sources reported).
     
  8. SpHeRe31459

    SpHeRe31459 Captain Captain

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    Which I bet is also where we get Capt. Paul Rice from the destroyed USS Drake seen as a holographic interrogator in the TNG S1 episode Arsenal of Freedom.
     
  9. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    As it happens, back in my teens in the early '80s, I independently created my own character named Bill Rice -- the captain of the first FTL ship in my SF universe as it existed at the time. When I discovered that Roddenberry had created a character by that name, I was kind of freaked.
     
  10. Mister Atoz

    Mister Atoz Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Hey Mars Weeps, I heard once that writers have to base their character names on something they know -- a derivatiive of a friend, relative, or something with which they are familiar, otherwise they risk being SUED by someone with that actual name (who the writer has no knowledge of) for defamation of character. Is that right?

    ~ Mister Atoz


     
  11. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I've been a professional writer for 15 years and nobody's ever told me I had to do that.

    As a rule, in TV and movies, a character name is only off-limits if only one real person in the country has that name, or if someone very similar to the character (same profession or same city of residence, say) has that name. For instance, Scott Bakula's Enterprise character was changed from Jackson Archer to Jonathan Archer because there was only one Jackson Archer in the country. And the TV series of The Dresden Files had to change Chicago Detective Karrin Murphy's name to Connie Murphy because there was a real Chicago detective named Karen Murphy (although that wasn't a problem for the books, probably because there's a lot less money and awareness involved and thus less risk of costly lawsuits). But TNG and DS9 were able to have a character named Miles O'Brien even though there was a CNN reporter named Miles O'Brien, because it was a common enough name and they were in different enough professions that it wouldn't be taken as a reference to that specific person.
     
  12. Grant

    Grant Commodore Commodore

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    Actually the lamp smoking in Amok Time is not the biggest error in that episode--in fact it could have caufght fire in the actual Star trek 'reality'.


    The biggest error in the episode is when Spock is 'deep in the Plaktow with his fingers interlocked and him in a trance-like state and then they cut to a long shot where Nimoy didn't know he was in the camera frame when they were shooting some Kirk/T'Pau shots and he is casually leaning against the rock formation----clearly not in the "Plaktow."
     
  13. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    More trivia:

    If i'm not mistaken, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov & Chapel never used a shuttlecraft.
     
  14. ToddPence

    ToddPence Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Unless you count the animated series, in which Chapel is on a shuttlecraft in "Mudd's Passion" and Uhura and Sulu in "Slaver Weapon".
     
  15. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    Unless you're counting the features, in which case, Sulu pilots the shuttle in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
     
  16. ToddPence

    ToddPence Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I thought it was David Gerrold who came up with Tiberius as Kirk's middle name?
     
  17. nightwind1

    nightwind1 Commodore Commodore

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    And pilots the shuttle in STitD.
     
  18. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    He was the first to have it stated onscreen (in TAS: "Bem"), but I believe Roddenberry had already established it in response to fan questions at conventions.
     
  19. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I mean on TOS.
     
  20. Mister Atoz

    Mister Atoz Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Acknowledged.

    ~ Atoz