This is only meant as a bit of fun and not an 'attack' on STP2 or the people behind it. M'kay? If you were in charge, how would you do Phase II? What would you change? I would... Tell the guy who plays DeSalle to shave, give him a yellow shirt and put him in the big chair as Captain Kirk. Replace McCoy with someone younger and...err...skinnier. Hell, Karl Urban looks chunky next to DeForest Kelley! Find a new Scotty. Drop the attempts at TOS-style humor (it doesn't work) and the "laugh now!" music cues. Update the characters' hairstyles and drop the horrible wigs (particularly the beehive in the Enemy Starfleet preview!) Not be so slavish to TOS. Killed Chekov a few episodes ago? Keep him dead. Somthing doesn't look quite 1969? Use it anyway. Anyone else? Remember - this is a fan film and you don't have an infinite budget.
I'd make KingDaniel pay for the production costs. FYI: DeForest Kelley at the end of Season 3 of Trek: 48 years old. Dr. John Kelley in first Phase II episode "Come What May:" 38 years old Dr. John Kelley age now: 45 years old. There's no need to speculate on how you would do Phase II. Nothing's stopping you from making your own. Just mount a production and show us what you would do differently. Get crackin' my friend! I'm eager to download it, grab some popcorn and watch!
I would have probably gone through with using the the Phase II Enterprise design instead of keeping the TOS design.
I think they've done astoundingly well considering what a massive undertaking it is to produce shows like this and they seem to improve with each new episode (although George Takei's episode was exceptional). I'd probably say pick up the pace a very tiny bit and introduce a couple more female crewmen. Unless she was demoted prior to TMP, Janice should be a senior petty officer rather than an ensign or full officer. Maybe tone down Scotty's accent. I'm a bit of a fan of TMP so I'd probably go the whole hog and set the show after TMP with a few more alien crew milling around but I appreciate that most people hated TMP uniforms and alien prosthetics are a nightmare for a fan production.
John Kelly's earnest performance as Dr. McCoy is one of the best aspects of the production. He is my favorite performer on the series. In fact, he's the main reason I keep watching. John Kelly may not be a school-trained thespian but you can tell he puts his entire heart into his performance, and, to me, that means a helluv a whole lot more than whether or not he physically resembles or mimics DeForest Kelly.
Don't worry: we won't rest until one of our scripts actually wins a Hugo Award or a Nebula Award--instead of just being nominated for them. We'll keep slugging away.
Not sure I'd "do" anything different. The old starship effects don't give an impression of "girth" to the Enterprise, but the newer episodes seem to have gotten rid of the cartoon bouncing-around effect. I complain about that for TOS-R, so I may never be happy! I like what they're doing. I'm not sure how well a "Phase 2" post TMP would feel. Whenever I've seen even 'reconstructions' of the TMP bridge, they never looked right. They seem to have TOS to perfection.
^I have a feeling, considering the obsessive perfectionist natures of those in charge, that should Phase II build a TMP bridge it will be the most accurate one ever made. I doubt it'll ever happen though - are there any stories that can't be told just as well on the TOS Enterprise as on the TMP one? That "bridge money" would probably be better spent elsewhere. And don't even get me started on the TMP PJ's.
Well, Titantic won best picture for 1997, and I know virtually no-one who thinks the script is wonderful and couldn't have been improved. Awards don't equate to perfection, do they? I hope Phase II does work on improving their scripts, as I hope ALL productions do. Dennis: do you feel you was robbed?
Wasn't the script pipped by Dr Who? No shame in that - it was a bloody good script and a scary episode. I expect that the ship on TMP looked good because they threw money at it. I wouldn't expect a fan production to be able to replicate a movie budgeted set. It's not my favourite Trek movie but it has my favourite Starfleet feel to it. Still if Phase II had gone ahead it would have been more akin to TOS anyway. Sadly, I kinda liked the pjs... I'm trying to buy up the little figurines that they made in the 80s so I can paint me a full crew (ok maybe not a full crew that's like 430 figures but even so, I might get up to about 40)
More important, to me, would be: improve the acting. There's a thread in The Forum That Shall Not Be Named asking for Trek fanfilm recommendations, and World Enough and Time seems to be everybody's pick. I'd never watched any of Phase II before, so I downloaded it, and couldn't make it past three minutes before shutting it off. I didn't get far enough to know if the writing was good or not. No offense to anyone involved, but if that's the best there is to offer, they need to invest as much care and study into the craft of acting as they have in the sets and visual effects.
Why is it when people criticise the acting, they rarely offer even the slightest bit of constructive feedback? It's not like those of us who do this stuff sit back and congratulate ourselves on what great actors we are. We do our best to learn and improve. Some do better than others, but simply saying we're bad and need to improve isn't terribly helpful. And for the record, the editor is often the actor's best friend. A poor editing choice can make even the best actor look bad.
It's true that a good actor can make a weak script work, and editorial can save someone's bacon (I had an actor who, despite being otherwise brilliant, could not get one line out...I fixed it by stealing words from other takes and replacing the errant bit of dialog: seamlessly, I might add). On the other hand, even the best actor can't save a crappily written script. One of the actors I use in my own short films is actually an acting teacher, and others majored in drama and did and do stagework I asked them for advice for beginning actors a while back, and here's the germs of it: 1. Relax. 2. Don't "act." Don't think of it like it's acting... because in a very real sense, the best acting isn't really acting at all. 3. Acting is reacting; be aware of yourself, but focus your attention on those around you; your lines are just responses and reactions to what’s going on around you. 4. Remember that most people mask their true feelings. In short, the easiest way to be convincingly angry is to consciously act like you’re not. 5. Know your lines, but don’t obsess… having to think to find a word every now and then is perfectly realistic (in fact, this is what Shatner was trying to do, and famously overdid). 6. Too much rehearsal can drain your performance of any natural energy. 7. Don't stress about it. Have fun with it. If you worry it'll affect your performance. Just roll with it. 8. Every character wants something from the other characters. They might want respect, love, money, or attention. Heck, they might want to not be noticed or just be left alone. It's these needs that drive how the characters behave towards one another. 9. Don't be afraid to ask if a line can be rephrased if it's awkward to say. Orson Welles characterized some lines as "full of things that are only correct because they're grammatical, but they're tough on the ear." "Crumb-crisp coating" looks great on the page, but try saying it...it's not conversational. Is that helpful? Maybe we should start a thread about "tips for fan-film makers"?
Now you see, that's exactly the sort of thing I mean. Funnily enough, that's pretty much what I've learned from reading some of the books Susan suggested to me. Personally, I'd love to have an acting coach at every shoot I'm at, because I suspect it'd make a huge difference. Now if only I could find one......
You're not badly in need, Nick. Trust me. And you're good at rephrasing written dialogue. My constructive acting criticism for fan films would be along the lines of - talk to each other the way they do in Intrepid - just don't do the accents.