Oh, it can do 3D too. Some crew members complain that the 3D gives 'em headaches, is too dark and they don't like paying the premium for a ticket.
I posted this link in the TOS forum, but it has direct application to what we and a lot of fan films do: Minimalist Magic - The Star Trek Look
BTW, on the same site there's a hilarious - and entirely unfair and hostile - essay riffing on a book about William Shatner. I'm not gonna link to it.
^^^I read that article last year and while I think the author has some insightful point, I think the author strains credibility and credulity a bit, especially when wandering off the topic of the sets and lighting. Star Trek's style is less striking when you actually watch it back to back with other shows filmed at the same time and other sci-fi shows of the period. The state of the art in science fiction film production design was clean and minimalist back through the 50s, and that's not unique to Trek.
Interesting stuff and food for thought in considering why the first three Star Wars movies worked so much better for some of us than the last three. The original Episode IV featured live creatures and real buildings at Mos Eisley. It stuck in George Lucas's craw that he couldn't portray everything he wanted, but I had no problem accepting it as a "wretched hive of scum and villainly" even before he "fixed" it with his revised version. Contrast that with the next three where he had the money, time and power to do everything exactly the way he wanted. Instead of the Sand People we got Jar Jar Binks. Sometimes getting everything you want isn't a good thing. Certainly the minimalist argument is valid when discussing audio dramas as well. In Excelsior I've had a lot of fun seeing just how many little boops, beeps and assorted stuff I could drop into a bridge scene and yet I think the most powerful scene I cut may be the one from our latest episode which consists of a very subdued alien planet background and a traumatized survivor trying to describe "the machines in the daaarkk". It's often true, less is more.
Stretching to apply Minimalist principles to Shatner's physique and the way he "uses his face" is pretty ridiculous. OTOH I was interested in his comparisons of the dramatic style of the series - at least some episodes - with the staging of Minimalist drama. And I liked that he was able to appreciate and analyze relevant elements of some episodes without going all in and promoting them as better than they were. His analysis of the visual aspects of the show is usefully distinct from his examination of the dramatic elements - I think he's right to see Star Trek and The Twilight Zone in particular in terms of the contrasts in their visual presentation and the similarities in their dramatic content.
I've been reading on and off and this sounds very intriguing to me Dennis. I love that you have some of the backstory on the website and little mini entries on the universe. I am looking forward to seeing "Polaris".
I saw a guy in a Polaris shirt at Dragon*Con. I yelled "POLARIS!" at him and gave him a thumbs-up. I might have been tipsy at the time.
^^^My God, look at the size of that...we'll never get it all on the cover..." (Cheech and Chong reference)
Here's a caption for you... Wow! Filming this episode of 20ft tall women in mini skirts is... now I've never seen that before????
If you watch Avatar in 2D, the holographic displays are still seemingly 3D, because the camera is in motion and the angles on the displayed 3D graphics change. But they are still only on a flat 2D plane. It's a weird effect.