TOS's largest one time prop.

[gomtuu20]

Was "Bem" mentioned in an earlier post utilized for the animated series?

[Sector 7]

gomtuu20 wrote:

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It also lists several story outlines that were assigned at that point, but not produced (this is the last writers report in the Roddenberry papers at UCLA):

"Van Voyt's Robots" (D.C. Fontana)
"Ears" (D.C. Fontana)
"Japan Triumphant" (Lee Cronin)
"One Million, B.C." (Lee Cronin)
"Shore Leave II" (Theodore Sturgeon)

One Million B.C. - THAT sparks my interest in what it might have been about.

"Shore Leave II" and "BEM" were both used in Star Trek: The Animated Series. I recently watched them both. [TAS is the only Father's Day present I use regularly!]

[Harvey]

Sector 7 wrote:

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"Shore Leave II" and "BEM" were both used in Star Trek: The Animated Series.

"Bem" was definitely repurposed for use on the animated series.

I'm not so sure about "Shore Leave II." "Once Upon a Planet" is certainly a sequel to the original series episode, "Shore Leave." I'm just not sure it's the sequel that Sturgeon outlined.

[Maurice]

Harvey wrote:

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....It also lists several story outlines that were assigned at that point, but not produced (this is the last writers report in the Roddenberry papers at UCLA):

"Van Voyt's Robots" (D.C. Fontana)
"Ears" (D.C. Fontana)
"Japan Triumphant" (Lee Cronin)
"One Million, B.C." (Lee Cronin)
"Shore Leave II" (Theodore Sturgeon)

*Might this be "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"?

^^^"Ears" became "The Enterprise Incident", as per the menu to Shirley Stahnke from Roddenberry dated March 29, 1968.

[Harvey]

Ah, that's right.

[roger1999]

I must be having a false memory again. I seem to recall reading somewhere (and this would have been 30 years ago) that the obelisk was trucked in from some shopping mall. At my current age that now seems crazy, and the drawing by Jeffries seems to indicate it was designed for the episode.

[Christopher]

gomtuu20 wrote:

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One Million B.C. - THAT sparks my interest in what it might have been about.

It might've been a take on the "To Skin a Tyrannosaurus" story seed idea from Roddenberry's original ST proposal. The one-sentence pitch for that one was "A modern man reduced to a sling and club in a world 1,000,000 B.C."

[22 Stars]

I own an original Jefferies sketch of the Obelisk, the one seen here:

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albu...c/Obelisk6.jpg

It is complete with elevation, and color detailing descriptions. Definitely built for production. I was hoping it would turn up in some Hollywood junkyard like the Shuttlecraft too

Russ

[Harvey]

Christopher wrote:

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It might've been a take on the "To Skin a Tyrannosaurus" story seed idea from Roddenberry's original ST proposal. The one-sentence pitch for that one was "A modern man reduced to a sling and club in a world 1,000,000 B.C."

Sounds possible. I haven't found any other reference to it outside of that writers report; it must not have gone far.

[trevanian]

Harvey wrote:

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EDIT: Although "He Walked Among Us" appears to be a teleplay carried over from season two, not the third season. Hmm.

Yeah, Spinrad asked GR to kill it because he hated Coon's comical rewrite (this is the one they were trying to get Milton Berle to do.) Coon was gone partway through season 2, so that gives you a better timeframe, maybe.

Wonder about that other Coon/Cronin one, hadn't heard of that.

[T'Girl]

BillJ wrote:

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Wasn't Apollo's temple from Who Mourns for Adonais? fairly large as well?

Been wondering about this. I'd imagine that Apollo's temple, picnic table, planters, and small court yard weren't built from scratch, instead the various pieces were retrieved from studio storage (or a Hollywood supplier) and assembled on the sound stage.

Roll out a little fake grass, and you're done.

[Christopher]

^Indeed, the whole reason TOS did so many Earth-duplicate alien cultures was to save money by reusing props, costumes, set pieces, etc. from previous productions. Roddenberry specifically wrote it into his series pitch in order to convince network executives that the show would be affordable to make. So it's a safe bet that most of the stuff we see that's based on some historical Earth culture is pre-existing material, at least partly.

[Harvey]

Returning to the original topic, wouldn't obelisk technically be a set and not a prop?

My knowledge here is a bit spotty, but would the obelisk qualify as the largest item to be hauled out on location for the series (at least, an item that was seen on screen)? I don't think the shuttlecraft was ever brought outdoors.

[Christopher]

Harvey wrote:

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Returning to the original topic, wouldn't obelisk technically be a set and not a prop?

A set is an artificially constructed environment used for filming. I'd say the obelisk was more of a mock-up (i.e. a full-sized model of a thing), a term I've seen used to describe the shuttlecraft exterior.

My knowledge here is a bit spotty, but would the obelisk qualify as the largest item to be hauled out on location for the series (at least, an item that was seen on screen)?

That seems likely, at least in terms of the volume/area of any single item.

[Maurice]

It's a structure, like a shed or a house, ergo it's technically a set.

I seem to recall that someone on the production mentioned that it was trucked up to the location from the studio. It might be in the text from interviews I did with some members of the crew. I'll look around.