Does TOS Still Look Futuristic to You?

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by ZapBrannigan, Apr 1, 2013.

  1. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That is somewhat true. The era from the late 60s through at least the mid-70s is a sort of stylistic watershed for the latter part of the century. Despite some "mod" elements, much of TOS is in step with cinematic and television styles reaching at least as far back as the 1940s, so it's snugly in the mainstream in many respects. Men's hairstyles, for example (disregarding the sideburns).

    In that regard it's probably just as well that Phase II was never made. If you look at a lot of the set and costume design for that - even the font selection for some of the promotional art - it is so-o-o "disco era." There's even a bit of it in ST:TMP. :lol:
     
  2. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    And TOS doesn't scream 1960s?
     
  3. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It is not any easier to get to the main turbolift on TNG's Enterprise. First, the entire rear of the command chairs are blocked by the cresent-shaped, elevated security station. This means Riker, Picard and Troi had to--as seen dozens of times--get up, walk forward, turn to walk up a ramp outside of the security section just to get to the turbolift. Not exactly a functional layout.

    A bridge furnished like a living room is more impractical than the TOS bridge.


    At least TAS added a second lift--predating FZ's additions.
     
  4. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I have to disagree, if the near universal trashing of VOY, ENT and most of the TNG movies are any indicator. In many ways, ST fans were harder on ST's low points than Star Wars fans were about the troubled prequels.
     
  5. Mysterion

    Mysterion Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yes, but not our future. TOS looks futuristic to me the same way that Forbidden Planet still looks futuristic to me. They are just the futures of timelines that went a different direction than the one we live in.
     
  6. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    You're mistaken, and bias enters into it - looking at it from the wrong end of the telescope. First, because the trashing of those shows was far from "universal" - just loud on the Internet - but more importantly only Trek fans cared about those productions as time passed. It was the hard-core audience that kept Voyager and Enterprise on for years and in the end it was only dedicated Trek fans who turned out for movies like Nemesis. Just about nobody who wasn't nuts about Trek bothered.

    The inclination of fandom to like Star Trek was why these shows weren't cancelled in their first or second seasons. Again, Trek fans may have liked these things little, but the rest of the world had already tuned out.

    Saying "the fact that Trek fans are critical means that they're not biased in favor of the Franchise" is like saying that Braves fans don't favor Atlanta - as proven by the fact that they bitch when the team plays poorly.

    The number of people who got into Star Trek because of TNG was astonishing. At its height it was not as widely watched as TOS had been on NBC, but it was also largely a different group of people. Most folks who turned on NBC on Thursdays back in 66-69 did not continue to follow Trek into syndication; if they had, the studio would have moved on a movie/new series much faster than they did. Trek built a new audience in the 1970s around the nucleus of fans who wouldn't let it go when the network dropped it, and TNG built a considerable following of casual viewers beyond the fans who turned out for the early-80s TOS-based movies. That was never true for the TNG "sequels" - DS9 started dropping viewers in its second week, and the number of "oh, I like that show and watch it with my family" folks who'd made TNG into something of an early '90s phenomenon fell away year by year.
     
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2013
  7. aridas sofia

    aridas sofia Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I think that what gives TOS design its ongoing plausibility is its purposeful vagueness. There are no explanatory instructions on the communicator, phaser or tricorder. The consoles are very vague about what they do. We could go back and show someone on the TOS bridge bringing up a holographic display and it would make plenty of sense because there is enough room there to speculate about other purposes.

    The painstaking detail taken in designing a set like the NX-01 bridge ends up being self defeating as the years roll by and all those things it says it does become more and more laughable as being things that would be done another way.
     
  8. Dale Sams

    Dale Sams Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    To me it screams 'Star Trek'. Despite the beehives and mini-skirts, it shares nothing with Twilight Zone, The Nanny and the Professor, The Big Valley (or other westerns), Rat Patrol, and doesn't particularly look like The Time Tunnel, Avengers, Lost in Space or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

    It looks like Star Trek.
     
  9. TOSalltheway

    TOSalltheway Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    And TOS doesn't scream 1960s?

    Of course it does, we are talking about how it aged.
     
  10. xortex

    xortex Commodore Commodore

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    It was minimalistic but who's to say what the world is gonna look like after WW9? It may look exctly like that. People only watched TNG for the stories and because it was the first direct sequal so people stuck with it to see if it would get better but it didn't. Other than that, all the other Trek incarnations sucked because their creators were no GRs. TOS was very specific and precise and the product of a singular vision unlike the other stuff which was an assembly line run by visionless asses up each other's asses in bed together like too many cooks. GR did what the Beatles and Shirley Temple did, something magical, mystical and miraculously gestalt like. Nothing compares to it in look, not even TZ.
     
  11. Joby

    Joby Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I don't want to turn this into a TNG vs. TOS debate, though it may head that direction, but I have to disagree that TOS has aged better then TNG. They have both aged IMHO.

    Beehives and mini-skirts, sounds 60s to me. TNG sure does have a late 80s vibe going for it in those early seasons, especially with Geordi's VISOR, having a counselor on the ship and the general Hyatt Regency look of the Enterprise-D. Many of these asthetics even started to seem outdated by 1989, but TNG plowed forward with it through 1994. But TNG is just as Star Trek as TOS, it's not like I feel like I'm watching other 80s TV shows like Growing Pains, Perfect Strangers, L.A. Law or St. Elsewhere.

    Though you could make a strong case for The Love Boat...
     
  12. Caje

    Caje Lieutenant Junior Grade Newbie

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    I agree. I'm not sure why it is, but TNG definitely seems dated to me in comparison to TOS.
     
  13. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Seconded! Amazing. The George Lucas x10 -style TOS-R.
     
  14. Mysterion

    Mysterion Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That actually does not look too bad. Thanks for sharing that!
     
  15. Dale Sams

    Dale Sams Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    With TNG, I also feel like I'm watching Trek more than 'an 80's show'. Though (understandably) the 80's feel really stands out early. The VISOR, Geordi's flattop, Wesley's Cosby sweaters, the FX. Having Roz from LA Law and Max Headroom on the show.

    But again, I feel like it's more Trek than 80's. Especially 3rd season and on.
     
  16. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That is the price of set design that was more living room than futuristic ship. Even the color scheme yells "domestic furnishing department." It lacked any sort of militaristic color, and the plush navigation chairs (among other features) looked like 1970's "bachelor pad" lounge seating.
     
  17. xortex

    xortex Commodore Commodore

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    I think the walls were rubbery and looked like built in closets. The bridge was too big and misshapen like Picard's head. It was a mess. The TOS bridge did look like a third grade classroom with the pictures of classic nebulas on the screens, but.. I guess they were screen savers.
     
  18. RAMA

    RAMA Admiral Admiral

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    :techman::techman::techman::techman::techman::techman::techman::techman::wtf::wtf:
    Jaw drop..wow

    RAMA
     
  19. scotpens

    scotpens Professional Geek Premium Member

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    I've never been a big TNG fan and I hated the Enterprise-D bridge design, but I don't see anything wrong with the shape of Patrick Stewart's dome.

    Very rarely, images would be back-projected onto one of the bridge perimeter screens (as in "Squire of Gothos"). IIRC, the effect was seldom used because of the time and expense of rigging slide projectors and because union rules required a man on the set just to operate the projector.
     
  20. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    I thought the bridge was roughly the size of its TOS counterpart?