I wanted to take a moment to revisit one of our older episodes. "Enemy: Starfleet!" (Teleplay by Dave Galanter and Patty Wright, Story by Dave Galanter and Gregory Brodeur, and Directed by Ben Tolpin) was our follow-up episode to "Blood and Fire." For every episode we've done, we have some little element or elements that we are particularly proud of. In the case of "Enemy: Starfleet!," we are proud of the fact that we were able to take our cast and crew out of our studio for some location shooting. Location shooting is challenging enough; if nothing else, the weather can be a harsh mistress. But in this case, we had a rather involved scene with lots of live on-set pyrotechnics--courtesy of our pyrotechnics professional, Mr. Howard Brown. We are always lucky to secure Howard's services; our shoots are generally in early summer, and Howard and his team are always busy gearing up for multiple 4th of July Independence Day fireworks shows. We are fortunate whenever Howard and his team carve out time for our productions. For "Enemy: Starfleet!," we had multiple timed explosions through which our cast had to run. The whole thing was tracked with a camera on a moving vehicle. We also had to place a "squib" on the back of "Chief of Security Dickerson." By law, all pyrotechnics on set necessitate the presence of a trained medical professional during detonations. So, nothing really new here. I'm just taking a moment to showcase (or, I guess, re-showcase) our location and pyrotechnics work. Episode is below: [yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uybWdnrcvps[/yt]
Really well done, loved the pyro and the lens filter / color tint for an other world visit. We must remember the "Kirk" shoulder roll!!!!
The other little insidery thing is that, just as Shatner wore a different set of boots as he went scrambling over dirt and rocks in "Arena" (instead of his regular Star Trek boots), James wore a different set of boots, too--instead of his regular Star Trek boots. He wore a pair of DKNY boots as seen in the Star Trek (2009) motion picture--as a half homage, half goof.
Or all "JJ gave me these boots with good traction and I've wiped out six times with my Willie's originals - so it's either switch boots or destroy both Willie's boots and Shatner's original uniform top and my TOS pants and break my leg in the process". The last wipe out really was a scary one - we now have scientific proof that those Cuban heels were never meant for running and climbing but were really good for fractures. There were also pyrotechnics on the bridge for Enemy: Starfleet, IIRC
That was a fun sequence - lots of VFX in there as well. Color tinting, additional rocks in the background, additional explosions, phasers, pulse weapons, and so on...
Since I was there, I can say this was one of the most difficult shots we ever did. Pyro detonations, actors running and jumping, camera from rolling vehicle, hazardous terrain, and multiple ways to get injured made this a real challenge. Everything had to be timed perfectly.