Star Trek: TMP questions and observations

http://trekmovie.com/2009/12/08/tmp20-the-merchandise-of-star-trek-the-motion-picture/

http://www.startrek.com/article/a-collectors-trek-6-wacky-tmp-merchandise

 

I still don't know what McDonald's was thinking with the Star Trek: The Motion Picture Happy Meal. They must've had no clue what the movie was going to be like.

 

I have a complete collection of the 12 small figures.

 

Especially for "kiddie" programming like Star Wars or Star Trek.

What you are thinking of a "quality" merchandise tie-ins are targeted at MY generation - the kids that went to see Star Wars and Star Trek and are grown up now with disposable income. Yes, Spock's Kolinar robe and Ilia's headband COULD have been produced in 1979/80, but nobody thought to do such things. I don't think the "quality" merchandise existed for ANY movie in that time period.

 

The idea would not be so much to promote the movie, or STAR TREK, in general, per se, but more to equate to owning some of the art of the movie, itself. Whether it was framed photos of any of the other ships called ENTERPRISE, from the Rec Room (photography), or the Ilia Probe's robe (fashion), or a reproduction of the sensor-necklace worn by Persis Khambatta, as the probe (jewelry) ... it's all art.

Some may consider it pap, others may consider it "upscale." But the inspiration for this art would've been the movie, itself - TMP, in this case. Whilst not an advert with STAR TREK and PARAMOUNT PICTURES stamped all over it, it's still tied-in. At least as far as I'd be concerned. But all of that is neither-here-nor-there, because TMP merchandise was all cheap and tacky, apparently.

 

... AGREED!!!

 

Here is a question that's been growing on me: What came first, the airlock at the Enterprise's saucer hull bottom or the personnel lift hatch to the top side of the saucer?

1. On Maab's excellent website there is a production painting showing a Kirk in a spacesuit next to what appears to be a saucer running light bulb for scale reference. This suggests that originally a scene was planned for EVA activity on the top side of the saucer, IMHO.
2. The airlock staging area's control console features interesting indicators, especially "Elev[ator] Travel" "up" and "down". Hardly the kind of controls I would have expected near the ventral airlock / docking port but most definitely for the personnel lift hatch seen near the end of the film
3. In the deleted airlock scene you can see there's some kind of stand there. Curiously, Shane Johnson's depiction of the airlock (ventral saucer) lacks this item, but features it as a "control pedestal / handgrip" near the personnel hatch platform (page 59 "Mr. Scott's" Guide to the Enterprise). It is barely visible in this screencap but obviously it's there (I remember promotional shots showing the actors close-up while being uplifted).

IMHO, all this could suggest that the airlock set was actually built for a location in the upper saucer (and as a possible prelude to the lift scene near the end of the film) but finally only featured as a staging area at the bottom side of the saucer.

Is this correct?

Bob

 

I cannot see any movie today, or maybe ever again, in a "runaway" situation, with regards to the budget and blowing alot of coin on sequences that were not planned out carefully, or going to be executed in a competent manner, just to keep from shutting down production. "No matter what, keep the cameras rolling, or the studio will want them back," seems to have been the mentality at work, here. And you know, it's such a shame that further STAR TREKs which would've benefitted enormously from just such a situation, were rushed into production, as cheaply as they could make it and then the studios dared to feign surprise at the lockluster box office. Spending a quarter of a billion dollars on a STAR TREK movie covers up a lot of its sins ...

 

Dang, and I used to have one! No idea what happened to it. That's too bad...I could've sent it to 2Takes! Oh, well, it's the thought that counts...right, 2Takes?

 

You're probably overanalyzing it. Most of what you're referring to was designed for the "wing walk" sequence when they step out onto the hull before strolling to V'ger. It's possible that they considered putting everyone in spacesuits for this at some point, or a production artist just drew it this way. It's also possible the airlock staging area set was designed to service both the top personnel hatch and the airlock below, even if it doesn't make sense with the exterior of the miniature.

Shane's drawings of the airlock are also very inaccurate to the set, so don't trust them.

 

Forget using orange-peel alcohol ... if my toilet ever broke, I know what I would fill it with: something hot, brown and plentiful. I'm sure this was insanely overpriced, even at the time, but what a cheap-looking piece of shit. The whole thing's rediculous ... in the shape of Lenny Nimoy, no less! No wonder he wanted out of STAR TREK ...

 

Since this has become something of catchall post about TMP production, etc.

Here's a question I've had for a while. I remember in the Read Along ST:TMP story book and record (I still have it in storage somewhere), it uses an odd image that was supposed to V'Ger starting to engulf the Enterprise (I guess?), but it's a very strange purple cloud with another texture double-exposed with it.



I don't think I've ever seen anything from the production of TMP that had any kind of effect like it. So I gather it's one of those things the authors fudged a stock photo of the Enterprise from TMP with their own idea of the cloud.

The story book also has a very simplified version of what was the memory wall sequence in it.



So it's clearly based on an earlier draft of the script, which would make sense if they had to provide the record company with something early on in order to get it out on time. However, the weird thing is that it appears to have been first published in 1983, so why would it need to be based on anything but the final version of the film?


As an aside, I found a cool site that has set about archiving all kinds of Read Along books and turning them into standalone Flash executable that have story book and the audio, when you turn the page it starts the next page's audio.
http://www.readalongadventures.com/

 

I seem to recall there was a satin TMP jacket with the Enterprise on the back which was lit with LEDs.

 

Aw, now you figured out why I was so willing to part with it!

It was given to me as a gift by a friends' mother. Back in my day the general wisdom was that parents didn't "get" stereo (i.e., "Why do you want a 5-band equalizer, isn't 3 enough?"). Similarly, they didn't "get" Star Trek. And your reference of orange peel reminded me of the somewhat sandy texture of this decanter. It was very difficult to dust. In fact, I've remembered since posting that I ended up just throwing it away.

If you're interested in something brown and plentiful, I turn your attention back to the cookbook! Think of it as experiencing actual, life-like symptoms of some of those Star Trek diseases we all heard about!

 

On the back cover of STARLOG, yeah? I think it may have been based on a production crew jacket, similar to that one guy in the SF tram scene who appears for a frame or two. It was probably forty bucks or more, so it WAS pretty high end.

Not compared to the light saber that was advertised on the back of FANTASTIC FILMS ($375 I think?) but not chump change either.

I think a vfx guy on TMP was involved in the jacket, but I don't recall who. Might have been one of the electronics guys from Apogee.

 

Well, I don't know where the purple cloud comes from but it's in the Topps card set for The Motion Picture.





Along with other strange cloud effects.





Also the TMP Viewmaster 3D had a pink cloud effect, different from this one if I remember correctly.

Great find! I'll download them all!

Best,
Maab

 

Yeah, see that? Couldn't even be bothered to make it out of quality porcelain - had to use cheap, grainy and course slop. It's such a shame, because right-out-of-the-box, STAR TREK merchandise has always been vulgar: Tacky, touristy, souvenir-type, disposable garbage that is obscenely overpriced, to begin with. As an adult STAR TREK fan, it's very hard for me to window shop on the merchandise side of town.

A Cook-Book is surprisingly adult in concept for this franchise. But who knows what those colourful cubes of "food" really were on STAR TREK? Probably "marshmellons," as Spock calls them. Or Polemade Soup, or whatever it's called - I never saw Lenny putting it to his lips and slurping off the spoon. In fact, he only used it to wing at Chapel - it probably was just paint! So what are they trying to push on us, in this book?

"Oh, but it's FUN, 2Takes! You're missing the point!" Yeah, it's fun, alright ... until you're calling out from work, because of the explosive shits this Cook-Book's earned for you.

 

I understand and realize that many fans are more than happy to own something, anything, with STAR TREK on it, because of how they feel about this show. I certainly respect that, because I love STAR TREK, too. Especially THE MOTION PICTURE. That's why it's so frustrating to want to buy something associated with this franchise and coming up against a brick wall, unless the purchase is going to be a TREK novel.

Therin, I don't know if you are fond of TNG at all, but Picard used to drink out of a very novel-looking tea cup. It wasn't china, it was made of glass and had a sort of black-wire handle that gripped the cup, just under the lip. I found out, too late, that there was an entire set to this that you could buy - and wanted it badly. It was discontinued long ago. But it was classy. It was an item that was very much in service of the STAR TREK mythos (Picard's Earle Grey), without desperately needing Picard's head printed on it, or STAR TREK stamped upon it. It was, what I could consider, upscale merchandise.