Inadvertant inaccuracy
- Thread starter Flying Spaghetti Monster
- Start date
Uhhh, I was still talking about the original TV series. I guess I'm not being very clear about that, but considering this is the movie section, I guess the forum was inappropriate.
I still think that's easily solved (not that it really needs to be, but whatever) by the fact that the federal subject province of Russia surrounding St. Petersburg is still referred to as Leningrad Oblast. It's small enough that just representing it on a low-detail global map as a large dot is somewhat feasible, and the future metro area of St. Petersburg and the surrounding towns and cities may have grown to fill a large area, and the megalopolis (like a version of BosWash or SanSan) informally took on the name of the oblast it's in.
^ That's fine and pretty cool, actually. I also take Uhura's attitude of not fearing words that she voiced in "The Savage Curtain" as evidence that 23rd century people would not necessarily eschew names that might have carried negative connotations in the past.
My point was simply that Leningrad was referred to in foreground dialog on screen plain as day in STIV in a similar context as Tokyo, so it's not like there is any real question that the city exists in the TOS film continuity. Based on context, I'd suspect it was a megalopolis.
My point was simply that Leningrad was referred to in foreground dialog on screen plain as day in STIV in a similar context as Tokyo, so it's not like there is any real question that the city exists in the TOS film continuity. Based on context, I'd suspect it was a megalopolis.
Chekov also mentions Leningrad in "I, Mudd," though. Upon learning from the Alice androids that they were programmed by the lecherous Harry Mudd (presumably to be pliant sex slaves), he says that Mudd's planet is "even better than Leningrad." Which raises some questions about what exactly 23rd-century Leningrad is famous for...
Haha! They really don't! If it's a naff film (any film!) then it really doesn't matter how many landmarks there are in it. Plus, if a road sign says Paris I'm not going to require the Eiffel Tower to know where the film is set.
I'll rephrase: Hollywood filmmakers feel they need to display landmarks.
If I may add, this is the trope (named after the Eiffel Tower, but doesn't need to pertain to it, but rather the trope of using landmarks as shorthand location identifiers):
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EiffelTowerEffect
I love this entry:
But anyway, Johnny, we can even use the JJTrek movies for example -- the Golden Gate bridge is shown several times in both movies, and the latter has the Vengeance crushing Alcatraz. That's how you know Starfleet HQ and Academy are in San Francisco.
^The Alcatraz bit was probably meant as an in-joke about the quick cancellation of the recent Abrams-produced Alcatraz TV series.
Some writers had good instincts. When a gaming company was putting together a product based on Neuromancer in the 1990s they interviewed William Gibson about every detail of the future world it was set in. His response to questions about the Soviet Union and what was going on in that area of the world was generally "For some reason I haven't thought about it."
I couldn't have told you where Alcatraz is, even with 100 guesses!
Maybe I just watch too many films then, because every time I see some kind of main stream establishing shot of, GGBridge, Eiffel Tower, London Bridge, etc. it irritates me. I like a film to be smart/challenging and go a little against the grain, use a lack of information as a catalyst for tension. I find they give a little too much security to a situation that could otherwise be more intense.
Anyway, time to stop, it's become self-analytical!
^I was going to say "I thought it was Big Ben," but then I remembered what building Big Ben is attached to... 
The London Eye has to be moving up now, too.
That's another issue with stories set in the future. How do you know the Eiffel tower is still in Paris? Or that Big Ben is in London? Or that the Golden Gate Bridge is in San Francisco? For all we know, they would be on Vulcan, in D.C. and in China. I am seeing the Sydney Opera House and thinking, OK, now we're on Denobula... Maybe...
And how did we know the landmarks survived WW3?
^Well, the Golden Gate Bridge is named that because it's the bridge over the Golden Gate strait. So that name is associated with that specific location, rather than the bridge per se. (It irritated the heck out of me when Sliders showed a parallel world with an "Azure Gate Bridge" painted blue, as if the GGB were named that because of its color. Which is ridiculous, since it isn't painted gold! It's a shade called orange vermilion, chosen for visibility to aircraft.)
Anyway, that's how you can tell the landmarks are in their original places -- by the context, the landscape around them. In the shots of the GGB in Trek, you can see San Francisco Bay, the Marin Highlands, and other such landmarks that confirm it's still in its original context. Same with the Sydney Opera House -- you can usually see Sydney Harbour, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the city of Sydney, etc. around it.
Anyway, that's how you can tell the landmarks are in their original places -- by the context, the landscape around them. In the shots of the GGB in Trek, you can see San Francisco Bay, the Marin Highlands, and other such landmarks that confirm it's still in its original context. Same with the Sydney Opera House -- you can usually see Sydney Harbour, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the city of Sydney, etc. around it.
^I was going to say "I thought it was Big Ben," but then I remembered what building Big Ben is attached to...
Nitpick, Big Ben is never used as a visual cue for London, as Big Ben is what the bell is commonly known as. It might be used as an audio cue however. True sometimes the Clock Tower or more accuratly Elizabeth Tower is sometimes referred to as Big Ben.
Ditto for Seattle and Space Needle. (Bonus points if you include a shot of the Monorail.)
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