TMP Myths Debunked via Return to Tomorrow and Beyond
- Thread starter Maurice
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More behind the scenes fun stuff. Apparently Dr. Daystrom's Duotronics were supplanted by Radio Shack tech... These are actual display graphics for ST:TMP as created by NASA's Jesco Von Puttkamer on his TRS-80.
The SHIP'S MAIN POWER USAGE display is (slightly tweaked) the thing you see right before the cadet says, "Sir, the mains are back on line," at the climax of TWOK.
The SHIP'S MAIN POWER USAGE display is (slightly tweaked) the thing you see right before the cadet says, "Sir, the mains are back on line," at the climax of TWOK.
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Holy cow, those primitive graphics bring back memories. I once took a summer class in BASIC programming, and the final project was to create an animation using those simple block-cursor graphics. I designed a very ambitious scene of a spaceship flying through a starscape, and it was so complicated that it took some time to redraw the screen for each new frame, so it strobed like crazy.
Have not programmed much in Basic since the 1970's
I'm nearly finished reading the book and I've been taken by a few things:
1. Douglas Trumbull was responsible for the redesign of the Vulcan sequence. Before the movie came out, there were images of Matthew Yuricich painting a Vulcan landscape that was more in keeping with the TV show. It was very desert-like with a large Sun hanging over the horizon.
Trumbull thought this wasn't fantastic enough and that it looked too earth-like. He thought that the audience might be confused that they were seeing desert on Earth rather than an alien planet.
He decided to redesign the Vulcan sequence which resulted in the silly-looking Vulcan seen in the movie with multiple moons and volcanic steam rising throughout the landscape. Trumbull is a fantastic special effects artist and director in his own right but I think he made the wrong decision with regards to this footage.
2. Special effects footage and sound work was still being dropped into the cut of the film the Saturday before the premiere of the film on December 7. They literally ran out of time to add anything else even though a redone matte painting of the crew standing on the Enterprise before walking across to VGER had been completed and filmed. There just wasn't enough time to cut the negative to replace the inferior shot with the revised version.
3. Everyone agrees that Robert Wise was incredible throughout the entire production of this movie. Without fail, everyone sings his praises from never loosing his cool while on set to carrying the first print of the film on the airplane to Washington for the premiere.
All in all, it's a fantastic book. It certainly covers a lot of the same material I've read already but there's so much detail that this truly is the most comprehensive chronicle of the making of the first Star Trek movie.
1. Douglas Trumbull was responsible for the redesign of the Vulcan sequence. Before the movie came out, there were images of Matthew Yuricich painting a Vulcan landscape that was more in keeping with the TV show. It was very desert-like with a large Sun hanging over the horizon.
Trumbull thought this wasn't fantastic enough and that it looked too earth-like. He thought that the audience might be confused that they were seeing desert on Earth rather than an alien planet.
He decided to redesign the Vulcan sequence which resulted in the silly-looking Vulcan seen in the movie with multiple moons and volcanic steam rising throughout the landscape. Trumbull is a fantastic special effects artist and director in his own right but I think he made the wrong decision with regards to this footage.
2. Special effects footage and sound work was still being dropped into the cut of the film the Saturday before the premiere of the film on December 7. They literally ran out of time to add anything else even though a redone matte painting of the crew standing on the Enterprise before walking across to VGER had been completed and filmed. There just wasn't enough time to cut the negative to replace the inferior shot with the revised version.
3. Everyone agrees that Robert Wise was incredible throughout the entire production of this movie. Without fail, everyone sings his praises from never loosing his cool while on set to carrying the first print of the film on the airplane to Washington for the premiere.
All in all, it's a fantastic book. It certainly covers a lot of the same material I've read already but there's so much detail that this truly is the most comprehensive chronicle of the making of the first Star Trek movie.
The Vulcan shot was a total miscalculation on Trumbull's part. There were other way to sell it as another planet than what they did to it. As to the original painting, I'm not certain that was supposed to be a sun. The shadows are wrong for that to be the case. Also, Mike Minor's matte rendering (which can be seen here) indicates it's supposed to be a planet.
As to the "wing walk" on the Enterprise, Yuricich said they had "a nicer version", but it's unclear what that meant. A whole new painting? Or did they rework one?
Both are discussed on p. 574
As to the "wing walk" on the Enterprise, Yuricich said they had "a nicer version", but it's unclear what that meant. A whole new painting? Or did they rework one?
Both are discussed on p. 574
Hi Maurice,
Thank you for that link about Mike Minor's work. It seems you are correct that the original design was to have another large planet or moon hanging in the sky rather than what I assumed to be a sun.
I always wanted to see a website dedicated to Mike Minor's legacy. I contacted Bob Burns about this many years ago but never had the time to follow up. Minor worked on many Sid and Marty Krofft show in the 1970's, creating model shots and matte paintings some of which were featured in early issues of Starlog magazine as well as the first edition of their Special Effects book. He also worked on Flesh Gordon, as well as some unused effects work on Star Wars. He storyboarded and designed many of the effects shots for Wrath Of Khan and of course his engine room design formed the template for most of the engine rooms seen from TMP onward (with the exception of "Enterprise").
He was an incredibly talented man and it's so sad that we lost him at such an early age.
Thanks again for the clarification regarding the Vulcan matte painting!
Pierre
Thank you for that link about Mike Minor's work. It seems you are correct that the original design was to have another large planet or moon hanging in the sky rather than what I assumed to be a sun.
I always wanted to see a website dedicated to Mike Minor's legacy. I contacted Bob Burns about this many years ago but never had the time to follow up. Minor worked on many Sid and Marty Krofft show in the 1970's, creating model shots and matte paintings some of which were featured in early issues of Starlog magazine as well as the first edition of their Special Effects book. He also worked on Flesh Gordon, as well as some unused effects work on Star Wars. He storyboarded and designed many of the effects shots for Wrath Of Khan and of course his engine room design formed the template for most of the engine rooms seen from TMP onward (with the exception of "Enterprise").
He was an incredibly talented man and it's so sad that we lost him at such an early age.
Thanks again for the clarification regarding the Vulcan matte painting!
Pierre
Right, like opening with an establishing shot from space and a caption saying "The Planet Vulcan," say.
I don't see how announcing with a caption that the planet is Vulcan is going to help anyone who doesn't already know that it's the planet Vulcan. You could spoonfeed the relevant point with a caption overdoing it like: "The planet Vulcan, where Spock is from." But then, who's Spock? Oh, he's this guy. Or, you could simply let the viewers who don't already know figure out what's so important about this planet by paying attention, and you're back to not needing a caption. 
I don't know. I can see the merit of such caption. Not necessarily for information, but for the evocative effect.
Putting "Planet Vulcan" at the bottom of the screen not only saves you from that bit of stilted dialog you'd otherwise have to use to set the scene, but a caption saying "Planet Vulcan", no matter if you have heard of Star Trek up to that point or not, can immediately cause feelings of anticipation, especially if you were a newcomer to the franchise.
"Planet what? Cool, another planet! And they gave it a name so it's gotta be important! I wonder what happens here!" It catches the viewer's eye and their attention.
People have short attention spans so tricks like that can be useful to draw their attention back for important scenes and put them into the right frame of mind.
Putting "Planet Vulcan" at the bottom of the screen not only saves you from that bit of stilted dialog you'd otherwise have to use to set the scene, but a caption saying "Planet Vulcan", no matter if you have heard of Star Trek up to that point or not, can immediately cause feelings of anticipation, especially if you were a newcomer to the franchise.
"Planet what? Cool, another planet! And they gave it a name so it's gotta be important! I wonder what happens here!" It catches the viewer's eye and their attention.
People have short attention spans so tricks like that can be useful to draw their attention back for important scenes and put them into the right frame of mind.
But they did go there, extensively, in the opening minutes of the film -- we got Klingon subtitles in the previous scene, Vulcan subtitles during the scene in question, and the "STARFLEET HEADQUARTERS STARDATE 7410.2" caption in the immediately following scene. So why not insert one more caption?
That was inserted for the DE.
Heh, reminds me of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which I caught on TV the other night for the first time since seeing it in the theater. At the beginning, there are captions for various locations around the world that are being affected by the Surfer...like "Cairo, Egypt", just in case that establishing shot of the pyramids and Sphinx gave you the impression that it might be Vegas....
I don't see how announcing with a caption that the planet is Vulcan is going to help anyone who doesn't already know that it's the planet Vulcan. You could spoonfeed the relevant point with a caption overdoing it like: "The planet Vulcan, where Spock is from." But then, who's Spock? Oh, he's this guy. Or, you could simply let the viewers who don't already know figure out what's so important about this planet by paying attention, and you're back to not needing a caption.
It could turn into something out of Monty Python in a hurry.
"The planet Vulcan. Home of Spock. Well, actually he just has a time share here, because he's a member of Starfleet (which is on Earth) and has his main residence (a condo) there. Of course, he spent the better part of the last five years in space, so his residence is a moot point, really. Anyway, he's on Vulcan now to undergo a ritual to purge himself of emotion. If it's successful, he will buy a house and move here. Nothing fancy, just three bedrooms and a nice garden, which is hard to find on Vulcan because it's so hot an dry."
I actually don't mind the captions establishing time or place. They worked for me in ST09. It kind of breaks the fourth wall, but it does save exposition.
^ That was hilarious!
That is wise, the movie made more money internationally than it did in the US. Big movies rarely are made specifically for US audiences anymore, as most of the money now comes in from the foreign box office.
Neil
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