Best & Worse Uses of Stock Footage

[Samuel]

We all know what stock footage is. Footage (mostly special effects footage) created for episode (or movies) and then reused later in unrelated television episodes (and even sometimes in later movies).

In regards to Star Trek, what do you think are the best and worse uses of stock footage?

To me the best:

Star Trek: The Original Series- The Deadly Years & The Ultimate Computer.

I think The Deadly Years does an excellent job of taking the handful of views of the original Romulan ship and showing them from different angles and sequences to make it appear that several of the Romulan ships are attacking the Enterprise. That combined with the footage from "Errand of Mercy" of torpedoes hitting the Enterprise.

In "The Ultimate Computer" the effect of reusing the views of Enterprise to create four more Constitution class starships in formation was pretty well done. As well as the view of the destroyed Constellation as the destroyed Excalibur.

To me the worst:

STS9 "What You Leave Behind"---the series finale of DS9 was heavily budgeted but yet they had to resort to poorly edited footage from the Season Six finale edited into equally poorly edited footage from "Generations"? The problems were not just the footage but that it was lifted in huge chunks from those sources and simply dropped into the episode.

 

[Butters]

That bloody exploding bird of prey.

They actually didn’t think we’d notice.

 

[F. King Daniel]

That bloody exploding bird of prey.

They actually didn’t think we’d notice.

But did you notice the Enterprise-D explosion was a reuse of the USS Grissom going kablammo? They did it to distract you!

 

[Rahul]

Best use:
ALL the various fly-by's in the series. You didn't notice them - they were just meant as an establishing shot that the next scene takes place back on the Enterprise (Voyager, DS9,...) again. Yet it was always the same handfull of shots. How effective it was is best shown by 'Discovery', which tried to avoid the classic fly-by shots and came across as extremely.... clunky.

Worst use:
'Star Trek: Generations'. Holy fuck. That movie. They re-used a flyby shot from their series. In a movie. It looked extremely flat. And holy shit, they re-used the SAME explosion of the enemy ship from THE VERY PREVIOUS MOVIE. Not just some random explosion! NO! The FINAL one, the one that ends the movie, that finishes all plot arcs. They re-used that one!

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

Best: Not really stock footage, but I loved how seamlessly the DS9 crew fit into the shots used for “The Trouble with Tribbles”.

Worst: The TMP dry-dock scenes re-used for TWOK. I realize that the budget for the film was small, but would it have killed them to have at least shot a sequence with the shuttle pod approaching the torpedo bay instead of the engineering section? Sheesh!

 

[Vger23]

Best: Not really stock footage, but I loved how seamlessly the DS9 crew fit into the shots used for “The Trouble with Tribbles”.

Worst: The TMP dry-dock scenes re-used for TWOK. I realize that the budget for the film was small, but would it have killed them to have at least shot a sequence with the shuttle pod approaching the torpedo bay instead of the engineering section? Sheesh!

Amazingly enough, the first non-stock shot of the Enterprise in TWOK is deep into the film. It's all the way out to the point where the Enterprise and Reliant are approaching each other just prior to Khan's sneak attack.

 

[t_smitts]

Yeah, I caught the BoP exploding in "Generations". I caught that when it first came out in theaters, and I was twelve at the time.

I was also disappointed that the space battles in "What You Leave Behind" used so much stock footage from previous episodes and movies. Maybe there wasn't enough left in the budget to do much, but maybe nothing would've been better than something, in that case. And I've ranted about this before, but it also annoyed me that the old Defiant's registry was clearly visible, though, to be fair, it's actually visible in at least one of the new shots (when a Cardassian ship destroys the Breen ship attacking the new Defiant). I really wish they'd gone with the Sao Paolo's number, like they did on the plaque. (And with all due respect to Ron Moore, I did not want them calling it the Defiant-A).

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

Amazingly enough, the first non-stock shot of the Enterprise in TWOK is deep into the film. It's all the way out to the point where the Enterprise and Reliant are approaching each other just prior to Khan's sneak attack.

Right. I never thought much about it when I was younger, but I’m bothered by it now. Someone made YouTube video using TVH stock footage instead of TMP stock footage for the scenes where Kirk travels to the Enterprise, and it works well.

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[Dukhat]

Yes, I'd agree that the winners of "worst use of stock footage" goes to the exploding BoP and the reused fleet shots in WYLB. But while I wouldn't call this example the "best" use, it is quite humorous when you realize where the stock footage is from:

From TNG "Relics": http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s6/6x04/relics457.jpg

From VOY "Non-Sequitor": http://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x05/nonsequitur237.jpg

So apparently Starfleet towed an AU sized Dyson sphere into Earth orbit and made it the new Spacedock

Someone made YouTube video using TVH stock footage instead of TMP stock footage for the scenes where Kirk travels to the Enterprise, and it works well.

Er, that's not TVH stock footage. That's subpar fan-made CGI.

 

[DonIago]

^I remember snickering a bit when I got to that part of "Non-Sequitur". For me, at least, obvious stock footage was obvious.

The BoP explosion in GEN was by far the most egregious for me.

Maybe not when I watched it as a kid, but as an adult the BoP reuse in "Deadly Years" was extremely obvious and unfortunate.

I'm more forgiving of WYLB.

There's the reuse of the Genesis Tape in TSFS and TVH. For its time those effects were, I believe, revolutionary. It also very succinctly explained what all the hubbub was about for anyone who was going into those films not having seen TWoK first.

 

[Dukhat]

The BoP explosion in GEN was by far the most egregious for me.

From what I understand, the original plans were to have Lursa and Be'tor have a new ship (one that would have been a better match in a fight with the Ent-D), but then the cost-cutting decision was made to reuse that stock footage, so they made the ship a BoP solely because of that.

 

[DonIago]

From what I understand, the original plans were to have Lursa and Be'tor have a new ship (one that would have been a better match in a fight with the Ent-D), but then the cost-cutting decision was made to reuse that stock footage, so they made the ship a BoP solely because of that.

I'm fine with them having a BoP. I'm not fine with them using the climax explosion from TUC as a climax explosion in GEN. The reactions of the bridge crew afterward are especially comical to me after watching such a bad reuse of stock footage.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I love the stock footage in "Tomorrow is Yesterday", it really makes it seem like one of the most epic TOS episodes.

The stock footage in "Shore Leave" was hilariously bad. A (chained) tiger in the jungle spliced with the crew in a forest? Like we wouldn't notice

 

[Rahul]

Worst: The TMP dry-dock scenes re-used for TWOK. I realize that the budget for the film was small, but would it have killed them to have at least shot a sequence with the shuttle pod approaching the torpedo bay instead of the engineering section? Sheesh!

Amazingly enough, the first non-stock shot of the Enterprise in TWOK is deep into the film. It's all the way out to the point where the Enterprise and Reliant are approaching each other just prior to Khan's sneak attack.

Actually, I would put the re-use for TWOK in the "best" category. Yes, sometimes it's noticeable.
But that entire movie was basically solely scrambled together out of spare parts of TMP: EVERYTHING was reused! That entire torpedo bay in which large parts of the movie took place? It was the klingon bridge from TMP, repainted "white". The whole Regula station? Starbase 1 flipped on the head on the outside, the sets of starbase 1 re-arranged on the inside. The reliant bridge was the Enterprise bridge, only with differently painted doors. Really,I think the only sets they built was that small cave corridor covering as the Genesis planet, and the additional radiation chamber on the engineering set.

It's an unbelievable masterpiece of economy that movie got ever made. It had something alike the adjusted budget of a single episode of 'Discovery'. And yet, it created one of the most memorable Star Trek movies of all time. Out of basically only the remains of TMP.

 

[Samuel]

In regards to "Generations" remember that the destruction of the Bird of Prey as planned was considerably different and made more sense than what appeared onscreen.

You can see in one of the behind the scenes books that they story boarded the Enterprise torpedoes hitting the BOP, it explodes and huge chunks of debris from it slam into the Enterprise's engineering hull, gouging chunks out of it and causing the loss of antimatter containment that eventually destroys the D.

But, the producers wanted to reward Zimmerman for his years of work on TNG so they instead allocated a huge part of the budget to build the Stellar Cartography set that Zimmerman had been dreaming of for years.

 

[DonIago]

I love the Stellar Cartography set, but I might have settled for something smaller in scale (two decks instead of three?) if it meant getting that BoP destruction sequence instead.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

The reliant bridge was the Enterprise bridge, only with differently painted doors.

That’s never bothered me at all, as it would make sense that Federation bridges would have similar designs. The Grissom bridge was just the Enterprise bridge with the helm and navigation consoles facing the other direction, which is why we never saw the main viewscreen.

 

[Samuel]

Since we're talking about reuse of models and effects anyway I thought it interesting that Nicholas Meyer was told regarding "The Undiscovered Country" that he could've have any new models built for the movie.

Though IIRC they did sneak in one original model. The shuttle that carried Kirk and crew to the Spacedock early on. Ironic though that in my opinion TUC was one of the best looking of the first six movies. That could be because with a limited budget Meyer got creative. Like the previously unseen shot of the "underside" of Spacedock as the shuttle approached.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

But, the producers wanted to reward Zimmerman for his years of work on TNG so they instead allocated a huge part of the budget to build the Stellar Cartography set that Zimmerman had been dreaming of for years.

Classic example of spending your money in the wrong place. The Stellar Cartography scene was largely exposition. There's no way it needed such an expansive set. Particularly when the climax of the movie was basically just three guys fighting on a jungle gym.

Ironic though that in my opinion TUC was one of the best looking of the first six movies.

Agreed. I love the look of it. Those new Klingon uniforms were fantastic, there were some really creative aliens, and the location footage from Alaska really opened the movie up.

That could be because with a limited budget Meyer got creative. Like the previously unseen shot of the "underside" of Spacedock as the shuttle approached.

Yeah, Meyer is pretty good at stretching his budget. I remember he wanted a reverse angle on the Klingons when they were beaming away after the dinner scene (So we're looking at Kirk & crew in the middle ground as the Klingon figures vanish in the foreground). The special effects people told him that it wouldn't work, as all of the Enterprise actors would have to stay perfectly still. Meyer said that they could just cover it up with a piece of animation if someone moved around. That's what they did, and it worked beautifully.

 

[Shawnster]

Worst: The TMP dry-dock scenes re-used for TWOK. I realize that the budget for the film was small, but would it have killed them to have at least shot a sequence with the shuttle pod approaching the torpedo bay instead of the engineering section? Sheesh!

Now, I was going to pick TWOK as one of the better uses. Between the drydock scene and the Klingons in the Kobayashi Maru.