John's Star Trek Timeline Photos

[JonnyQuest037]

Hi, folks! I thought I'd show off some of the photomanipulations I made in Photoshop for my Star Trek timeline. There are a few big moments from the history of the ST Universe that were never depicted onscreen, so I thought I'd make my own versions. Hope you enjoy them!

First, a photo from Sarek and Amanda's wedding ceremony, made from a still of Jane Wyatt with Ronald Colman in Lost Horizon:

I may add some Vulcan glyphs to the fronts of their robes later on, but I know that'll be a fair amount of extra work. So for now, this is it.

Next, a look at Fleet Captain Garth in his prime, from an old publicity still of Steve Ihnat I found online (I forget from which project now):

Looking at this one again, I may do a second version of it using the original background of the Steve Ihnat image.

Christopher Pike's graduation photo from Starfleet Academy:


James T. Kirk as an Academy plebe, made from a photo of William Shatner in his teens mixed with a publicity shot from "Where No Man Has Gone Before":

I just did this one as a quick & dirty version last night. Next I think I'm going to remove the rank stripes from the sleeves and possibly replace the delta insignia with the emblem that Finnegan was wearing in "Shore Leave."

Lastly, the night that Kirk proposed to Carol Marcus. Can anyone guess my source images for this one?

I may fine tune these a bit more later on, so if anyone has any feedback, or even better, higher-res source images, please let me know!

 

[Michael]

These are awesome! I especially like the Sarek and Amanda one. Flawless photoshoppery! And a great concept to boot.

 

[Rekkert]

Beautifully done! The only one that stands out to me is the one of young Kirk, there's something about the way the neck connects to the body that looks a bit weird to me.
I'd love to see more!

 

[Warped9]

Very nicely done!

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Nice, but it would be far closer to canon if you were to “cast” present-day actors that could conceivably be hired for these roles, then put them in Disco-style wardrobe and environments.

 

[Warped9]

No, looks more convincingas if it had been done back then.

 

[uniderth]

Wow. These look great!

Nice, but it would be far closer to canon if you were to “cast” present-day actors that could conceivably be hired for these roles, then put them in Disco-style wardrobe and environments.

"Far closer to canon" and "Disco-style" hahaha. The images, as is, are as close to canon as we're going to get.

 

[scifieric]

These really look spectacular!

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Wow. These look great!



"Far closer to canon" and "Disco-style" hahaha. The images, as is, are as close to canon as we're going to get.

No, think about it: if we were to see young Pike on the now-mythical Pike show, he’d look like a young Anson Mount in a photo, a deaged Anson Mount in a flashback, and almost certainly be recast with a younger actor of today for a longer appearance. So the question is if these extrapolations are supposed to remind us of the way things used to be (through the end of the Bermanverse), or if instead they hope to predict the way things will be in the Kurtzmanverse.

 

[StarCruiser]

^ Sorry but...no...

 

[Maurice]

I may fine tune these a bit more later on, so if anyone has any feedback, or even better, higher-res source images, please let me know!

The face looks really pasted on, as if she's wearing a mask. There's a really apparent tone difference running down the side of her face.

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Well done

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Nice, but it would be far closer to canon if you were to “cast” present-day actors that could conceivably be hired for these roles, then put them in Disco-style wardrobe and environments.

Well, that's not what I'm trying to do. At all.

So the question is if these extrapolations are supposed to remind us of the way things used to be (through the end of the Bermanverse), or if instead they hope to predict the way things will be in the Kurtzmanverse.

That seems rather pointless to me. I'm not working under the same restrictions that the shows are, so why limit myself to present day actors? Besides, as I don't have any DSC stuff in my timeline yet, there's really no reason to try to "predict" who they might cast on that show.

As I say in the intro to my timeline (linked to in the first post on this thread), it's a TOS timeline. So of course I'm going to use the TOS actors. I'd find it WAY more distracting for Pike to shift back & forth between Jeffrey Hunter and Anson Mount.

The face looks really pasted on, as if she's wearing a mask. There's a really apparent tone difference running down the side of her face.

Yeah, true. I'll work on it.

Thanks for the feedback & comments, everyone!

 

[Boris Skrbic]

I looked over the basic principles but they’re very much about subjective calls, such as making that assumption about stardates and downplaying TOS-era information from subsequent productions. It’s one thing when an official source like the Chronology introduces certain assumptions and conjectures, but quite another when fans do it, since then it’s enough for other fans to take one look and say “Oh, well, don’t agree with that, timeline’s not for me.” The only way you’ll make this stand out from the crowd is by making sure it’s original and even more fact-based than something the official sources might come up with, in order to make your conclusions as convincing as possible.

 

[Warped9]

This is being done for fun just like my Never seen TOS scenes. We’re not deluded into thinking it’s official. As such it’s perfectly valid to limit the source material to TOS to make it look vintage.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I looked over the basic principles but they’re very much about subjective calls, such as making that assumption about stardates and downplaying TOS-era information from subsequent productions.

Yeah, and so what? It's my timeline. It's absolutely impossible to make one without making calls like that.

t’s one thing when an official source like the Chronology introduces certain assumptions and conjectures, but quite another when fans do it, since then it’s enough for other fans to take one look and say “Oh, well, don’t agree with that, timeline’s not for me.”

Most criticism you get for any ST Timeline boils down to either "I don't agree with your logic here" or "Well, it's not the way I would have done it." You're criticizing me for not using prospective actors who might play the parts in episodes of DSC or in future productions of Trek, but I'm coming at this from a completely different direction. All I can say is that that's not what I want to do. If that's something that you want to see, you're going to have to either make it yourself or get it from somewhere else.

The only way you’ll make this stand out from the crowd is by making sure it’s original and even more fact-based than something the official sources might come up with, in order to make your conclusions as convincing as possible.

I'm not sure how "original" a ST timeline can be when I'm working from the exact same source material as everyone else, namely the aired episodes of ST and the chronological information they contain. Unlike the Okuda Chronology, I've incorporated a few things from the novels and the comics, but there's always going to be a certain amount of overlap in any attempt to construct a Trek timeline. So it's beyond me how I'm supposed to make mine "even more fact-based" when we're all working from the same basic facts. And I explain my sources and logic after every single entry. Readers are free to agree or disagree with me as they wish depending on how convincing they find my conclusions.

But trying to make my timeline all things to all people is a fool's errand. This is my personal interpretation of the Star Trek Universe, and it stands apart IMO because no one else can do my interpretation of Trek.

This is being done for fun just like my Never seen TOS scenes. We’re not deluded into thinking it’s official. As such it’s perfectly valid to limit the source material to TOS to make it look vintage.

Yeah, exactly. I find making timelines to be a fun challenge in logic and creativity, and I'm doing my best to use either TOS or earlier photos whenever I can. When looking for photos of a younger Arnold Moss (Kodos/Karidian from "The Conscience of the King"), I found a still from a 1957 science fiction movie he did called The 27th Day. Its 1950s look was perfect as a precursor to TOS, so I used it as a picture to represent Governor Kodos in his younger days. That's not something that you could ever see in an official ST Chronology, as they'd have to get rights and clearances to use that photo in a licensed book, and it's be way more trouble and expense than it was worth. Stuff like that, and constructing photos of never seen moments like the ones in this thread, are part of the fun for me and help my timeline stand apart, IMO.

 

[Warped9]

In like manner when I am trying to create 3D models of TOS era ships I try to make them look like miniatures that had actually been built and filmed at that time. I aim for that TOS aesthetic.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

In like manner when I am trying to create 3D models of TOS era ships I try to make them look like miniatures that had actually been built and filmed at that time. I aim for that TOS aesthetic.

Yes, and I admire what you've been doing in that area. Ironically, I find that when I rewatch TAS these days that they often miss the TOS aesthetic. Most of the original ship designs are way too awkward and clunky, IMO. I wish they could've been working from Matt Jefferies sketches.

 

[Maurice]

What I wish people would do with 'shopped images is label them as such (image created by...), because some people think they're "real", like the guys who saw Shaw's TV refit model 'shopped into the TV drydock and pass that around as proof that the model was finished, which it wasn't.

But if wishes were horses the streets would be filled with horse pucky...

 

[Kaiser]

Great stuff