News Introducing Fact Trek
- Thread starter Harvey
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Given how easily the original question was answered, this turned out to be a fascinating investigation and a really good read. Thanks!
You're welcome!
Hey, thank you!
As is often the case, every time @Maurice and I thought this was done we'd uncover a new piece of information that provided more context (and, sometimes, complicated the narrative).
Yep. And, as is our wont, we don't ignore evidence that is inconvenient; we go "how does this affect the conclusions we're reached?" and adjust as necessary.
You could have easily just presented a quick proof that she was walking around well after the film wrapped, but I really appreciate the portions of the early drafts which included Marla. I've never seen them before and they were really interesting. Some of it was actually pretty funny, such as Khan being satisfied that Kirk wasn't out of shape. "Hey, he looks good!" I get this would have set up the physical conflict which was later dropped, but it was really funny as written in that early stage.
I do wish we could have had their "And I never will" tell Marla he loves her bit. That was actually pretty great and since we never got a look at the Khan / Marla relationship after Khan stopped using her and took her as a partner, I am grateful at being able to see what they had in mind.
Thanks, guys.
I do wish we could have had their "And I never will" tell Marla he loves her bit. That was actually pretty great and since we never got a look at the Khan / Marla relationship after Khan stopped using her and took her as a partner, I am grateful at being able to see what they had in mind.
Thanks, guys.
Great article, which belies all the nonsense on both Memory Alpha and Wikipedia. I'll adjust Wikipedia when time allows if someone else will tackle MA. I find those guys incredibly obtuse over there.
Sir Rhosis
Sir Rhosis
When I read the article on my phone a couple of hours ago the excerpts and citations didn't line break properly, Chrome on Android.
Excellent article as usual! I'm thinking that if they had wanted McGivers in the movie and Rhue wouldn't have been available they would've just recast her. Makes much more sense that the character was dropped earlier in the process. Nice to hear that cut line also, never heard that before.
Excellent article as usual! I'm thinking that if they had wanted McGivers in the movie and Rhue wouldn't have been available they would've just recast her. Makes much more sense that the character was dropped earlier in the process. Nice to hear that cut line also, never heard that before.
I noticed that while reading. It's the absolute mark of someone who's trying to inform rather than just score points and persuade.
Mark Altman tweeted that he has a key person from TWOK on record for his 1982 Sci-Fi films film saying she turned down the role because of health reasons, but of course didn't say who it was. He tried suggested we made an "assumption", whereas what we did was make a "deduction" based on the available evidence. As ever, we're interested in getting to the truth so we'll happily review what his source has to say when it eventually surfaces and include it in the piece.
Given how faulty people's memories are, a 40 years on interview isn't exactly on the high end of our reliability scale. This we've run into over and over. So we're open to the information but understandably skeptical.
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You should have a gold medal sir.
I blame Squarespace. It's "easy" to use (ha!) but it has some clumsy limitations on formatting that make pages less than "responsive" when going to some screen factors. Trying to reproduce the script formatting even using markdown language yields imperfect results. My apologies.
It's a great article, Maurice. Thank you!
You're welcome.
Hi everyone. We'll promote our latest blog post on social media tomorrow, but @Harvey and I always like to give peeps here a first peek/crack at it.
This is based on a two-month series of tweets we did a year ago summer, but here it's fleshed out and contains a kiloton of images.
Nothing symbolizes Star Trek like the insignia worn by its Starfleet characters as seen on TV from 1964–present day. Midyear 2020 brought it to the forefront when the official US Space Force emblem was unveiled to historically naïve cries that it “rips off” the Star Trek emblem.
Over the years, many assumptions have been made about the various Starfleet insignia worn on the original Star Trek to the upcoming Strange New Worlds. Join us as we take a deep dive into the show’s most distinctive emblems, their origins, inspirations and the intentions behind them.
Trademarking the Future
There’s no way to know how early Gene Roddenberry decided he wanted a device or symbols to associate with Star Trek and the U.S.S. Yorktown Enterprise. His desire for such a thing first appears in the historical record some four months before photography would begin on the first pilot. On August 10th, 1964 Roddenberry sent a memo to art director Pato Guzman on the subject of a “distinctive emblem,” something immediately identifiable and also with merchandising potential.
This thinking ultimately resulted in three distinct emblems for the first Star Trek pilot: what we’ll call the United Earth (and its related Caduceus in the second), the Boomerang, and the Flying A, all of which have descendants in various sequels and spin-offs. We’ll also touch on the Outpost insignia, the Starfleet Sunflower, and the rule breakers that are Commodore Decker and the crew of the U.S.S. Exeter.
In the article we begin with the more obscure, barely seen emblems and work our way to the big ones.
Let us know if you spot any boo-boos.
This is based on a two-month series of tweets we did a year ago summer, but here it's fleshed out and contains a kiloton of images.
Nothing symbolizes Star Trek like the insignia worn by its Starfleet characters as seen on TV from 1964–present day. Midyear 2020 brought it to the forefront when the official US Space Force emblem was unveiled to historically naïve cries that it “rips off” the Star Trek emblem.
Over the years, many assumptions have been made about the various Starfleet insignia worn on the original Star Trek to the upcoming Strange New Worlds. Join us as we take a deep dive into the show’s most distinctive emblems, their origins, inspirations and the intentions behind them.
Trademarking the Future
There’s no way to know how early Gene Roddenberry decided he wanted a device or symbols to associate with Star Trek and the U.S.S. Yorktown Enterprise. His desire for such a thing first appears in the historical record some four months before photography would begin on the first pilot. On August 10th, 1964 Roddenberry sent a memo to art director Pato Guzman on the subject of a “distinctive emblem,” something immediately identifiable and also with merchandising potential.
This thinking ultimately resulted in three distinct emblems for the first Star Trek pilot: what we’ll call the United Earth (and its related Caduceus in the second), the Boomerang, and the Flying A, all of which have descendants in various sequels and spin-offs. We’ll also touch on the Outpost insignia, the Starfleet Sunflower, and the rule breakers that are Commodore Decker and the crew of the U.S.S. Exeter.
In the article we begin with the more obscure, barely seen emblems and work our way to the big ones.
Let us know if you spot any boo-boos.
"Flying A" is an odd name for the insignia. I think referring to it as the stylized arrowhead is more descriptive.
