News The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek drops today......

[JoaquinSlowly]

Space channel here is airing it on Thursday along with Prodigy and Discovery (add Ready Room on Youtube and was quite the Trek filled past day), so I finally watched episode 1. Did Gates say 9 series in the intro? I count 11, 12 counting the upcoming Strange New Worlds, 14 counting After Trek and Ready Room.

From watching the back half of the docu-series on History Vault ‪‪I can explain the numbering somewhat. For one, they treat Prodigy as upcoming, not currently airing, so when this was finalized they must’ve thought it would be released before Prodigy’s premiere.

As for why they say 9 instead of 10, I’m guessing Gates & the documentarians weren’t including Short Treks, because they mention all the other series to date over the course of the Center Seat series.

 

[Eddie Roth]

Saw the first two episodes.

The first episode was frustrating in a lot of ways, especially factually and narrative wise. But most of all they interviewed Cash Markman... I mean Marc Cushman, who is a shoddy researcher and writer.

Is that so? I only recently discovered his books and have so far found them extremely insightful. Just out of curiosity: Is there a specific example of where his research is incorrect or where something is falsely assumed?

 

[Greg Cox]

Was there a new episode yesterday? I was watching WHEEL OF TIME and forgot to check.

 

[Indysolo]

Is that so? I only recently discovered his books and have so far found them extremely insightful. Just out of curiosity: Is there a specific example of where his research is incorrect or where something is falsely assumed?

We had a few discussions here a few years ago about Marc Cushman and his lack of journalistic integrity. Apparently one got rather heated and was closed. Here's the follow up. There was also this thread.

@Harvey has written numerous blog posts correcting errors in these books.

The Truth About Star Trek and the Ratings
On Pickups and Lifts in 'The Man Trap'
And On The Seventh Day: Conflicting Production Accounts of Star Trek's Second Season
"The Alternative Factor" — What The Hell Happened? (Part 1)
"The Alternative Factor" — What The Hell Happened? (Part 2)
"The Alternative Factor" — What The Hell Happened? (Part 3)

 

[Paul755]

Was there a new episode yesterday? I was watching WHEEL OF TIME and forgot to check.

no they pushed it back to Monday.

 

[Greg Cox]

no they pushed it back to Monday.

Thanks! I was afraid my DVR hadn't taped it for some reason.

 

[Maurice]

We had a few discussions here a few years ago about Marc Cushman and his lack of journalistic integrity. Apparently one got rather heated and was closed. Here's the follow up. There was also this thread.

@Harvey has written numerous blog posts correcting errors in these books.

The Truth About Star Trek and the Ratings
On Pickups and Lifts in 'The Man Trap'
And On The Seventh Day: Conflicting Production Accounts of Star Trek's Second Season
"The Alternative Factor" — What The Hell Happened? (Part 1)
"The Alternative Factor" — What The Hell Happened? (Part 2)
"The Alternative Factor" — What The Hell Happened? (Part 3)

We caught him in acts of utter fabrication as regards "Spectre of the Gun". See the sections "Outline, Draft or Copy," "Horseplay Hooey" and "End Notes" in our FACT TREK piece Red Skies, Red Garters (link).

 

[Eddie Roth]

We had a few discussions here a few years ago about Marc Cushman and his lack of journalistic integrity. Apparently one got rather heated and was closed. Here's the follow up. There was also this thread.

@Harvey has written numerous blog posts correcting errors in these books.

The Truth About Star Trek and the Ratings
On Pickups and Lifts in 'The Man Trap'
And On The Seventh Day: Conflicting Production Accounts of Star Trek's Second Season
"The Alternative Factor" — What The Hell Happened? (Part 1)
"The Alternative Factor" — What The Hell Happened? (Part 2)
"The Alternative Factor" — What The Hell Happened? (Part 3)

Very interesting. Thanks! I'll read those.

 

[Procutus]

Thanks! I was afraid my DVR hadn't taped it for some reason.

I thought the same thing last night when I sat down prepared to watch, and found it was not in the DVR. Both Episodes 3 and 4 are listed for tomorrow (Monday).

 

[urrutiap]

Last night on the History Channel there was a 3 or 4 episode marathon of some Star Trek history show. The more recent episode was about the movies mostly of the first movie up to Star Trek III or Star Trek IV

I watched some of it last night and it was good but ive seen enough behind the scenes stuff from the Collectors Edition DVDs anyway

 

[fireproof78]

If it's on the History Channel I usually skip it. Is it new material?

 

[1001001]

Last night on the History Channel there was a 3 or 4 episode marathon of some Star Trek history show. The more recent episode was about the movies mostly of the first movie up to Star Trek III or Star Trek IV

I watched some of it last night and it was good but ive seen enough behind the scenes stuff from the Collectors Edition DVDs anyway

Merging with the existing thread, as I'm pretty sure you're talking about the same series.

 

[urrutiap]

yes its new episodes. Especially the one they did on the early 1980s movie which they mostly talked about Star Trek II, Search for Spock and little bit of Star Trek IV.

the Center Seat show is new to me since i just found out about it last night

 

[urrutiap]

yes its the same damn show i was talking about on History Channel.

and by the way i dont like it when people have to merge my topic threads with some other "existing" topic thread that is hard to find

Merging with the existing thread, as I'm pretty sure you're talking about the same series.

 

[1001001]

yes its the same damn show i was talking about on History Channel.

and by the way i dont like it when people have to merge my topic threads with some other "existing" topic thread that is hard to find

It's normal board policy to merge threads when someone starts a duplicate topic. Especially when the original topic is easily viewable on the front page.

And there is a redirect (also right on the front page of this forum) which will stay for 24 hours.

 

[Reanok]

I enjoyed watching Two new episodes last night talking about making the first Four movies and the back stories about events I never heard about before. History channel didn't tell Star Trek fans they moved the show from Friday nights to Monday.

 

[fireproof78]

yes its new episodes. Especially the one they did on the early 1980s movie which they mostly talked about Star Trek II, Search for Spock and little bit of Star Trek IV.

I was more wondering if there was new information presented that wouldn't be known from BTS materials?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

In episode three, at least they had Harold Livingston tell most of the story about TMP's trouble scriptwriting process instead of Cushman or Altman or Larry Nemecek. Also a lot more of the Xon screen test than we've seen before.

 

[JoaquinSlowly]

There’s a lot ‪‪I enjoyed about these episodes, but as others have expressed more thoroughly already, they’re definitely not as well researched and presented as they could be.

‪‪For example, I’m no expert on the behind the scenes information, but ‪‪I rolled my eyes when they talked about how licensing Spock products without cutting Nimoy in on the money they made. The episode asserts that was part of what prevented him from signing on to play Spock in Phase II, and TMP initially, and showed a clip from a Cocoa Pebbles ad, from 1993.

While it’s somewhat germane to the topic of Paramount licenscing Spock’s image to various products, it’s also baffling to present something from 15-18 years after the fact as being partly responsible for Nimoy’s position during the Phase II/TMP development era.

‪‪I know it’s just one small example of the series’ inconsistencies, but it’s one that jumped out at me as particularly odd.

 

[urrutiap]

The Phase II stuff I and other people already know about from watching the newer DVD bonus features for Motion Picture etc. That Phase II stuff is old news anyway