What is up with all the flamethrowers?

[publiusr]

The fourth member was frozen out when he refused to prescribe any more uppers to the band.

Sadly, he stumbled into a muppet with that same damn syringe that led to Keeler’s death…and now Animal leads the anti-Disco punk scene.

—from FACT SHEET FIVE

 

[XCV330]

The fourth member was frozen out when he refused to prescribe any more uppers to the band.

Sadly, he stumbled into a muppet with that same damn syringe that led to Keeler’s death…and now Animal leads the anti-Disco punk scene.

—from FACT SHEET FIVE

now I want to hear the BeeGees on cordrazine.

 

[publiusr]

Can’t help you there, but after the mindwipe-and a lobotomy, they became Modest Mouse.

Now I’m watching Shakes The Clown moderate a political debate between Susan Collins and Amy Klobuchar in front of an audience of fifty incontinent chihuahuas on C-SPAN. That or Brian Lamb is having a fit…I can’t tell anymore.

 

[Sci]

Yes!

What are your credentials?

It's how I know they almost surely ignored more then just the obvious one's, because following the regulations to the letter would involve a 30-60 minute break between takes for the safety inspector to look over everything and declare it safe for another use.

1) Can you cite where these regulations may be found?

2) Do you have evidence this did not happen?

 

[Takeru]

Exactly. They looked like very obvious, mechanical, stagey effects like you'd see in a thrill ride. I said the goal of fire effects is to safely create the illusion of danger, but this effect totally failed at that.

My theory is that in the 31st century they stopped the consoles from randomly exploding in people's faces by releasing the energy build up through flamethrowers. Every time one of those things goes off a redshirt's life is saved.

 

[shapeshifter]

now I want to hear the BeeGees on cordrazine.

I can get you some cordrazine but it is not cheap and must be in advance.

 

[XCV330]

I can get you some cordrazine but it is not cheap and must be in advance.

good stuff.. KILLERS! ASSASINS!

 

[shapeshifter]

I got antidote, but it is not cheap and must be in advance.

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[F. King Daniel]

My theory is that in the 31st century they stopped the consoles from randomly exploding in people's faces by releasing the energy build up through flamethrowers. Every time one of those things goes off a redshirt's life is saved.

This reminds me of Stargate Universe, where sparks and all that jazz going off everywhere was explained in-universe as "safe" releases of shield overload energy... or something like that.

 

[Christopher]

I've always found that kind of stuff -- sparks, exploding consoles, people flying out of their chairs -- to be needless embellishment. I mean, if we know the characters are in mortal peril of being killed by the whole ship blowing up or being sucked into a space vortex or something, does it really add any suspense if we're worried about them getting burned or bruised in a fall?

 

[plynch]

I agree. But, it's a visual medium. Many people dig it.

Although --

I feel as you do about a whooooole lot of vfx.

 

[fireproof78]

does it really add any suspense if we're worried about them getting burned or bruised in a fall?

It does for me.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It's pretty much Wrath of Khan's fault. While "Where No Man..." had a couple of consoles fizzle during contact with the barrier, it was WoK that popularised everything exploding on the bridge when an enemy hit the ship.

Now it's 40 years later and we have flame spooters. Damn you, Nick Meyer!

 

[XCV330]

I've always found that kind of stuff -- sparks, exploding consoles, people flying out of their chairs -- to be needless embellishment. I mean, if we know the characters are in mortal peril of being killed by the whole ship blowing up or being sucked into a space vortex or something, does it really add any suspense if we're worried about them getting burned or bruised in a fall?

yes
how can you not know that?

 

[Sakonna]

God, I didn't even think of the safety issues with the flamethrowers. A show I worked on had a fire stunt go wrong once and nearly engulf an actor it wasn't supposed to go near. Afterwards no one could even explain what caused the fuck-up, not that anyone seemed particularly interested -- it was enough that the actor hadn't been burned alive, moving on to the next scene! (And this was a day player getting a few hundred dollars! And the role was an offensive ethnic stereotype! And then they cut the scene from the finished episode because they found it extraneous, which was obvious before we shot it! Damn did I find working in entertainment to be a poisonous experience.)

Anyway, mistakes do happen. I could see it being a two-pronged realization -- "these flamethrowers look much stupider than we thought, and the safety issues are much more burdensome than we thought, so when you run the numbers on that..."

 

[Christopher]

It's pretty much Wrath of Khan's fault. While "Where No Man..." had a couple of consoles fizzle during contact with the barrier, it was WoK that popularised everything exploding on the bridge when an enemy hit the ship.!

It was more than "a couple of consoles fizzl[ing]."

https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/thumbnails.php?album=3&page=6

And let's not forget the smoke pots in the transporter pads in the climax of "The Doomsday Machine." TOS had its share of pyrotechnics. The reason it didn't have more explosions on the bridge was probably due mainly to budget rather than maturity or restraint.

It's true that TWOK did solidify the idea of Trek as an action-movie franchise, but it was just emulating Star Wars.

 

[Sci]

It's true that TWOK did solidify the idea of Trek as an action-movie franchise, but it was just emulating Star Wars.

I don't agree. Star Wars never featured the kind of slow-burn cat-and-mouse space battle The Wrath of Khan is built around. If Star Wars was modeled after World War II dogfights, The Wrath of Khan was modeled after submarine thrillers.

 

[Christopher]

I don't agree. Star Wars never featured the kind of slow-burn cat-and-mouse space battle The Wrath of Khan is built around. If Star Wars was modeled after World War II dogfights, The Wrath of Khan was modeled after submarine thrillers.

Yes, obviously, but you're missing the forest for the trees. I'm talking about the way that the success of Star Wars and other FX-driven Lucas and Spielberg blockbusters resonated throughout Hollywood in the late '70s and '80s and spawned countless imitators. TMP was a holdover from the '70s trend for science fiction films to be slow, thoughtful, and intellectual, but Lucas and Spielberg upended that and started a new era of sci-fi cinema defined by spectacle, action, and visceral emotion. TWOK is a space battle movie in a way that TMP was not. The point is not about one flavor of space battle vs. another, the point is that the choice to build TWOK around space battles of any kind, to focus on action and violence and exaggerated good-vs.-evil melodrama rather than an intellectual or philosophical journey like TMP, was a reflection of the wider cinematic trend that Star Wars began.

 

[shapeshifter]

TOS had its share of pyrotechnics.

Fair point. But electronics sparking and shorting in the consoles and pads made more sense than ruptured gas lines in bulkheads, on the bridge!

 

[Christopher]

Fair point. But electronics sparking and shorting in the consoles and pads made more sense than ruptured gas lines in bulkheads, on the bridge!

Of course, but the point is that it didn't begin with TWOK. It was always part of Trek's approach, but the movies and the modern shows had the budget to go further with it. The blessing of a low budget is that it discourages excess.