Publicity Poster for Our Next Episode

[GSchnitzer]

Things aren't set in concrete yet (our Phase II concrete never really sets). But we have a little poster made for our (planned) next shoot. (Our staff graphic designer-guy Mr. Jeff Hayes gets the credit.)

Feedback is always welcome.

 

[KingstonTrekker]

I loved this short story when I first read it. If I remember correctly, Kirk spent several months (or years?) in the past in the story. I am looking forward to Phase II's version!

Not that keen on the poster though...for some reason it just doesn't do much for me. A picture of Kirk in the actual mind-sifter device might be more effective...

 

[Kelso]

I have been hoping for this exact thing! I absolutely love Mind-Sifter!

 

[Data Holmes]

My interest is piqued...

But talk about giving the haters a perfect image to crop for their avatars.

 

[Barbreader]

I am not familiar with the story being discussed. But the use of the straitjacket outside of magic shows and Hollywood movies is time-limited. They date to the Victorian era, and the rest of the picture doesn't say, "Mid-19th Century" to me. Is Kirk supposed to be in Victorian England? Civil War era America? Or, is this about some escape artist or sexual fetish? If not, lose the straitjacket.

 

[Kelso]

^ It's a mental hospital in the 1950's.

 

[Barbreader]

^ It's a mental hospital in the 1950's.

By the 1950s, straitjackets were confined to escape artist shows, Hollywood movies, and sexual deviants. They had not been used in mental hospitals in decades. It makes no more sense to show a straitjacket in a mental hospital in the 1950s than a stagecoach outside that hospital.

 

[WillsBabe]

Oh, hell! I adore this short story. I read it years and years ago but it's still one of my favourite bits of Trek. I'm blown away that you are going to film it!

ETA: Tell Jeff I love the way the uniform reflects on the back of the straight jacket.

 

[GSchnitzer]

^ It's a mental hospital in the 1950's.

By the 1950s, straitjackets were confined to escape artist shows, Hollywood movies, and sexual deviants. They had not been used in mental hospitals in decades. It makes no more sense to show a straitjacket in a mental hospital in the 1950s than a stagecoach outside that hospital.

Oh dear. Where did you get your misinformation?

Being a Registered Nurse and having worked in a psychiatric facility (I worked at one hospital in a large national chain of psychiatric hospitals), I can tell you that as late as 1986 when I last worked there before moving into critical care nursing in an intensive care unit, I personally assisted in getting patients who posed a danger to themselves securely into their straitjackets. (It's an unpleasant task for everyone involved.) I would put their use at somewhere between "rare" and "occasional." I don't think our facility was particularly unique.

Here's an article from The New York Times from 1994 about proposed New York state law to limit the use of straitjackets:

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/27/nyregion/proposal-urges-an-end-to-straitjacket-use.html

"New York State's Office of Mental Health yesterday proposed ending the use of straitjackets in its mental hospitals next year under new guidelines that seek to minimize the use of physical restraints and seclusion in treating patients.

"The recommendations come after a two-year investigation that was prompted by the deaths of 18 patients who were being restrained or who were in unsupervised seclusion from 1988 to 1992."

So, in addition to my personal experience in applying straitjackets in 1986 in a Los Angeles-area psychiatric facility, the State of New York continued to use them up through at least 1994. (That's 1994, not 1894.)

There's also a web page of the Kansas State Historical Society:

http://www.kshs.org/cool3/straitjacket.htm

They indicate that the use of straitjackets is documented at Kansas State mental hospitals until at least 1956.

Also, here's a webpage from April of this year, 2009, about the State of Texas legislature passing a law that bans the use of straitjackets in their State:

http://m.reporternews.com/news/2009/apr/30/senate-ok-limits-on-restraints-in-state-schools/

Our Phase II story takes place in 1953.

Although they certainly had their heyday in the Victorian era, I think your notion that straitjackets would be anachronistic in the 1950s is, well, simply incorrect.

 

[Maurice]

I'm interested to see what you guys do with the script. When I read it back in the 70s I thought the story as published was borderline K/S fantasy stuff. I haven't read it since, so perhaps I am misremembering!

 

[GSchnitzer]

I'm interested to see what you guys do with the script. When I read it back in the 70s I thought the story as published was borderline K/S fantasy stuff. I haven't read it since, so perhaps I am misremembering!

Yes, the late Shirley Maiewski's story as published came close to having some of those K/S fantasy elements. Ms. Maiewski was never happy with the changes that the editors Ms. Culbreath and Ms. Marshak made to her original story. So when Ms. Maiewski approached us, she told us she wanted us to make her original story--not the one with some unauthorized changes that appears in the Star Trek: The New Voyages book.

I think our script will stay closer to Ms. Maiewski's original story and, as a result, will have fewer of those almost K/S fantasy elements that Ms. Culbreath and Ms. Marshak introduced.

 

[doctorwho 03]

Definately piques my interest. That poster would be great for the DVD cover to this episode.

I never read the original story nor am I familiar with it. Is it available online anywhere? I'm guessing this will involve the Klingons since they are the only ST aliens (that I'm aware of) who have an actual "mind-sifter".

A separate question: Are there any planned future episodes involving the Romulans? In WEAT, all we got was three birds-of-prey and a couple of corpses.

 

[PattyW]

Not that keen on the poster though...for some reason it just doesn't do much for me. A picture of Kirk in the actual mind-sifter device might be more effective...

I disagree. The story is not about the mind-sifter device itself: it's about the havoc the use of it causes to the lives of Kirk and the crew we love...

So, to me, showing Kirk's life after the device is used is a perfect teaser poster.

DS9Sega...there wasn't anything close to K/S in Shirley's story: and I wouldn't dishonor my friend by adding it now.

As I've said elsewhere... if you've read the version in Bantam books, you'll recognize the plot but be pleasantly surprised by the journey and the people that take us on it.

For anyone who is curious, Shirley's family will actually be on set for the filming of her story. We have both Shirley's request and their blessing on this one.

~Patty

 

[PattyW]

I never read the original story nor am I familiar with it. Is it available online anywhere? I'm guessing this will involve the Klingons since they are the only ST aliens (that I'm aware of) who have an actual "mind-sifter".

It's available, in it's original version, at Simgen. I recommend finding the edited version in "Star Trek: The New Voyages" instead of reading the original. You'll get the gist of it and still leave some spoilers for you to discover in the episode when it comes out.

A separate question: Are there any planned future episodes involving the Romulans? In WEAT, all we got was three birds-of-prey and a couple of corpses.

Not "planned" at this time. The other episode in "pre-production" right now is "Bandi." That doesn't preclude one from coming up in the future, however.

~Patty

 

[Maurice]

... I think our script will stay closer to Ms. Maiewski's original story and, as a result, will have fewer of those almost K/S fantasy elements that Ms. Culbreath and Ms. Marshak introduced.

Hooray!

 

[jaksajak]

Cool picture, I haven't read the script before, but am definitely interested. Kinda reminds me of a TOS/Phase 2 twist on the TNG Riker moment... 'I'm NOT crazy!'

 

[GSchnitzer]

Cool picture, I haven't read the script before, but am definitely interested. Kinda reminds me of a TOS/Phase 2 twist on the TNG Riker moment... 'I'm NOT crazy!'

As was indicated, the short story "Mind-Sifter" can be found in an old paperback book published by Bantam Boooks in 1976 called Star Trek: The New Voyages.

Star Trek: The New Voyages (the first in what turned out to be just a two-book series of fan fiction stories) was edited by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath.

The nine short works in this first book are:

"Ni Var" by Claire Gabriel
"Intersection Point" by Juanita Coulson
"The Enchanted Pool" by Marcia Ericson
"Visit to a Weird Planet Revisted" by Ruth Berman
"The Face on the Barroom Floor" by Eleanor Arnason and Ruth Berman
"The Hunting" by Doris Beetem
"The Winged Dreamers" by Jennifer Guttridge
"Mind-Sifter" by Shirley S. Maiewski
"Sonnet from the Vulcan: Omicron Ceti Three" by Shirley Meech

Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath also edited the follow-up book Star Trek: The New Voyages 2, published by Bantam Books the following year--in 1977.

The ten short works in this second, follow-up book are:

"Surprise!" by Nichelle Nichols, Sondra Marshak, and Myrna Culbreath
"Snake Pit" by Connie Faddis
"The Patient Parasites" by Russell Bates
"In the Maze" by Jennifer Guttridge
"Cave-In" by Jane Peyton
"Marginal Existence" by Connie Faddis
"The Procrustean Petard" by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath
"The Sleeping God" by Jesco von Puttkamer
"Elegy for Charlie" by Antonia Vallario
"Soliloquy" by Marguerite B. Thompson

So, if you're after the published version of "Mind Sifter"--the one with some editing of Shirley S. Maiewski's orginal unpublished story by Marshak and Culbreath, make sure you hunt down Star Trek: The New Voyages, (not Star Trek: The New Voyages 2).

If you want to see the "mostly similar but with some details changed and a few other elements removed" oiriginal version of Ms. Maiewski's short story before Ms. Marshak and Ms. Culbreath edited it, you can find it here:

http://www.simegen.com/fandom/startrek/showcase/show02/showcase-mind-sifter.html

 

[Auroratrek]

Very cool! I recognized the story the moment I saw the picture, even though I read that short story collection when it first came out way back in the '70s. Mind Sifter was a standout in that collection, and the one I remember best. Good choice!

 

[Captain Robert April]

Very cool! I recognized the story the moment I saw the picture, even though I read that short story collection when it first came out way back in the '70s. Mind Sifter was a standout in that collection, and the one I remember best. Good choice!

Same here.

James has definitely got one helluva acting challenge with this one.

 

[leighdf]

^ It's a mental hospital in the 1950's.

By the 1950s, straitjackets were confined to escape artist shows, Hollywood movies, and sexual deviants. They had not been used in mental hospitals in decades. It makes no more sense to show a straitjacket in a mental hospital in the 1950s than a stagecoach outside that hospital.

Well, that's interesting, and dead wrong on every count. Straitjackets are still in medical institutional use, TODAY, in 2009. Don't take my word for it... here's an article from the NYT from just last month: http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/01/n...ternative-to-straitjacket.html?pagewanted=all In it we learn that only a quarter of the states still use straitjackets. Still, that's a bit more than the zero you seem to believe. My guess is that you in one of the states where they're already banned. Feel free to enjoy the story now that this bit of misinformation is driven from your head.