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Mythbusters take on the Gorn Cannon

Two great things about that sneak:

(1) The dead serious "If he has the time, yeoman. If. He. Has. The time."

And

(2) the Gorn's Wilhelm Scream when "Kirk" shoots the cannon.
 
I guess that answers the question about using footage from "Arena"...
They still might. They usually do, even when the crew dresses up. That is, after all, only a part of it.

No... the fact that they recreated the footage in detail like that shows that they couldn't get the rights to show the actual footage. If they'd had the actual footage, we probably would've seen the gang dress up, but not to the extent of recreating the entire sequence like that, because they wouldn't need to.

Odd that they couldn't get it, though, considering how promiscuously that clip appears in other productions (Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, Coneheads, Tropic Thunder, etc.). But of course feature films have much more money available to license clips with.
 
I guess that answers the question about using footage from "Arena"...

Oh, that was much better than using the original footage.
Two great things about that sneak:

(1) The dead serious "If he has the time, yeoman. If. He. Has. The time."

And

(2) the Gorn's Wilhelm Scream when "Kirk" shoots the cannon.
And (3) the Kirk\Gorn scenes were filmed at Vazquez Rocks, just like the original.

I fell off my chair with the "Wilhelm" scream. :guffaw:
 
Based on the rocks, I would guess they filmed it in the Marin Headlands in the Bay Area. It looked more like Franciscan bedded cherts, definitely not the Ridge Basin sedimentary units found around Vasquez Rocks.
 
^That's what I would've figured -- somewhere in the Bay Area. They do travel pretty far from home sometimes, but only when they need specialized facilities or live sharks or something that can't be found close to home. They wouldn't go all the way to LA just to shoot a host segment.
 
I thought they moved the operations down to LA....

The "labs" (namely Jamie's SFX shop M5) is located in SanFran is is their primary testing venues (most notably the Alameda base) so the show is still filmed in SanFran.

It's a shame, but I agree with Christopher they likely wouldn't of made a trip to LA to film the host segment/demonstration. Which is fine. Any Trekkie has likely seen that scene hundreds of times and nothing is gained from non-Trekkies seeing it. It's far more fun to see the cast re-create the scene. Grant makes a great Spock (aside from the unblended ears) an Tory as Kirk? :lol: Just a damn shame Kari is on leave and we didn't get her in the TOS mini. :(

For the myth itself:

I doubt it'll work As they've demionstrated many times in the past with explosives, objects, and a pipe being impomptu cannons it won't work. Even if Kirk mixed the three elements correctly he would've needed to back the diamonds in the cannon very well for them to fire. Otherwise, he'd need a sabot of some-sort.
 
I think that using Terran materials, it would not be effective.
In that artifical arena, perhaps the bamboo like case would be strong enough to contain the explosion, if the back end were placed against solid rock?
 
^ Perhaps this could be addressed in the inevitable revisit. In which case, we could also insist they make the eight hour drive down to Vasquez Rocks. :evil:
 
(Just wish we had Kari in the TOS miniskirt. :()

I love kari! I like her so much that she should do a Cameo on Trek XII!!! God is she Sassy or what?! :drool:

Down, boy!

Maybe this will hold you over...

Trekbusters.jpg
 
I think that using Terran materials, it would not be effective.
In that artifical arena, perhaps the bamboo like case would be strong enough to contain the explosion, if the back end were placed against solid rock?

The problem isn't the bamboo not containing the explosion it's that the explosion simply won't push the diamonds. Many people buy into the Hollywood cliche of explosions and fireballs pushing and blasting things around. They don't they consume.

The explosion is going to take the path of least resistance which in the case of diamons just tossed down a pipe that path is going to be to simply go around the diamonds. In the past to get similar myths to work they've had to put the intended projectile in a sabot (a sheath to contain the projectile that fills the barrell of the cannon) to get it to be expelled. Without the diamonds being packed in very tightly to give the explosion little place else to go or being in a sabot, nothing will happen.
 
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A simple wad (a patch of cloth between the charge and the projectiles) would do it, like in a muzzle-loading shotgun.
 
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