Or at least of people whose self-concepts are overly involved with how smart they think they are, which is rather the point of the joke on several of the characters...
I like JJTrek a great deal. Would you like to elaborate?
Arex coming to Phase II!
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Or at least of people whose self-concepts are overly involved with how smart they think they are, which is rather the point of the joke on several of the characters...
I like JJTrek a great deal. Would you like to elaborate?
OK, it may not upset creative Englishy/writer/artistic smart people, but most of my in person 'smart people' friends are science types (as in The Big Bang Theory) and especially physics and math types, with a few doctors, anthropologists and genetic research scientists thrown in, and old Trek made a few adjustments to reality, (e.g., Warp speed, you hear the spaceship pass in the silence of space...) but then tried to stay within the laws of physics and science enough that they could tell a relevant story (e.g. emergence) that was of real interest. JJA Trek, with it's Red Matter, placement of a black hole inside a planet (why? Couldn't it suck it up just as efficiently from the surface?) and treatment of human physiology (e.g. Scotty) in a way that gave Roadrunner Cartoons a run for their money, ... I'm sorry, I'm glad you liked it. Really, I'm sure I can't spoil it for it, but I also ... well, I've already explained this in my review of the movie.
I shouldn't have put it that way. They now use Trek as an attack on science and science types. Obviously, there are smart people who are not science types, smart people who HATE science types. There are smart people to run the Southern Baptist Convention and object to evolution. I consider the kids who are producing Star Trek: New Homelands friends, and they object to evolution.
Anyway, I'm sorry. I was thinking of the aspects of Trek which appealed to the science community. The science community is so happy to have any exposure that even Lisa Randall has appeared on Big Bang Theory, which I think is a shame.
Anyway, you are entitled to think that science types are stupid, and only artists are smart.
Err... and what's with the "No tea" thing?
Anti-"tea party."
The only accurate thing that can be said is simply that some people regardless of intellect, background or special knowledge dislike the Trek movie and some people regardless of intellect, background or special knowledge like the Trek movie. Which is a longer way of saying that it's entirely a matter of personal taste.
The only accurate thing that can be said is simply that some people regardless of intellect, background or special knowledge dislike the Trek movie and some people regardless of intellect, background or special knowledge like the Trek movie. Which is a longer way of saying that it's entirely a matter of personal taste.
Back to the original subject, I'm disappointed with the lack of a third arm on Arex. I personally wouldn't have bothered with CGI-ing a character that's only two-thirds of what he originally was. 
Would it be possible to use camera angles so we can't tell if he has a third arm and leg or not? That way, everybody's happy. I realize this may be tough if it's already done, but I think it's something worth considering.
Exactly!
I'm not uncritical of any fan production simply because it's a fan film, though I tend to keep my criticisms of this genre - and just about no other - off-line. That said, I don't think I can feel disappointed when a bunch of talented people deliver on something that would have been abso-fucking-lutely impossible for Hollywood professionals to do well a decade ago, and offer it to us for free and for fun, just because it's not served up with a side of onion rings and the brand of hot sauce that I personally prefer.
Perfectly true. All the more so because the quality of the CGI Arex is really quite amazing. Given that he looks like a dude in makeup, though, the removal of his extra limbs is odd, insofar as it means they went to a lot of trouble to computer-generate a character they could have done practically.
I believe the gameplan (since adding Arex was kind of a last minute decision) is to graft him onto some already-shot footage of Xon or Chekov or someone sitting at Navigation. It's hard enough to graft a new Edosian head onto someone--especially when we had never filmed that person orginally with any thought to the notion that he would be digitally replaced. So we may or may not decide to go through the additional headache of also grafting on an extra arm (if the shot is wide enough that we actually see arms). This whole thing is mostly a bit of a fun experiment. I'm not sure we'll try to go all-out for our first CGI character effort.
I wish I wasn't already working on my own project. I think I could build a pretty convincing Arex rod puppet that would keep the third arm and the original proportions. The drawback would be that he'd only exist from the waste up, but I think that's the way they would have done it in the 60s.
I'll have to see if I can find a screen grab, but there was an alien in Star Trek IV that I always thought was rather Arex-like.
I'll have to see if I can find a screen grab, but there was an alien in Star Trek IV that I always thought was rather Arex-like.
I found the guy I was thinking of -- he's in the top row of the seats on the right. It's definitely not Arex, but I could see him being achieved in a similar way.
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tvhhd/tvhhd2184.jpg
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tvhhd/tvhhd2184.jpg
I always thought Arex could work brilliantly as a puppet, akin to Pilot from Farscape or Thor from Stargate SG1.
I loved those background aliens in STIV (including a Caitian!). A very colourful bunch. It's a shame TNG, DS9 and Voyager (with the exception of 8472) rarely strayed from the "useless forehead bumps" aliens.
I loved those background aliens in STIV (including a Caitian!). A very colourful bunch. It's a shame TNG, DS9 and Voyager (with the exception of 8472) rarely strayed from the "useless forehead bumps" aliens.
Huh? I'm a "smart people" and JJ's movie was my best cinema experience since ST:TMP in 1979. Neither made me sick to my stomach. Sorry to disappoint you.
There were three ST IV aliens reminiscent of Arex:
http://www.reocities.com/therinofandor/UFP2.html
Check out the Ariolan, Bzzit Khaht and the Kasheetan.
http://www.reocities.com/therinofandor/ufp/Ariolan.jpg
http://www.reocities.com/therinofandor/ufp/BzzitK.jpg
http://www.reocities.com/therinofandor/ufp/Kasheetan.jpg
Yeah, that's the Kasheetan. Incidentally, the Bzzit Khaht was a puppet! Simply a mask on a stick, draped in fabric - no arms were added to the costume, which was sold at auction by "It's a Wrap!" And the FASA "ST IV Sourcebook Update" proposed four legs each in drawings of the horse-like Ariolans.
Actually, this was the guy I was thinking of when I made the original post! But I thought I had misremembered it when I found the alien I posted in the follow-up! I had that FASA sourcebook back in the day (and still have it in my garage), so that probably stuck in my mind.
Thanks!
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For those who are interested, James Cawley posted a brief (yes, it's two seconds long) clip of our CGI Lieutenant Arex over on his Facebook page. (All the usual "this is still a work in progress" caveats apply--and, yes, we'll do the third arm on Arex, too.)
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1572958133785
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1572958133785
Yes, for all those scenes we have of Arex dancing and climbing up the Jefferies tube instead of sitting behind a console, we'll show his third leg.
Oh cool! I recall you weren't planning to do that originally.
