TMP: The return of main characters - questions and thoughts

[Commishsleer]

i wonder why they felt they had to set it so soon after TOS? Why not 10 years as in real time to account for the actors aging and radical redesigning..?

they got it right for TWOK moving forward a few years...(as did VI i think)

(similarly STID was also surprisingly soon after ST09 yet had the 2nd longest gap inbetween films)

I read somewhere I think that Shatner was at that time barely accepting he was forty. So maybe they didn't want to aggravate him by saying more (actual) time had passed.

However it could be that was in TWOK not TMP. Can't remember who said it (Meyer or Shatner?).

 

[The Old Mixer]

Shatner was in his late 40s by the time they made TMP...think he should have gotten accustomed by then.

He would have been just turning 50 when they made TWOK...maybe that's what it was about.

 

[Pauln6]

Funny you should bring up Chekov, I was thinking about him recently. On the tv series, Chekov was presented as sort of a "student of Spock", often taking over at the science station, or dong odd specific tasks for Spock, theoretically grooming him for a Science Officer career of his own one day.

Well, "one day" finally comes in The Motion Picture, and Chekov is, of all things, Security Chief. Did he not like the science position after all, and switched disciplines, or did he go around making too many Russian jokes, which ended up hurting his credibility as a scientist?

Navigation always seemed like the more sciency of the two bridge stations. I think Chekov as weapons officer on the bridge is a passable fit because he had experience of weapons and shields on the navigation control but as security chief? I don't recall Chekov ever displaying much ability in a fight (I think even Martha Landon could probably have beat him up quite easily) and his knowledge of security protocols in STIV and STVI is lamentable. When I wrote my Youtube comic I glossed over him as security chief and appointed an Andorian woman using Suzie Plakson instead. MUCH better.

On the other hand, Chekov as first officer on a science vessel felt a better fit - if you overlook the whole missing planet and inability to spot complex life forms.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

On the other hand, Chekov as first officer on a science vessel felt a better fit - if you overlook the whole missing planet and inability to spot complex life forms.

That didn't work for me either, so I created a character from scratch to serve as Reliant's science officer under Terrell's command. As for why she's not aboard the ship in TWOK, it's because she's on leave and visiting family on Earth. My personal canon has her going off on Chekov when she finds out his stupidity got his captain killed.

--Sran

 

[Timo]

Would the Reliant be a "science vessel"? The movie made a point of portraying her as the superior fighting ship, giving Khan another unfair advantage... Mainly, though, this ship design existed to visually distinguish the two combatants; there was no plot need for them to have different mission descriptions.

Throughout the movies, Chekov is a generic redshirt (that is, graycollar). In most of the movies, it appears he's aboard the ship not as a member of the crew, but as a member of an impromptu entourage. Was he ever really a Chief of Security? We saw him wear a silver badge at first, but that disappeared after ST:TMP without being properly explained. He also sat at the console that fired the guns, but he did a lot of that in his previous role as Navigator, too. For all we know, silver denoted "People brought aboard without a clearly defined position", and that would go for most of the Security detail because there had been no intention to launch the ship operationally and Security would be the least likely to have an onboard role during the final weeks of refitting.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Pauln6]

I get hung up on department divisions but there has always been so much cross-pollination I suppose we shouldn't. Grey desingated security division in TMP I'm afraid (the Rhaandarite with a grey badge was manning the bridge internal security station) but there is lots of silly stuff like why engineering and helm should both be gold in TWoK. I think TMP's colour scheme did make some sense even if Chekov was mis-cast - that is to say the badge scheme. I would have preferred the officers and crew to stick to more recognisable uniforms personally. Variations on the admiral's dress uniform for officers generally would have been better.

As far as grey collars go, this includes science, communications and navigation. As I said, it makes little logical sense.

I think it was a shame that Chapel wasn't brought back as head of life sciences instead of a second fiddle MD not that it would have changed her contribution much but she could have had some input into the analysis of V'Ger as well as the probe.

I don't think Reliant was more powerful than Enterprise but I agree, she was a starship on a scientific mission rather than a science vessel like Grissom. Nonetheless, to fulfill that mission she would have had a greater number of scientific crew and equipment assigned.

 

[Hober Mallow]

People ask why Chekov never got his own ship. I say, "Have you seen all the stupid things he did? How can someone who acts like that possibly succeed in the big chair?"

Starfleet doesn't want a Captain who screams like a little girl.

 

[Timo]

As far as the color codes go, I think we can safely ditch any scheme the makers of ST:TMP might have had in mind. That mission was launched with an impromptu crew, with just moments of warning - quite possibly, most of the people weren't even wearing their own uniforms, but something they grabbed from the nearest closet!

An Ensign with Lt(jg) braid on his sleeve is perfectly excusable. Navigators sitting at Tactical or Security without first changing out of their gray-means-navigation uniforms is even more so... And intrusive Vulcan visitors who get assigned Science Officer position by personal bias get to wear orange-means-waste-management because the fine crewmen of the Proper Uniform Department never got aboard when the ship scrambled.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Pauln6]

As far as the color codes go, I think we can safely ditch any scheme the makers of ST:TMP might have had in mind. That mission was launched with an impromptu crew, with just moments of warning - quite possibly, most of the people weren't even wearing their own uniforms, but something they grabbed from the nearest closet!

An Ensign with Lt(jg) braid on his sleeve is perfectly excusable. Navigators sitting at Tactical or Security without first changing out of their gray-means-navigation uniforms is even more so... And intrusive Vulcan visitors who get assigned Science Officer position by personal bias get to wear orange-means-waste-management because the fine crewmen of the Proper Uniform Department never got aboard when the ship scrambled.

Timo Saloniemi

Nah - the shower can create clothes. By day 2 they'd all be fine.

 

[2takesfrakes]

With all of this talk of how William Shatner's had such issues with his having aged, and this curious denial over, yay, these many decades that he wears a hairpiece, he sounds remarkably fragile. Perhaps his reputation for having an overblown ego is pure bluff? In any event, Shatner looked the best he ever did in STAR TREK: The Motion Picture and his performance in it was the last TV Kirk he ever delivered. It's another reason why I love TMP so much, was how true to the character his delivery was.

Outside of that, I love it that the entire cast came back and I wonder if any of the Second Bananas had been able to get regular gigs without STAR TREK, would they have given it a miss? Like George Takei, for example. "Oh, My! From this script you gave me, I gather I'm just going to sit there, anchored at that console again, while Bill Shatner gets all the fun stuff to do. You know what? I appreciate the offer, but I think Sulu's going to be taking a vacation on some distant planet somewhere, while The Motion Picture's taking place ..." And who could blame him? I sure as hell wouldn't have felt compelled to play a glorified extra, again, after all those years of doing it, if I could get decent gigs, again ...

 

[Lance]

^ Well, Takei did basically do exactly that for the following movie. He was only lured back by Bennet/Meyer's promise of the promotion scene (which got cut out of the final version anyway).

 

[2takesfrakes]

You know, I dig it that Leonard Nimoy always felt he was a part of a team that made STAR TREK. Where that came from, I don't know. I suspect because he was sensitive to what was going on in the Sixties, so to have minorities on the show made him feel very proud to be on it. In any event, it seems he actually sympathized, too, with the fact that some of his costars just couldn't get a paying gig to $ave their lives, so he gave them more to do in the movies he directed. The Motion Picture couldn't give 2 shits less about any of that, unfortunately ...
((...snicker))