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image stabilized TOS

Kirk does the same thing. They're running "uphill" trying not to fall down. It nevertheless looks goofy.
 
Uphill or not, it looks odd because everyone is jumping in different directions. Getting the actors synchronized to "sell" the impression of the ground shaking is difficult. One of the best (not in STAR TREK) is the "space slug/this is no cave" scene from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.
 
Uphill or not, it looks odd because everyone is jumping in different directions. Getting the actors synchronized to "sell" the impression of the ground shaking is difficult.
But not THAT difficult. When I look at the stabalized GIF, I'm wondering why the director didn't tell them to go all into the same direction. It seems he said either nothing or "Do whatever the hell you want. Nichelle, you're dancing towards the doors, while the other dude jumps in the opposite direction? Ah nobody will care."
 
I think they are all going in the same direction, if the bow (Franz Joseph, turbolift directly aft) or the starboard bow (turbolift on port side) tilts upward. They all fall toward the turbo doors.

Edit: except for Stiles.
 
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If Nichelle had fallen out of her chair to starboard, as everyone else but Shatner, she would have been out of frame. Physics be damned, what actor wants that? :lol:

I don't know what the director's instructions were, but if I had to guess I'd say that everyone went exactly where they were told to go. Put the blame where it belongs.
 
As I see it stabilized for the first time, the choreography makes sense.

Shatner is in the forground, along with deflector light; Nichols is in the background with the red alert light. Both move stage right, towards the lights. Everyone else moves stage left. The arc light flashes and then all the lights go out -except for the deflector and the red alert lamps, which flash for a second or so, before cutting to a shot of the ship at an angle.

I've always found this scene to be very effective in showing how devastating the Romulan plasma weapon was. It was the first time the bridge was shown completely without illumination, except for those two key red lights. The blocking of the action only served to draw the viewer's eyes to those points.

And now that the shot was presented horizontally (thanks to the OP) , I understand why Nichols had her arm in that awkward position. She appears to be feeling for the frame of the alert light, ensuring that she wouldn't block it out, and thus ruin the plan of the shot.

The laws of physics can be broken, or at least suspended, in service to the director's sense of design.
 
That scene I believe was actually when the nuclear weapon was detonated; not the plasma weapon strike.
 
Just so! "One. Metal. Cased. Object." Thank you for correcting me, because this scene compliments the slow build up to the plasma weapon detonation.
 
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I would love to see a nuclear pulse craft on an episode.

"For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky"
SPOCK: Atomic. Very archaic. Leaving a trail of debris and hard radiation.

Of course, Yonada might have almost any kind of nuclear engine, but I doubt nuclear thermal rockets could be used for a generations-long flight, and the "debris" bit doesn't sound like the exhaust of a fusion rocket.
 
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