Here's something that bugged me awhile back. The exact point where Gene L. Coon switches over to John Meredyth Lucas is confusing. "Bread and Circuses" is the last consecutive episode with Coon's credit. In the end credits for "Journey to Babel." Lucas is credited. However, "A Private Little War" is back to Gene L. Coon's credit. After that we are back to Lucas. Reading Justman & Solow's book, it is apparent that "Little War" was in fact produced by Coon. So if "Babel" was produced by Lucas, there is a production order flip-flop somewhere. Should the production order in fact be "Bread and Circuses", "A Private Little War", "Journey to Babel" or even with "Private Little War" earlier in the sequence? Does anyone have further insight into this?
2nd season production order flip-flop?
- Thread starter JoeD80
- Start date
According to the first-edition ST Compendium, "Circuses" was filmed in mid-September '67, "Babel" in late Sept, and "Private Little" in late Sept to early Oct. So that is the correct filming order.
But filming is just one part of the production process. The writing, preproduction, casting, etc. of episodes can overlap considerably, and the crew is working on multiple episodes at any given time. So it's possible that Coon did the majority of the preproduction work on APLW before he left, and was therefore entitled to producer credit for it. It might have been pushed back in the shooting schedule because of the location work, perhaps.
But filming is just one part of the production process. The writing, preproduction, casting, etc. of episodes can overlap considerably, and the crew is working on multiple episodes at any given time. So it's possible that Coon did the majority of the preproduction work on APLW before he left, and was therefore entitled to producer credit for it. It might have been pushed back in the shooting schedule because of the location work, perhaps.
From the letter from NBC to the Star Trek offices quoted in Inside Star Trek it sounds like Gene L. Coon was the producer there when it was filmed:
The book says that Lucas started work right when "Bread and Circuses" was beginning filming, and his producing credit is in "Journey to Babel," so he was certainly there during filming for that episode. From the credits and from this description in the book, it sounds more like "A Private Little War" had been previously filmed. Perhaps re-shooting took place with production after Journey to Babel?
The book says that Lucas started work right when "Bread and Circuses" was beginning filming, and his producing credit is in "Journey to Babel," so he was certainly there during filming for that episode. From the credits and from this description in the book, it sounds more like "A Private Little War" had been previously filmed. Perhaps re-shooting took place with production after Journey to Babel?
If aspects of the production (such as the location work) were delayed, it's possible that Coon stuck around long enough to oversee its completion while Lucas was taking over where the rest of the show was concerned. Coon didn't seem like the type to walk away from an episode in progress. His two "Lee Cronin" stories for the third season were scripts he had in development during the second season; nominally, his exclusive deal with Universal prohibited him from seeing them through to completion, but he did so anyway under a pseudonym, bending the rules rather than abandoning his commitments. So I can certainly see him sticking around to complete an episode in progress even after someone else had formally taken over his job. Again, let's keep in mind how much the production of consecutive episodes overlaps.
I can see that, but the credits do flip back and forth, which seems unlikely in the case of Coon sticking around at the same time as Lucas. They would have both been credited for an episode or two if that was the case I would think (maybe a contractual thing where they couldn't?) I can see that if there was a problem with location shooting -- but then that means the episode would have started production before Journey to Babel even if it was finished after.
BTW, Coon under the "Lee Cronin" credit has 4 credits in season 3 -- teleplay for "Spock's Brain" and "Spectre of the Gun" and story credit for "Wink of an Eye" and "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield."
BTW, Coon under the "Lee Cronin" credit has 4 credits in season 3 -- teleplay for "Spock's Brain" and "Spectre of the Gun" and story credit for "Wink of an Eye" and "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield."
I don't know how long it took on TOS, but on TNG, a typical episode took 11 weeks from initial story purchase to final airdate, with only 8-9 days of that being the actual filming. So in any given week, the production staff will be working on up to 11 episodes at various stages of development. So there's never a sharp divide between episodes worked on by one producer and episodes worked on by his or her successor. To make another analogy: Robert Hewitt Wolfe was fired as the showrunner of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda after the completion of episode 2.12, "Ouroboros." However, he participated in at least part of the development, writing, casting, production, etc. of 8 of the 10 remaining episodes in the season, everything but episodes 2.20 and 2.22. All of those episodes were worked on both during Wolfe's tenure as showrunner and during that of his successors.
It's a given that "A Private Little War" would've been in development to some degree before "Journey to Babel" was filmed. Even if none of the actual filming on the episode came earlier, the writing, casting, location scouting, set design, budget meetings, etc. could have. There would've been overlap between the productions of those two episodes and maybe 4-5 other episodes in either direction. So it stands to reason that a fair number of episodes in that period were produced partly by Coon and partly by Lucas. But the credits didn't reflect that in any of those cases, because credits reflect how much someone got paid for an episode, not how much work they did on it. Producer is a salaried gig, not a per-episode gig, so giving double producer credits when one producer replaced the other rather than overlapping wouldn't make sense. Each episode got only one producer credit -- and for whatever reason, it was deemed that Coon deserved to get that credit for APLW and Lucas for JtB.
Yes, thanks for reminding me. I forgot the story credits.
A good analogy would be the directing credits for The Menagerie - Marc Daniels was given credit for part 1, and Robert Butler, who directed The Cage, credit for part 2, even though Daniels had directed all the 'present day' scenes in part 2. Whether this was a DGA rule, or just a compromise worked out by Desilu/Roddenberry/whomever, I do not know. They certainly could not give 'co-directed' credit, as neither man was not on the set of each element of the story.
One thing is for sure, Daniels direction of the 'envelope' stands out as some of the best Trek direction EVER - especially the last few moments of the coda, with the whole sequence of 'Mendez' disappearing, the reaction shots of both Kirk and Spock when the Keeper explains the whole set up, Kirk's gentle 'dressing down' of Spock for not coming to him with the Pike 'problem', and then when Spock wheels Pike out, the very subtle way Nimoy lowers his head after he passes through the doors - a VERY emotional moment for Spock, indeed! And then the finish, with Kirk supposedly seeing the revitalized Pike and Vina, with the Keeper's send off message - again, Kirk's reaction is perfect - he has been literally beaten up emotionally throughout the whole incident - Spock apparently turning on him, stealing his ship, the whole trial procedure, losing his command - then the Keeper telling him that Pike has his fantasy life, and he has reality, and may he find his way as pleasant! Kirk gets to smile, straighten himself up, and regain his dignity - all subtly done and all done with ZERO showboating. Again, one of Shatner's best moments as Kirk. and all of this in less than five minutes!
One thing is for sure, Daniels direction of the 'envelope' stands out as some of the best Trek direction EVER - especially the last few moments of the coda, with the whole sequence of 'Mendez' disappearing, the reaction shots of both Kirk and Spock when the Keeper explains the whole set up, Kirk's gentle 'dressing down' of Spock for not coming to him with the Pike 'problem', and then when Spock wheels Pike out, the very subtle way Nimoy lowers his head after he passes through the doors - a VERY emotional moment for Spock, indeed! And then the finish, with Kirk supposedly seeing the revitalized Pike and Vina, with the Keeper's send off message - again, Kirk's reaction is perfect - he has been literally beaten up emotionally throughout the whole incident - Spock apparently turning on him, stealing his ship, the whole trial procedure, losing his command - then the Keeper telling him that Pike has his fantasy life, and he has reality, and may he find his way as pleasant! Kirk gets to smile, straighten himself up, and regain his dignity - all subtly done and all done with ZERO showboating. Again, one of Shatner's best moments as Kirk. and all of this in less than five minutes!
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