a cut price Season 4

[Nebusj]

On the idea of replacing the leads with presumably cheaper cast members … I note that David Gerrold wrote an amusing short story for the anthology Alternate Kennedys --- a collection of alternate histories based around the Kennedy family. In this story, Joe Kennedy stays in Hollywood rather than getting into politics. The result is that when Star Trek is squeezed between budget pressures and production pressures, particularly Shatner and Nimoy feuding to the point they can't reliably produce a show at all, the brothers John and Robert Kennedy are well-positioned to replace them for the last season of the show. It does offer the chance to tweak the format of the show to smooth out some unrealistic touches and maybe open some new storytelling avenues, but, well, you think we have fanboy nightmare outcomes in our timeline …

 

[plynch]

That part doesn't actually bother me. After all, the only realistic way that reattaching a brain neuron by neuron could be done is by nanotechnology. So I assume that McCoy didn't open up Spock's skull at all, but used remote-controlled nanites to do the surgery. It really makes a ton more sense that way.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but wouldn't Spock's skull have to be cut open and a portion removed regardless of who did the surgery? In order to replace the missing brain.

To get a brain into a cranium, I'd say yes.

 

[Christopher]

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but wouldn't Spock's skull have to be cut open and a portion removed regardless of who did the surgery? In order to replace the missing brain.

To get a brain into a cranium, I'd say yes.

No, because they have transporters. If you can beam people into or out of an enclosed ship, you can beam a brain into or out of an enclosed skull.

Really, it's absurd that Trek doesn't show transporters being routinely used for surgery.

 

[BillJ]

No, because they have transporters.

Fair enough. I hadn't really given thought to the transporters.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

They redressed ship sets all the time. One set represented nearly all the different crew quarters (though Charlie's quarters in "Charlie X" were a temporary set built in a vacant area that later became McCoy's office and lab). Engineering was redressed as the gymnasium and theater. The chapel in "Balance of Terror" was another briefing room redress.

I was trying to think of how many supposedly different rooms we saw on the ship during the series, but all I could think of (outside of overt ones like the theater) were crew quarters, labs,...and more labs. There was that brief scene in the armory, but it was all full of swords at the time.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but wouldn't Spock's skull have to be cut open and a portion removed regardless of who did the surgery? In order to replace the missing brain.

To get a brain into a cranium, I'd say yes.

No, because they have transporters. If you can beam people into or out of an enclosed ship, you can beam a brain into or out of an enclosed skull.

Really, it's absurd that Trek doesn't show transporters being routinely used for surgery.

So, beam the brain in, then send in the nanites? I'll buy that.

It's just as well Spock's brain was never actually seen in the episode. Think of the added mirth (on top of everything else mentioned about the episode) of quatloo jokes!

 

[gottacook]

A question related to the "Teller"/"Angela" business in season 1: What was in Shatner's script for the season 2 episode "The Immunity Syndrome" that caused him to pronounce "Kyle" as "Cowell" throughout? Was it Cowell in the script, and no one saw the error? And if it was Kyle in the script, why would Shatner pronounce it "Cowell" in that episode only?

 

[Destructor]

Really, it's absurd that Trek doesn't show transporters being routinely used for surgery.

Bashir does use the transporter for brain surgery in S1/2 I think, and of course for the great 'babyswap' nightmare of S5. But yes generally they're both seen as pretty radical procedures rather than common usages. I personally believe that people on DS9 go to the toilet by walking up to the replicator and saying: "Extract waste." at which point the replicator beams out everything. No wiping required.

 

[BillJ]

I personally believe that people on DS9 go to the toilet by walking up to the replicator and saying: "Extract waste." at which point the replicator beams out everything. No wiping required.

Wouldn't the muscles at the end of the "tunnel" atrophy and create problems when you aren't near a transporter?

 

[eyeresist]

On the whole, I really liked TAS, but because the animation is stagnant (and TOS is so energetic with tons of energy), I had a hard time getting really into it.

It was well-written for sure, with tons of great stories, but the lack of energy kinda hampered the experience for me.

What if they produced new animation (and sound) for the old dialog recordings? That might be awesome.

Space:1999 cut costs for year two by moving to a smaller sound stage. The big and glamorous Main Mission was replaced by a little Command Center. If anything, the cast got more interesting, but the scripts got worse.

I can't agree with you on the cast - Maya was somewhat pretty, but not as interesting as the lost characters. And they turned Carter into a weenie. In light of what happened to that show, we should be glad TOS S3 wasn't worse.

 

[Maurice]

...Part of the reason they dropped Rand was so that Kirk would be free to play the romance-of-the-week field like so many '60s action heroes...

Maybe, but the production memos I've seen courtesy of Harvey do not support this, even though some of the production people cited that as one of the reasons post facto. On paper, at least, it was all about money. They were paying Grace the 4th highest rate on the show and not using her that much, whereas they were wanting to use De more. Out goes Janice and in comes more of Bones.

I think Harvey's going to do a Star Trek Fact Check on this subject at some point.

I didn't say it was Shatner's fault. I suggested it was the director's fault. If he was aware that they were going with the BoT name, he could have ensured consistency.

Producers/writing staff would be to blame. TV Directors come on for a week of prep, then shoot the show the following week. They're not responsible for continuity between episodes.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Well, continuity in the same issue is more my concern. I realize one was a first name one was a last name, but no one spoke to each other to get it straight.

It's fine, it's a symptom of how production worked back then (which is what I was commenting on) compounded by the random chance that the two episodes would be aired back to back, but there's no question something like that wouldn't happen today.

 

[plynch]

No offense to Rand, Ms. Whitney, but that's a good trade. Although a strong woman as she was in several eps would have been a welcome person on that show.

 

[Maurice]

I suspect it's a case of the Yeoman being a role that was ill-defined and they didn't know what to do with her most of the time. There was a memo about bringing her back in the latter half of the 1st season, but it never happened.

 

[Harvey]

Takei was a day player and not costing them much - he didn't have a contract that would have enabled him to negotiate for a penny better than the studio felt like paying. Neither did Nichols or Koenig. They weren't considered important to the show.

I was recently surprised to learn that this isn't actually true. Nichols, Koenig, Doohan, and Takei were all signed to exclusive contracts at one time (though not at the same time). As Maurice suggests, I will be writing about this soon.

 

[Melakon]

I didn't say it was Shatner's fault. I suggested it was the director's fault. If he was aware that they were going with the BoT name, he could have ensured consistency.

Directors in television are hired guns. Their only responsibility is to shoot that week's script they're hired for on time and within budget. They mostly concentrate on the technical aspects. Some are good dealing with actors, others aren't. They don't have time to go back and read through every script before their show to make sure everything's consistent. That's somebody else's job with the regular production team.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Do you agree that it's not likely something like that would occur today?

 

[Christopher]

Do you agree that it's not likely something like that would occur today?

It's certainly not impossible that a character's name could be changed in the course of last-minute rewrites and the error could go uncorrected. TV production is such a hectic and difficult process that it's just unrealistic to expect a total absence of mistakes. The Internet Movie Database has a whole category for "Goofs," because there are errors in every production, despite the best efforts of everyone concerned. And that is every bit as true in 2014 as it was in 1966. Human creations are imperfect -- that is simply the way of the world. It's just petty armchair quarterbacking to harp on a minor glitch that was nobody's fault.

 

[erastus25]

...Part of the reason they dropped Rand was so that Kirk would be free to play the romance-of-the-week field like so many '60s action heroes...

Maybe, but the production memos I've seen courtesy of Harvey do not support this, even though some of the production people cited that as one of the reasons post facto. On paper, at least, it was all about money. They were paying Grace the 4th highest rate on the show and not using her that much, whereas they were wanting to use De more. Out goes Janice and in comes more of Bones.

I think Harvey's going to do a Star Trek Fact Check on this subject at some point.

Wow. I can't wait to read this. The Kirk love thing has been drilled into our heads for so long it will be interesting to get some primary documents to confirm/reject the idea.

On the whole, I really liked TAS, but because the animation is stagnant (and TOS is so energetic with tons of energy), I had a hard time getting really into it.

It was well-written for sure, with tons of great stories, but the lack of energy kinda hampered the experience for me.

What if they produced new animation (and sound) for the old dialog recordings? That might be awesome.

This has been talked about before. Personally, I think the far bigger issue is the recycling of Doohan, Nichols and Barrett as voices for multiple characters. It kills my suspension of disbelief to have every single alien sound the same every week.

A question related to the "Teller"/"Angela" business in season 1: What was in Shatner's script for the season 2 episode "The Immunity Syndrome" that caused him to pronounce "Kyle" as "Cowell" throughout? Was it Cowell in the script, and no one saw the error? And if it was Kyle in the script, why would Shatner pronounce it "Cowell" in that episode only?

Could have also been Shatner just pronouncing it wrong. See also: His insistence on pronouncing "sabotage" wrong in multiple episodes over multiple years.

 

[Melakon]

Do you agree that it's not likely something like that would occur today?

I've not seen regular television since before ENT went off the air, so I can't tell you what is or isn't possible today.

 

[CaptainMurdock]

Could have also been Shatner just pronouncing it wrong. See also: His insistence on pronouncing "sabotage" wrong in multiple episodes over multiple years.

Indeed. In TAS he kept calling Kukulkan, "Kubla Khan."