A question about something in a Star Trek Companion book.

[Tracy Trek]

This isn't about the novels, but I don't know of any other place to post it. Does anyone recall a companion book called "Worlds of the Federation"? I think that's the name of it. It would have a sketch of the planet and a sketch of what that member race looked like. And it would have on the opposite page, information about the specific world or race. I believe it was a book officially put out by Paramount.

Anyway, in this book, they had the name of Vulcan in the Vulcan language. It was similar to the name of their moon T'Khut. Was this name mentioned in any of the series or novels, or was it just made up for that particular book.

 

[BillJ]

I own it.

http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Federa...7332&sr=1-1&keywords=worlds+of+the+federation

 

[Idran]

T'Khasi, I think you're talking about? I think that was invented by the book you're talking about, but it was later referenced in Tears of Eridanus from Myriad Universes as one of the many pre-Surak names for the planet, alongside Minshara and a couple others I forget offhand.

 

[BillJ]

T'Khasi, I think you're talking about?

That's it. I had to go dig my copy out to look.

 

[Tracy Trek]

T'Khasi. I knew it was like a female Vulcan name. And I guess when they mentioned Minshara class planet in Enterprise, it would be like the Vulcan equivalent of a human saying an earth type planet. And that would then evolve to "class M" planet.

Was TNG the first time the term "class M" planet was used? I don't think I ever heard it in the original series.

 

[BillJ]

Was TNG the first time the term "class M" planet was used? I don't think I ever heard it in the original series.

Pretty sure it was used regularly in TOS.

From "The Man Trap":

SPOCK [on monitor]: Borgia plant listed in library record tapes as carbon group three vegetation similar to Earth nightshade family. Alkaloid poison. Chemical structure common to class M planets. About the strange mottling on his facial skin surface. There is no reference to this symptom.

 

[David cgc]

"Class M" goes all the way back to "The Cage," when Spock was describing the records on the Talos system and noted one planet seemed to be habitable. Looks like over a dozen uses of the term in TOS, plus a few in TAS.

Putting the "M" before "class" rather than after seems to have started in TNG, though. Now we have something else to notice isn't quite right in TOS novels, along with "away teams."

 

[Christopher]

^Except that Enterprise used both "landing party" and "away team," retroactively establishing that the latter term was established prior to the 23rd century.

 

[Therin of Andor]

T'Kuht, of course, shows up in "Yesteryear". The Vulcan planetoid is shown in orbit (see also "Mr. Spock's Time Trek", the View-master adaptation of "Yesteryear", and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"). T'Kuht is mentioned in "The Vulcan Academy Murders", N; "The Needs of the One" (DC Comics Series II Special), and "Star Trek Star Charts").

Spelt T'Khut in "Spock's World", "Voyager: Pathways", "The Worlds of the Federation" and "New Worlds, New Civilizations".

Name given as T'Rukh (and explanation that the name changes are seasonal) in the novel, "Sarek".

The name "T'Kuht" was coined by Gordon Carleton (of T'Kuhtian Press fanzines) to explain the misleading TOS quote, "Vulcan has no moon, Miss Uhura". Described as "Vulcan's twin planet" in the booklet accompanying View-Master's "Yesteryear" adaptation, "Mr. Spock's Time Trek".

 

[BillJ]

If seeking T'Kuht on live-action DVD, it now only appears in the trimmed scenes section of the "ST:TMP Director's Edition".

It is there in all its glory on the Blu-ray version, which is the theatrical cut of TMP.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

"Class M" does indeed go all the way back to The Cage. As I recall, the line (Spock's) was that the fourth planet "seems to be Class M: [a beat] oxygen atmosphere."

In The Making of Star Trek, a memo was reproduced, in which somebody pointed out that an early line of dialogue, "Any oxygen planets?" didn't really work well, because a planet could have oxygen in its atmosphere, and yet be uninhabitable for any number of other reasons. The memo went on to suggest "habitable" or "suitable"; it was almost certainly the genesis of "Class M."

 

[Therin of Andor]

If seeking T'Kuht on live-action DVD, it now only appears in the trimmed scenes section of the "ST:TMP Director's Edition".

It is there in all its glory on the Blu-ray version, which is the theatrical cut of TMP.

I lifted this from my "Toon Trek" page, which has not been udated since the DE.

 

[Idran]

Of course to be fair, the cut in the DE wasn't because of continuity but because Matessino felt that the vista didn't really fit the tenor of the scene, that it was too distracting a visual element.

"We eliminated things that you might not associate with a far-off monastic temple. We did not take our directions from a simple line of dialog. Vulcan in and of itself should be interesting without cluttering the sky. Besides, it was obvious that the sun was out in that scene. The change keeps things in the spirit of where we are going. It's not about what's up in the sky, it's about what's happening with Spock."

 

[BillJ]

Of course to be fair, the cut in the DE wasn't because of continuity but because Matessino felt that the vista didn't really fit the tenor of the scene, that it was too distracting a visual element.

"We eliminated things that you might not associate with a far-off monastic temple. We did not take our directions from a simple line of dialog. Vulcan in and of itself should be interesting without cluttering the sky. Besides, it was obvious that the sun was out in that scene. The change keeps things in the spirit of where we are going. It's not about what's up in the sky, it's about what's happening with Spock."

I've never once found myself wondering about the moon in the sky over what was going on with Spock.

 

[Idran]

Not consciously, but it's the job of the visual team to consider all aspects of a scene, those that consciously impact the viewing experience and those that simply contribute to an underlying feel. It's a bad visual effects artist that would only consider the conscious consideration. It's kind of like using blocking and flow of action in a comic strip to guide the eye through a nonstandard layout; you aren't consciously going "oh, the lines in this panel are going in this general direction, so my eye will go this way, and now my eye will go this way because the flow is like this, etc.", but it still has a legitimately measurable effect on eye movement while reading. Or like framing a picture so the subject of the photography is properly framed and other aspects don't overpower it.

You might not have consciously thought about it, but I'd bet that eye tracking software would've shown more saccades towards T'Khut than to the assembled group on the ground before the first close-shot cut.

(Plus he also had a point that it was obviously lit during filming as a daylight scene in spite of the nighttime star field they painted into the sky matte. )

 

[Christopher]

There's also the fact that the matte painting with the giant moon in it was really, really bad. It was a rushed, clumsy shot that looked ridiculous but that they didn't have time to fix because of the immutable release date.

 

[David cgc]

You might not have consciously thought about it, but I'd bet that eye tracking software would've shown more saccades towards T'Khut than to the assembled group on the ground before the first close-shot cut.

I'll vouch that until I saw (honestly, studied is more accurate) the blu-ray within the last year or so, I never realized Spock was in that shot. He and the statue head are so small and close to the edge of the frame it's entirely possible he was outside the safe-area and I couldn't see him on my TV on my video tape of the SLV at all. The new shot directs you to Spock both with the composition and the camera tilting down from the sky so you're already looking towards the bottom of the frame.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Plus he also had a point that it was obviously lit during filming as a daylight scene in spite of the nighttime star field they painted into the sky matte.

Indeed! And it had not occurred to me all those times watching TMP in cinemas in 1980.


ShiKahr, Vulcan, TAS by Ian McLean, on Flickr


ShiKahr, Vulcan, TMP by Ian McLean, on Flickr


ShiKahr, Vulcan, TokyoPop by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[Tracy Trek]

In the above pictures, the one from TMP, it appears that T'Khut has a moon of it's own. It looks like there is a small sphere in front of it.

 

[Idran]

In the above pictures, the one from TMP, it appears that T'Khut has a moon of it's own. It looks like there is a small sphere in front of it.

Indeed. (I can't remember if it's been officially established in Treklit or if I'm just remembering a fan theory, but I remember hearing it also interpreted it as the location of the Vulcanis Lunar Colony where Tuvok was born.)