Colour in Star Trek.

[euges720]

Hey all, I don't think this has ever been discussed before, and it might seem silly, but I'll give it a shot.

I think most of us would agree that the TNG years (the series) were the years when Star Trek was the most popular. If you think about it, the Enterprise D was very bright--while not "white" like the new Star Trek, but certainly not dark colours. But starting with the Enterprise E, Deep Space Nine (the station) and Voyager (the ship), and even Archer's Enterprise (the ship), the colour hue/cinematography has been quite dark.

What are your thoughts about this? I'll leave the question quite open. Do you think that there people who didn't see the hope and optimism in Star Trek when the dark(er) colours started being use?

I've been watching a lot of VOY reruns lately, and it's supposed to be a ship of exploration, much like the Enterprise. And yet, the ship design is quite dark, which, now that I think about it, doesn't really fit with the theme of the show (whether you like the show or not).

Just my two cents!

ec.

 

[C.E. Evans]

IIRC, the Voyager's interior was supposed to resemble a laboratory of sorts, and to distinguish it from the "warm, soothing colors of TNG", it was given a cooler, more clinical decor.

If I'm not mistaken, the Enterprise-E's bridge underwent something of a remodeling in Nemesis...or maybe it just had new carpeting in that movie, I dunno...

Reportedly, the decor of NX-01's bridge was inspired by the interiors of real U.S. submarines, and they carried that look throughout the entire ship except for the sickbay...

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Yes, the loss of color in Trek was a contributing factor to the decline in popularity of the shows on television. "Realism" was never what most viewers were looking for, when they turned on TNG (true of TOS as well, but to a lesser extent).

People joked about the Enterprise sets looking like Hilton hotel suites, but you know something...people like staying at the Hilton.

 

[RyuRoots]

Personally, I love how later on ships looked more functional and more believable on the inside. I love TNG, but that was something that bugged me a bit about the Enterprise-D.

 

[xman]

I think they probably made the aesthetic decision to frame the actors' faces by surrounding them with darker hues. I don't know what psychological factor that may have had on audience appreciation though.

 

[Myasishchev]

I know I liked the darker E-E bridge. But then again I liked the propane torch look of the Reboot 1701 too. Voyager however was ridiculously dark much of the time, to the point I'm surprised they weren't nodding off on set (maybe Beltran was).

It's an interesting theory, though, suggesting a causal link between show brightness and popularity.

 

[Shazam!]

Yes, the loss of color in Trek was a contributing factor to the decline in popularity of the shows on television. "Realism" was never what most viewers were looking for, when they turned on TNG (true of TOS as well, but to a lesser extent).

I never liked TMP for that reason. You may as well watch it in black and white.

 

[Sci]

I don't think that the problem with later Trek series was the darker colors, but the rather bland use of them by the cinematographers and lighting guys. VOY and ENT looked incredibly bland because they never used their sets or lighting schemes in a creative way. It felt like we were always in a room being lit with fluorescent lights.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

contast & color/ sets and lighting

i felt Voyager's lighting of the Borg cube interiors was superior to how TNG showed. Green gels in addition to more shadows added to the atmosphere on a cube.

It was not just Trek but more TV shows had modern dramatic lighting since the late 1990s for scenes that are NOT night scenes.

The Voyager Red Alert lighting was more dramatic and added to the tension.
Some of that was from more dramatic lighting in the later Trek films.

 

[Myasishchev]

^Yeah, but no crazy zooms on the red alert light like in TOS.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

cinematography

^Yeah, but no crazy zooms on the red alert light like in TOS.

Zoom lenses were new in the 1960s and were overused at the time.
In the 1970s

You hardly see a zoom shot in a one-hour drama on television today.

 

[Anticitizen]

Remember that when TOS was filmed, most viewers were will watching black and white televisions. Today's 'darker' style of film does NOT translate well to black and white - everything back then was bright with sharp contrast, because they still had to worry about making it watchable in black and white back then.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Re: cinematography

^Yeah, but no crazy zooms on the red alert light like in TOS.

Zoom lenses were new in the 1960s and were overused at the time.
In the 1970s

You hardly see a zoom shot in a one-hour drama on television today.

Hell, BSG made snap-zooms an art form.

And, G.I. Jane had a scene when they were running through the desert under fire towards the end and the camera operator looked like he was having an epileptic fit on the zoom control.

It still pops up from time to time and is always quite jarring - which is probably why it's used. That and that stupid cinema-verit é (shaky-cam) crap.