Discoprise won't have TOS "cardboard sets"

[Takeru]

Just like they got rid of the look of the uniforms after season two, when they had to create new ones.

But wasn't the budget cur for season 3? Under those cisrumstances it makes perfect sense to do more of the same instead of spending additional time and money on new designs especially because that was they could still ise leftover uniforms from before for background extras.

Why? No one knows what the 23rd century will look like. And "retro" is very big right now.

But I was talking about the intentions of the designers back then, that should be respected imo not the look itself and the intend was to show a futuristic future, they did the best they could by using what they had and extrapolating from the then current technology, there was nothing retro about TOS and there should be nothing retro about modern Star Trek.

When you go through this cycle of redesigning everything, every couple of years (and in a few years Discovery will look every bit as outdated as TOS), you begin to lose part of what makes the franchise special. Star Trek just becomes generic, disposable sci-fi.

Maybe, but if it isn't modernized and redesigned it could easily become a caricature of itself.

 

[Mudd]

So original Star Trek fans get to throw poo at Discovery and its crew for months but as soon as someone from Discovery calls the TOS sets cardboard it's "OMG, disrespecting a fictional tv series, how dare they?!" time. That's a bit hypocritical, isn't it?

Might have been, if I'd said anything like that. Try again.

 

[Kor]

If that's the case, consider DSC's Enterprise design as the real thing the "stage play" sets in TOS were based on.

I prefer the Kelvinverse look.

Kor

 

[Tuskin38]

yes but it did look very dark in others. Especially on the bridge

it really didn't.

The Shenzhou bridge was the darkest a ship got in normal conditions.

The Discovery bridge was lit way better and brighter.

https://imgur.com/a/cgfL5ih

 

[DaveyNY]

The lights were on in Season 1 as well.

https://imgur.com/a/5VTzO19

People apparently have terrible memories.

I wish they had shown an extended panning shot of the wall in the dining hall with all the ship portraits.

 

[Noname Given]

Don't forget the papier mache rocks!

They were foam rubber.

 

[XCV330]

If NBC had handed the TOS guys a truck full of money for new sets and props to rival 2001 for a 4th season they would have taken sledgehammers to the sets immediately, it's not about respecting a look, it's about the money you have and what you can do with it.

That's an interesting question as to what they would have done, if they'd had more money (and they had quite a bit). I suspect they would have went back to changing screen images, maybe more surface detail on walls, etc. Takei might have gotten buttons that wouldn't burn his fingertips. But there wasn't that much visual data they could have conveyed to tv audiences of the time just because of the limitations of the media. 2001 was filmed in Cinemascope and could really pack in the details, lighting, etc. Star Trek was just a show in an era before home recording.

I think they did about as good as they could have for the time. The alien-ness and simplicity still keeps it watchable.

 

[Noname Given]

But that's not a bad thing, if they have money to make something look nicer they should do it. If NBC had handed the TOS guys a truck full of money for new sets and props to rival 2001 for a 4th season they would have taken sledgehammers to the sets immediately, it's not about respecting a look, it's about the money you have and what you can do with it.

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^^^
ORLY?

Take a look at the surviving test footage from 1978 when "Star Trek Phase II" was going to be a new TV series and flagship show of the Paramount Network (but yes, the new network plan was scrapped, and Star Trek Phase II was reworked into ST:TMP)

But yes, pay attention to the sets they planned to use in 1978.

 

[Mudd]

I prefer the Kelvinverse look.

Kor

As do I - unlike STD, there's been a wealth of extraordinary visual design talent working on the Abrams movies.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Why? No one knows what the 23rd century will look like. And "retro" is very big right now.
.

I'm pretty sure 23rd century technology will not look like a 1960s vision of the future.

 

[BillJ]

I'm pretty sure 23rd century technology will not look like a 1960s vision of the future.

Nor is it going to end up looking like 2010's vision of the future. So why not stay true to your roots? It doesn't mean an exact replication of the sets, but coming a heck of a lot closer than Discovery has.

 

[Tuskin38]

the discovery bridge layout is very similar to the TOS one

I mean the positioning of the officers, I.E. communications is rear right from the captain

 

[GNDN18]

I'm pretty sure 23rd century technology will not look like a 1960s vision of the future.

 

[STEPhon IT]

So original Star Trek fans get to throw poo at Discovery and its crew for months but as soon as someone from Discovery calls the TOS sets cardboard it's "OMG, disrespecting a fictional tv series, how dare they?!" time. That's a bit hypocritical, isn't it?

And I don't agree with the argument that they should respect TOS because without it they wouldn't have a job today, while technically true at some point people can and should stop caring about that. I certainly don't respect the architect's work who designed the ugly ass hospital I work at in the late 60s. "But you wouldn't have your workplace without him!". So what, that doesn't make it look good, it's godawful ugly and no one in their right mind would build a hospital like that today (there are in fact plans to build a new one and demolish the original).
Roddenberry himself had them redesign the shit out of everything for TMP with a flimsy on screen explanation of "eighteen month refit" and that wasn't done with any care for the original look or an attempt to resemble TOS, one look at the Phase 2 screen tests shows that they were planning to do something much closer to TOS until they got a feature film budget and apparently declared "Woohoo, we have money to spend, goodbye sixties aesthetics!"

This is amazing. Roddenberry redesigned the Enterprise because it was competing with the clunkiness designs from Star Wars which was very popular, forgetting what it took for Lucas to make such sets. FYI Lucas didn't have the money to make Star Wars how he wanted it... like STAR TREK. When Lucas came back to Star Wars, he didn't make his ships or designs look ANYTHING like A New Hope... his vision was fulfilled and it look very Star Trek. So its careless for some fans to think TOS was some outdated thing that needs to be destroyed as these uninspired CBS designers are continuing to try to "Star Wars it" up with designs that don't resemble or honor the lore of Star Trek. TOS series designs are timeless because the producers of that series were brilliant sf influenced artist, and not the "What's IN" mentality designers of this lack of vision era of Hollywood.

 

[Yistaan]

I think they should just maintain the TOS bridge exactly how it looked, like done in 'Relics' in TNG or 'In a Mirror Darkly' on ENT. There's an interesting retcon I had in mind that I'm surprised no one in power in 50 years has thought of apparently.

They could retcon that the TOS bridge ALWAYS had holographic displays. However, those displays are only visible to the person seated at the station! That would mean that Sulu and Chekov were always looking at holographic displays, but those wouldn't be visible from the viewpoint of the camera--it would only be visible to Sulu or Chekov or whoever was sitting at the station.

And in a way, this makes sense. If we had holographic displays visible across the bridge like in Discovery, it makes very little sense. Governor Kor would be chatting with Kirk via the viewscreen and think "Hey, isn't that the Enterprise's shield modulation visible on Sulu's holographic panel? If I just reverse read that--tactical officer, did you get that? Fire on the Enterprise!!"

There's a chance in Discovery to use the TOS bridge and say that holographic displays were there all along, just not visible to the audience because it's only visible to the officer sitting at that station. Someone should send CBS this idea for a retcon, so we can preserve the TOS bridge in Discovery!

 

[Tuskin38]

I think they should just maintain the TOS bridge exactly how it looked, like done in 'Relics' in TNG or 'In a Mirror Darkly' on ENT.

No they shouldn't.

 

[Yistaan]

No they shouldn't.

Fair enough, although I feel that if you retcon that the TOS bridge always had holographic displays (just only visible to the officer seated at the station) and replaced those screensaver flashing light gimmicks in the 60s with actual computer readouts, the TOS bridge still seems quite fine as a futuristic bridge even now.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Nor is it going to end up looking like 2010's vision of the future. So why not stay true to your roots? It doesn't mean an exact replication of the sets, but coming a heck of a lot closer than Discovery has.

Have you seen the Enterprise bridge yet? How does it compare? I didn't think so.

But anyway, we HAVE seen a hallway, Spock's quarters, and a bridge display. To me, they're pretty faithful to the original while updating for 50 years of FX improvement.

 

[Tuskin38]

The hall ways (we've seen so far) are just recoloured Discovery/Shenzhou hallways.

 

[Tuskin38]

Fair enough, although I feel that if you retcon that the TOS bridge always had holographic displays (just only visible to the officer seated at the station) and replaced those screensaver flashing light gimmicks in the 60s with actual computer readouts, the TOS bridge still seems quite fine as a futuristic bridge even now.

Well in 'The Cage' the bridge apparently had motion sensing controls, there is one shot where Spock(?) just waves his hand over a console to make it do something.