Donny’s Late TOS Movie Era Interiors
- Thread starter Donny
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Agreed. I like the sleek mix of physical controls and LCARS, and can’t wait to model them all.
A quote from Michael Okuda from William Shatner's documentary Chaos on the Bridge has stayed with me in the years since I've watched it: "Star Trek has always been a low budget production." He's damn right. That's why ST recycles shots and components so often. It's trying to stretch every single dollar it can.
Nick Meyer has said that art thrives under restrictions. And when you compare his two films to the two most expensive ones, you can see that in effect.
He also noted that when Trek goes too hard on big sci fi ideas (again, like the two most expensive TOS films), it falters, whereas it flourishes when sticking to simpler character-driven stories of humanity or allegories of current events sprinkled with sci fi on top. I can find so many examples across Trek in episodes as well.
Then again. He could just be a damn good director.
(this is not to say that TMP of TFF aren’t good in their own ways; they’re both still very enjoyable films to me, but their flaws and troubled productions cannot be ignored)
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That is most likely. Arrival was a heady story--and would have been a great trek tale.
That is one good thing about archives like this...where work can be added to out of love.
One of the things that might be a good idea would be a type of tale from an alternate universe where one could have years to do effects to have a parallel universe retelling of "The Doomsday Machine" or what have you
That is one good thing about archives like this...where work can be added to out of love.
One of the things that might be a good idea would be a type of tale from an alternate universe where one could have years to do effects to have a parallel universe retelling of "The Doomsday Machine" or what have you
Yes. That's why I go back to Meyer's commentaries on his Trek films so often (and also his commentary on Time After Time). He's extremely insightful about art, filmmaking, and storytelling in general.
Yep. He's damn right. We don't love "The City on the Edge of Forever" because of its science fiction concepts. We love it because we believe in the love story between Jim Kirk and Edith Keeler. That's why it packs the punch it does.
No doubt about that. It's no coincidence that Shatner gives his two best performances in the two movies that Meyer directed. There aren't any ultra-hammy moments like "I - have had - enough of - you!" from STIII or "I ordered you to defend your ship!" from STV. Even the "KHAAAAAAAN!!!" shout works in context.
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Another great Meyer commentary is on The Day the Earth Stood Still, where he's riding shotgun with Robert Wise.
I'll have to check that one out!
I wonder if they ever had a discussion about Star Trek.
Well, back to the subject at hand:
If I were Herman Zimmerman, I probably would have had the TNG transporter back panels in TFF and TUC temporarily replaced with something different, whether it's the "psychedelic" pattern from TOS or the honeycombs from TMP, TWOK, or TSFS. It would better disguise the set. They couldn't do much with engineering though, when they reused the TNG engineering for TUC. Interestingly, when DC Comics did their comic book series which took place on the Enterprise-A primarily, they had engineering looking the way it did in TMP and TWOK, foregoing the redressed TNG look. It would be funny in the TNG episode "Relics" when Scotty says "hey, that's the same exact engine core we had on the Enterprise-A!
If I were Herman Zimmerman, I probably would have had the TNG transporter back panels in TFF and TUC temporarily replaced with something different, whether it's the "psychedelic" pattern from TOS or the honeycombs from TMP, TWOK, or TSFS. It would better disguise the set. They couldn't do much with engineering though, when they reused the TNG engineering for TUC. Interestingly, when DC Comics did their comic book series which took place on the Enterprise-A primarily, they had engineering looking the way it did in TMP and TWOK, foregoing the redressed TNG look. It would be funny in the TNG episode "Relics" when Scotty says "hey, that's the same exact engine core we had on the Enterprise-A!
There was a limit to what Zimmerman would have been allowed to alter with TNG's standing sets, because TUC's filming dates were literally sandwiched in between the filming of "Redemption" (TNG's S4 finale) and "Redemption II" (their S5 premiere), so anything they changed would need to be quickly changed back.
"Redemption" filming dates: April 10 - 18, 1991
The Undiscovered Country filming dates: April 11 - July 2, 1991
"Redemption II" filming dates: July 8 - 17, 1991
"Redemption" filming dates: April 10 - 18, 1991
The Undiscovered Country filming dates: April 11 - July 2, 1991
"Redemption II" filming dates: July 8 - 17, 1991
Yeah, I know there was definitely a limit to what they could alter with the TNG standing sets. I was commenting that altering the back panels of the transporter room didn't seem like a difficult thing to do for the Enterprise-A and then changing it back. They did that with the Voyager transporter room when it was being used for the Enterprise-E in "Insurrection."
I think the transporter room looked really cool in ST5, with the blue glowy plexi struts.
They are dozens of ways to attach lightweight temporary plant-ons that would make it looks a bit different. I think due to budget and how briefly we see engineering they figured it wasn't worth the effort.
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I don't think you could do that much to disguise the warp core, I'm afraid, especially with the budget within limits.
I'm sure if they were really motivated they could have taken down the series core to put in a close facsimile to the TMP core. But they probably wanted the money for something else deemed more desirable. Makes me wonder though, if they had done the core, what would our attention have turned to as the next most glaring issue.
Probably the fact that they didn't restore the angled walls to the circular corridor section.
“He don’t know me very well, do he?”
Seriously they didn’t even bother to swap out the TNG Okudagrams. They weren’t really trying.
“He don’t know me very well, do he?”
Seriously they didn’t even bother to swap out the TNG Okudagrams. They weren’t really trying.
They probably thought most people wouldn't notice it. The same goes for that sickbay display in TFF which is seen barely (along with a TNG keypad) with LCARS, but was filmed at an angle so that most wouldn't notice it at first. And you wouldn't see it at all on a pan and scan version.
