I hope he doesn't drop the soap.If it matters at all, the OP is apparently gone....
Each season feels like a separate show
- Thread starter WildManWizard
- Start date
If it matters at all, the OP is apparently gone....
Yup. Gone with the wind.
Agreed. The early part of season one has been noted--for 50+ years--for being a fairly serious family survival show, but once Irwin Allen instructed Jonathan Harris to "Do more" regarding the wilder, more scheming side of Smith, a night and day rift formed between the early season and the rest. If that was not bad enough, by the time season two entered production, Smith, the B-9 (Robot) and Will had taken so much of the attention in scripts (with very few exceptions) that it bore little resemblance to season one. It was wall-to-wall man in go-go boots screaming at the top of his lungs while the B-9 delivered deadpan mockery of him.
Season three tried to use scripts that were a bit more serious (thanks to the complaints of Guy Williams, et al.), but overall, it was more of the same with the exception of window dressing like the new main and closing title music and costuming, but it was still that big, night and day departure from early season one.
True, and one could see the natural growth of characters and their relationships as time moved on; no one was acting as if they did not know how to play off of a particular character even by the mid point of season one.
Since I'm a film-production-minded geek, the three seasons of ST:TOS do indeed have their own unique "feel" to me.
First season, hands down, has better production. They had more shooting days for each episode, and it shows. Bigger budget, too. More location shooting. And, there's the added bonus of a bigger variety of directors who did some really excellent work. I'm not disparaging Marc Daniels or Joseph Pevney, who did a superb job on the show. But one-off directors like Joseph Sargent ("The Corbomite Maneuver"), Robert Butler ("The Cage"), Leo Penn ("The Enemy Within"), Harvey Hart ("Mudd's Women") and Robert Sparr ("Shore Leave") brought a very fresh style to their episodes. And Jerry Finnerman's early-first-season cinematography is stunning.
Second season often feels rushed to me. Yes, there's a better "comfort food" feeling to the show. But the production just isn't as smooth. The "atmosphere" of the show's production definitely changed when Paramount bought Desilu.
Third season suffers production-wise from smaller budgets, an apathetic NBC, rushed filming, a hostile Paramount, and inconsistent directors.
There's plenty of great episodes from each season, but they do feel different. Again, I'm talking just about the production. Not scripts, actors, hairstyles, etc.
First season, hands down, has better production. They had more shooting days for each episode, and it shows. Bigger budget, too. More location shooting. And, there's the added bonus of a bigger variety of directors who did some really excellent work. I'm not disparaging Marc Daniels or Joseph Pevney, who did a superb job on the show. But one-off directors like Joseph Sargent ("The Corbomite Maneuver"), Robert Butler ("The Cage"), Leo Penn ("The Enemy Within"), Harvey Hart ("Mudd's Women") and Robert Sparr ("Shore Leave") brought a very fresh style to their episodes. And Jerry Finnerman's early-first-season cinematography is stunning.
Second season often feels rushed to me. Yes, there's a better "comfort food" feeling to the show. But the production just isn't as smooth. The "atmosphere" of the show's production definitely changed when Paramount bought Desilu.
Third season suffers production-wise from smaller budgets, an apathetic NBC, rushed filming, a hostile Paramount, and inconsistent directors.
There's plenty of great episodes from each season, but they do feel different. Again, I'm talking just about the production. Not scripts, actors, hairstyles, etc.
The incidental music changed a lot from seasons one to two with the Vulcan Contest to the death between Kirk and Spock being used in four episodes and later a lot of the music for season one ended up back in season three along with a few new themes like the Klingon one in Elaan of Troyius and that too being used later in many other non-Klingon episodes like For The World is Hollow And I Have Seen The Sky too! 
JB
JB
He’ll learn fast never to bend over in the prison shower
Indeed. Off the top of my head, I'd say musically episode scores such as Naked Time and Enemy Within really stand out as making me 'think' season one, when I hear them in later episodes. The Doomsday Machine and Friday's Child is probably the music that I most think of with season two, and then probably Spock's Brain and Enterprise Incident tops season three. All the music is fantastic, but there are some that stand out the most in how I feel about a season. Not necessarily my favourite pieces, just the ones I associate the most with a certain season. Probably waffling a bit here...The incidental music changed a lot from seasons one to two with the Vulcan Contest to the death between Kirk and Spock being used in four episodes and later a lot of the music for season one ended up back in season three along with a few new themes like the Klingon one in Elaan of Troyius and that too being used later in many other non-Klingon episodes like For The World is Hollow And I Have Seen The Sky too!
JB
I like it when tracked music works like magic, like in "The Immunity Syndrome" when Kirk dictates his personal log, and a cue from "The Naked Time" is timed perfectly. "Both are right, both are capable, and which one of my friends do I condemn to death?"
I think that's enough of that.
I often thought that the setting of TOS seemed to change and become more advanced during the course of TOS, and that the change was especially strong between the first part and the second part of the first season of TOS.
Thus it sometimes seems like the first part of the first season of TOS is sort of like a different show than the second part of the first season of TOS and the later seasons of TOS - and TAS if TAS is included.
In my post number 73 on page 4 of:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/tos-chronology.304218/page-4
I discuss the possibility that there might have been a time skip between the first part of season one of TOS and the second part of season one of TOS. If the Enterprise and its crew were sent forward in time by some science fictional event off screen between the two parts of season one, that could explain why the setting seems to have changed a lot between the two parts of the season. That way the changes to their society and in the organizations they worked for might not have been so abrupt. Those changes might have happened over a few years, years which the characters missed experiencing by being in a time warp or something.
I point out some apparent chronological limitations to how long the Enterprise and its crew could have been missing due to some sort of time warp or other science fictional event in my post number 73 on page 4 of this thread.
I also discuss those factors in my post number 401 at:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/st-...nd-contradictory.304041/page-21#post-13503868
In post number 143 on page 8 of:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/tos-chronology.304218/page-8
I discussed various statements about the time that elapsed between various TOS episodes and movies and various episodes in the era of TNG, DS9, and VOY. Such statements of elapsed time also put limitations on how long a hypothetical time skip between the early part of TOS season one and the later part of of TOS season one could be.
I would love to think that the Enterprise made a number of leaps forward in time in the course of TOS and that some episodes of TOS happen in each of the eras which have been selected by various chronologists as the era of TOS, so that each theory is partially correct.
But the evidence cited in those posts seems to prove that if any hypothetical time skips did occur during TOS their total duration should have been only a few years. That would not be enough to cover the range in dates which various chronologists claim that Star Trek TOS happens in. But a time skip of a few years between the first part of the first season of TOS and the second part of the first season of TOS could explain how the setting of the series seemed to change between the two parts of the first season of TOS.
Thus it sometimes seems like the first part of the first season of TOS is sort of like a different show than the second part of the first season of TOS and the later seasons of TOS - and TAS if TAS is included.
In my post number 73 on page 4 of:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/tos-chronology.304218/page-4
I discuss the possibility that there might have been a time skip between the first part of season one of TOS and the second part of season one of TOS. If the Enterprise and its crew were sent forward in time by some science fictional event off screen between the two parts of season one, that could explain why the setting seems to have changed a lot between the two parts of the season. That way the changes to their society and in the organizations they worked for might not have been so abrupt. Those changes might have happened over a few years, years which the characters missed experiencing by being in a time warp or something.
I point out some apparent chronological limitations to how long the Enterprise and its crew could have been missing due to some sort of time warp or other science fictional event in my post number 73 on page 4 of this thread.
I also discuss those factors in my post number 401 at:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/st-...nd-contradictory.304041/page-21#post-13503868
In post number 143 on page 8 of:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/tos-chronology.304218/page-8
I discussed various statements about the time that elapsed between various TOS episodes and movies and various episodes in the era of TNG, DS9, and VOY. Such statements of elapsed time also put limitations on how long a hypothetical time skip between the early part of TOS season one and the later part of of TOS season one could be.
I would love to think that the Enterprise made a number of leaps forward in time in the course of TOS and that some episodes of TOS happen in each of the eras which have been selected by various chronologists as the era of TOS, so that each theory is partially correct.
But the evidence cited in those posts seems to prove that if any hypothetical time skips did occur during TOS their total duration should have been only a few years. That would not be enough to cover the range in dates which various chronologists claim that Star Trek TOS happens in. But a time skip of a few years between the first part of the first season of TOS and the second part of the first season of TOS could explain how the setting of the series seemed to change between the two parts of the first season of TOS.
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