Good Behind the Scenes Books

[Just a Bill]

Yeah, I'm not really sure who all the actual people are who kept George from doing dumb stuff in the beginning, other than that Marcia worked some real magic in the editing bay and got George to add some stuff to the film's climax to make it work. I just had the impression that Coppola was one of them, but I could easily be wrong.

Oh, and regarding that romance I mentioned: I used to work for a Star Wars licensee, and our CEO sometimes got stories from Lucasfilm VP of Licensing Howard Roffman. The boss shared this one with some of us:

Reportedly, while Lucas was writing Episode I, he came into the office one morning and as he walked past Roffman's desk he said something to the effect of "I figured it out, this movie's going to be a love story." Then he went into his office, closed the door, and wrote all day.

The next morning, as he walked past Roffman's desk, it was "I don't know how to write a love story. I'm just gonna put in more spaceships and explosions."

 

[Set Harth]

Reportedly, while Lucas was writing Episode I, he came into the office one morning and as he walked past Roffman's desk he said something to the effect of "I figured it out, this movie's going to be a love story."

 

[Ceridwen]

I don't mean to devalue Marcia Lucas' contribution to the film, but to be clear, she was very much part of a team of award-winning editors that included Paul Hirsch, Richard Chew, and George himself (who went uncredited in the role).

 

[Maurice]

When the ship went to red alert, headrests would emerge from the back of the chairs, a system that required a dozen pieces of sophisticated hydraulics and a computer-controlled system to synchronize them. How many viewers even noticed?

Yeah, but is that true? Did he cite a source?

I know some of the armrests were motorized so they could open up after being clamped down in an emergency.

 

[mb22]

Yeah, but is that true? Did he cite a source?

I know some of the armrests were motorized so they could open up after being clamped down in an emergency.

There is no source provided in the endnotes for this, although it might be from the book Return to Tomorrow which he does quote elsewhere.

 

[David cgc]

Yeah, but is that true? Did he cite a source?

I know some of the armrests were motorized so they could open up after being clamped down in an emergency.

The headrests do move (apparently) autonomously. IIRC, you can see Kirk’s extending at the beginning of the wormhole sequence, and right before the ship enters the cloud, at the end of the “How do you define ‘unwarranted?’” scene.

It could be fancy hydraulics, or it could be somebody laying on the ground under the chair pushing it up with a stick. I’d lean towards the former, but I’m not sure it was being entirely frivolous with the budget. The sets were initially built for a TV show, not a movie, so not only were they intended to last for years structurally (and it was twenty years before they finally had to be torn down), but also to be interesting to shoot in for twenty-plus episodes a year, so they built in plenty of special features (not unlike Sulu’s pop-up scope in the series) without a specific story-need for TMP.

 

[Just a Bill]

I’m not sure it was being entirely frivolous with the budget. The sets were initially built for a TV show ... intended to last for years ... to be interesting to shoot in for twenty-plus episodes a year, so they built in plenty of special features

Hmm, yeah, fair point. Thanks for pointing that out.