I am currently re-watching Voyager, and i notice that through TNG, DS9, and this series that the various cities seem to look very similar. Either, SOMEONE has gotten LAZY (or cheap - or BOTH), or there is a general lack of imagination when designing Alien cities. . I should have examples, but I had just started thinking about this. I am NOT saying that EVERY city looks the same, but a substantial number do have very similar traits.
Is it just me, or are all the various alien cities are starting to look a bit ...GENERIC?
- Thread starter Don Drutherford
- Start date
A lot of them were reused between TNG, DS9 and VOY.
They reused a matte of an alien city/starbase city often, to save money. Yeah, I wise there was a lot more variety.
Imagination, when it comes to TV shows cost money, its the reason the cast and aliens were 99% human looking
When you binge watch the series now you notice such things more likely.
You really do. The capitals of Cardassia, Q'onos and Romulus look quite similar.
You also notice re-used shots a lot more. On my recent DS9 rewatch, I noticed quite a few. Shuttle damaged in 2 very different ways in different episodes? Same footage.
Same shot of a ship flying "above" the station re-used again and again.
The Defiant docking and leaving, ...
That stuff is more funny when you notice it than anything else, though. The shuttle damage is different because O'Brien tells us it is, for the needs of the story, and that's it. The same ship always flies over the station because it's a cargo route, and even minute deviations from the flightpath at busy stations are a bad idea.
The Defiant always docks the same way because there's only one correct way to dock it, damn it!
I mean, all the various aliens have the same ships, costumes, and props, but give them the same cities and that's all "hold up, that's taking things too far. I need to start a thread about this."?
Wait, this is a bug? Not a feature of Star Trek? 
you left out how almost all aliens are human like and biped and need to wear clothing
When Doctor Who came up with oddly-shaped thick tubes on six legs in 1971, but it still had clothes (albeit an ill-fitting cloak), and nobody commented on how cheap it looked (but what they did comment on would make Freud intrigued), there's no way that anybody in the biz in 1987 could have developed several rubber arms to stick on and likely outside of someone's navel because nobody would believe any other location, complete with marionette string and/or wires to transport electricity to shrouded motors (animatronics). And if said navel is an innie, that's just a brownie point for an additional support option to make use of. Of course, how convincing it'd be when the only TNG character to come across as being even remotely lively to Alpha Centauri was Q... and he's a chaotic good or chaotic evil depending on which story he's in!
On the plus side, some of the 90s styles looked rather adventurous - despite having a late-80s flair, but angles are great. Euclid would have jumped for joy over it, and some of us would be nimble to shove a trampoline right under so he could do so more easily and with less joint discomfort. Well, joints as in cartilage and not the arcane plantlife that's now legal in a handful of states...
Are these the planets you meant?
https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/reused_planets_angelone.htm
I thought it was one of the most loving details of the TNG remaster that they took the opportunity to further differentiate these painting reuses, while preserving the same basic look. That's some fine detail work from a true fan there.
If I remember correctly, the overviews of Bajor looks like some cities in TNG too
I always thought that major worlds (Qo'noS, Cardassia, Romulus, Bajor) all had fairly distinct cities, but the generic alien worlds that were visited were all just reused. Never bothered me though.
Not long after Atlantis ended, I was watching some shitty SyFy channel movie starring David Hewlett and I couldn't help but notice the spaceship set was a barely redressed Daedalus/Odyssey from SG-1/SGA.
And then I noticed one of the big engineering control panels from those sets showing up in Star Trek fan productions
Now I'm starting to doubt myself. Was it the Odyssey/Daedalus or the Destiny from SGU? Or maybe my mind is mashing up a couple of movies
Destiny was the Ancient starship from SGU. Odyssey and Daedalus were Earth starships, Odyssey featured in seasons 9 and 10 of SG-1, Daedalus in seasons 2-5 of Atlantis.Now I'm starting to doubt myself. Was it the Odyssey/Daedalus or the Destiny from SGU? Or maybe my mind is mashing up a couple of movies
It's ironic that in the Captain proton program Harry complains that the planet they're on looks just like one of another chapter... Tom even reminds him that "back then" the sets were expensive and were often reused.
I think that was an actual complaint among the cats s of the 90's Treks and they kept trying to appeal to Paramount for a bigger budget. As you can see it did nothing. I also notice that Trek crews don't go to planets very much to explore which bothered me and I don't think Erath as shown nearly enough. This a bit separate from the OPs complaint. But I wanted to see more future humans culture but the creators were just to interested in the aliens life being explored which is great but... well, what I already said. Sorry, if this went of the original subject.
^ Boy, typo city. Sorry. :/
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