lucky TOS fans

[RookieBatman]

Re: TOS Captains

Maybe because I'm an old-timer and can appreciate that we'll never get that cast again, I'd say we're pretty lucky we got them all together for as long as we did.

Heck, I'm not an old-timer, and I never even saw a single one of those movies in the theatre (which is a crying shame) but I still greatly appreciate it!

It did start to stretch credibility that Sulu's captaincy was on hold so long and that, at one point, the Enterprise had three captains (demoted Kirk, Captain Spock and Captain-of-Engineering Scott).

And yeah, about all the Captains... Sulu notwithstanding, I rationalize that Kirk's command crew just wanted to hold onto a good thing and stay together through that last 7-year mission instead of taking promotions (that were long overdue) to other positions in Starfleet.

The way I explain it in my personal continuity is that, in addition to that loyalty, I figure that after the crew saved the Earth twice, after already being famous as the first ship/crew to make it back from a five-year mission relatively intact, Starfleet decided it would be a good idea to keep them together as PR poster children. It's a bit thin, but hey, it works for me.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Star Trek VI gave me the impression the crew had been off doing their own thing (for at least the 3 years prior), and the mission was a one-off reunion to have the most famous Starfleet crew ever meet the Klingon peace mission.

STII was a reunion cadet cruise mission gone wrong (that spiralled into the events of III and IV), the first time they'd been together in years (since the apocryphal post-TMP second five-year mission).

Various novels have conjectured all sorts of other assignments the crew were on between films, like Sulu doing the Pike thing at the academy prior to Excelsior's launch in Starfleet Academy.

It's only really STV (and I guess the end of IV) that gives the impression the crew were still together, buisness as usual when they probably should have all moved on

 

[RookieBatman]

Star Trek VI gave me the impression the crew had been off doing their own thing (for at least the 3 years prior), and the mission was a one-off reunion to have the most famous Starfleet crew ever meet the Klingon peace mission.

I agree this seems most likely.

STII was a reunion cadet cruise mission gone wrong (that spiralled into the events of III and IV), the first time they'd been together in years (since the apocryphal post-TMP second five-year mission).

Well, they were all (except Chekov) together for the simulation, before the cruise. I wouldn't think they all got back together just for Saavik's Kobayashi Maru test. I always figured the good folks at the Academy trotted out the PR poster-children now and then to give the cadets a treat. Sure, Saavik's practically like a member of Spock's family, but that still would seem like blatant favoritism if she were the only one they did that for, not to mention it might tip her off that there was something unique about this particular simulated mission (where all they get to do is die anyway; that hardly seems worth the trip).

Eh, I guess I'm thinking too hard (but then, what else is a message board for?)

 

[RandyS]

I was just thinking, so now I'm just typing...

TOS fans are pretty lucky we got all the original cast for all the films that we did.

Over the decades since the series, so many possibilities could have come up-- cast members not wanting to return, death, other incapacity, money disputes, whatever.

We could have gotten Shatner and Kelley playing off some other guy cast as Spock. Or someone else playing Scotty and McCoy with the originals. Or some awkward cast assembly of Kirk, Spock, but no McCoy, Scotty, but no Sulu, etc, some half-assed TOS crew.

But no...
We got all the original actors in the original roles, for all the movies right up to their TUC sign-off.

Maybe because I'm an old-timer and can appreciate that we'll never get that cast again, I'd say we're pretty lucky we got them all together for as long as we did.

I'm glad you appreciate it and I share your appreciation. Why people have to bash them for being old and fat in the movies I don't know.. it was an absolute TREAT to see them again.

That's what I liked about TAS too.. in the middle of rerun land along comes this cartoon with many of the same writers (D.C. Fontana..) and the same actors doing the voices. We could hear them all over again!

I agree with both of you, only in the latter case, Walter Koenig only took part as a writer.

 

[Therin of Andor]

As you can tell from my new avatar I'm planning to use Chapel and Rand in my little fan-fic stories.

Keep in mind that Vonda McIntyre features Rand and Chapel in her ST II novelization, and they are on the Enterprise in the same roles as TMP.

Although Vonda doesn't elaborate how they got back back to Earth, she does mention that another ship, Firenze, will be rendezvousing with Enterprise to take the most-injured cadets back home while Kirk proceeds to rescue Kyle and the Reliant crew from Ceti Alpha VI. So I like to assume that Rand accompanies Dr Chapel (and the injured cadets) on the Firenze, which is how Rand is able to beat the Enterprise home in time to see it pull into Spacedock in ST III. Vonda then gives Chapel a meaty role, in an original subplot, in the ST III novelization.

I even cut and pasted the head of the cat lady from STV onto Uhura's body for a passable M'Ress.

And also this one:

And another, better shot of our club's M'Ress:

 

[Amaris]

Re: TOS Captains

Maybe because I'm an old-timer and can appreciate that we'll never get that cast again, I'd say we're pretty lucky we got them all together for as long as we did.

Heck, I'm not an old-timer, and I never even saw a single one of those movies in the theatre (which is a crying shame) but I still greatly appreciate it!

You and me both on that one!

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: TOS Captains

And after watching the new 2009 film, I got the idea that after the "death" of Kirk, Ambassador Spock and Captain Uhura develope a romantic relationship and get married, although their respective duties often keep them apart (You know Spock needs to see her at least every 7 years, right? ). She eventually dies in the 24th century and Spock eventually remarries in a ceremony that Lt. Picard attends.

If you follow the novels, "Crucible: Spock" matches up Spock with a different post-movies marriage partner and then, in the "Vulcan's Forge"/"Vulcan's Heart" novels, the pre-TNG ceremony takes place... between Spock and Saavik, still both partnerless after all those decades.

 

[Captrek]

I agree with both of you, only in the latter case, Walter Koenig only took part as a writer.

I’m curious about that. What I have read is that Koenig was excluded from the voice cast for TAS because they didn’t have money for him. How much does it cost to record ten minutes of voice work for sixteen episodes a season?

 

[Therin of Andor]

I’m curious about that. What I have read is that Koenig was excluded from the voice cast for TAS because they didn’t have money for him.

Originally, TAS was budgeted to have only Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley, with Barrett (performing the ship's computer, Uhura, Chapel and M'Ress) and Doohan (performing Scott, Sulu, Arex and every other male voice).

Leonard Nimoy refused to sign unless Nichols, Takei and Koenig were signed too, and the only way Filmation could jiggle the funds was to employ Nichols and Takei (explaining that this would complete the "original" cast). There was some discomfort about ST's minority races being played by white actor. However, they already knew that they wanted to exploit the possibilities of animation to add two new aliens to the cast, and the scripts were only half the length of the live action stories. DC Fontana felt bad about Koenig being omitted but was able to offer him a writing gig, which suited him at that time in his life.

How much does it cost to record ten minutes of voice work for sixteen episodes a season?

Several hundreds of dollars - that were needed to do many other things in the shoestring-budget episodes.

 

[Pauln6]

I even cut and pasted the head of the cat lady from STV onto Uhura's body for a passable M'Ress.

And also this one:

And another, better shot of our club's M'Ress:

I love that TMP cast picture lol. I'm trying to squeeze a Shran head onto a DST TMP Spock action figure body at the moment - I need to file down his neck though. If you have enough pictures of you in make-up and you want to be an extra in my comic strip you can send me some pics. Let me know what colour uniform, department, and rank Therin is and I'll cut and paste him into some background shots Actually, I don't mind using Jeffrey Coombs head as a stand in for the character either, although I might need to use him as a main character then, since I don't want to waste all those head shots. I've also used the eraser and clone tools to plop Suzie Plakson's head onto an armoured security guard's body. Picture is a bit fuzzy and I have little confidence to mold hips and boobs for a close up but she will do for a background character for now.

 

[Captrek]

Did you know that Beyonce is part Edosian?

Edosian women have the third arm in the back. It’s for protecting their rumps from the grabby hands of Edosian men.

 

[Pauln6]

Lol!

 

[Therin of Andor]

If you have enough pictures of you in make-up and you want to be an extra in my comic strip you can send me some pics.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=37203498@N00&q=therin&m=text

http://stexpanded.wikia.com/wiki/Therin

 

[Pauln6]

If you have enough pictures of you in make-up and you want to be an extra in my comic strip you can send me some pics.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=37203498@N00&q=therin&m=text

http://stexpanded.wikia.com/wiki/Therin

Red shirt then! Captain of the USS Hood in 2272? Well this is set in 2275 so I guess the scandal involving the caitian twins and the tribble must have broken in this alternative universe if he's stuck on the Enterprise... I'll make him a Lt and part of the engineering landing party I think.

 

[Whill]

It did start to stretch credibility that Sulu's captaincy was on hold so long and that, at one point, the Enterprise had three captains (demoted Kirk, Captain Spock and Captain-of-Engineering Scott).

And yeah, about all the Captains... Sulu notwithstanding, I rationalize that Kirk's command crew just wanted to hold onto a good thing and stay together through that last 7-year mission instead of taking promotions (that were long overdue) to other positions in Starfleet.

The way I explain it in my personal continuity is that, in addition to that loyalty, I figure that after the crew saved the Earth twice, after already being famous as the first ship/crew to make it back from a five-year mission relatively intact, Starfleet decided it would be a good idea to keep them together as PR poster children. It's a bit thin, but hey, it works for me.

Yeah, that works for me too.

STII was a reunion cadet cruise mission gone wrong (that spiralled into the events of III and IV), the first time they'd been together in years (since the apocryphal post-TMP second five-year mission).

Well, they were all (except Chekov) together for the simulation, before the cruise. I wouldn't think they all got back together just for Saavik's Kobayashi Maru test. I always figured the good folks at the Academy trotted out the PR poster-children now and then to give the cadets a treat. Sure, Saavik's practically like a member of Spock's family, but that still would seem like blatant favoritism if she were the only one they did that for, not to mention it might tip her off that there was something unique about this particular simulated mission (where all they get to do is die anyway; that hardly seems worth the trip).

Eh, I guess I'm thinking too hard (but then, what else is a message board for?)

As far as TWOK, I also get the impression that it was more than just Admiral Kirk working for Starfleet Academy. It's not realistic that everyone just got back together after years apart for Saavik's simulation. I think that Captain Spock was also a trainer, and he was in command of the Enterprise which specifically was a training vessel at that point. But I also feel that McCoy, Scotty, Uhura and Sulu were also academy professors. Sulu was Spock's first officer.

And Generations gives another strong suggestion that at least Sulu had an Earth-based job after the TOS by him being shown to have a daughter that was just old enough to have graduated from the academy by 2293. It makes sense to me that if Sulu wanted to have a family on his home planet, it would be easier to do that if he had a job that doesn't take you away from Earth for long periods of time.

Sulu's captaincy was cut from the trilogy films so his captaincy wasn't necessarily on hold for so long in canon. And then of course, When Kirk became captain of the new Enterprise at the end of TVH, it makes sense that the others would rejoin him for another multi-year mission.

Star Trek VI gave me the impression the crew had been off doing their own thing (for at least the 3 years prior), and the mission was a one-off reunion to have the most famous Starfleet crew ever meet the Klingon peace mission.

That makes a lot of sense! Somehow I had read something somewhere a while back that the time between TVH and TUC was a 7-year mission for all of them except Sulu that left the Enterprise at least 3 years earlier. I got that idea in my head then trying to make sense out of the film was all based on that premise (that I now realize is not actually stated in the movie or otherwise in canon anywhere). So I thought that the reason they seemed to all be recalled from elsewhere was that there were just using up some earned shore leave time before their retirement coming up in a couple months. Thinking that the rest of the crew at the starfleet meeting had all been together for seven years, I always thought McCoy's question, "Where's Sulu?" (and Kirk's answer emphasizing Sulu's rank/position) seemed stupid to me because McCoy should know that Sulu left their crew three years ago so why would McCoy expect Sulu to be there? Then I rationalized that maybe it was in reference to his earlier line about Starfleet planing a retirement party for them all and thought Sulu would be a part of it.

But it makes more sense now that if the crew had been split up on various assignments for a few years and then were all suddenly call back together again that McCoy would wonder where Sulu was. And the emphasis in Kirk's reply might mean to also imply that Sulu will remain a Captain because he is not retiring as the rest of them were. And it also makes more sense that Saavik says she is there to fill the helm position because this misison had a special crew all its own without Sulu then that chair was vacant. (I had previously thought it was odd that Sulu had left 3 years ago but they happened to have also just lost Sulu's replacement.)

Thank you! I love this board!

And after watching the new 2009 film, I got the idea that after the "death" of Kirk, Ambassador Spock and Captain Uhura develope a romantic relationship and get married, although their respective duties often keep them apart (You know Spock needs to see her at least every 7 years, right? ). She eventually dies in the 24th century and Spock eventually remarries in a ceremony that Lt. Picard attends.

If you follow the novels, "Crucible: Spock" matches up Spock with a different post-movies marriage partner and then, in the "Vulcan's Forge"/"Vulcan's Heart" novels, the pre-TNG ceremony takes place... between Spock and Saavik, still both partnerless after all those decades.

Even though it is not canon I still find it interesting. I had read about Saavik but who is Spock's wfie in the novel you mentioned? When did they get married and for how long? How did it end? You can use a spoiler tag or something if you think that others may want to read it and be surprised...

 

[Doug Otte]

Therin, I love this photo. Was it done with a long exposure, while all of you stood still and yet frantically waved sparklers to make the letters? That must have been difficult.

Doug

 

[RookieBatman]

But it makes more sense now that if the crew had been split up on various assignments for a few years and then were all suddenly call back together again that McCoy would wonder where Sulu was.

I think I read somewhere that there had originally been plans to have a little montage at the beginning showing everybody being called back from whatever they had been doing...

 

[F. King Daniel]

^There was. The scene was never filmed, but something based on it shows up at the start of the (sadly rubbish) novel The Fearful Summons, by STVI co-writer Denny Martin Flynn. It's truly bizarre.

Thank you! I love this board!

Glad I could help

 

[Whill]

I think I read somewhere that there had originally been plans to have a little montage at the beginning showing everybody being called back from whatever they had been doing...

Yes, I read that too, but for some reason I was clinging to the idea that they had changed that and it was now canon that the classic crew members minus Sulu had served under Kirk for 7-years strait between TVH and TUC. I don't remember where I got that notion - maybe it was always just some false assumption on my part since 1991. I must unlearn what I have learned!

Thanks again, guys. Sometimes the simplest explanation is the best.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Was it done with a long exposure, while all of you stood still and yet frantically waved sparklers to make the letters? That must have been difficult.

Yes and Yes. (We teased our Spock lookalike about his inability to make a good "S".)

It was shot by a professional photographer, Andrew Rankin, for the weekend colour supplement on fan clubs for a major Australian newspaper. The concept was all his and it was filmed on the approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, just in front of Sydney Observatory. (The insert was added by me when we turned the pic into a recruiting poster for our club; it covers up some outdated text.)

He also did my Batman club perched on the hood of a fan-replica Batmobile he happened to notice in a local garage and asked to borrow for the shoot.