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Marvelous old interview

Awesome! :techman:

Interesting, too, how they all had a good handle on elements of the show and the ship as if they felt it really mattered.
 
Managed to download all five parts, edit them back together, and put it on DVD. Even with the loss of resolution, it makes for good viewing.

And in light of the latest movie, Koenig and Ellison sound like freakin' prophets.
 
That Star Trek interview from 1976 is a classic!! There used to be a really sharp copy on youtube at one time, it appears to be gone now.
 
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Part 3 is remarkable. Koenig describes how a Trek movie would fundamentally change what Trek was all about if it's just explosions and big monsters, and Kelley talks about how a Trek movie should be the crew encountering God in space but he actually turns out to be Lucifer!
 
I just finished watching the entire Tom Snyder interview. I was really enjoying it until the last part. Harlan Ellison. The man has had a long and prosperous career of whining about the changes they made (and from what I've read they were good and necessary) to his one script. What's the point of having him there to trash the show to its stars? There's legitimate contrary opinion, and there's pretentious, pompous, elitist whining.
 
Part 3 is remarkable. Koenig describes how a Trek movie would fundamentally change what Trek was all about if it's just explosions and big monsters, and Kelley talks about how a Trek movie should be the crew encountering God in space but he actually turns out to be Lucifer!

Both of those, and Doohan predicting sequels in one of the earlier parts, made me raise an eyebrow.

Great interview.
 
Good stuff. I like the talk of "ghosts". And interesting to see everyone smoking. :)

-jwb-
jwbraun.com
 
Haven't seen the YouTube vids. I have it on VHS somewhere (along with Rocketman and a few other TOS gems). Is this the interview show where Harlan sounds like a parrot at one point: "It's a cop show, a cop show." And Doohan seems threatening: "It was more than that."
 
What kills me about this, besides everyone smoking, is the '70s style hair and glasses. Of course we thought nothing of it then, but it looks more dated than the '60s. :lol:
 
They don't make them like this anymore. A chat show where people had, and presented opinions, and went on to debate in intelligent and thoughtful discourse. Including the host...

Now all we get are soundbites and plugs. Some might say that televised Trek dumbed down as the years went by with endless sequels and spinoffs, but that's nothing compared to how dumbed down the chat show format has become.
 
Awesome interview. Very candid and thoughtful. I think that it would have been a good extra to have incorporated into one of the DVD season box sets. It was great to see how proud Doohan was of the show and how well he stood up to Ellison when Harlan made the asinine assertion that Star Trek was nothing but a cop show.
 
I've always loved this interview. In 1976, shortly after it aired, I came into possession of an audio cassette copy. I kept it for years but eventually somehow lost track of it.

In 1990, I found a multi-generation video copy at a con. That's the copy YouTube has (not my copy, but the same source video).

In fact, my copy is a considerably better digital transfer. At one time I owned a VCR/DVD Recorder, so I could directly dub from videotape to DVD. I made a copy of this and the studio version of "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

I need to think about posting my "print" to YouTube now that 720p is possible ...

And don't get your hopes up: the video is no better, but you can watch all the artifacts of multi-generational videotape copies in HD.

Dakota Smith
 
Thanks for bringing this one to our attention. I loved it. I can't believe Ellison had the guts to trash the show right in front of three of the lead actors. This confirms my suspicions: Ellison was an ignorant fool.
 
It just shows that Harlan enjoys a good debate and expects those on the other side to give as well as he can dish it. He offers no quarter, neither does he ask for any.
 
Thank you for the link,I had never seen these interviews before.Actually I had never seen James Doohan interviewed before so it was quite disconcerting to hear his natural accent.
It was also nice to see Doohan and Kelley so enthusiastic about the show(Koenig seemed to be off on his own thing)nowadays when actors try so hard to appear detatched,almost disdainful of some of the work they appear in,the genuine enthusiasm was delightful.
 
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