Misconceptions about TOS

[Christopher]

Maybe I had the advantage of reading the novelization of TMP before I saw the film. I think that gave me a fuller understanding of what was going on (like what the deal was with Ilia and Decker) and perhaps that made it easier to connect to the film.

 

[mb22]

I'm pretty sure that Trek ran in a pretty damned random order in the NYC area until the mid-80's. Then the series was pulled for a short time and brought back with new prints pre-cut by Paramount. Then, it fell into production order. But I'm old, so I could very well have a faulty memory.

I recall pretty clearly that WPIX ran episodes in production order most of the time in the 70s and early 80s (at least from 1975-78 when I saw most of them). Someone with access to old TV Guide issues (local NYC area editions) can check it out.

One difference I seem to recall about the 'old' (done by local station) vs 'new' (Paramount) syndication cuts were that the older ones would usually cut out whole scenes, while the newer one would cut portions from the scenes themselves.

 

[Melakon]

I was watching "Squire of Gothos" on a local station in the early 80s once, and they cut away in the middle of a scene to run 5 minutes of commercials. When they came back, it was a different scene from 5 minutes later, like they had just kept the episode running during the ads.

 

[RandyS]

I think the syndication run order was set by Paramount as part of the package, which I'd imagine just defaulted to the production order.

I'm pretty sure that Trek ran in a pretty damned random order in the NYC area until the mid-80's. Then the series was pulled for a short time and brought back with new prints pre-cut by Paramount. Then, it fell into production order. But I'm old, so I could very well have a faulty memory.

Well, I'm not sure about the random order part, but here in the Sacramento area, TOS was shown daily, then was cancelled and returned six months later with noticeable recuts. This was in the latter part of 1983, and the early part of 1984, so your memory can't be too faulty.

Of course, being only 13 and 4 at the time, I didn't think too much on the significance of that, my only thought, until I started taping them on VHS n mid-1986 was, "Great! I get to see Star Trek every day again!".

 

[johnnybear]

Here in the UK Star Trek was cut as well, the only difference is that the BBC isn't a commercial channel! When I bought the DVDs I got to see scenes I'd never seen before, *I loved it!
JB

 

[Warped9]

Maybe I had the advantage of reading the novelization of TMP before I saw the film. I think that gave me a fuller understanding of what was going on (like what the deal was with Ilia and Decker) and perhaps that made it easier to connect to the film.

Same. The novelization was filling in details that weren't in the film.

 

[BillJ]

Maybe I had the advantage of reading the novelization of TMP before I saw the film. I think that gave me a fuller understanding of what was going on (like what the deal was with Ilia and Decker) and perhaps that made it easier to connect to the film.

Same. The novelization was filling in details that weren't in the film.

Did you guys picture the books with the TOS aesthetic in mind since you read them prior to seeing the film?

 

[Warped9]

Maybe I had the advantage of reading the novelization of TMP before I saw the film. I think that gave me a fuller understanding of what was going on (like what the deal was with Ilia and Decker) and perhaps that made it easier to connect to the film.

Same. The novelization was filling in details that weren't in the film.

Did you guys picture the books with the TOS aesthetic in mind since you read them prior to seeing the film?

I was so excited to see the film that when I saw the novelization on the bookshelf I couldn't resist picking it up. Mind you I tried to resist reading it before seeing the film, but I gave in eventually.

Also prior to the film's release I had seen a good number of promotional pics in magazines like Starlog and such so I had some idea what the new film might look like. I can't recall exactly what I envisioned after so many years since reading the book for the first time, but I don't recall picturing it exactly like TOS.

 

[erastus25]

I was watching "Squire of Gothos" on a local station in the early 80s once, and they cut away in the middle of a scene to run 5 minutes of commercials. When they came back, it was a different scene from 5 minutes later, like they had just kept the episode running during the ads.

Jeez. No wonder Paramount (or whoever) re-cut the episodes and sent out a standardized package.

 

[Nebusj]

I remember this also, before WVIA started showing them in production order I barely knew anything about it. I mostly watched them on WPIX (11) and WPHL (17). I don't even know if those independent stations still exist, things have certainly changed.

Those stations still exist, though of course they're not independents anymore. WPIX was one of the flagships for the WB Network and now it's the biggest CW station (with digital sub channels for Antenna TV, which I never heard of either, and ThisTV, which I have heard of but who knows why).

WPHL was also a WB affiliate and now it's moved over to MyNetworkTV, which thinks of itself more as a programming service than a network.

 

[Christopher]

Did you guys picture the books with the TOS aesthetic in mind since you read them prior to seeing the film?

Oh, good question. I don't remember, but I'm sure there were plenty of TV commercials promoting the film before it came out, so I would've had some exposure to the new look before I read the book. I know, too, that at some point I owned the mass-market paperback compilation of Marvel's comic-book adaptation of the film, though I don't remember whether I bought it before I saw the movie.

 

[f14peter]

I was watching "Squire of Gothos" on a local station in the early 80s once, and they cut away in the middle of a scene to run 5 minutes of commercials. When they came back, it was a different scene from 5 minutes later, like they had just kept the episode running during the ads.

Could have even been the Master Control Operator, who in that era was probably rolling and switching the commercials manually ... probably cued up several minutes of spots and had to run to the little Ensign's room and missed the switch back.

The station I worked at in the mid-90s had both TOS and TNG ... both acquired before my employment off a sat-feed, complete with slates and color-bars/tone. TOS was recorded on 1-inch reel-to-reel videotape, while TNG was on 3/4-inch cassettes. Since the 1-inch couldn't be "toned" (specific beeps recorded on the tapes to trigger other cassettes with commercials to start and switch) and we never bothered to tone TNG, the op started the program and let it roll straight on through to the end, then rolled and switched to commercials manually using cues off a episode run-down sheet.

Incidentally, they always ran them in production number order, which means they always played TNG "Unification" Part II then Part I ... until I pointed it out.

 

[Christopher]

Incidentally, they always ran them in production number order, which means they always played TNG "Unification" Part II then Part I ... until I pointed it out.

I remember the same thing happening with M*A*S*H reruns pretty consistently. The 2-part episode where BJ joined the cast was set and aired just before the episode where Col. Potter joined the cast, but they were filmed in the reverse order, and in syndication we'd always get the episode where Potter arrived and BJ was already present, followed by the episodes where BJ arrived and Potter wasn't around yet.

 

[diankra]

Here in the UK Star Trek was cut as well, the only difference is that the BBC isn't a commercial channel! When I bought the DVDs I got to see scenes I'd never seen before, *I loved it!
JB

I believe that may have simply been that the BBC was supplied with prints that had been edited for US syndication slots rather than the Beeb cutting them; certainly, in the late 1980s the BBC2 controller made a point of ensuring that he was supplied with unedited prints for an in-order rerun (and also checked out why they'd been omitting four episodes from previous runs; he was actually prompted to do this after he was interviewed by the Doctor Who fanzine DWB about his time overseeing Who as head of the drama department; they asked if he was going to rerun old Doctor Whos; he said 'No, but I am going to rerun Star Trek'; they asked 'All of them?'; he said, 'Of course, why are you asking?' And then checked out if it was true about cut prints and banned episodes and so on).

 

[MacLeod]

^Ah dear old Auntie Beeb.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Maybe I had the advantage of reading the novelization of TMP before I saw the film. I think that gave me a fuller understanding of what was going on (like what the deal was with Ilia and Decker) and perhaps that made it easier to connect to the film.

Same. The novelization was filling in details that weren't in the film.

Did you guys picture the books with the TOS aesthetic in mind since you read them prior to seeing the film?

I read the book before seeing the movie, too. As I recall, I enjoyed the book more. I had also seen various stills and publicity photos from the film, so I had an idea what the film's aesthetic was.

 

[Redfern]

Same. The novelization was filling in details that weren't in the film.

Did you guys picture the books with the TOS aesthetic in mind since you read them prior to seeing the film?

I was so excited to see the film that when I saw the novelization on the bookshelf I couldn't resist picking it up. Mind you I tried to resist reading it before seeing the film, but I gave in eventually.

Also prior to the film's release I had seen a good number of promotional pics in magazines like Starlog and such so I had some idea what the new film might look like. I can't recall exactly what I envisioned after so many years since reading the book for the first time, but I don't recall picturing it exactly like TOS.

Pretty much the same as Warped9 and Christopher. Visually, I imagined it more or less as I had seen in the StarLog articles, from David Gerrold's "Star Trek Reports" and the few tantilizing photos. From an audio perspective, in terms of music, I probably imagined a hundred piece symphonic rendition of the the Alexander Courage score (which we finally got at the end of the '09 movie, ironically) along with larger, more "rousing" versions of the various episode incidental music by Fred Steiner and others. Similar thing for the sound effects. I imagined Surround Sound tweaks of the guy-wire struck "Kuh-Thnnggg!!!!" of the photon torpedoes and "howling", echoed adapatations of the cicada-like phaser fire.

So while the magazine photos at least prepared me a tad for the radically different visual designs, the music and audio effects totally blindsided me. The "red alert" really threw me for a loop, sounding more like "Burp! Burp! Burp!" rather than the "Huwarr-Reeek! Huwar-Reeek!" from the series. I also felt disappointed there was no longer any cricket-like "chirping" and "droning" of the bridge systems.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[alpha_leonis]

I was watching "Squire of Gothos" on a local station in the early 80s once, and they cut away in the middle of a scene to run 5 minutes of commercials. When they came back, it was a different scene from 5 minutes later, like they had just kept the episode running during the ads.

Even worse as far as I'm concerned: during a local airing of "The Deadly Years", they came back from commercial with the Enterprise already inside Romulan space. They'd cut out the entire run-up as to how and why the Commodore had given that particular order.

 

[mb22]

Pretty much the same as Warped9 and Christopher. Visually, I imagined it more or less as I had seen in the StarLog articles, from David Gerrold's "Star Trek Reports" and the few tantilizing photos.

I think you mean Susan Sackett, not Gerrold.

https://archive.org/stream/starlog_magazine-018/018#page/n63/mode/2up

 

[Redfern]

Pretty much the same as Warped9 and Christopher. Visually, I imagined it more or less as I had seen in the StarLog articles, from David Gerrold's "Star Trek Reports" and the few tantilizing photos.

I think you mean Susan Sackett, not Gerrold.

https://archive.org/stream/starlog_magazine-018/018#page/n63/mode/2up

Even though I can't access the link (company firewall), I gotta' admit my goof. You are absolutely right. Sackett wrote the "reports" column and David Gerrold had his own "Andy Rooney" type musings in a regular column that changed names a few times. Sometimes Gerrold's touched upon Trek, but he discussed a wide range of topics.

My only defense, though I still have my collection, I probably haven't opened an issue of StarLog in 20 years or more. My memory isn't what it used to be. then again, I can barely remember what I had for supper the previous evening.

Sincerely,

Bill