most 'Twilight Zone' episodes..

[Khan 2.0]

I remember reading an interview in 08 or thereabouts with abrams where he said he wanted to return Trek to the scary feel the early episodes of TOS had - and also mentioned the classic Twilight Zone as an example. season 1 (and some of Season 2/3 but mainly S1) had that quiet, creepy, eerie, uncanny Twilight Zone vibe - the Ent alone charting a haunted universe that hid some deeply strange things, that old style supernatural awe and dread:
stuff like Little Girls, Corbomite, Where No Man, Charlie X, Man Trap, City of the Edge, The Archons, Arena, Balance of Terror, Alternative Factor, Operation Annihilate, Space Seed, Galileo 7,Enemy Within, Naked Time...also S3s Spectre of the Gun which really felt like a 60s Twilight Zone or Outer Limits- the trippy music, the half sets, the odd camera angles, red backdrop, the almost robotic performances of the Earps and the strange obliviousness of the townsfolk, the twist our the heroes playing the villains… one of those very eerie, spooky trek episodes that could easily be a Twilight Zone. If you retune it so its B&W, edited in a Rod Sterling intro and TZ opening and closing credits then it could easily pass for an ep…and just imagine the crew to be some kind of generic space crew(someone did that with Planet of the Apes - probably on utube somewhere, edited it down to a half hr, B&W and found a suitable sterling intro and did the credits etc and it worked real well – well Rod Sterling wrote it anyway)

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I remember reading an interview in 08 or thereabouts with jj abrams where he said he wanted to return Trek to the scary feel the early episodes of TOS had - and also mentioned the classic Twilight Zone as an example.

So, why didn't he?

 

[Christopher]

By the way, it's Rod Serling, not Sterling.

 

[Marsden]

I remember reading an interview in 08 or thereabouts with jj abrams where he said he wanted to return Trek to the scary feel the early episodes of TOS had - and also mentioned the classic Twilight Zone as an example.

So, why didn't he?

Good question!

I expect no answer, however.

 

[Melakon]

You expect a guy who was never a Star Trek fan to be true to its roots?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

The first half of season one had more of an OUTER LIMITS vibe than a TWILIGHT ZONE one.

 

[Melakon]

The first half of season one had more of an OUTER LIMITS vibe than a TWILIGHT ZONE one.

And Season 3's "The Empath" looks like it was inspired by the staging of OL: Nightmare.

 

[ToddPence]

Both episodes did have the same director, John Erman.

 

[Christopher]

You expect a guy who was never a Star Trek fan to be true to its roots?

That's a ridiculous question. You don't have be a pre-existing fan of a property in order to handle it well, because there is a thing called research that writers or directors do when they take on a new subject matter. For instance, Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer had no prior familiarity with Star Trek when they were hired to do The Wrath of Khan, but they did a marathon viewing of the series and consulted with Roddenberry and others, because it's just a basic part of the process to learn about your subject before you tackle it. And most people seem to think they made a pretty good Trek movie, though I've never really cared for it.

Besides, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof are huge, passionate Trek fans, yet their creative choices have hardly met with universal acclaim from the people who criticize Abrams.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The main difference between The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone: People have seen The Twilight Zone.

 

[Christopher]

The main difference between The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone: People have seen The Twilight Zone.

Inaccurate.

They're different in that OL was a science fiction anthology while TZ was mostly fantasy and supernatural, often SF, and a couple of times just straight-up suspense. Also OL was obligated to feature monsters every week, and it was hourlong throughout while TZ only had one short season of hourlong episodes.

Also, OL has had only one revival series totalling 7 seasons and 154 episodes, while TZ has, to date, had two revival series (three if you count the '88 syndicated season separately from the '85 network version, though I'm the only one who seems to do so) totalling 4 seasons and 109 episodes -- plus one feature film comprising 4 "episodes."

 

[The Old Mixer]

Inaccurate.

You shame me...I always strive for the highest level of accuracy in my quippy one-liners.

 

[scotpens]

With a bit of pruning, "Shore Leave" would have worked as a Twilight Zone episode. It shares similarities with the TZ eps "Elegy" and "People Are Alike All Over."

By the way, it's Rod Serling, not Sterling.

Not to be confused with actor Robert Sterling, who appeared in the fourth-season TZ episode "Printer's Devil" with Burgess Meredith and Patricia Crowley.

And neither of whom should be confused with Rod Serling's brother, aviation writer and novelist Robert Serling, who lived to a ripe old age of 92.

 

[bbjeg]

Regardless of the similarities (mostly due to that period of television) Star Trek was a unique show.

Also, this thread sounds like it should be in the General Trek forum (maybe Miscellaneous).

 

[CaliburnCY]

For instance, Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer had no prior familiarity with Star Trek when they were hired to do The Wrath of Khan, but they did a marathon viewing of the series and consulted with Roddenberry and others, because it's just a basic part of the process to learn about your subject before you tackle it.

A minor side point, but...

I used to also think that Harve Bennett was unfamiliar with Star Trek until he researched all the episodes in preparation for his work on the movies. However, I recently learned (thanks to a commenter named Disinvited on TrekMovie) that Bennett did have prior familiarity with the series before he was asked to take on the movies, much more so than I had previously heard.

The below interview with Harve Bennett is from STARLOG, July 1982, Issue 60, PAGE 17.

The full text can be found online here (under the section "Keep On Trekkin'") -- http://archive.org/stream/starlog_magazine-060/060_djvu.txt

Fate. It was fate that led me to this film.

I have to backtrack a moment to explain all this. I live with a wonderful lady who’s been the joy of my life for years. She is a Trekker. She is, was, and always will be a Trekker. During our long time together, I’ve been force-fed Star Trek re-runs . . . literally.

She’d be sitting there, in front of her TV set, and I’d be moaning ‘How many times do we have to see these things?’ She’d sit there like a stage mother, muttering, ‘Now watch. Spock is going to say this.’ She’d recite the dialogue with the characters. I’d say clever things like ‘Look! Why do you persist in watching this stuff when you know everything that’s going to happen?’ Her response was ‘Shhhhh.’

Since I always was being told to shut up during the 17th showing of ‘The Tholian Web,’ I finally gave in and started watching. I became hooked.

I became fascinated by the show. You see, although I’d never watched it before, I’ve always had sort of a peripheral involvement with it. My first successful show was The Mod Squad. It competed with Trek one season. We even filmed on the same lot. I used to see Leonard walking by with his ears on but I never actually saw his work.

I knew Roddenberry but had never worked with him. The times we met I liked him a lot. For some odd reason, I’ve always been drawn to paramilitary types. I’m a pilot. Gene was a pilot. One thing I’ve always perceived in Star Trek was the fine hand of that odd paramilitary mind that was trying to preach peace. That’s a very interesting effect, rivaled in intensity only by the feelings of, let’s say, a reformed drunk. You’ve seen the horror. Now, you want to save others from it.

I had a very close relationship with the late Gene Coon as well, Trek’s line producer. I worked with Gene a lot during the last years of his life when we were both at Universal. Interestingly enough, Coon was also a paramilitary man. Crew-cut. The whole bit. He was an ex-marine who preached peace because of his own experiences in war.

A few years ago, when I came to Paramount for a three-year contract deal, I found myself a bachelor. My lady had moved out. I was sitting with Michael Eisner, the head of the studio, in his office. The studio hadn’t lost all interest in Star Trek at that point. He asked me if I’d be interested in making Star Trek II. It was to be a television movie with the potential for theatrical release. My answer was, having seen all the episodes of Trek, knowing and respecting both Roddenberry and Coon and wanting that woman back in my life… YES!

Ironically, some months later, my lady and I were back together. She was helpful in guiding me through all this.

I began watching Star Trek from a scholastic point of view. 'Let's watch the re-runs' became 'let's go to the projection room with some cassettes and take notes.' I began to develop my own sense of what episodes were meaningful to me. It's out of those viewings that this movie was born.

I don't think this significantly changes your overall point, Christopher, that people who weren't previously fans like Nicholas Meyer and many others can do justice to Trek; I just think it's an important factoid where Harve Bennett's Trek affiliation is concerned.

 

[Khan 2.0]

By the way, it's Rod Serling, not Sterling.

 

[Christopher]

I don't think this significantly changes your overall point, Christopher, that people who weren't previously fans like Nicholas Meyer and many others can do justice to Trek; I just think it's an important factoid where Harve Bennett's Trek affiliation is concerned.

Thanks for the clarification. I'll have to remember that so I don't make that mistake again. But I think it reinforces my point: Filmmakers don't work in a vacuum. Even if the director of a Trek film isn't a fan, he's working with other people who are -- Bennett for Meyer, Orci and Lindelof for Abrams. Between that and the fact that research is a thing that exists, it's doubly nonsensical to claim that only an established fan of a franchise can direct a good film therein.

And I still say that being too much of a fan can be a bad thing for a director, because it can blind them to their indulgences and lead them to value nostalgia over originality. Superman Returns was a disappointment because it was just a very expensive Richard Donner fan film rather than a fresh new approach to the concept. And Into Darkness's biggest problems were its fannish indulgences, the intrusive homages to TWOK. The fact that Roberto Orci is a rabid Trek fan is the main thing that makes me wary of the idea of letting him direct the third film.

 

[bbjeg]

...

And I still say that being too much of a fan can be a bad thing for a director, because it can blind them to their indulgences and lead them to value nostalgia over originality. Superman Returns was a disappointment because it was just a very expensive Richard Donner fan film rather than a fresh new approach to the concept. And Into Darkness's biggest problems were its fannish indulgences, the intrusive homages to TWOK. The fact that Roberto Orci is a rabid Trek fan is the main thing that makes me wary of the idea of letting him direct the third film.

Superman Returns didn't fail because it was a fan film, it failed because it sucked. Superman was a peeping tom, a bit of an antagonist (his fortress of solitude's lack of security allowed Luther to ravage costal states and right after the world accepted they didn't need Superman too), he was conveniently immune to Kryptonite (which was inside of him), and to this day, I still have no idea why Lex didn't cut off Superman's head when he had a chance.

Deleted Superman Returns scene:
__________________
Minion: Um, boss, why did you just throw Superman off of that cliff?
Luther: I stabbed him first.
Minion: Yeah, once. We were physically able to beat him up. We could have found some kryptonite clubs nearby and beaten him into a fine paste and then removed his head to be sure. Now all this uncertainty is bothering me.
Luther: What's the worst that could happen?

(Ground starts to shake)

Minion: *sigh* And honestly boss, did you really think the nations of the world would let you keep this island, especially after they find out you knew the creation of this island would destroy the existing lands around it? I mean, America has invaded countries for far less.
Luther: You're pretty smart for a minion.

(Then a bolder falls on the minion before he could make more sense.)

 

[Greg Cox]

But I do think that one of Superman Returns's failings is that it coasted rather too heavily on nostalgia for the 1978 film. Sure, I got all choked up and misty-eyed when the old John Williams theme kicked in, but I imagine that much of the movie fell flat for modern audiences, who hadn't been weaned on the Reeve movies.

And, yeah, the idea that you have to be a lifelong fan to do justice to some beloved franchise is just silly. As Christopher noted, research is a thing that exists.

 

[Christopher]

In Luthor's defense, he couldn't possibly have anticipated that a man who was weakened by the proximity of kryptonite would be able to lift an entire land mass made of kryptonite over his head and throw it into space, because that would be completely self-contradictory and ridiculous.

As for the Williams theme, I rather hated SR's use of it. Because it didn't do anything interesting with it, didn't do variations or adaptations of it to suit the action, just mechanically quoted the basic theme whenever Superman did anything super. The previous composers who'd worked with the Williams theme -- Ken Thorne and Alexander Courage -- both found far more interesting ways to play around with it than John Ottman did (or was allowed to do by Singer?).