Mundane Questions about TNG

[Karzak]

Hi all,

Has there ever been any official reporting or documentation about why some of the superficial changes to the show were made over the years? In specific, the streaking 3-D effect to the title card of the show during season 5. Why start then? And why remove it after only that one season?

Or, why, during season 7 did the opening titles have larger first letters for the actor's names?

I've never seen anything mentioned about this kind of thing, and I was curious to see if anyone had ever heard anything from an official source about why these choices were made?

 

[Trek Survivor]

Hi all,

Has there ever been any official reporting or documentation about why some of the superficial changes to the show were made over the years? In specific, the streaking 3-D effect to the title card of the show during season 5. Why start then? And why remove it after only that one season?

Or, why, during season 7 did the opening titles have larger first letters for the actor's names?

I've never seen anything mentioned about this kind of thing, and I was curious to see if anyone had ever heard anything from an official source about why these choices were made?

I believe the 'streaking 3-D effect' was due to the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek being in 1991 (when season 5 first aired) and TNG wanting to do something small both for that, and the fact it had reached 100 episodes.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The streaking effect: They put it in because somebody thought it looked good. They took it out because it looked like crap.

 

[Forbin]

Isn't there some kind of rule (or at least tradition) that every season's title sequence should look a little different, or have slightly different music?

 

[Memory Alpha]

I kind of liked the season 5 streak effect, but overall I have to say that I probably liked the VOY font the most.

Isn't there some kind of rule (or at least tradition) that every season's title sequence should look a little different, or have slightly different music?

I think it depended on the show. After the 3rd season on MacGyver they re-mixed the theme music just enough that it was noticeable and it didn't play as well during the opening sequence. The clips and images shown during the opening sequence in MacGyver would change each season, though.

 

[Karzak]

Isn't there some kind of rule (or at least tradition) that every season's title sequence should look a little different, or have slightly different music?

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a "rule" or a "tradition." Not every television series changes its opening title sequence, either every season or otherwise.

 

[MacLeod]

Well in the case of TNG due to cast changes and promotions to the characters they had to redo the titles every season anyway. VOY and ENT opening credits remained largely the same, DSN did some major changes to it's opening credits once.

 

[BillJ]

Well in the case of TNG due to cast changes and promotions to the characters they had to redo the titles every season anyway. VOY and ENT opening credits remained largely the same, DSN did some major changes to it's opening credits once.

Enterprise opening change when they added "Star Trek" to the title in season three and made a minor change to the theme song.

 

[Mr. Data]

The streaking effect: They put it in because somebody thought it looked good. They took it out because it looked like crap.

Lol I've always thought the same thing.

 

[Christopher]

Isn't there some kind of rule (or at least tradition) that every season's title sequence should look a little different, or have slightly different music?

Not as such, but there is, or was, a musician's union rule that the theme had to be newly recorded every season (so that the musicians would get more work). Sometimes the new recording would be the same arrangement, but sometimes it would be a tweaked arrangement or even a different theme altogether.

I seem to recall that Babylon 5 made a point of totally redoing its title sequence and theme every season, since each season was a different "chapter" of the saga and the theme was changed to fit each respective season's tenor.

 

[MacLeod]

True B5 changed it's opening credits/music every season, but sometimes the opening credits in shows remain largely the same except for cast changes, of course sometimes the longer a show runs the more changes that could made to the opening credits/music.

 

[Christopher]

^As I said, I think it's required (or at least it used to be) to re-record the theme music every season, but sometimes it's just a new performance of the same arrangement and you have to pay close attention to tell the difference. For instance, just popping into my head now, I seem to remember the theme in the later seasons of M*A*S*H sounding different from the version in early seasons. For one thing, they extended it at one point to accommodate the larger cast, but I think the orchestration also got a little fuller.