New observations after home viewing...

[Alientraveller]

Yeah, and the sets were made out of plywood and plasterboard; not sure what the point being made is. We can 'justify' it as being 'canon,' that Orions really do look like Caucasians with bad bodypaint, but ... I don't know, I expected better with a budget of $150 million! She should've been green, not blotchy greenish pink, whether it had to be done with makeup or with post-processing digital tricks. Even Susan Oliver looked better, and Yvonne Craig looked lots better.

Interesting, because Nichols states on the Blu-ray they gave Gaila freckles to make the colour more realistic, and the deleted scenes commentary notes they did digitally enhance the makeup.

Speaking of which, after watching the commentary I am amazed that the Iowa cop's mask and Kirk's neck bruises after being strangled by Spock were digital additions.

 

[Trekker4747]

^

It did look bad... horribly bad. I mean, her lipstick was bright RED... that, plus her red hair, made her look like a green human... hell, for all its flaws, at least even ENT managed to pull off WAY more awesome-looking Orion women than this film did. I'm not saying the girl wasn't sexy... she was. But she did not look like an Orion, aside from simply being green.

For everything else, I pretty much echo what Ptrope has said, verbatim.

What canon information do you have that Orion women do not have red hair -or cannot die their hair- and do not have red lips -or cannot wear lipstick?

Uh-huh.

Thought so.

 

[BillJ]

^

It did look bad... horribly bad. I mean, her lipstick was bright RED... that, plus her red hair, made her look like a green human... hell, for all its flaws, at least even ENT managed to pull off WAY more awesome-looking Orion women than this film did. I'm not saying the girl wasn't sexy... she was. But she did not look like an Orion, aside from simply being green.

For everything else, I pretty much echo what Ptrope has said, verbatim.

What canon information do you have that Orion women do not have red hair -or cannot die their hair- and do not have red lips -or cannot wear lipstick?

Uh-huh.

Thought so.

I'm sorry but there was absolutely nothing exotic about Gaila. She was simply a SoCal bimbo painted green. Even Enterprise did Orions better.

 

[Trekker4747]

^

It did look bad... horribly bad. I mean, her lipstick was bright RED... that, plus her red hair, made her look like a green human... hell, for all its flaws, at least even ENT managed to pull off WAY more awesome-looking Orion women than this film did. I'm not saying the girl wasn't sexy... she was. But she did not look like an Orion, aside from simply being green.

For everything else, I pretty much echo what Ptrope has said, verbatim.

What canon information do you have that Orion women do not have red hair -or cannot die their hair- and do not have red lips -or cannot wear lipstick?

Uh-huh.

Thought so.

I'm sorry but there was absolutely nothing exotic about Gaila. She was simply a SoCal bimbo painted green. Even Enterprise did Orions better.

I'll Enterprise did was take some vaugely sexy model skanks, painted them green, put on black wigs they bought at Spencers and then called them Orions. Oh, and then there's the absurdity that the Orion women run their society.

Gaila, sure may not have been a perfect Orion but, you know what? So what? She showed that the Orions are more diverse than all being genericly vaugely sexy black-haired skanks.

Thinking that all Orion women are black-haired animal-women is like thinking all humans are going to be blonde-haired blue-eyed beauties.

Races are diverse. I appreciate Gaila's diversness.

 

[Chrisisall]

[

I'm sorry but there was absolutely nothing exotic about Gaila.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Good one, Bill!

Ya had me!

 

[BillJ]

1. Rachel Nichols is a very attractive woman.

2. The make-up was awful.

3. The red hair with red lipstick and green skin made her look like a bad Christmas decoration.

4. It served absolutely no story purpose. I'd just as soon seen her minus the make-up.

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

It did look bad... horribly bad. I mean, her lipstick was bright RED... that, plus her red hair, made her look like a green human... hell, for all its flaws, at least even ENT managed to pull off WAY more awesome-looking Orion women than this film did. I'm not saying the girl wasn't sexy... she was. But she did not look like an Orion, aside from simply being green.

For everything else, I pretty much echo what Ptrope has said, verbatim.

What canon information do you have that Orion women do not have red hair -or cannot die their hair- and do not have red lips -or cannot wear lipstick?

Uh-huh.

Thought so.

Hey, jackass... I didn't say they HAD to have red hair... I simply said that I felt it didn't look good.

 

[Trekker4747]

I simply said that I felt it didn't look good.

You said she didn't look like an Orion. The only way she didn't look like Orions we've seen in the past is in the color of her lips and hair.

 

[RoJoHen]

If anything, I'd say she didn't ACT like an Orion. Rather, she didn't act like an alien at all. She may as well have been some random white girl.

I don't actually care, but I think that's a better nitpick than her looks. Why make her Orion at all if she could have been replaced by a human?

 

[Trekker4747]

If anything, I'd say she didn't ACT like an Orion. Rather, she didn't act like an alien at all. She may as well have been some random white girl.

I don't actually care, but I think that's a better nitpick than her looks. Why make her Orion at all if she could have been replaced by a human?

Not all humans act the same, either.

She could've be an orphan and raised by humans (hence her behavior and looks -she changed them to "be more human.")

Why make her an Orion? So we can have the classic image of Kirk banging green/alien chicks.

 

[RoJoHen]

Why make her an Orion? So we can have the classic image of Kirk banging green/alien chicks.

Yep.

And with that in mind, I'm perfectly okay with it.

 

[BolianAuthor]

I simply said that I felt it didn't look good.

You said she didn't look like an Orion. The only way she didn't look like Orions we've seen in the past is in the color of her lips and hair.

Right... I said that in MY opinion, she doesn't look like an Orion... because I personally didn't feel the look worked. I have a right to state my opinion. I can't help the fact that Trekker4747 didn't like what I had to say.

If he had recognized that it was just my opinion, it would have been cool, but instead he responded in a snide way, which generated an equally snide reply from me. If you want respect, you give respect.

 

[pookha]

i still wonder if she was part orion.
has anyone checked out the photo in the background in her room.

 

[Jeri]

I'll try to remember to do that when I get there; I just started screen capping the DVD, mining for Chris screen caps. I'm posting them in his thread.

 

[Kelso]

She should've been green, not blotchy greenish pink, whether it had to be done with makeup or with post-processing digital tricks. Even Susan Oliver looked better, and Yvonne Craig looked lots better.

They could have. The make-up and prosthetics work for this film was outstanding. They said in the special features (don't recall if it was the commentary or a featurette) that Gaila was intentionally made-up that way as a throwback to TOS. Also, it was made clear in a deleted scene that Gaila's make-up was touched up in post-production (likely needed after rolling around in the sack with JTK). The look in the completed film is definitely what they were going for.

Yvonne looked a lot better than Gaila but Susan Oliver definitely didn't (IMO, anyway). She had that blotchy look that I think they were going for with Gaila.

 

[Chrisisall]

in MY opinion, she doesn't look like an Orion... because I personally didn't feel the look worked.

I disagree, she was green & a babe, so that = Orion chick in my arrested adolescent playbook!

 

[Chrisisall]

Yvonne looked a lot better than Gaila

A LOT of green lighting helped- without it, the green was very pale, if a lot more even.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yvonne looked a lot better than Gaila

A LOT of green lighting helped- without it, the green was very pale, if a lot more even.

And with all of the lens flares it's not like you could focus on her anyway.

 

[Nerys Myk]

She looked better in the film than in the similar deleted scene. Her green reminded me more of Marta than Vina.

The deleted bit where Kirk says I'm sorry to another Orion because he thought she was Gaila was funny.

Some really good special features. Surprised at the "old school" approach they took for several shots.

Michael Giacchino's music was integral part of emotional impact of the George Kirk/Kelvin scenes. I hope the Oscar folks take notice.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Some other things:

Like how Kirk's "nice ride" had no spokes!

In the theater, I liked but did not love the main theme (cued up after Bones points to the Enterprise). Again, I did not love this theme. At the time, I was just glad that there was a theme at all (seems to be a lost art, but in true Trek tradition, J.J. used one) I'm thinking it hit all the notes and had the feeling we all wanted to have, without actually having that feeling, without giving me the chills, the way say, the First Contact's theme did. It plays much much better on video. It also works better in conjunction with the quiet version of the theme (first heard during the opening logos). I also liked the sad Vulcan music (first heard when Zacharay Quinto takes the screen). On home video I was also able to pay more attention to the incidental music, and aside from the DuDUUH duDUUH music in some but not all scenes (this is the theme when the Narada appears) I liked it.

The other moment I liked is a compliment to the writers and performers. Usually it's the writers I'm criticizing on a film like this. The most unbelievable moment early in the film, Kirk's promotion from cadet to first officer, was perfect. On paper, there's no way it could work. But thanks to Greenwood, it works so well. He has respect for this kid, based on their first chat, and also Kirks knowledge of this situation, and his ability to hang onto that gut instinct that Starfleet seems to have lost, made it perfectly reasonable to think absence of any time to make another choice) that Pike would give Kirk the promotion. Spock's reaction to this was very much in keeping with the character.