Nichols's MLK story - latest re-telling

[WRStone]

Hm ... I have to say that even if there weren't finer points over which to be argued, what happened with TOS' pilots was fairly rare.

What's interesting to me is that, having read Inside Star Trek, it becomes clear that what NBC was asking Desilu to do was actually a big financial gamble. For a while, Desilu weren't sure they'd do it.

At that time, Desilu was intentionally attempting to re-make its image. It had previously been known only as Lucille Ball's studio, making her incredibly successful weekly sit-com.

A show like Star Trek really should have been completely out of their league. No one within the studio had the slightest expertise at anything other than situation comedy: static cameras with even lighting filmed before a live audience.

To their credit, they invented the conventions of the sit-com genre. Before them, no one shot sit-coms the way they did. After them, all sit-coms shot that way. They still all shoot that way.

Desilu invented that, and they had become a well-oiled machine. Lucille Ball's sit-coms had been virtually printing money for the studio for a decade. The people who'd been there from the beginning had become fabulously wealthy doing what they did.

Consequently, there were people inside the studio itself who would have benefited personally should the studio's pilots fail. Consequently, they made hay out of nothing on a frequent basis, stalled when required to do work for the pilots, and produced almost nothing that could be used when they did.

(It's why Wah Chang's brilliant work was used so frequently -- yet they often had to cover up that they were using him. They knew the studio would produce crap, but they couldn't say, "You produce crap, we're going to use this other guy." That would certainly have pissed off Lucy, and she'd been working succussfully with the studio departments for years. She and Desi had built them from nothing, after all.

(So they'd get Wah Chang to work for as little as they could, so that they could hide the expenditures in other parts of the budget.

(They couldn't let this Asian guy be seen coming and going from the studio all the time. This was the 1960s, minorities were noticed. And in any case, Wah Chang had done work for a lot of studios over the years and somebody might know him.

(Then there was the union. As a member of his union, Desilu was contractually obliged to pay at least the union minimum for his work and give him appropriate screen credit. The the Star Trek production couldn't pay him that much, nor give him the level of screen credit he deserved because it would alert someone.

(But Wah Chang wasn't all that hung up about the money: he apparently figured he was getting a good deal from the Trek production, regardless. He also shared that rather legendary Chinese trait of shyness and self-effacement, so the screen credit wasn't as important to him as it might have been. He just loved doing the work and getting paid for it.

(So they arranged to meet Wah Chang at odd places and times to pick up his masterpieces. It was like making a drug buy in a lot of ways.)

And it wasn't just Star Trek: Desilu was producing a battery of pilots that included Mission: Impossible ... don't quote me, but I believe either Cannon or Mannix (two popular detective shows) were also in their battery of pilots that year.

Desilu, at Lucille Ball's direction, was attempting to be taken seriously. All the producers hired were told that this wasn't a joke, that Desilu really wanted to do this. They all worked hard and they generally all ran into stone walls with the old guard.

So here's the pilot season, and a couple are picked up -- not bad, but not amazing, either. But NBC's asked for a second one. And it was by far the most expensive pilot to make.

It was the most expensive production the studio had ever undertaken, in fact. Its production caused studio bean counters to wet their pants every single day that it was filming.

And now NBC wanted another one.

They very nearly didn't do it. If NBC didn't pick it up, they could be out a lot of money. They discussed possibly releasing combined or extended footage from either (or both) as a low-budget feature. They talked about selling it as a movie-of-the-week. They negotiated with NBC to foot more of the bill this time around.

The only financially palatable part was that they could certainly re-use all the sets, costumes, etc., thereby amortizing what had been a horrific single expenditure over two. If they then gave NBC as much direct control over the story as possible, it would also maximize the probability of being picked up.

(That's why Star Trek got sold, by the way. Desilu gave NBC their pick of three very different scripts: "The Omega Glory," "I, Mudd," and "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

(Roddenberry's script was "Omega." He lobbied for it hard. It was and is a crappy script and would never have sold the series. "I, Mudd" was a little risque and might not have sold. Fortunately, NBC chose the most action-oriented one of the three.

(Roddenberry's lobbying for "Omega" damned near got it killed, though. He was ... tenacious.)

In short, they did a lot of financial soul-searching before they decided to green-light it.

That, to me, is the considerably more interesting story: what was going on behind the decisions. Why did this thing happen and not another? Oh, it's because this guy over here had been whispering in Lucy's ear, trying to scare the shit out of her mid-production, to curry favor.

To me, that's the fascinating part of the story.

Dakota Smith

 

[number6]

It was actually Mudd's Women..not I Mudd..

and yes, Omega Glory was a crapfest.

E Pleb Neesta.

 

[WRStone]

It was actually Mudd's Women..not I Mudd..

and yes, Omega Glory was a crapfest.

E Pleb Neesta.

I stand corrected.

The only thing that motivates me to wonder at all about what "The Omega Glory" might have looked like as a pilot is Shatner's performance.

To me, Shatner's career can be artistically divided into serveral parts: his early work through Star Trek's first season; Star Trek's second season; and then a long period following the dissolution of his first marriage and death of his father.

These two events appear to have affected Shatner profoundly, and had a direct impact on his performances. Particularly prior to the death of his father, Shatner's performance as Kirk was more understated and introspective. It was never deeply understated, but there is a vast difference between his performance in first-season episodes and those of the third.

I contend that the emotional impact of his failing marriage, his father's death, and the development of tinnitus combined to produce a lengthy period of emotional distress. Through the entire period of the late second season of Star Trek through TMP, Shatner relied more on technique and less on internalized acting.

Then came ST2 -- and Nick Meyer wouldn't put up with that shit. He harassed and cajoled Shatner to quit "acting" and put in a little true emotional investment.

It was just what Shatner needed. His performance in ST2 and everything later reflects his having overcome the pain he'd been experiencing. He became the talented, versatile actor he'd been in his youth. He's remained that way, with a very few exceptions, ever since.

I would be interested to see how a more understated, truly emotionally invested Shatner would play the discovery of the Constitution. By the end of the second season, his performances were already suffering. His legendary recitation of the Preamble is evidence of this.

What would that recitation sound like, coming from an earlier Shatner? A less technical and more emotionally-invested one?

It would never be a great episode, but I'd like to see the performance.

Dakota Smith

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

JoeD80 is right about the pilot thing - most of those other shows were bought on the basis of the initial pilot, which in some cases was reworked substantially after the shows went into production and in others was not used at all. What was rather remarkable about Star Trek was that after spending an enormous sum of money, for the time, on a pilot that they were not willing to buy a series based upon the network then invested a great deal more money in a second expensive film.

 

[Maurice]

JoeD80 is right about the pilot thing - most of those other shows were bought on the basis of the initial pilot, which in some cases was reworked substantially after the shows went into production and in others was not used at all. What was rather remarkable about Star Trek was that after spending an enormous sum of money, for the time, on a pilot that they were not willing to buy a series based upon the network then invested a great deal more money in a second expensive film.

That's true. For instance, "All In the Family" had several pilots, but the changes were mostly in casting, as they essentially refilmed the same story several times with only the two leads remaining the same. Star Trek basically rebooted: new cast, new story, tweaked style (more action adventure, less Forbidden Planet).

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

And of course, the cost of reshooting a three-camera video sitcom wasn't comparable to that of films like the Star Trek pilots.

 

[DevilEyes]

^ I am aching for the moment when Nichelle Nichols joins this board and gets half of the membership banned...

Agreed. It is interesting to note that most of those same posters would never say such awful things to her face.

banned for what? Who said anything awful?

In case you've missed the recent goings-on on TrekBBS, posters have been permanently banned and threads closed on the DS9 forum just because of fairly innocuous and at worst mildly offensive remarks about a DS9 actress who happens to be a member of TrekBBS and who posted on the forum, along with her boyfriend, immediately after the comments were made. (Despite the fact that most people didn't know she was a forum member.) The funniest thing is that those offensive remarks weren't 0.1% as offensive as some of the stuff posted about Nichelle Nichols here. I'm just laughing at the irony of it all...

 

[T'Bonz]

You don't really need to bring that in here, but as a correction, the bans in that case were temporary.

 

[number6]

You don't really need to bring that in here, but as a correction, the bans in that case were temporary.

And thus those photographs remain safely on my hard drive.

 

[DevilEyes]

You don't really need to bring that in here, but as a correction, the bans in that case were temporary.

I thought some of them weren't.

 

[Lord Garth]

If Nichelle Nichols were to post here, I'd welcome it because she ought to have the opportunity to defend herself. Otherwise, if Martin Luther King III has no problem with any embellishment, then neither do I.

There are worse things out there than embellishment which has a positive social message.

 

[A beaker full of death]

^ Not sure what the positive social message is. Having a black female officer in the first place was the positive social message. The MLK story is really just a positive Nichols message. Hey, I don't begrudge her. I think she's the bee's knees, I really do. I just remain amused.

 

[Captain Robert April]

A few historical notes, Shatner's father died during the filming of "The Devil In the Dark", his marriage started disintegrating during the third season, and, although it hasn't been confirmed, due to failing memories, I suspect that the tinnitus was the result of the explosion in the teaser for "Requiem For Methuselah", again, third season.

And I should start hitting the DS9 forum...

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Interesting thread....

....And I do like the idea of a docu-drama, if done right...

There have been too many in the past that have been done quick and cheap for other shows or celebrities...i.e. Giligan's Island, MC Hammer, and Three's Company...

 

[WRStone]

A few historical notes, Shatner's father died during the filming of "The Devil In the Dark", his marriage started disintegrating during the third season, and, although it hasn't been confirmed, due to failing memories, I suspect that the tinnitus was the result of the explosion in the teaser for "Requiem For Methuselah", again, third season.

You're quite right, of course. It was really a whole series of events over a couple of years. Add to it that after Star Trek he was forced to make a living finding whatever work he could. He lived in a trailer hitched to his car -- the only thing he could afford. He doesn't talk abut it a lot, but he was dead busted broke for several years.

By the end of it all, his performances were nowhere near what they had been. It continued right up through ST1: lots of technique, not so much true emotional investment.

Shatner simply overcame it somehow. He's been really excellent ever since. He's particularly learned understated comedy, where he used to be much more broad. There's a scene in Boston Legal where he's facing sexual harrassment charges that's fantastic simply because of his understated performance. Straightforward, non-nonsense telling of the facts as Denny Crane sees it -- that happens to be gut-bustingly hysterical as a consequence.

Like I say, he got a lot better.

Dakota Smith

 

[Noname Given]

A few historical notes, Shatner's father died during the filming of "The Devil In the Dark", his marriage started disintegrating during the third season, and, although it hasn't been confirmed, due to failing memories, I suspect that the tinnitus was the result of the explosion in the teaser for "Requiem For Methuselah", again, third season.

And I should start hitting the DS9 forum...

I always thought William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy stated the tinnitus accident occured during filming of the ground Starbase undwer attack scenes of Arena? (first season).

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

Yes, that one is *THE* Lost in Space pilot. As I said, "The Reluctant Stowaway" was *not a pilot*. I don't know in how many ways I can say the same thing. Pilots are used for selling. CBS bought the show after the one above and requested their changes. NBC did *NOT* buy Trek after "The Cage." They only ordered a second pilot and didn't order the series until after "Where No Man Has Gone Before." This is perhaps confused by the use of the term "pilot" as interchangeable with "first episode" which is not the way I am using it here.

JoeD80,

I was not criticizing your previous post I was merely supplying additional information for you and anyone else interested in watching the original pilot of "Lost In Space". It was meant to support your previous post not contradict it, I apologize for the confusion.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[Captain Robert April]

Neither of them remember which episode it happened, but Arena is out because those big explosions that went off next to them were actually gas jets with colored fuller's earth. The actual sound was more of a WHOOMF! than the big kaboom that was added in later. Besides, that sequence was shot outdoors, and Shatner and Nimoy both describe the scene as being in the soundstage, and De Kelley was with them (not the case with Arena; De stayed back by the ruins while Bill and Leonard went running through the barrage).

Specifically, the three of them were on set, the explosion was set off, but someone forgot to crack open the stage doors to allow the pressure wave to escape out, so it basically reverberated inside the soundstage, putting the whammo on everyone inside, particularly the three actors closest to the explosion. The result was the tinnitus.

And the only scene that fits that scenario is that opening scene from "Requiem For Methuselah".

 

[Hober Mallow]

But of course, MLK was such a trekie that he undoubtedly would have been the first in line to buy it. After all, it was the only tv show his wife would let him watch.

I didn't say anything about Dr. King, only that the 23rd Century was established earlier than 1982.

 

[WRStone]

Specifically, the three of them were on set, the explosion was set off, but someone forgot to crack open the stage doors to allow the pressure wave to escape out, so it basically reverberated inside the soundstage, putting the whammo on everyone inside, particularly the three actors closest to the explosion. The result was the tinnitus.

And the only scene that fits that scenario is that opening scene from "Requiem For Methuselah".

Interestingly enough, I'm a sufferer of tinnitus myself. It's not as bad as Shatner's -- it's occasionally annoying, but never made me suicidal. I can, however, entirely sympathize with someone who has it bad. I can see where it could drive one to suicide. It's why I think it contributed to that period of his career.

Anyway, I've never been around a loud noise to speak of. There appear to be a lot of us, and it's causing some fascinating changes in the theories behind tinnitus:

One popular theory suggests that tinnitus may also be caused not by a loud noise but by a constant sound at a specific frequency -- regardless of amplitude.

It's actually fascinating, because it gets into what your brain is doing. Everybody's experienced it -- we think of them as background sounds: birds, traffic, wind, anything that produces a sound you hear all the time. You're not generally consciously aware of them.

The way this appears to work in your brain is that after a while, your brain starts to subconsciously generating counter-frequencies to all these background sounds.

The reason is primarily psychological: the ape down deep in your brain determines that none of these sounds represent a threat. Your brain responds by producing counter-frequencies. These counter-frequencies reduce the perceived amplitude of the sounds hitting your auditory nerves.

Eventually, you never the notice the noise, until you really want to. Then the ape in your brain tells the counter-frequency generator, "Hang on, I need to hear this."

Amazingly, your brain does this for sound psychological reasons: if you heard every sound with equal clarity and apparent psychological importance, you'd never be able to relax. You'd be too busy trying to process all the sound input.

Now, all is well and good, except that after a few years around the sound (particularly if it's constant, like modern traffic sounds), your brain forgets how to turn off the counter-frequency. The ape can no longer say, "Hang on, I need to hear this."

Now any time you're not around the sound, you hear a ringing. It's not the offending sound but rather the counter-frequency your brain is generating. The ringing only exists in your head, generated by your brain at an autonomic level.

Theoretically, it ought to be able to counteract this kind of problem by training yourself to consciously listen for whatever frequency is missing. That is, tell yourself, "Apparently you wern't listening to the ape. Shut off for a second, I need to hear this!

Again, theoretically, it ought to be possible to train yourself to "turn off" the counter-frequency for longer periods until it's no longer occurring at all.

Unfortunately, nobody's really investigated this, yet -- it's all theory. Me, I kind of took matters into my own hands:

I got myself a decent pair of headphones and a frequency generating program. I adjust the frequency upward, starting at 20 Hz and listen.

Theoretically, at some point I should hit the offending frequency and the ringing will be reduced. Maybe even removed, at least as long as I'm listening to that frequency.

When I've got that, I can try producing just that frequency for an extended period of time and train myself to listen for it in my surroundings.

Again, very theoretical and painstaking. I wish I had a couple of million bucks to study it right: I really need auditory specialists to tell me about response times, for example: how long should I listen to a specific frequency before abandoning it? Should the ringing immediately disappear, will it take half an hour, a day? Does anyone even know ... ?

Occasionally I'm thrown a bone: I discovered that the Series 5 Doctor Who theme, played at a normal volume with headphones, will offer a fair amount of relief. This isn't true of previous mixes of the theme.

Therefore, there are frequencies contained within the Series 5 orchestration -- specific to that orchestration -- that are probably in the range of that which is being countered by my brain. It gives me someplace to look, anyway ...

If you know someone who gives out grants for projects like this, I've got the experience to run it. Plus, I'll be Test Subject #1 ...

Anyway, to bring it all back to topic a little, it's certainly possible (in their case probable) that the tinnitus was caused by a sudden, loud, sound. However, it's also possible that it was caused by, say, a noise consistently made by soundstage or theatrical equipment.

In either case, if the theory is correct -- that the ringing is primarily a subconscious activity of the brain -- there's still hope for Shatner's kind of tinnitus. The variation amounts to:

What he's suffering is a high-amplitude counter-frequency thrown up to protect him from a sudden, catestrophically-loud noise. It was so catestrophic that his brain immediately incorporated it and instantly forgot how to shut it off.

Bascially, the ape said, "Frak! What was that?! Turn it down so I can hear again, right now! Something horrifically bad is happening and I can't be bothered with these loud noises while I fight or flee!!"

His brain complied, but the sound only occurred once. Now he's got this huge counter-frequency running that can't be stopped.

Again, if this is correct and if it can be researched and developed, it would ultimately offer hope for even for the worst tinnitus sufferers like Shatner.

Actually, now that I think about it, I want Shatner as Test Subject #1. In his case, we can immediately narrow the frequency range from at least 20-20KHz to those frequencies produced by the type of explosion used on the soundstage.

Ok, we're gonna need some explosives and a soundstage for this one. First we recreate the "Requiem" exterior set as faithfully as possible, up to and including building construction. Then we get a series of high-sample-rate recorders. Place the recorders in the approximate positions of the actors' ears, and fire in the hole!

Analyze the frequencies, particularly the high-amplitude ones, then we feed it to Shatner. When he gets relief, we know we're on the right track.

Who says science can't be fun and needn't incorporate Star Trek in some way?

Dakota Smith

(I know it all sounds very Zen, but there are days when the ringing can drive you a little bonkers. If there's a chance I can train myself to be rid of it, I'll take it, thanks. There's presently no real treatment at all, so what am I out? )