Spiff-o-rama! I am seriously looking forward to this! How close are you folks keeping to the 1978 draft of the script?
Phase II - Your Opinions?
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Spiff-o-rama! I am seriously looking forward to this! How close are you folks keeping to the 1978 draft of the script?
Well, there's been a lot of Klingon water under the bridge since 1978, so it did have to be reworked a bit. And Lucas' script had only progressed as far as a working draft--not a final shooting script. Also, our series doesn't have Decker or Ilia (and we only have Xon to a very limited degree since we still have Spock in our Phase II series). So some script changes were necessary.
So, all that being said, we really want to do Lucas' story as best we can. That's sort of the point. If we wanted to take the story in a different direction, we'd just call it something different. So, I feel comfortable that we are adhering to Lucas' story--certainly in spirit even if not every single little plot detail. I'm sure we own't please everyone. (We never do.) But as the Co-Executive Producer (and being pretty knowledgable on all matters Trek), I'm probably one of our toughest critics--and I'm happy with how we are realizing the story. But we're still two months away from shooting it, so we'll know more after we get some footage in the can. (Well, on the hard drive.)
Yay!
I'd trade Voyager and Enterprise...not the others...
Well, maybe some of those later seasons of TNG!
You know (slightly OT) I was just skimming through my copy of the Phase II book by the Reeves-Stevens and was amused to find a memo from Jon Povill to Gene Roddenberry noting that costume designer Bill Theiss recalled the existence of the rank of Commodore, and together suggested only promoting Kirk to Commodore rather than Admiral, allowing him to command the ship without a convoluted rank reduction.
It's a shame more people didn't listen to Jon Povill...
It's a shame more people didn't listen to Jon Povill...
Roddenberry stated somewhere, probably around the time of TNG but maybe earlier, that he never liked the sound of "commodore"; said it sounded like some rich guy tooling around on his yacht.
Sounds good. Looking forward to seeing this when you release it. Good luck!
Ummm...how tiny is that smaller ship? it's in front of the battlecruiser and thus looks like a 2 seater.
Oh no. The Bird of Prey scaling problem rears its ugly head once again.
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/bop-size.htm
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/bop-size.htm
Always take the size of Bird of Prey ships seen on movie posters with a grain of salt:
I'm not sure, but I think our artist Jeff Hayes used the Bird of Prey ship that we used in our episode "To Serve All My Days." In that episode, we created a CGI model for a Bird of Prey ship that had elements from the ENT version of the vessel and elements from the movie era version of the vessel. So the "To Serve All My Days" Klingon Bird of Prey was a "unique" custom-designed ship that was meant to convey a design style more recent than the ENT version, but not as advanced as we see (will see?) thirteen or so years later at the events of ST III. Our designe is somewhere between the two.
At least I think that's the version Jeff used in this artwork. Of course, even if Jeff used a pure ENT version, it's possible that such vessels are still in use by the Klingon fleet. We see in "Kitumba" that there are factions in the Klingon empire--and some factions are better equipped militarily than other factions. Also, not a single frame of footage of the episode has been shot. I wouldn't take the artwork from this poster to be necesarily indicative of the final vessel rendering in our upcoming episode, any more than the ST IV artwork accurately conveys that a Bird of Prey is actually the size of the Golden Gate Bridge.
I'm not sure, but I think our artist Jeff Hayes used the Bird of Prey ship that we used in our episode "To Serve All My Days." In that episode, we created a CGI model for a Bird of Prey ship that had elements from the ENT version of the vessel and elements from the movie era version of the vessel. So the "To Serve All My Days" Klingon Bird of Prey was a "unique" custom-designed ship that was meant to convey a design style more recent than the ENT version, but not as advanced as we see (will see?) thirteen or so years later at the events of ST III. Our designe is somewhere between the two.
At least I think that's the version Jeff used in this artwork. Of course, even if Jeff used a pure ENT version, it's possible that such vessels are still in use by the Klingon fleet. We see in "Kitumba" that there are factions in the Klingon empire--and some factions are better equipped militarily than other factions. Also, not a single frame of footage of the episode has been shot. I wouldn't take the artwork from this poster to be necesarily indicative of the final vessel rendering in our upcoming episode, any more than the ST IV artwork accurately conveys that a Bird of Prey is actually the size of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Oh, that's cool that it's a new design. I just spotted that it wasn't the 'old' BoP and the ENT resemblance and assumed it was the same one - which led to my unasked question regarding why would you choose to use this one, which I think you have nicely answered already anyway. It's of course conceivable that such a ship would have still been in use.
And I'm very much looking forward to 'Kitumba.' Truly one of Trek's great missed opportunities that you guys are making up for.
And I'm very much looking forward to 'Kitumba.' Truly one of Trek's great missed opportunities that you guys are making up for.
Well, the good news is that you're going to get your chance--sort of....
We'll be shooting in June.
Wow, great news. When can we expect to see the episode?
Well, we seem to be running a bit over a year after an episode is shot to get all the post production work done and get the episode out the door. So, with Kitumba shooting in June (two months from now), I probably would start expecting it in June of 2010.
In the meantime, having released the hour-long "Blood and Fire, Part 1" a few months ago in December, we still have the second hour-long part "Blood and Fire, Part 2" to get out the door in the next month or so. After that, we have the hour-long "Enemy: Starfleet" (filmed in June of last year) and "The Child" filmed in October of last year; those need to be released, too.
In the meantime, having released the hour-long "Blood and Fire, Part 1" a few months ago in December, we still have the second hour-long part "Blood and Fire, Part 2" to get out the door in the next month or so. After that, we have the hour-long "Enemy: Starfleet" (filmed in June of last year) and "The Child" filmed in October of last year; those need to be released, too.
When I look at the few stills we have of the Phase II production I'm less than impressed. I agree that it didn't look as good as TOS. I also didn't think much of the story proposals I've read with the exception of "Kitumba" and its take on the Klingons. That said they were hardly finished story proposals. And many of TOS' story proposals didn't sound like much either until fully fleshed out and finalized for filming.
I'm also one of the few not enthralled with the Phase II refit--I think it looks rather awkward and ill-proportioned. I think the TMP is a serious improvement over the Phase II version.
Candidly, in a way we did get Phase II eventually, because much of it resonates similarly as TNG.
I addressed this years ago in an article that got printed in Best of Trek #13, where I joked about a Romulan Size Changing Device to go with the cloaking device.
So, I've been working on a little project for our upcoming episode "Kitumba."
Folks probably know that the symbol that's been associated with the Klingon Empire is a three-pointed thing superimposed on a yellowish circle:
But here's a bit more background on this symbol from an Original Series standpoint:
The insignia appears in three TOS episodes: "Elaan of Troyius," "The Enterprise Incident," and "Day of the Dove." In these episodes, it's just barely visible on the underside of the Klingon (or "Romulan") ship model in two different views:
You can also see it (just barely--if you have a very good eye) on Matt Jefferies' diagram of the ship as it appears on the little tri-screen viewer in the briefing room:
It should be noted that both the studio filming model and the large original prototype of the AMT model kit have the same insignia:
But clearly (and probably most importantly), the best look at the Klingon insignia is the view from "Elaan of Troyius:"
You can see from this shot that the yellow circle is actually a pale yellow, the red wedge is just, well, red, and the green wedge is a light mint green. The third wedge is actually black, not blue as people sometimes think. Notice also that the tallest point points off to the right.
Interestingly, since the Klingon Battlecruiser model was used as a new Romulan ship in "The Enterprise Incident," and since you could just barely make out the Klingon insignia on what was supposed to be a Romulan ship, the TOS production folks actually went to the trouble of developing a symbol for the Romulans that looked somewhat like the Klingon insignia and which plausibly could have been the hard-to-see insignia visible on the underside of the ship model:
(Notice that it has that same "red, green, and black three prongs on a yellow background" look. But notice that instead of the triangular wedge-shaped prongs, the Romulan insignia has little propeller-shaped prongs that are actually the shape of the Romulan doorways throughout the ship interiors.)
At any rate, the animated episode "More Tribbles, More Troubles" had a pretty faithful re-creation of a Klingon ship, and the Klingon insignia on the ship was in its "proper" left-to-right orientation:
However, when the interior of the Klingon ship was shown in this same animated episode, the Klingon insignia was placed in a new up-and-down orientation--and the colors were brighter, closer to primary colors, with blue introduced instead of black:
(Apparently, the artistist/producers hadn't seen "Elaan of Troyius" recently.)
So, the corruption of the Klingon insignia (from a muted, left-to-right insignia shown in TOS to a more brightly colored, up-and-down insignia) all began with the animated episode "More Tribbles, More Troubles." The up-and-down "incorrect" orientation stuck--and the rest is now Star Trek history.
But here's a clean copy of the true Klingon insignia from TOS before it got corrupted in "More Tribbles, More Troubles:"
At any rate, since we'll be seeing a bunch of Klingon stuff in "Kitumba," I needed to create some Klingon signs. But being proudly Old School, I went back to the original Matt Jefferies colors for the symbol. So rather than having symbols made that look like the "conventional wisdom" Klingon symbol (well, okay I do have one):
...I had some made that look like this:
Here it is with a nearby lightswitch to get some scale:
And another shot to get some scale:
Lastly, you can see that I got a bunch of these:
Matt Jefferies was a color genius and getting Trek to look just right depends a lot on getting the colors just right. Even though the symbol is probably visible for no more than about thirty seconds total time over the course of the entire series, it just looks so much more classic Trek when you get the subtle, muted coloration just right--instead of using garish primary colors.
Folks probably know that the symbol that's been associated with the Klingon Empire is a three-pointed thing superimposed on a yellowish circle:
But here's a bit more background on this symbol from an Original Series standpoint:
The insignia appears in three TOS episodes: "Elaan of Troyius," "The Enterprise Incident," and "Day of the Dove." In these episodes, it's just barely visible on the underside of the Klingon (or "Romulan") ship model in two different views:
You can also see it (just barely--if you have a very good eye) on Matt Jefferies' diagram of the ship as it appears on the little tri-screen viewer in the briefing room:
It should be noted that both the studio filming model and the large original prototype of the AMT model kit have the same insignia:
But clearly (and probably most importantly), the best look at the Klingon insignia is the view from "Elaan of Troyius:"
You can see from this shot that the yellow circle is actually a pale yellow, the red wedge is just, well, red, and the green wedge is a light mint green. The third wedge is actually black, not blue as people sometimes think. Notice also that the tallest point points off to the right.
Interestingly, since the Klingon Battlecruiser model was used as a new Romulan ship in "The Enterprise Incident," and since you could just barely make out the Klingon insignia on what was supposed to be a Romulan ship, the TOS production folks actually went to the trouble of developing a symbol for the Romulans that looked somewhat like the Klingon insignia and which plausibly could have been the hard-to-see insignia visible on the underside of the ship model:
(Notice that it has that same "red, green, and black three prongs on a yellow background" look. But notice that instead of the triangular wedge-shaped prongs, the Romulan insignia has little propeller-shaped prongs that are actually the shape of the Romulan doorways throughout the ship interiors.)
At any rate, the animated episode "More Tribbles, More Troubles" had a pretty faithful re-creation of a Klingon ship, and the Klingon insignia on the ship was in its "proper" left-to-right orientation:
However, when the interior of the Klingon ship was shown in this same animated episode, the Klingon insignia was placed in a new up-and-down orientation--and the colors were brighter, closer to primary colors, with blue introduced instead of black:
(Apparently, the artistist/producers hadn't seen "Elaan of Troyius" recently.)
So, the corruption of the Klingon insignia (from a muted, left-to-right insignia shown in TOS to a more brightly colored, up-and-down insignia) all began with the animated episode "More Tribbles, More Troubles." The up-and-down "incorrect" orientation stuck--and the rest is now Star Trek history.
But here's a clean copy of the true Klingon insignia from TOS before it got corrupted in "More Tribbles, More Troubles:"
At any rate, since we'll be seeing a bunch of Klingon stuff in "Kitumba," I needed to create some Klingon signs. But being proudly Old School, I went back to the original Matt Jefferies colors for the symbol. So rather than having symbols made that look like the "conventional wisdom" Klingon symbol (well, okay I do have one):
...I had some made that look like this:
Here it is with a nearby lightswitch to get some scale:
And another shot to get some scale:
Lastly, you can see that I got a bunch of these:
Matt Jefferies was a color genius and getting Trek to look just right depends a lot on getting the colors just right. Even though the symbol is probably visible for no more than about thirty seconds total time over the course of the entire series, it just looks so much more classic Trek when you get the subtle, muted coloration just right--instead of using garish primary colors.
Well, part of our problem is that when Lucas first wrote "Kitumba," we had only seen Klingons in a half dozen or so episodes. So "Kitumba" was meant to be the episode where we learn about the Klingon culture--and since it was a two-parter, it took a full two hours to edumacate the audience.
Well, since the time it was written, there have been hours and hours and hours and hours of produced Star Trek that involve the Klingons. So Lucas' story isn't the exciting, revalatory grand epic it once was. After thirty years, much of what he wanted to do has actually already been done.
So, I think we have a good story. It's a little more "cut to the chase" than it was originally and now it's not so "sweeping" in its grandeur. But you'll certainly recognize it--and large swaths of the original script are relatively unchanged. But we all know a whole lot more about the Star Trek universe and its characters now than Lucas did thirty years ago. And that thirty year's worth of Trek and Klingon information provides both obstacles and opportunities as we tweak the script for a more informed Trek consuming audience.
Well, since the time it was written, there have been hours and hours and hours and hours of produced Star Trek that involve the Klingons. So Lucas' story isn't the exciting, revalatory grand epic it once was. After thirty years, much of what he wanted to do has actually already been done.
So, I think we have a good story. It's a little more "cut to the chase" than it was originally and now it's not so "sweeping" in its grandeur. But you'll certainly recognize it--and large swaths of the original script are relatively unchanged. But we all know a whole lot more about the Star Trek universe and its characters now than Lucas did thirty years ago. And that thirty year's worth of Trek and Klingon information provides both obstacles and opportunities as we tweak the script for a more informed Trek consuming audience.
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