Soundstage "planets" that worked & those that didn't.
- Thread starter Grant
- Start date
I just don't buy the columns. If the Guardian is as old as stated, then marble columns exposed to all that constant wind would've crumbled to dust and blown away long ago. All I can figure is that some comparatively recent civilization (Apollo's people, maybe?) built a structure around the far more ancient Guardian, and it's collapsed since they went away. Although the ruined walls and columns are positioned in weirdly random places that don't give a coherent sense of the structure they would've belonged to.
It's interesting to compare the "City" and "Yesteryear" versions of the Guardian. "City" puts it roughly in the middle of the ruins of some kind of temple-ish construct, consistent with my thought of a more recent structure erected around it. But "Yesteryear"'s rendering of the Guardian kind of makes it look as though the portal was originally an opening within the wall of a large structure, and now all the wall has crumbled away except for the portion surrounding the portal. It's an interesting interpretation.
Both versions show further ruins in the distance, which I hadn't really noticed before about "City." The original shows a Parthenon-like structure in the distance, while the "Yesteryear" ruins are rather different in style.
It's interesting to compare the "City" and "Yesteryear" versions of the Guardian. "City" puts it roughly in the middle of the ruins of some kind of temple-ish construct, consistent with my thought of a more recent structure erected around it. But "Yesteryear"'s rendering of the Guardian kind of makes it look as though the portal was originally an opening within the wall of a large structure, and now all the wall has crumbled away except for the portion surrounding the portal. It's an interesting interpretation.
Both versions show further ruins in the distance, which I hadn't really noticed before about "City." The original shows a Parthenon-like structure in the distance, while the "Yesteryear" ruins are rather different in style.
I'm sure the cyclorama backdrop could be struck and replaced as easily as any other cyclorama. It wasn't even the only cyclorama used in "The Cage" -- there was the Mojave cityscape backdrop in Pike's picnic illusion, later reused out a window in "The Conscience of the King." Although I guess they generally didn't have the budget for big, elaborate cycloramas, generally going for smaller window backdrops like the industrial complex outside the office in "The Devil in the Dark," later recycled in "The Gamesters of Triskelion."
The most striking difference between indoor and outdoor settings is the lighting. It is difficult to get that contrast indoors, or to create that "movie crew diffusing outdoor light" look on a soundstage. Part of the problem with multiple light sources is the multiple shadows one does not get from the Sun.
One production showing the Apollo Moon landings—it might have been HBO's From The Earth To The Moon—simulated that single-light-source effect by bouncing multiple stage lights off a single suspended reflector. (Clever.)
One production showing the Apollo Moon landings—it might have been HBO's From The Earth To The Moon—simulated that single-light-source effect by bouncing multiple stage lights off a single suspended reflector. (Clever.)
You don't suppose some archaeological/grave-robbing expedition managed to haul them back through the portal?
Or perhaps there was some kind of temple erected around this..."doorway to the heavens"/"eye of (the) God(s)" (what some space-faring race could have taken it to be)
Whether it was a Starlog interview or something on the Internet, I once saw Harlan Ellison explain the Guardian of Forever set. He said he'd spoken to the guy in charge (I'd guess Matt Jefferies), and said the Guardian should have runes everywhere, runes all over the place. And when he saw the finished product, he knew it had been misunderstood as ruins.
That's what the Greco-Roman columns were all about. They were the set designer's idea of ruins.
That's what the Greco-Roman columns were all about. They were the set designer's idea of ruins.
Did he write it out himself, or dictate it to someone who later typed it up?
He says Matt Jeffries "misheard" him.
https://www.startrek.com/news/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-guardian-of-forever.
He went back and looked at all his early treatments and NONE said runes.
So to save face he then says, it was spoken and misheard.
Like a productiin designer would think runes when preparing to create a planet set.
https://www.startrek.com/news/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-guardian-of-forever.
He went back and looked at all his early treatments and NONE said runes.
So to save face he then says, it was spoken and misheard.
Like a productiin designer would think runes when preparing to create a planet set.
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I've always thought the "runes" story sounded bogus as hell, but some citations would be nice to prove that.
I'm generally quite fond of the soundstage planets, but the one that really stood out as egregious to me was the one in Gamesters of Triskelion. The arena area is somewhat interesting, but the caves in which the brains are housed are this wave of off-blue headache fuel. The external areas seem to just reuse set pieces from COTEOF and other episodes already discussed in this thread, I swear some of those temple bricks are in the exact same configuration.
Similar ruins on various planets could signify a common, ancient, galaxy-spanning civilization that once populated these planets. Maybe Apollo's people? <But not Sargon's people; I would know.>
I think I once mentioned in a Trek novel that the Talosians had transplanted their chiming plants on numerous planets across the galaxy in their colonization era, to explain why we heard the Talos IV chiming plant sound from "The Cage" reused as background ambience on so many other alien planets in TOS.
To quote a certain brash young military genius from "Tomorrow Is Yesterday," "That ought to be just about right."
If memory serves, Jefferies didn't even work on "City." It was Rolland M. Brooks who designed it. So, the second rune story falls apart as well.
Sir Rhosis
Ruined again.
