Yeah, the Guardian set is a good example of a nighttime planet set.
Soundstage "planets" that worked & those that didn't.
- Thread starter Grant
- Start date
You want the whole day to do whatever you came to do.
Reasons you might come at nightfall:
* in response to an emergency
* to attend a nighttime event
* because the species you came to meet has a different sleep cycle
* to ambush/catch someone by surprise
* to avoid being seen while you conduct covert observation
* to spring a hostage/prisoner from confinement
Reasons you might come at nightfall:
* in response to an emergency
* to attend a nighttime event
* because the species you came to meet has a different sleep cycle
* to ambush/catch someone by surprise
* to avoid being seen while you conduct covert observation
* to spring a hostage/prisoner from confinement
And
• to avoid solar radiation on a planet with a weak magnetic field, weak atmospheric protection, or a harsher type of star than we evolved under.
We see a transition to nightfall on Starbase 11. The Guardian of Forever is in the dark/dusk with remains of Greek-style ruins. Nice.
Wow, can't believe I forgot the "Guardian" set!!! So glad they went with night there! In fact, most of the 1930 Earth stuff was night as well. Such a great atmospheric episode. And I love the transition to night in Menagerie. They fixed a window shot in the remaster.
And on the other subject if you are visiting a planetary capital and you happen to arrive at night you have no choice.
Unless the people you've come to see are asleep and won't be back in the office until morning.
"Oh, you're here to discuss the asteroid about to strike our planet? Sorry, all government offices are closed until morning! Go away!"
"Please stay on the line and your comm will be answered in the order it was received....Your comm is important to us. Please hold."
I was assuming a scheduled visit. If it's a first contact, wouldn't it just be polite to wait until local daytime in the capital before announcing yourselves? I mean, showing up at night could be interpreted as hostile. (Unless the species is nocturnal, of course.)
In Taste of Armageddon, Ambassador Fox demanded Kirk force his way into orbit against the wishes of Anon 7. He wasn't about to wait until regular business hours. That would have been a good time to show arriving at night and minimize how unconvincing that "outdoor" courtyard looked. Especially as it was a re-use of the same setup from Menagerie.
^^thirded? Fourthed? n'thed? Unlike Pokemon, I canna' catch 'em all!
I also recall they had used some neat trickery for artificial depth of field/distance between locations as well.
Those looked amazing and naturally they had more money and time to get those right - and yeah, obviously Talos IV and Delta Vega utilized the same sets, rocks and backdrops, but both still looked like real alien worlds but not over the top awash with colors and stuff. Not saying I didn't love the series' use of color but there's a difference between a mountainous, dark cloudy painted backdrop and a purple empty sky. One feels like an alien world and the other like Stage 9 or whatever.
It's standard practice in cinematography to use wide-angle lenses to increase the apparent depth of a small set or location. A typical example is the shot at the 6:39 mark in "Metamorphosis."
I've always thought that technique could be useful for depicting alien planets in location filming. A smaller planet than Earth would have a closer horizon, and a larger planet would have a more distant one, so maybe you could simulate that with different lenses.
Another thing I often thought would be nice would be to use color filters to change the light spectrum to look like a redder or bluer star. Although I gather that the difference would be subtle to the eye, that the light would still pretty much look white. It might have a subtly different color temperature, though; for instance, a cool red star would have the same surface temperature as an incandescent light bulb filament, so outdoors light might have an indoor quality (at least by the standards of pre-LED lighting, which will be long forgotten by the time we reach alien planets).
I also wondered if a color filter effect could be used to change the color of vegetation and make it look alien. These days, it can be done digitally, but a notable pre-digital example was Battlestar Galactica: "War of the Gods," where they used some kind of color filter effect to make the plants look red/purplish (photo at http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2018/09/battlestar-galactica-13-war-of-gods.html ). It made the actors' skin and clothes more reddish too, but that could be attributed to an alien sun. I’m guessing they took the green negative, printed it in monochrome, rephotographed just it through a red filter, then recombined it with the other color negatives.
Yeah the two pilots looked real good. And kudos for Mudd's Women for at least having the sandstorms to make it unique.
TOS started out strong for the soundstage planets.
Cage
WNMHGB
Mudd's Women -- sandstorm with "rock and dirt"
Naked Time -- freezing weather despite "rocks and dirt"
Man Trap -- decent ruins
What Are...-- caverns that were multi-level and surface was frozen
Galileo -- fog at least with "rock and dirt"
Squire ...wooded area at night
City......Nice ruins at night
Season 1 was strong
TOS started out strong for the soundstage planets.
Cage
WNMHGB
Mudd's Women -- sandstorm with "rock and dirt"
Naked Time -- freezing weather despite "rocks and dirt"
Man Trap -- decent ruins
What Are...-- caverns that were multi-level and surface was frozen
Galileo -- fog at least with "rock and dirt"
Squire ...wooded area at night
City......Nice ruins at night
Season 1 was strong
Planet M-113 was particularly good, for both the ruins in a desert landscape, and that it seemed particularly expansive.
Yeah, the more I'm reading these thoughts, particularly those from @Grant, I'm remembering other eps with good use of the planet stage. City on the Edge of Forever was one that I forgot about too when thinking of the stage usage, which is weird since all April I was looking at a shot of Kirk and Spock inspecting the Guardian on my monthly Star Trek wall calendar. They really outdid themselves with that set dressing. I particularly like the eerie wind/atmospheric noise. Very spooky.
Also, no one has mentioned The Savage Curtain that I noticed. They did a very good job there conveying a large area, adding things like the raised terrain that Kirk deems "defensible," the zone where Yarnek hung out, and the enemy base camp where Col. Green and Kahless the Unforgettable Voice Impressionist chilled. It did not feel claustrophobic at all. Of course, I love that ep.
Also, no one has mentioned The Savage Curtain that I noticed. They did a very good job there conveying a large area, adding things like the raised terrain that Kirk deems "defensible," the zone where Yarnek hung out, and the enemy base camp where Col. Green and Kahless the Unforgettable Voice Impressionist chilled. It did not feel claustrophobic at all. Of course, I love that ep.
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I'm surprised by the praise for "City"'s Guardian ruins, since they feel pretty half-hearted to me -- just a bunch of faux-Roman columns lying around the big doughnut.
