Star Trek V..... what the?

[Therin of Andor]

IIRC, at conventions in the late 80s, Richard Arnold would often be asked questions about the USS Ti-Ho, which Shane Johnson's "Scotty's Guide to the Enterprise" book speculated was the just-completed ship hastily rechristened Enterprise-A at the end of ST IV.

Instead, he'd tell about how the Star Trek Office had decided for themselves that it would more likely be the new Yorktown - a real-world homage to Gene Roddenberry's first choice of a ship name in his early Star Trek proposals. (Essentially, it was a resistence to let a licensed tie-in influence the source material, but it didn't attempt to take into account that one of the little filmed pieces for ST IV's monitor screens was already showing an existing Yorktown.)

Obviously, an intended replacement had been built but the original had not yet been decommissioned.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

A beaker full of death said:
Likely. But other than the Klingon torpedo nothing was glaringly bad to me.

You've got to be kidding. The Shuttle Crash-landing sequence is atrocious... The scale between the Enterprise and the Shuttle as it enters the bay is completely off and the whole thing looks pretty shoddy. And speaking of scale, the Shuttle Bay in this movie always looked a little small to me.

 

[Timo]

Still, it was a very nice modification of the original TOS design, going back to some basics after TMP had shown a more radical departure... Obviously, some effort was put to it. (And to camouflaging the fact that the set had to be built on the cheap.)

I had little problem with the shuttle crash as such - the use of full-size props always helps in selling the "reality" of a scene. Sure, the motion control on the shuttle was quite dodgy, just as with all the ships, and not something I'd expect from an effects shop that actually stays in business. But again, they did a reasonably good job at hiding the biggest problems, such as giving other eye candy like Yosemite landscapes to ogle at when the cruddy shuttle flight scenes were playing.

Agreed, though, that these visuals are the first and foremost put-off in the movie, and that doing them better would help hide the other faults - just like good visuals help hide the shortcomings of ST2.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Timo said:
Obviously, some effort was put to it. (And to camouflaging the fact that the set had to be built on the cheap.)

Only if by "some" you mean "not a whole lot of," because if anyone had put minimal effort into the project they could have whipped out a measuring tape to make sure the dimensions of the set, or the scale of the frakking models, was correct.

the use of full-size props always helps in selling the "reality" of a scene.

Not "always." The effects in the shuttle crash sequence never fail to pull me right out of the movie, because it is so completely awful.

 

[A beaker full of death]

EliyahuQeoni said:

Not "always." The effects in the shuttle crash sequence never fail to pull me right out of the movie, because it is so completely awful.

Sucks to be you. I love the shuttle crash.

 

[FalTorPan]

The VFX of Star Trek V never bothered me. Then again, I still enjoy the original Doctor Who, as well as Plan 9 from Outer Space.

 

[Maurice]

^^^I just saw Plan Nine with the RiffTrax guys beating it to a bloody pulp live in San Francisco last week.

 

[FalTorPan]

Live? Wow! I have the RiffTrax-enriched DVD, and while the commentary is funny, it only features Mike Nelson.

 

[Maurice]

Try this...

http://shop.rifftrax.com/rifftrax/plan-9-outer-space-three-riffer-edition

 

[FalTorPan]

Thanks for the link!

 

[Caligula]

Was there not also a Writer's Guild Strike going on at the time, or was that a little earlier in the 80's?

I've never been particularly hard on Star Trek V myself. Sure, it's got issues.... major ones.... but I can't think of a TOS film that more strongly represented the relationship between the big three. Not even TWOK, my personal favorite Trek film. Also, TFF was the first Trek film I saw theatrically (having been just seven years old at the time), so I kinda have a soft spot for it.

 

[Nebusj]

EliyahuQeoni said:

Timo said:
Obviously, some effort was put to it. (And to camouflaging the fact that the set had to be built on the cheap.)

Only if by "some" you mean "not a whole lot of," because if anyone had put minimal effort into the project they could have whipped out a measuring tape to make sure the dimensions of the set, or the scale of the frakking models, was correct.

I remember how upsetting it was, all us fans sitting there eagerly opening night, holding our sextants up to the screen and hastily working out calculations which showed that no, this was not appropriately sized for the shuttle bay! All die, O the embarrassment.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Caligula said:
Was there not also a Writer's Guild Strike going on at the time, or was that a little earlier in the 80's?

The writers strike was in 1988, when Trek V was in production. David Loughery was therefore unavailable to go back and do rewrites, and Shatner was locked in with the script they had (similar to what Abrams is going through now, but hopefully with a better script). IIRC, the only time the strike directly affected production was when the Teamsters decided to march in solidarity with the WGA during the middle of the Paradise City shoot.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Nebusj said:

EliyahuQeoni said:

Timo said:
Obviously, some effort was put to it. (And to camouflaging the fact that the set had to be built on the cheap.)

Only if by "some" you mean "not a whole lot of," because if anyone had put minimal effort into the project they could have whipped out a measuring tape to make sure the dimensions of the set, or the scale of the frakking models, was correct.

I remember how upsetting it was, all us fans sitting there eagerly opening night, holding our sextants up to the screen and hastily working out calculations which showed that no, this was not appropriately sized for the shuttle bay! All die, O the embarrassment.

Oh please! Its obvious just by looking at that sequence that the shuttle is too big in relation to the bay doors. I noticed it the first time I saw the movie, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

On "Sha-Ka-Ri" after they flee to the shuttle crafy, why does Kirk forget there's hand phasers in the shuttle craft? Or does the electronic cabinent not work?

If Sarek didn't want a half-breed son, why did he mate with a human female? What an asshole.

 

[A beaker full of death]

MeanJoePhaser said:

If Sarek didn't want a half-breed son, why did he mate with a human female? What an asshole.

Yeah, will the problems with TFF never end?

 

[Sharr Khan]

A beaker full of death said:

MeanJoePhaser said:

If Sarek didn't want a half-breed son, why did he mate with a human female? What an asshole.

Yeah, will the problems with TFF never end?

That's a bit of an over reading of that scene, and likely also only Spock's inner perception of what that moment must have been like not how it actually did.... who has eidetic recollections of their own births? If that's normal for Vulcans, ah it could explain alot of the inner hostility - It was presented in a rather third person manner, unlike the scene with McCoy and his dying father.

Sharr

 

[Caligula]

cardinal biggles said:

Caligula said:
Was there not also a Writer's Guild Strike going on at the time, or was that a little earlier in the 80's?

The writers strike was in 1988, when Trek V was in production. David Loughery was therefore unavailable to go back and do rewrites, and Shatner was locked in with the script they had (similar to what Abrams is going through now, but hopefully with a better script). IIRC, the only time the strike directly affected production was when the Teamsters decided to march in solidarity with the WGA during the middle of the Paradise City shoot.

Thanks for that bit of info. That's how I remember it, but couldn't be sure given that I was very young at the time.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Sharr Khan said:

A beaker full of death said:

MeanJoePhaser said:

If Sarek didn't want a half-breed son, why did he mate with a human female? What an asshole.

Yeah, will the problems with TFF never end?

That's a bit of an over reading of that scene, and likely also only Spock's inner perception of what that moment must have been like not how it actually did.... who has eidetic recollections of their own births? If that's normal for Vulcans, ah it could explain alot of the inner hostility - It was presented in a rather third person manner, unlike the scene with McCoy and his dying father.

Sharr

Interesting and valid point. Inner pain doesn't necessary equal actual events.

 

[trevanian]

I doubt Shatner knew this, but Vonda McIntyre's novelization of SFS has Saavik mentioning how of course she remembers her own birth. Prob'ly just coincidence though.