Stonehenge in Star Trek V: TFF

[Agent Lucsly]

So I just got this. You know that scene where Spock, McCoy, Sybok, and Kirk are on the planet in the center of the galaxy - "Sha Ka Ree" - behind the "Great Barrier"?

When the rocks come up around them, it is very reminiscent of Stonehenge, the mysterious rock formation in England.

I think the writers or whomever were going for this effect. I think they were implying something about what Stonehenge is/means - it's a place where some supremeish being came to interact with humans. Thoughts?

 

[R. Star]

Yeah that much was obvious the first time I watched it. Though being Stonehenge predates the monolithic religions a single "god" would represent, by at least a thousand years, there's no real relevance between the two beyond setting a certain atmosphere.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I just think they thought having a rock temple suddenly spring out of the ground all around you looked suitably impressive and like something a badass ancient godlike being would do, and it could be accomplished on a relatively tight budget with minimal effects on a sound stage. While it likely may have been inspired by the look of Stonehenge from a production standpoint, in-universe I don't think they were trying to imply any direct connection between the two.

Of course, they also put Nazca lines on Mt. Seleya on Vulcan, so who knows?

 

[22 Stars]

I think it looks more like a rib cage, than Stonehenge. Seemed biblical sorta, in a Shatner, butchering Star Trek sort of way. VERY fake looking as well. Makes the Galileo 7 Styrofoam rock scene look good.

 

[Marsden]

I was hoping that they would form into a rock monster that Capt. Kirk would have to fight hand to hand.

 

[xvicente]

I was hoping that they would form into a rock monster that Capt. Kirk would have to fight hand to hand.

Tha scene is from Galaxy Quest

 

[R. Star]

I was hoping that they would form into a rock monster that Capt. Kirk would have to fight hand to hand.

Tha scene is from Galaxy Quest

All the pillars were supposed to turn into monsters and fight Kirk but the budget wasn't there so they just shot one monster.. and apparently the scene was so bad they cut it.

All the flashy effects and cgi wouldn't have saved STV as written anyways. Not even Sean Connery.

 

[Maurice]

I've never read that the pillars proper were to become the rock monsters. Where did you get that?

 

[R. Star]

Been around for ages, talked about in interviews, but here's the wiki page snippets of relevant info...

While Roddenberry, Kelley and Nimoy gave their approval to the revised script, Paramount was concerned that the film would go over-budget as written and ordered cuts. Shatner's envisioned angels and demons at the film's climax were converted to rock monsters that the false god would animate from the earth. Shatner wanted six of the creatures, but was forced to accept just one.[29][30] Concerned that the franchise's momentum following The Voyage Home had disappeared,[16] Paramount rushed the film into production in late 1988 despite the writers' strike cutting into pre-production.[31]

The rock monster climax of the film was ultimately dropped due to difficulties during filming.[16][68] The monster, dubbed the Rockman, was a large latex rubber suit that breathed fire on command. Effects personnel smoked cigarettes and blew smoke into the suit's tubing,[69] loading it with smoke that it would slowly emit, obscuring some of the suit's obvious rubber parts. On the last day of location shooting, the Rockman began suffering mechanical problems; the suit stopped breathing fire, and the desert wind dissipated the smoke. The result, Shatner wrote, was that "our guy in the silly rubber suit ultimately just looked like ... well, a guy in a silly rubber suit." With no time to return to the location, Shatner was forced to get wide shots and hope that the setting could be reproduced in the studio, but admitted that it was likely it was not going to work for the film.[70]

And here's a picture of this ugly thing:

 

[Metryq]

Effects personnel smoked cigarettes and blew smoke into the suit's tubing,[69] loading it with smoke that it would slowly emit, obscuring some of the suit's obvious rubber parts.

I've read of plenty ridiculous ideas for STAR TREK movies, and many ridiculous ideas actually made it to the screen. But this bit about the practical FX guys using cigarettes to smoke the monster makes this story sound like BS. If you want stage smoke, you use a mineral oil smoke machine, A/B smoke chemicals and other techniques. Next we'll be hearing that the FX crew banged chalky erasers together to get "smoke."

 

[Peach Wookiee]

^Actually, Metryq, you can read that account in Star Trek Movie Memories. Mr. Shatner confirms about the method of loading the monster with smoke.

 

[Maurice]

All the pillars were supposed to turn into monsters and fight Kirk ...

I've never read that the pillars proper were to become the rock monsters. Where did you get that?

Been around for ages, talked about in interviews, but here's the wiki page snippets of relevant info...

None of which says the pillars were going to become the Rockmen, which is what you implied previously.

 

[Captain Atkin]

None of which says the pillars were going to become the Rockmen, which is what you implied previously.

I could be wrong, but if memory serves, the creatures were suppose to become animated after the pillars collapsed. I think the idea was that the rockmen were formed from the rubble of the collapsed pillars.

 

[Maurice]

"So we changed the gargoyles into Rockmen. That is, as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are running away, these huge twisted shapes break free from the rocks surrounding them and pursue the characters." William Shatner

Lisabeth Shatner
Captain's Log: William Shatner's Personal Account of the Making of Star Trek V The Final Frontier
p.70

No mention of the pillars.

Furthermore, the shooting script indicates that the shaft of light containing the false God erupts from the core of the planet, and, post-torpedo, mentions a "gaping hole" where the light shaft had been.

245 INT. AMPHITHEATER 245

Smoke. Debris. The Cathedral is in disarray. An eerie
silence. Kirk, Spock and McCoy emerge from cover. The
enrgy shaft is a memory. In its place there is only
a gaping hole, glowing raw and red like a wound.

SPOCK
(softly)
Sybok...​

A rumbling sound from within the earth. The hole
throbs. It pulsates.

KIRK
(worried)
We've got to get out of here.
​

246 KIRK, SPOCK AND McCOY 246

They haul ass up the side of the amphitheater.

246A ANGLE - THE HOLE 246A

Camera pushes in on the smouldering hole as a horrific
creature pulls itself out of the abyss -- a fire-
breathing monster made entirely of rock -- all that
remains of the evil entity. It spots the escaping
threesome and clambers after them.


Revised Final Draft
November 21, 1988

Sorry to be a stickler, but there are so many inaccurate account about these movies and shows that I feel it's important to be accurate.

 

[22 Stars]

What a bad movie. A shame.

 

[wjaspers]

What a bad movie. A shame.

I prefer it over the Abrams movies.

 

[Captain Atkin]

Gargoyles would have been pretty cool!

Despite some of the film's flaws, I still love STV. I just hope we can get a special edition someday, and that they fix some of those bad FX.

 

[22 Stars]

What a bad movie. A shame.

I prefer it over the Abrams movies.

Sorry to hear that.

You have seen Into Darkness already? Lucky you, I am seeing it tonight, so I can judge the Abrams movies, plural.

 

[wjaspers]

What a bad movie. A shame.

I prefer it over the Abrams movies.

Sorry to hear that.

You have seen Into Darkness already? Lucky you, I am seeing it tonight, so I can judge the Abrams movies, plural.

The previews of STID looking like SW, made me decide not to see it. There is a reason I became a trekkie, and it was not because of the poor and cheap CG. It was the vision of an united world, americans russians japanese blacks and whites exploring the universe together, acting as "real" humans, getting into "real" trouble, not looking like Marvell comic heroes.

But ofcourse this is all offtopic.