TAS stories as TOS revival basis?

[Warped9]

I don't know what the TOS shuttlecraft cost, but they didn't pay for it as AMT offered to be build the mockup in exchange for rights to the Star Trek model kits.

I'm aware of the AMT deal, but i'm wondering what the labor and materials cost, since we it might be safe to guess that one licensing deal for a then un-produced Galileo would not extend to another miniature (particularly if at the time, AMT did not know if it would be worth it). If Norway/Desilu had to generate another on its own, would it break the season budget--or would they jump in, and spend it on something they can use as much as desired?

From what I understand the Enterprise and Klingon ship models were a great success with the Enterprise going on to be one of the most successful kits (if not the most) of its kind for years on end. It's possible that AMT might have gone for a similar arrangement a second time around if TOS had been continuing on to a fourth season. But with the show's budget being as tight as it was I doubt they would have been willing to spring on building another such mockup when--as I said before--they already had a perfectly good shuttlecraft mockup on hand. Another obstacle would be similar to the one faced when the original Class F design was built--MJ's original curvilinear design would have been too cost prohibitive to build so they had to come up with something less exotic. That same problem would still apply with any subsequent design for a mockup in a third or fourth seson of TOS.

That said I can imagine ways how that might have been gotten around, but it would still entail building some original set pieces as well as a new small filming miniature for long shots. A new shuttlecraft interior set could be built or at least part of one. And a partial exterior wherever the exterior access hatch would be located. They would then have had to work around those limitations. Another option would have been to build a miniature variation of the already existing Class F and use the existing interior set as a stand in.

Something like this perhaps.

 

[Lance]

The reality is that most of TAS's scripts come across as bite-sized versions of TOS. They could all have easily been adapted to the live-action series. They'd need expanding, they'd need a little bit more plot, but in tone they're accurate to TOS to a fault. Alan Dean Foster's novelizations were spectacular.

 

[Redfern]

At one time, our very own fan art forum moderator Ptrope had seriously considered a CG adaptation of "The Time Trap". His idea was to construct the various props and sets that didn't already exist in Lightwave. The characters would have been derived from human meshes available at Daz3d.com and then animated primarily in Poser. Similar to what Tim Vining accomplished with "Star Trek: Aurora", though he used Cinema4D as his primary render engine. Ptrope achieved moderate progress in "pre-production", constructing several sets unique to that story, such as the Klingon briefing room and the council chambers. He even modeled what he called a "4th season" engine room upgrade. It still had the basic layout of the season 2 and 3 set, but with added features like ceiling mounted GNDN pipes and an elevated gantry/catwalk. Alas, it seemed as soon as he made any decent progress, he experienced a disk crash that cost him a lot of his work.

At this time, I fear it's on perpetual "hold", though he refers to it in his signature line. But here's one of the threads in question concerning his project.

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=35124

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[uniderth]

If they did do the aquashuttle I would guess they would probably do other underwater episodes, so they could get their money's worth out of the footage.

 

[Warped9]

If they did do the aquashuttle I would guess they would probably do other underwater episodes, so they could get their money's worth out of the footage.

Problem is such episodes would likely have gotten expensive f/x wise along with the challenges of filming underwater sequences. That kind of story also deviates from an element that sold the series: keeping things affordable by sticking to similar worlds to make the most use of what was at hand. And so from those considerations a story like "The Ambergris Element" would likely have been seen as too "out there" in terms of concept and costs.

Star Trek was a high concept show struggling to be done on a conventional television budget. In some respects they were nuts to even think of trying to do this on '60's era television. This kind of idea would have been more suited for a feature film--much as Forbidden Planet had done. But feature films wouldn't allow them to tell all the kinds of stories they wanted to tell so that you simply got more mileage out of a television series. Star Trek took the basic Forbidden Planet idea and really fleshed it out as only a television series could in weekly installments. And I think that's still true today. As much as I enjoy certain films I'm left waiting at least months to years for the next one. A television series is so much more satisfying, at least when it's done right.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Arex would need to be modified to a degree, but it would be interesting to see how they would have managed him without going into the slapped together look of so many Lost in Space aliens.

Huh? James Cawley's fan films have already accomplished the addition of Arex alongside their live-action actors and sets.


Star Trek: Phase II's Lieutenant Arex on Flickr

At first, they doubted they'd be doing all of his limbs, but they did accomplish it. Youtube: http://youtu.be/9JzExIBdSgY (Time code 7:00; voiced by the son of James Doohan).

 

[uniderth]

What I was thinking of is reusing the shot of the aqua shuttle leaving the hanger bay. Then maybe one of two shots of the shuttle underwater which would become stock. You could then film the crew inside the shuttle or just on a regular dressed set as part of an underwater colony or something. Not the you would see the crew swimming underwater as in "The Ambergris Element."

 

[Warped9]

What I was thinking of is reusing the shot of the aqua shuttle leaving the hanger bay. Then maybe one of two shots of the shuttle underwater which would become stock. You could then film the crew inside the shuttle or just on a regular dressed set as part of an underwater colony or something. Not the you would see the crew swimming underwater as in "The Ambergris Element."

Yeah, that they could have done. The challenge would be getting the first story done.

 

[Maurice]

Warped... some of those pix are almost twice as wide as the board guidelines.

 

[FormerLurker]

The problem I have with Phase II's Arex is that in TAS his occipital bone(the back of his head) is much longer. It's about a third too short in the provided image.

 

[Warped9]

Something I've long wanted to do (and I have dabbled with it in single shots) is do something of a photonovel of an entire TAS story as live-action. That is I would storyboard the story using images from TOS to create the idea of a live-action version. Of course, it would involve a fair amount of Photoshop manipulation as well to get the desired result, but I think it would be cool.

 

[FormerLurker]

John Byrne's Star Trek photonovel series for IDW uses that approach.

 

[Warped9]

John Byrne's Star Trek photonovel series for IDW uses that approach.

I know, but this idea did occur to me several years ago long before any of us heard of Byrne doing it.

Someone mentioned upthread the idea of using elements of TAS in other stories. Years ago I began writing a Pike era story that told of the Federation's first contact with the Vedala (re: TAS' episode "The Jihad"). I called it "Neverland."

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I think that one thing about "Yesteryear" is that the episode was enhanced by its presence real-world in the Saturday morning cartoon lineup, as a cartoon executed in the techniques of its day. Swaths of it looked like a regular cartoon largely told from the point of view of a child protagonist, but—surprise—it dealt with mature subject matter, especially with respect to the death of I-Chaya.

Doing "Yesteryear" live-action would rob it of that effect.

"Yesteryear" is a great Star Trek episode period, but it's also a great example of the right way to do an episode about the childhood adventures of a Star Trek character in a way accessible to children.

 

[Wingsley]

Is it just me, or does the story for VOY's "The Void" bear more than a passing resemblance to TAS' "Time Trap"?

I ask this because CorporalCaptain may have a good point about "Yesteryear"; it is likely that the storytelling style of much of TAS is so targeted at kids that the stories would be an extraordinary challenge to bring to live-action. Because "The Void" was done in live action, it points to the possibility that "Time Trap" (and possibly others) may be possible to pull off as live-action.

 

[Lance]

Something I've long wanted to do (and I have dabbled with it in single shots) is do something of a photonovel of an entire TAS story as live-action. That is I would storyboard the story using images from TOS to create the idea of a live-action version. Of course, it would involve a fair amount of Photoshop manipulation as well to get the desired result, but I think it would be cool.

Just wanted to say, I think that's a terrific idea.

 

[Bixby]

Nobody is mentioning the length of the animated episodes compared to the average length of the live-action ones. Sure you could adapt a 25 minute animated episode and lengthen various bits like action sequences and miscellaneous parts, but you'd still get much less than the average 50 minute TOS episode.

I take it everyone here is ok with shorter episodes?

(any rookie filmmaking group wanting to fly to Starbase studios in Oklahoma and doing a live-action adaptation? )

 

[Warped9]

Goes without saying that a genuine live-action version would have to be fleshed out to fifty minutes. But for the purposes of just illustrating a TAS episode with pics you could do pretty much a straight adaptation.

 

[EnriqueH]

I've never seen any of the fan films (boy, that Arex looks impressive).

Is there a thread that talks about the fan films? I'd like a guide as to what might be worth checking out.

I have checked out a couple of snippets here and there, but the actors don't look very good, and took me right out of my suspension of disbelief.

 

[Warped9]

I've never seen any of the fan films (boy, that Arex looks impressive).

Is there a thread that talks about the fan films? I'd like a guide as to what might be worth checking out.

I have checked out a couple of snippets here and there, but the actors don't look very good, and took me right out of my suspension of disbelief.

Everything you might ask can likely be found in the TBBS' Fan Production forum. There are numerous fan productions and they run the range in flavour and tastes they cater to. While opinions vary I think you will likely find something that appeals to you.

I, for one, was not particularly fond of fan productions based on what I had seen previously, but since I've found something that does work quite well (in my view) as well as seen some things that look like they could be excellent. Whatever the end result there is no doubt those making these productions are driven by a love for the subject matter.