TASifying TOS Episodes

[FederationHistorian]

So what elements would most often be cut out (and which TAS episodes still depict such, but briefly)? Based on the answers above:

* Romance ("The Survivor" managed to have one anyway)
* Duplicated scenes
* Drawn out song and dance ("The Lorelei Signal" did have Scotty's Welsh ditty)
* Extraneous description

I think the deciding factor depends upon if its integral to the story.

For “The Enterprise Incident”, Spock’s romance story with the Romulan Commander would be central to the story. And no one would know that Kirk is alive and disguised as a Romulan until near the end of the story; his “death” would only be alluded to in the teaser. Which would save a lot of time.

Whereas for "The Gamesters of Triskelion", the romance between Kirk and Shahna is not integral to the story at all, and would be cut.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

"The Enemy Within" could have cut the Janice Rand thread and just had Kirk get into a fist fight with a security guard.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

I have no idea. Where did Khan put all the crew in the TOS episode?

About 20 speaking parts or highest-ranking officers were under guard in Briefing. Perhaps the rest were trapped below decks, or guarded in the shuttle bay.

 

[Henoch]

About 20 speaking parts or highest-ranking officers were under guard in Briefing. Perhaps the rest were trapped below decks, or guarded in the shuttle bay.

I kind of like the idea that the bulk of crew was trapped in the shuttle bay with the threat of being spaced by a push of a button.

 

[Tallguy]

While i'm sure there would have to be cuts in any episode going from ~50 to ~25 minutes, go look at how fast and short TAS scenes are. That gets you quite a bit of time right there. Someone mentioned The Enterprise Incident. You could keep every scene with Spock and TRC (The Romulan Commander) and just given the way TAS was paced they'd take all of four minutes. Tops.

 

[Shawnster]

So what elements would most often be cut out (and which TAS episodes still depict such, but briefly)?

I would say cut out the B plot, but TOS really didn't have B plots.

It's more like cutting out complications, or convolutions, or subplots. Cut out character development and scenes that flesh out the story. A TAS episode is a bare bones script or more like an expanded summary of an episode.

"More Troubles, More Tribbles" is a perfect example of a TOS episode cut down to a TAS length and format. It's basically the same plot: Cyrano Jones brings tribbles on board, the tribbles eat the grain and multiply, and at the end the tribbles are all beamed onto the Klingon ship.

So, you simply take a TOS episode, reduce the number of characters, condense the scenes and you get a TAS episode.

 

[Tallguy]

"More Troubles, More Tribbles" is a perfect example of a TOS episode cut down to a TAS length and format. It's basically the same plot: Cyrano Jones brings tribbles on board, the tribbles eat the grain and multiply, and at the end the tribbles are all beamed onto the Klingon ship.

With a SPACE BATTLE!

 

[Grant]

Changeling.
After they find out what Nomad is and that he thinks Kirk is Roykirk -- just have Kirk say, "Nomad, you're doing good work, continue on!" And then beam it into space into billions of atoms. The end.

No, they need to carelessly study a machine that has killed billions and intends to continue doing so until the point where he almost gets to complete his genocidal mission. All so Kirk can talk another computer into self-destruct. Rubbish.

And no death of Scott and blanking of Uhura. Also rubbish.

 

[Tallguy]

After they find out what Nomad is and that he thinks Kirk is Roykirk -- just have Kirk say, "Nomad, you're doing good work, continue on!" And then beam it into space into billions of atoms. The end.

Eeesh. I just got a Very Short Treks flashback.

 

[Grant]

Right. If very short Treks were 23 minutes. The length of TAS.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

"THE RETURN OF THE ARCHONS" - the episode is very creepy because of the length (which is one the reasons why I like this episode), but if you take the repeated attempts at figuring out the contradictions of the society and the capture of the crew, and shorten the scenes of bliss of the people, you can easily tell the story in TAS time.

I know I exaggerate slightly, but I have always called this episode "Three Acts in a Basement."

Sir Rhosis

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

"All Our Yesterdays" - simply have Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all wind up in the same place.

 

[Tallguy]

"All Our Yesterdays" - simply have Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all wind up in the same place.

Drop the Kirk plot entirely. Or at least everything outside the library.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Hmmm. Interesting. Like "The Slaver Weapon" , which had no Kirk at all.

 

[Noname Given]

Suppose you were tasked with converting 1 hr (timeslot) TOS episodes into 1/2 hour TAS episodes.

How would you change the stories? What would you leave out?

Simple - I'd make them all 2 parters.

 

[Tallguy]

Go adapt the Blish stories.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Drop the Kirk plot entirely. Or at least everything outside the library.

Absolutely. The witch trial era does nothing for the story.

 

[FederationHistorian]

“Arena”

Condense the arrival of the landing party on Cestus III, the shelling of the destroyed base, with the Enterprise being attacked in the teaser. Then have Kirk beamed away by the Metron and the rest of the episode is Kirk fighting the Gorn captain until the Metron appears again at the end.

Simple - I'd make them all 2 parters.

The one story that might merit this is TCOTEOF. I’m not sure if its possible to cut that episode down and still have a great story.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I suppose you could split it into two different stories - drugged McCoy running wild somewhere else, and Kirk not being able to allow someone to live/do what they want to do, or it'll ruin history.

 

[Commander Troi]

No, drugged McCoy makes it more poignant.