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The (big) Making of TMP book....

Warped9 said:
This is a slow read, not helped by me having a cold the past few days.

What is unmistakable, though, is seeing how much real thought went into all aspects of this film. It's also interesting to note that some of the criticisms aimed at the finished film were genuine concerns of the creative team throughout production. It's a pity they weren't able to find solutions to those issues much earlier.
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I thinks that's the interesting thing...they had a lot of solutions, right down the the cast going off and making up their own scenes (that's how it came over later in the book) just no time to get them into the theatrical version.
It's also a question of tastes (not everyone agrees with the criticisms after all) and when the film was being made, no one knew sci fi film was going down the action heavy route it eventually does (production technically predates even the first Star wars, let alone stuff like Alien)
The Motion Picture is more a descendent of hard sci fi than action space opera. It's a different path. That detailed feel is something that goes away later.

After reading that book I do like wondering how much of that original warp core is left inside voyager.
 
I think this book would have benefited from a little more structure. To some extent it comes off as nonstop rambling with nothing but disconnected quotes one after the other.

Anyway, reading some of Fred Phillips' remarks is interesting. Apparently the director didn't exert his influence in all things. When it came to the main cast's appearance Roddenberry went for letting the cast show their age despite the story being set supposedly only three years after TOS. And this despite Phillips assuring Roddenberry he could make the cast look a bit younger with little trouble.

The cast also had a fair degree of say when it came to costume and makeup. Nichelle Nichols was allowed to keep her afro (albeit trimmed) even though Roddenberry and Wise thought it looked too period specific. Shatner was allowed to keep his hair as he currently preferred it despite Phillips thinking Shatner would look better with something more like what he had during TOS (I wish Phillips had won that discussion). McCoy's open necked tunic was a result of DeForest Kelley not liking the crew collars similar to those of the TOS costumes. And conversely Nimoy wanted something that fit higher around the neck so hence the black scarf (or whatever it was).

Another note on the costumes. Apparently the original concept had all the uniforms being more like Kirk's admiral's design. Roddenberry thought that looked too militaristic for Star Trek and spoke to Wise about it, who agreed. The uniforms were revised with the admiral design being the only costume to retain the original concept. Roddenberry let it go even though he seemed to think the costumes still looked a bit too military and too subdued, too much a departure from TOS.
 
Warped9 said:
I think this book would have benefited from a little more structure. To some extent it comes off as nonstop rambling with nothing but disconnected quotes one after the other.

Anyway, reading some of Fred Phillips' remarks is interesting. Apparently the director didn't exert his influence in all things. When it came to the main cast's appearance Roddenberry went for letting the cast show their age despite the story being set supposedly only three years after TOS. And this despite Phillips assuring Roddenberry he could make the cast look a bit younger with little trouble.

The cast also had a fair degree of say when it came to costume and makeup. Nichelle Nichols was allowed to keep her afro (albeit trimmed) even though Roddenberry and Wise thought it looked too period specific. Shatner was allowed to keep his hair as he currently preferred it despite Phillips thinking Shatner would look better with something more like what he had during TOS (I wish Phillips had won that discussion). McCoy's open necked tunic was a result of DeForest Kelley not liking the crew collars similar to those of the TOS costumes. And conversely Nimoy wanted something that fit higher around the neck so hence the black scarf (or whatever it was).

Another note on the costumes. Apparently the original concept had all the uniforms being more like Kirk's admiral's design. Roddenberry thought that looked too militaristic for Star Trek and spoke to Wise about it, who agreed. The uniforms were revised with the admiral design being the only costume to retain the original concept. Roddenberry let it go even though he seemed to think the costumes still looked a bit too military and too subdued, too much a departure from TOS.
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The slight meandering in the book works I think. It's presented in a roughly chronological order, with stuff mostly related to each other also kept together. It's like a commentary, only instead of following a film or sporting event, it's following the making of the film. You get a before, beginning, middle,crunch time end, and a bit of an after.
It is exhausting hitting it all in one go mind you.
A good companion book is ' Chekov's enterprise'. It can be amusing to contrast koenigs stop-start sometimes killing time amusing stories. Woth more of a focus on the cast and the shenanigans, with this hive of activity you get from this book. That and it has embarrassing photos of the Star Trek softball team. Short shorts all round, and Tribbles for hair.
 
Khan 2.0 said:
Its basically a double (triple?quadruple?) issue of Cinefantasque without the pics
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Yeah. A stack. A Tribblesworth.
The only cinefantastique I have is in French form the 70s. Pricey mag so I have never read one.
 
From what I gather the costume designer didn't get much direction regarding the uniforms. It certainly doesn't seem like someone pointed at the TOS uniforms and said, "That's your starting point."

There are things in TMP that are the result of people wanting to show off a bit because a feature film allows for that as opposed to whether something makes sense or not. The highly detailed look of the sets and models is partly a result of this because a big screen pretty much demands that kind of visual texture to wow the audience. Indeed the model makers were told to scale back on some of the detailing to seem a least a bit more consistent with what had been seen on TOS.

The film's rec room scene is another example. They wanted that big rec room and to be able to see the ship's nacelles outside the windows. They even suggested putting the room where the ship's impulse engines were! Even though they were told repeatedly that such a room could not fit in the saucer and it would be better set in the secondary hull they refused to understand. Their thinking was "it's just a movie. No one will care." They finally compromised by having the rec room set on the aft starboard edge of the saucer even though the model makers still insisted such a facility could not believably be there given the saucer's shape around the rim.

A lot of TMP is the result of being able to afford going all out as opposed to being constrained by budget and resources as well as maintaining some consistency with what been previously established on TOS. It's almost as if they were designing Star Trek for the first time or doing this as something of a reboot rather than a continuation.

As much as I dislike JJtrek it does illustrate the basic look of TOS could be updated to work in a feature film. But back in 1979 they really wanted the film to be taken seriously and that influenced certain creative choices regarding how the film would look. Stephen Collins is quoted as saying one of the things that drew him to the film was its approach to the subject matter. He says he saw this as adult level science fiction as opposed to Flash Gordon like monsters and ray guns. It was a distinct departure from Star Wars.
 
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Warped9 said:
Nichelle Nichols was allowed to keep her afro (albeit trimmed) even though Roddenberry and Wise thought it looked too period specific.
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Too bad. Roddenberry and Wise were right. Uhura's hair is one of the things that dates the movie.

Shatner was allowed to keep his hair as he currently preferred it despite Phillips thinking Shatner would look better with something more like what he had during TOS (I wish Phillips had won that discussion).
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Me, too. The TOS hairstyle is much more flattering to Shatner.

Apparently the original concept had all the uniforms being more like Kirk's admiral's design. Roddenberry thought that looked too militaristic for Star Trek and spoke to Wise about it, who agreed. The uniforms were revised with the admiral design being the only costume to retain the original concept. Roddenberry let it go even though he seemed to think the costumes still looked a bit too military and too subdued, too much a departure from TOS.
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Shame. If the entire crew had been wearing a variation of the Admiral design, the costumes would've looked a LOT better.
 
A while back there was a thread in this forum that took regular TMP uniform images and painted them with desaturated TOS department color tops and black pants, which looked pretty good.
 
JonnyQuest037 said:
Too bad. Roddenberry and Wise were right. Uhura's hair is one of the things that dates the movie.


Me, too. The TOS hairstyle is much more flattering to Shatner.


Shame. If the entire crew had been wearing a variation of the Admiral design, the costumes would've looked a LOT better.
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Versions of the admiral's uniform would have been better but I'm not fussed about the other two. The wigs worn by the women in TOS were atrocious and in no way make it feel sci fi or timeless. Uhura's hair looks fine to me but then I'm angry that Misty Knight isn't sporting a massive afro in Jessica Jones so I may not be the most objective person on that subject.
 
Pauln6 said:
Versions of the admiral's uniform would have been better but I'm not fussed about the other two. The wigs worn by the women in TOS were atrocious and in no way make it feel sci fi or timeless. Uhura's hair looks fine to me but then I'm angry that Misty Knight isn't sporting a massive afro in Jessica Jones so I may not be the most objective person on that subject.
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I think the afro is one of those hairstyles that can't really date.. It comes around and around in fashion (look at the late nineties.) and Uhura was wearing a shorter different style than was around at the time anyway. Chekov's and even shatners hair have probably dated worse, and even they are having their time again.
Also, as it's the future, that kind of thing is even more apparent. I might not be enterprises biggest fan, but at least that pseudo 50s/60s thing made sense in the lead up to what would eventually be the TOS era. The shining example is bladerunner and it's use of older fashions to show the future, and I don't think anyone will say much of that has dated.
 
Something that is repeatedly mentioned, particularly by the cast, is how "real" the sets felt. Unlike the original sets of the series the TMP sets were made realistic in terms of being actual enclosed spaces that actually worked with responsive controls and interactive displays. The bridge, for example, was fully enclosed including a ceiling and not built to come apart to facilitate filming. The lighting of the sets was very natural like along with the resultant shadows.

This is a level of detail, of realism, that went far beyond what had been possible on TOS and any television series for that matter. A feature film could afford to go to this extreme whereas it would be simply impractical for a television production.

It's interesting they felt compelled to make these additional efforts.
 
Actually, the bridge set was built "wild" but Wise wanted it buttoned up to make it feel more real.
 
Maurice said:
Actually, the bridge set was built "wild" but Wise wanted it buttoned up to make it feel more real.
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Which apparently really limited the camera angles, as there wasn't enough space to move the cameras around. Another decision which didn't work as well in retrospect was using noisy film reels for the bridge readout screens, which resulted in nearly all the bridge dialogue being looped later on.

I think Nicholas Meyer's later decisions to separate the bridge components again and have the film loops be put on quieter, synced videotapes both resulted in a better, more lively film.
 
Don't forget it also let Wise use a shitload of split-diopter shots.
 
I'm pretty sure the video screens were a decision by Salin the producer, not Meyer.

I'm also fairly certain the interactive controls were installed for Star Trek [Phase] II, before it became TMP. If the set had been built just for the movie they wouldn't have gone to the trouble.
 
I'm still reading this, but I haven't come across anything really surprising recently. It does give one a deeper appreciation of the film, but I must say I sometimes find it a bit of a slog to get through at times.
 
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