The Design From The Cage

[BillJ]

Its landing party. "Away team" was 1980s touchy—feely jargon.

Why is "away team" touchy-feely jargon? Seems like a pretty apt description for a group of people leaving the ship.

 

[Redfern]

The "soft" consonant "W" in "away" just lends itself to sounding a bit, well, meek. But "landing party" has a more assertive "D", "P" and a "T" giving a more "determined" feel to the term.

That's my BS rationale and I'm sticking to it!

Sincerely,

bill

 

[Shikarnov]

I do think that both "The Cage" and TMP look much more futurist than TOS/TAS. The landing party jackets used in "The Cage" and TMP [V'ger walk to Voyager 6] look close in design (not color).

I think that's no coincidence, since those are probably the only times Roddenberry had complete -- or nearly complete -- creative control. Even by the time TNG premiered, the proverbial ball had been rolling too long to impose his original vision, but it seems closer than the post-Cage TOS ever came.

 

[Green Shirt]

Why is "away team" touchy-feely jargon? Seems like a pretty apt description for a group of people leaving the ship.

To all those who took exception with my touchy—feely comment, I should have included a couple Winkies at the end of my post. But I didn't have any small pics of Scotty Beckett to slap up there.

 

[FormerLurker]

I don't think so, as the Batman movie was done between the first and second seasons, and the nuclear pile figured prominently into the second episode.

I checked my book, and you are correct. They intended to make the film first, and have it introduce the characters, settings, etc., but the network balked at the film coming first due to many new series' failing out of the gate that year. The show even got pushed back to mid-season, cutting the first season short because of it, and the film was pushed back to during hiatus.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Why is "away team" touchy-feely jargon? Seems like a pretty apt description for a group of people leaving the ship.

Well, "landing party" and "boarding party" both had precedent in being used by actual ships and the military, and are thus more authentic-sounding. "Away team," AFAIK, was just a made-up term for the show.

 

[BillJ]

"Away team," AFAIK, was just a made-up term for the show.

I'm sure it was. But sometimes you create new terms. It is four hundred years in the future.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I don't think so, as the Batman movie was done between the first and second seasons, and the nuclear pile figured prominently into the second episode.

What a way to go-go....

 

[Maurice]

EDIT: According to one source—probably the Inside Star Trek book, but I no longer have it— that detailed planet cyclorama was ditched because it was a light sponge and they had to use way more lights and power to illuminate it than was practical, so they decided to dump it in favor of the simple white cyc they could light any color they wanted using gels.

 

[scotpens]

I tend to associate the pointy nacelles with the ISS Enterprise from the Mirror Universe. They're more aggressive, so they seem "wrong" to me in the Prime Universe (even though I know they existed there too, of course).

I always thought the spikes on the nacelle domes were a bit much. The one spike on the main sensor-deflector dish was enough -- the ship didn't need two more!

 

[ZapBrannigan]

In point of fact, according to the Inside Star Trek book that detailed planet cyclorama was ditched because it was a light sponge and they had to use way more lights and power to illuminate it than was practical, so they decided to dump it in favor of the simple white cyc they could light any color they wanted using gels.

I don't remember that in the book, of which I only had a borrowed copy a long time ago. But it makes total sense.

When an in-studio scene is lit too brightly and has lots of color saturation, it looks old fashioned now, because early color film required super-bright lighting. I personally love bright colors, and TOS often had them, but in Hollywood today it's done only for certain reasons, like when old cinematography is being simulated.

 

[RAMA]

It looks closer to the colors of the Enteprrise NX-01 bridge. I like it except for the stupid martian war machine video screens.

I love the design of The Enterprise interior design. I don't know if anybody else agrees, but it looks even more futuristic compared with the rest of the series. This is quite impressive be cause even though it was filmed in 1964 it really doesn't look that dated. But when they added multi-colour interior design of The Enterprise, it is when it began to look silly. I do not know why every thing has to be bright colours with purple walls. In the briefing room I saw the ceiling was some Octogon-shaped ceiling, or some thing that made it look futuristic. Was this ceiling in any other episode? Actually the entire pilot episode looked very impressive. Does any body else agree?

 

[Hartzilla2007]

By the way anyone else think the barcode reader things from the JJ bridge are supposed to be an updated version of the goose lamb things from the Cage bridge?

 

[UnknownSample]

I think that The Cage had a bit of a cliche 50s-sci-fi pseudo-futuristic feel, and when they went to series, I'm very glad they rooted out those aspects. A plain metallic-looking ship with little color is what you'd expect from a spaceship, and therefore (to me) dull.

The series Bridge (post-pilots) startles. It comes across as fresh, new, unexpected. You feel like you're in an exciting world full of possibilities, just seeing it. The color does help a lot. The only way I can think of right now to explain that is to say that it doesn't just look like a TV show built a sci-fi spaceship. It looks more like real people of the future designed and built this place, with their own 23rd century ideas and concerns about functionality, technology, and aesthetics. We don't think of a colorful space ship. We think of grey metal bulkheads.
But human beings are going to live in these ships, and people like color (usually).

The other changes have more to do with miniaturizing and streamlining, all of which were necessary. So much Cage tech was large, awkward, clunky.