The "re-imagining" of TOS

[mdtauk]

I wonder how much revisionism is going on with the Studio execs, following the success of the show. I watched a documentary (with japanese subtitles) which had the execs talking about what "really" happened with the show. It had the air of them trying to cover their backs, really defensive reactions.

EDIT: Here is the link to it.

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[Mudd]

Well, that's a silly question because the studio execs backed Star Trek and did everything they could to make it a success - remember that the studio paid for the show and stood to profit from it. Roddenberry's financial investment in launching Star Trek was nada. He created and produced the show, he got paid by the studio, he got residuals.

That's the way it worked.

You've confused studio executives with NBC network executives, probably because Roddenberry went to such lengths in his public speaking during the 1970s to paint everyone around him as benighted and visionless as compared to himself. There is, however, documentary evidence as well as the testimony of other witnesses to contradict much of the nonsense alleged about NBC (the canard about their objecting to minority cast members, for example, is easily debunked by looking at their other programming and their policies at that time). Thing is, a lot of Trek fans just don't want to know.

BTW, Robert Justman - who appears extensively in the video you embedded from YouTube - was neither a studio nor an NBC executive. He was one of the producers of TOS and of TNG during its first season. Did you know that?

 

[Mudd]

If Gene Roddenberry was serious about having a woman as First Officer, and NBC didn't have a problem with it, he would've replaced Number One with another woman. As it is, it looks like he just wanted his mistress as First Officer.

There's that.

 

[mdtauk]

I wasn't around in the 70's, and was oblivious to the production of the shows in the 1980's - 2000's. I have learnt bits in the past 5 years by reading forums, and wiki's and sites like Memory Alpha and Ex Astris etc.

I saw that video a few weeks ago, and just felt it was coming across as defensive. Whether they felt they had been badmouthed or not, I can't say. All I know was the show ended, there were letter writing campaigns. The animated version happened. Then movies, and eventually TNG.

 

[Philip Guyott]

I love this video which suggests the Motion Picture was actually a reboot.

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The reason I post it here is because it demonstrates well how a show can be re-imagined and still fit well with that which has gone before. TMP was only set 10 years after TOS, and STD is only set 10 years before TOS. I can't wait to see what they come up with, but I expect the look and feel of the show to be radically different to 1960's Trek.

 

[Kevin Wolff]

The studio was down on Trek until the reruns were a hit. 79 episodes played almost continuously on an insane number of affiliates without any sign of slowing in popularity showed them they owned a hot property, and despite loathing Gene for not being a company man, they brought him back to make TV movies. They literally moved him back into his old office and he started on the TV movies/Phase2 and eventually the films where he got pushed back to creative consultant.
NBC in the case of Star Trek can be considered almost heroes (not really). Rejecting the pilot for being too talky and cerebral, but ordering a new pilot was unprecedented. I forget which NBC exec said this, but one of them said it really felt like this crew was on a spaceship traveling through space. They did flag the woman first officer and the guy with the ears, but they didn't make a firm ultimatum, or Spock would be gone too. Gene himself said he couldn't save both and didn't try, and probably by then had the idea of combining the Spock with the Number One's suppressed emotions to make a better character. That's the key. If Number One survived, Spock wouldn't be the Spock we know and love.

 

[Mudd]

The studio was down on Trek until the reruns were a hit.

They were not interested in it after it was cancelled and before it began to earn them money in syndication, which is of course perfectly reasonable. They were never "down on it" when it was in production and being aired on NBC; the only reason it made it to network was because of the work of the Desi-Lu executives who sold the show and worked with the network to get and keep it on the air.

 

[Kor]

I love this video which suggests the Motion Picture was actually a reboot.

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The reason I post it here is because it demonstrates well how a show can be re-imagined and still fit well with that which has gone before. TMP was only set 10 years after TOS, and STD is only set 10 years before TOS. I can't wait to see what they come up with, but I expect the look and feel of the show to be radically different to 1960's Trek.

Yes. TMP, TWOK and TNG were all reboots to some degree or another, just using the conceit that it took place in a later time period to hand-wave away all the differences.

Kor

 

[Kevin Wolff]

They were not interested in it after it was cancelled and before it began to earn them money in syndication, which is of course perfectly reasonable. They were never "down on it" when it was in production and being aired on NBC; the only reason it made it to network was because of the work of the Desi-Lu executives who sold the show and worked with the network to get and keep it on the air.

I should have clarified which studio. I meant Paramount/GW. Desilu are the real heroes of the story. They could work with Gene the artist, and only their accountants complained about the show's cost. Otherwise, they are second in level of importance after Gene and before NBC

 

[Mirror Mirror]

The look is in dire need of updating. The story you can leave completely alone, but it needs to look modern

 

[Tuskin38]

The look is in dire need of updating. The story you can leave completely alone, but it needs to look modern

Which, based on something the comments Bryan has made, is what they're doing.

 

[Jason M. Brooks]

I'm like most here, I like continuity, but we fans aren't going to get it. So I'll take what I can, so long as it's well-made and compelling.

I'm with you. I'll take what I can get. I know the designs of TOS won't fit in today's HD world, but it is sad watching the Trek Universe play around in that era and make TOS technology and ships look more and more outdated. Every time they play in that era, they just seem to mess up the continuity more and more. Either reboot the whole damn thing or move after Nemesis. My vote is to move after Nemesis.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Ideally, things should improve as we go along--that's simply progression. The problem comes when you go back in time and decide that the past looks too much like the past and needs to be updated with current things that weren't there originally. Star Trek worked for over three decades as a fictional universe with its own sense of history and style from TOS to VOY. Fiddling around with that just creates multiple inconsistences that weren't there in that universe before. All it does is provide all sorts of new things for Trekkies to argue over for decades to come...

Sounds like typical Star Trek.

 

[STR]

I'm with you. I'll take what I can get. I know the designs of TOS won't fit in today's HD world, but it is sad watching the Trek Universe play around in that era and make TOS technology and ships look more and more outdated. Every time they play in that era, they just seem to mess up the continuity more and more. Either reboot the whole damn thing or move after Nemesis. My vote is to move after Nemesis.

REALITY is making TOS look more and more outdated. It's not viewed as a serious take on the future. It's Flash Gordon with green women.

 

[CRM-114]

They were not interested in it after it was cancelled and before it began to earn them money in syndication, which is of course perfectly reasonable. They were never "down on it" when it was in production and being aired on NBC; the only reason it made it to network was because of the work of the Desi-Lu executives who sold the show and worked with the network to get and keep it on the air.

This points to something I realized not too long ago:

If everyone at Desilu/NBC were as without vision as Roddenberry would paint them to be, would Star Trek even have made it to air? Highly dubious.

 

[Valenti]

There's got to be a way to do it in it's own seperate continuity and not in an alternate universe