I had high hopes for the project some years ago - and I think still that it will happen one day with the technology making it ever more easy to pull-off something like that.
Christoph
The TAS discussion thread
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I had high hopes for the project some years ago - and I think still that it will happen one day with the technology making it ever more easy to pull-off something like that.
Christoph
One of the most fascinating things about TAS when compared to TOS is that TAS is a really interesting study of the economies of adapting a work to a different medium. With less than half the available running time of your average TOS episode, the writing staff managed to create little miniature TOS episodes, by cutting back to the bare essentials, but did so without sacrificing the essential 'Star Trek feel'. Where TOS might have lingered on situations in order to increase the tension, TAS will take the same basic framework, but adopt a much quicker approach. And yet, none of the TAS episodes ever feel rushed to me. They feel like TOS, but fit perfectly into the shortened format they're designed for. I think that's quite an achievement.
^A lot of that was achieved by abandoning both the 'B' story, and b-level characterization. It was never the "Kirk Spock and McCoy Show" that third season TOS was, but any expansion of who Sulu, M'Ress, Arex, Chapel, etc. were beyond the story parameters was dropped for time.
Isn't the term "library cue" common for cues written to be re-used within a specific show, as opposed to "stock" which isn't specific to any show? Albeit the term "stock footage" does muddy that, since a show like Star Trek will refer to "stock shots" of the Enterprise.
Sorry for the late reply, Maurice. To your question, yes, some music re-used within a show has been referred to as "library" cues, but as in my Batman reference, some cues were written for episode-specific characters or scenes. That was their first purpose. That budget-conscious producers later recycled that music for other episodes would not erase the first purpose.
In the case of TAS, we know original music was composed for the series, but there's no documentation stating that cues were intended to be reused again and again. The difference between first purpose and deliberate creation of library cue is important to uncover. Despite Filmation using that practice on many productions, there are other series with music composed for an episode, but never used again, such as 1968's Fantastic Voyage. This does not mean recycled music (predating that show) was not used, but there were episode-specific cues composed.
For all of the Filmation history that i've come across, the music never earns as much attention as series creation, characters or animation process. I wonder if insiders such as Erika Scheimer or Michael Swanigan have more information about that.
I think they're different ways of saying the same thing. The library is the collection of stock items. You can have a stock music library or a stock film library or whatever. Library/stock material can be specific to a given show, as in Star Trek's reuse of its own unique VFX shots, or can be shared among different productions, like the various cues heard in '60s Doctor Who which were written for general use by the BBC. Sometimes material created for a single production becomes stock for multiple productions, like the way Franz Waxman's score for The Bride of Frankenstein ended up being used in dozens of movie serials, or the way Ray Ellis/Norm Prescott cues written for Lassie's Rescue Rangers ended up reused in TAS, Shazam, Isis, and other Filmation shows.
Do we need it? Given the limited amount of music, it's clear that it was meant to be recycled throughout TAS. And generally, if a cue was written for one episode and then reused as stock, you can recognize the scene it was written for because it plays out uncut and fits the action better than in its later reuses. (For instance, Ron Jones's score to DuckTales. Watch the episode "Armstrong" and compare the music cues there to their reuse in other episodes. From the constistent motifs and the fit of the cues to the action, it's clear they were written for that episode, even though they were edited into scores for chronologically earlier episodes. In the same way you can tell by listening that the famous Gerald Fried fight music was written for "Amok Time" instead of "The Gamesters of Triskelion," say.) I've always been alert to such things, and I've seen TAS a thousand times, so I'm confident that there is no TAS episode like that. The music is clearly cut together from stock in every episode.
Besides, Filmation was a famously stingy studio. They reused everything they could.
Not to mention the way the TAS cues are structured. They're built around repetitive phrases that play on for a while and then either reach a climax or transition to another repetitive phrase. That's the very essence of generic library music, something designed to be cut as needed to fit any given scene, rather than something tailored to the events of a specific scene.
My point is that in-industry there are generally specific meanings to things. and I was trying to distinguish between those. In my limited experience with TV music that which is written or recorded specifically for general use throughout a show becomes a library cue, whereas "stock" means pulling from a general purpose library not specific to that show. I'm not saying this is correct, but it's how I've encountered the terms.
Filmation just had some fantastic intro music throughout the years.. it was hit and miss though)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nmPNYzFjL8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLzXlCPx49U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUmuyJ1GTQU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mT3FeaO_sM
But the Star Trek (TAS) intro was simply the best one..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPYd4c0Ywe8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nmPNYzFjL8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLzXlCPx49U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUmuyJ1GTQU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mT3FeaO_sM
But the Star Trek (TAS) intro was simply the best one..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPYd4c0Ywe8
Starborn Dragon
Captain
The stories were good and while simplified, they were certainly not dumbed down for children.
And I often got the sense that there was real danger to them too.
And I don't see what people mean by stunted art. The art was quite good and good quality to me. Compare it to the animation of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. It was actually smoother.
Oh, and some of that material made it into Trek 2009.
And I often got the sense that there was real danger to them too.
And I don't see what people mean by stunted art. The art was quite good and good quality to me. Compare it to the animation of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. It was actually smoother.
Oh, and some of that material made it into Trek 2009.
Fixed that for ya.
