Maybe Talos IV's friend was from Arrakis!
"Why would you waste all that for frivolous entertainment?!" 
Things from other sci-fi you wished to see in TOS....
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
"Why would you waste all that for frivolous entertainment?!" 
Yes. I think my friend (and me, too) were awed by the sheer spectacle of it all. It was a rarity to see any TV action scene with real water.
Since when? There have always been plenty of shows set on or around the water, e.g. Flipper or McHale's Navy or The Man from Atlantis. Heck, Gilligan's Island had a whole elaborate lagoon set on their backlot. Every movie or TV studio has an outdoor tank for shooting water scenes -- it's routine stuff. Not to mention having sprinkler rigs to shoot scenes set in the rain. Heck, pretty much any rain scene you've ever seen in older TV and movies had to be a massive, torrential downpour compared to your average real rainstorm, because normal rain is all but invisible to a film camera, so it had to be poured on super-heavy (and often tinted with milk or food coloring) to register onscreen.
This is part of why film studios have their own water towers, like Warner Bros.' iconic one. Film and TV productions use a great amount of water regularly, whether for shooting water/rain scenes or for keeping the crews hydrated or for cleaning large soundstages or for laundering costumes or whatever. A studio lacking in water couldn't possibly function.
Let me try again. It was a rarity to see any ̶T̶V̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶s̶c̶e̶n̶e̶ LOST IN SPACE or STAR TREK scene with real water.
This was in 1988 that we watched this, and our local stations were still heavily re-running LOST IN SPACE color episodes as well as STAR TREK. To see actual water downpour on either of these shows was a treat. A novelty. A "wow, didn't know they ever did that" moment. I probably made my friend watch the episode to show him that LOST IN SPACE was actually worth a damn in its first (black-and-white) season. We wondered why STAR TREK didn't do it too. And we were similarly impressed when THE OUTER LIMITS used real water, onto the actors, in "The Forms of Things Unknown." It stood out -- to us -- because we just weren't used to seeing it on those particular series.
So right. If a TOS writer had pitched a story where the heroes get doused with water, the producers would have thought about the extra costs and trouble. Would it ruin any "dry clean only" costumes, on top of Kirk's torn shirt last week? Would it ruin any custom-made leather boots, like "Shore Leave" did, and could we get away with cheaper shoes in the camera coverage? If you want to show the audience what's going on, the cheapies are bound to be visible, at least briefly.
Also, I think up to six regulars wore hairpieces or wigs at one time or another (Kirk, McCoy, Rand, Uhura, Chapel, Chekov), and that's another consideration before you pour water on their heads. Would hairpieces wreck the water scene? Would water wreck the hairpieces? Do we really have to do this?
It was the Franklin Canyon Reservoir, actually.
Well, digital fire added in post is safer than real fire.
Standing bodies of water or rain effects in outdoor locations were not uncommon, but big water gags on standing sets not specifically designed for same is much less common. The stage has to have proper drainage, and there can't be below-stage storage spaces or you risk damaging what's stored there or have issues draining the space. The LIS Chariot could get doused because it was a vehicle and it's easy enough to swap out soaked upholstery or what have you. You probably wouldn't do the same with sets built of wood which could absorb water, unless they were temporary sets destined to be junked after the shoot.
Ah, so that's why they used steam in Voyage, I guess.
Of course, those "standing" bodies of water in-story are more temporary in real life. For instance, the Paramount water tank where the Bird of Prey splashdown in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was filmed (among many others) is drained and used as a parking lot when it isn't needed for a production.
That, and probably the time and cost of cleaning up the water afterwards. Voyage, over time, did everything they could to do these episodes as quickly and cheaply as possible. The rear projection in the observation nose was used less often in the color years, using a live “bubble in glass system” instead. Water on the standing sets became rare if not totally stopped (other than stock footage) and Irwin even stopped including women after the second season. The exception was one episode, “The Mermaid” which was built around movie (Mermaids of Tiburon) and prior episode footage. The back half of the third season often had huge stock footage episodes (“No Escape from Death”), duplicates or brainwashed crew, stunt guys in costumes…or, as in "Shadowman," a sheet! I don’t have production schedules, but you can almost bet your mortgage that a lot of Voyages in the late 3rd season were shot in 3 or 4 days and cost very little. So, with all that in mind, I totally get why water was no longer used to illustrate hull breaches.
It was a little surprising that Irwin poured a little more money into the series in the 4th year. I guess with The Time Tunnel gone, he wanted to give his existing shows a better shot (LIS got a nice revamp also). The series seemed a little brighter, as if they turned up the lights again. The new opening credits partway in were a wonderful touch and episodes like “Fires of Death” and “Journey With Fear,” while nonsense, were exciting simply because of the amount of money invested in the sets and effects.
Voyage is the one Allen series I've never bothered to revisit in recent decades. I guess it just didn't interest me as much as the others. I suppose the first season is probably more worth rewatching than the later ones.
You really have to be in the right mindset to enjoy an Irwin Allen show. Even the best aren’t more than exciting television. Voyage was at it’s most adult in the first season, particularly the first dozen. A show like Voyage, as straight and serious as it was, had a tendency to get very dry that year – pun unintended. The second year went to excitement and color but really, it was dopey. I love it. But really, once it got out of the first season, it became (after a Man from UNCLE clone period) like a Godzilla movie. Fun and exciting but zero adult substance. It was like watching The Herculoids in live action.
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Well, let's just say my mindset makes it very easy for me to enjoy watching Marta Kristen, Lee Meriwether, or especially Deanna Lund.
There were a few Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants episodes that aspired to more substance and dramatic depth than most. But only a few.
It's ironic that you'd make that comparison, because the original 1954 Godzilla is one of the most profound, thoughtful, adult, and powerful monster movies ever made, but the later films got more and more kid-friendly and insubstantial, giving the series its reputation for frivolity. Although it then had a gritty, serious reboot in 1984 and has fluctuated ever since between dark, serious social allegory and more superficially dark action/horror. (The recent anime trilogy was as dark, grim, and nihilistic as Godzilla's ever been, though not particularly good.)
Well, let's just say my mindset makes it very easy for me to enjoy watching Marta Kristen, Lee Meriwether, or especially Deanna Lund.
There were a few Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants episodes that aspired to more substance and dramatic depth than most. But only a few.
Ha, agreed. Some of the early Voyage's were also message laden, probably by accident. Or, they didn't interfere with the flow of the action. Some of the first season did have some very heavy themes, mostly about nuclear war, overpopulation and science going wild.
Yes, I should have clarified that I meant the later 60's and early 70's 'Zilla films. The films I saw mot often on channel 9 as a kid. The original still packs a punch, in either language version.
I found the episodes where Basehart was absent or sidelined to be the least interesting. Although, I late second season episode, "The Mechanical Man" was very good and Basehart missed that one altogether.
I think so, yes. Picard was supposed to be the mentor and elder statesman, while Riker did the Kirkish action-lead stuff. Nobody expected how popular Patrick Stewart would become.
Unlike Picard/Riker, Voyage wasn’t structured to have Crane doing the action while Nelson did the commanding. They were the two leads and they shared the action. The pilot started with Admiral Nelson in a major action set piece, and Basehart was in a great many fight scenes in those 110 episodes. He had a much better and convincing stage punch than Hedison, who had a stiff follow-through. It was always funny seeing the 50ish Nelson consistently beating up men half his age who were in much better shape. Regardless, Basehart was a strong action series lead, something he probably be ever expected to be. Especially at that stage of his career.
