Thought exercise: One TOS episode with an unlimited budget?
- Thread starter Ragitsu
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In the end it's what's on the page that counts. Yes outstanding visual effects and sound effects are nice and can add to the overall ambiance; but in the end if the script sucks, money isn't going to make what's on the page better (unless you just abandoned something and do a different script, but again it's what's on the page that counts.)
And for me better effects wouldn't make a given episode any better or worse. Even as far as TOSR goes; the only versions of TOS episodes I had were the 1966-69 Originals, I'd still want to watch them and would enjoy as much as I have since I first saw them.
But that's me.
Vfx are nice.
Story is the meat.
Don't just fix the seasoning if the steak is cooked poorly.
Story is the meat.
Don't just fix the seasoning if the steak is cooked poorly.
Candidly TOS had some damn good writers, actors and directors. We wouldn’t be here still talking about TOS if it hadn’t had them. Without them TOS might have been another Time Tunnel or Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea—remembered, but no decades long mass following or cultural impact.
...and yet not every episode is regarded as a tour de force. Some episodes underperformed because the script wasn't robust, because the director didn't manage the cast quite well enough and because the guest stars weren't the best picks (in addition to, yes, occasionally questionable special effects and paper-thin sets).
Hmm, very interesting question.
Would "The City on the Edge of Forever" be substantially improved with some actual NYC location shooting instead of stock footage for establishing shots and a shoot on the sets of Mayberry? Would "Amok Time" be improved with an outdoor shoot for Vulcan at Vasquez Rocks or somewhere similar? Maybe even an actual Jeffrey Hunter guest appearance in "The Menagerie" two-parter, with a flashback of him handing the Enterprise over to Kirk? Heck, if they could've gotten Hunter to return for real, would they have even gone with a story where the present day Captain Pike was injured and disfigured?
A lot of third season episodes could certainly be helped, as that's the year the bare bones budget is the most evident. You could afford a lot more Enterprise and Klingon extras to fight each other in "The Day of the Dove," for instance. It'd be great if they could've built even more sets for areas of the Enterprise we never saw, too. And maybe the debacle that was the first season's "The Alternative Factor" could've been shaped into something comprehensible if they could've shut down production long enough to substantially rewrite it and take their time to recast.
I'd probably choose a bad or an underwhelming episode to bring it up to par, but which episode... Man, I don't know yet.
This is the best inadvertent review of the Director's Edition of TMP I've ever read.
I had a somewhat similar question. In the 'harsh realities' thread, someone remarked that the 'poor costumes', 'poor makeup' and 'dangerous aliens looking too silly' were because of a lack of money. I certainly believe that, but it made me wonder as to how convincing they could they have made those aliens (and their costumes/makeup) back in the day, with the finest that unlimited 1966 money could have bought them?
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2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet Of The Apes and Fantastic Voyage are fair examples of what a 1960’s feature film could give you in terms of production. Budget was only one of TOS’ challenges. Time was also a challenge, not enough time to refine their ideas. A feature film simply has more time, and budget, to get things closer to what you want.
Would that unlimited budget episode still be part of the series or a remake made today?
Because if I could go back in time and beef up one episode the obvious choice for me would be Where no Man has gone before, expand the The Cage sets, add a scene of the Enterprise leaving a starbase and build models for that and at least 4 other classes of starfleet ships and a few different alien designs, go down to the planet in a shuttle etc., all of those assets could be used for the entire series.
If it's a remake made today I would pick The Way to Eden, remaking a popular episode is always difficult, they're already good and there's a big chance people will dislike the changes I make, so why not pick a bad episode? Much easier to improve on.
Because if I could go back in time and beef up one episode the obvious choice for me would be Where no Man has gone before, expand the The Cage sets, add a scene of the Enterprise leaving a starbase and build models for that and at least 4 other classes of starfleet ships and a few different alien designs, go down to the planet in a shuttle etc., all of those assets could be used for the entire series.
If it's a remake made today I would pick The Way to Eden, remaking a popular episode is always difficult, they're already good and there's a big chance people will dislike the changes I make, so why not pick a bad episode? Much easier to improve on.
That's not a bad choice. In that 'Space Hippie' episode is the potential for a 'cult of personality' episode that could really be thought-provoking and relevant for today.
The "shoestring budget" thing is another trope now widely accepted as true among Trek fans, but the fact is that Star Trek had one of the highest per-episode production budgets of any show on the air at that time. Yes, there was a significant budget reduction for episodes produced during the third season, but even so it remained one of the more costly shows then airing.
The makeup and costumes were sufficient for the broadcast picture quality of the era. If the sourcing for materials used in costumes, props and sets was sometimes creative, it was primarily because they wanted to spend more of the budget on visual effects (which may seem primitive today, but most of which were expensively state of the art at the time those episodes were being produced. )
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I would only like to see more money put into the planet surface scenes. So that would mean more location shooting. "City on the Edge of Forever" would benefit from more realistic "New York City" scenes than the "already used a few times" Mayberry backlot. Or see more or Argelius or that little planet where we met Rojan and the Kelvans
Why did I suddenly envision a Filmation sequence: Rojan and the Kevan's musical musical acts in between scenes in TAS...?
But they wouldn't have improved the stories themselves. The TOS-R versions proved that already.
Why did I suddenly envision a Filmation sequence: Rojan and the Kevan's musical musical acts in between scenes in TAS...?
But they wouldn't have improved the stories themselves. The TOS-R versions proved that already.
There's a street scene in "All Our Yesterdays," the one with Kirk's fencing duel, that was apparently shot outdoors on a backlot, but it was after sunset, and the low lighting could easily have been simulated in the studio. It looks great, but it passes by barely appreciated because the sun isn't shining. They spent money to get out there, and late hours at that, but the return was small.
That's the bullet we dodged. TAS wasn't done in the vein of Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space or Partridge Family 2200 A.D.
You know, I actually like that episode as is. The freestanding equipment/furniture with the endless darkness behind them reminds me of some Twilight Zone episodes (don’t ask which, because I can’t remember!
)“The Galileo Seven”? I think those big hairy creatures and their weapons could be made even more intimidating.
Lots of boulders on that episode.
Lots of boulders on that episode.
Exactly! A show like "Mission: Impossible" could rent existing props like contemporary telephones, office furniture, military uniforms etc. "Bonanza" could readily obtain saddles, wagons, riding chaps, even animals like horse and cattle if required. "Star Trek"...it couldn't exactly find a scaly scaled canine with a protruding horn, now, could it? the team had to makes a costume to fit upon a dog. That meant money for materials and labor. If Klingon sidearms were required, the team couldn't run to a prop shop and order them from the shelf. Again, they had to be built, money for parts and labor. Of course, once these things were made, they would be available for later episodes, assuming they were not "chucked". But this kind of scenario applied to nearly every aspect, from costuming, sets, props in addition to things like opticals. Trek was granted an equivalent budget, maybe a bit more, but it had to be be spent upon details usually not present in other productions.
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