TMP Myths Debunked via Return to Tomorrow and Beyond

[Maurice]

TMPs split diopter problem is pretty typical of the technique in general. The best way to hide it is a split on a straight line or a blank wall with no perpendicular detail crossing it. In TMP's case there's always some detail or a curve which betrays it, and, coupled with the low light levels and resulting shallow DOF (Depth Of Field) it's a recipe for in your face blur.

 

[Kruezerman]

I think by rough I meant that certain lines and scenes went for too long. For example, there was a scene during the V'Ger flyover where there was a closeup of Uhura, when Sulu says, "Reverse angle on the viewer, Captain," she looks towards the center of the bridge with a look of distaste.

Also, when Chapel and Decker were showing the Ilia Probe the headband, it was a quick cut from the previous scene, and even the music didn't fade in well.

I'll give it another go to see if I can find more and recheck myself, but I found it rougher than the more modern films, even TWOK.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

That might've been in the press. However, they'd already been telling anti-Shatner stories at conventions long before that.

True--Doohan was trashing Shatner at 1970s conventions.

I've made it through the entire book, and from what I can tell, no one really pulled any punches. At one point, Doohan was already shitting on Shatner & Nimoy's involvement with the writing process. Of course, he was "attempting" to be tactful and not naming names, but the interviews with Bob Wise and Harold Livingston that are interspersed around his comments show loud and clear who he's referring to.

Doohan was feeding off of the post TOS media myth that TOS was a sort of "community property" of sorts--that it was run by a pack of equals, all contributing as much to the success of Star Trek, but his own bitter feelings tossed cold water on that, when he accused Shatner of various things on the convention circuit. In other words, he tried to make Shatner the villain who stood against this "community property" myth. Perhaps his friendship with Roddenberry--who also had difficulties with Shatner & Nimoy at different times in the 60s/70s--fueled his complaining over their hand in the scripting.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Of what I've read so far, one thing that struck me as odd was Takei's claim that in an earlier version of the script it was established he was a Captain and had just taken a temporary demotion to help out in the crisis, and what a shame it was this was lost.

Roddenberry had a habit of telling people he knew, when he'd run into them, "I'm working on something you might be interested in..." He did it to Nimoy, Kelley, Whitney, Nichols, Montaigne and Lenard about TOS, Doohan about "Pretty Maids All in a Row", Nimoy about "The Questor Tapes" (I think, IIRC), Koenig (about playing Chekov's father in a version of TMP that might have had Paul Newman and Robert Redford) and Whitney about "Phase II", so I have no doubt he would drop hints to Takei that Sulu would be destined for greatness in "In Thy Image".

This is a fairly normal way for producers to gauge actors' interest in upcoming projects.

 

[Christopher]

I think by rough I meant that certain lines and scenes went for too long. For example, there was a scene during the V'Ger flyover where there was a closeup of Uhura, when Sulu says, "Reverse angle on the viewer, Captain," she looks towards the center of the bridge with a look of distaste.

Also, when Chapel and Decker were showing the Ilia Probe the headband, it was a quick cut from the previous scene, and even the music didn't fade in well.

I'll give it another go to see if I can find more and recheck myself, but I found it rougher than the more modern films, even TWOK.

Well, the theatrical release of TMP was literally a rough cut, because of the fixed release date. They had to release an unfinished, preliminary edit of the film because they just ran out of time. Wise asked the studio to let him finish editing and replace the rough cut with a more polished final edit a few weeks later (since movies stayed in theaters for months at a time back then), but they refused. (Or so the involved parties said two decades later when the Director's Edition came out. I wonder what this book has to say about it.)

 

[Kruezerman]

Ah. That makes sense, it's kinda funny because the only HD cut I've seen is the Theatrical cut (the same cut is also on Netflix!) and I actually prefer the sound effects (the red alert sound and the computer voice) to the Director's Cut.

By the way, who voiced the computer in TMP?

 

[Christopher]

By the way, who voiced the computer in TMP?

Doug Hale, according to the credits in The Making of ST:TMP. But neither IMDb nor Memory Alpha confirms it.

 

[Kruezerman]

Hmm. It was a powerful voice, conveyed urgency very well.

 

[Harvey]

Here's another factoid from Star Trek (the television series) that was new to me:

...in the series we were working so fast and, to tell you the truth, we did the Klinons once in the beginning, and I put all this hair on them to make hem look different. Then, a year later, we had the Klinons again, and I didn't know what a Klingon was! I had forgotten. So they sent me a 35mm frame. Not even a frame blowup, just a frame. I looked at that and I determined, because of the way the face was lit in the frame, that it was a normal makeup, other than the hair. So I gave them a normal makeup instead of the coat of 665-M that I'd used on the Klingons before. That's a grease-based paint... Well, I got a lot of letters!

Fred Phillips, Makeup (p. 342)​

This is obviously a decade after the fact, but it matches the way the Klingons appearance temporarily loses the grease paint makeup in "Friday's Child" and The Trouble with Tribbles."

It must have been an internal decision to go back to the grease paint look, though. "A Private Little War" was filmed (with the grease paint makeup reinstated for Krell) before either of those episodes aired.

 

[Christopher]

^I've known that one for ages, though I don't recall the original source. Maybe Gerrold's The Trouble With Tribbles making-of book?

 

[Harvey]

Could be. I've only read bits and pieces of that one.

 

[Therin of Andor]

By the way, who voiced the computer in TMP?

Doug Hale, according to the credits in The Making of ST:TMP. But neither IMDb nor Memory Alpha confirms it.

Mmmm. I thought I'd remembered seeing his name listed in the credits, but I must be remembering the list from "The Making of..."?

It's in his obituary.
http://variety.com/2014/film/people-news/actor-doug-hale-dies-at-73-1201181498/

Doug Hale is mentioned in Memory Alpha, but he has no dedicated actor page there:
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Computer_voice

 

[Kruezerman]

That's pretty neat! Ya know, TMP had a great aesthetic (minus the obvious silver paint strokes on the corridors) and that included the computer voice and uniforms. Hell, the TMP uniforms are my favorite, they should've made them less tight!

 

[drt]

minus the obvious silver paint strokes on the corridors

I think those corridors used brushed aluminum - so it's supposed to look like that.

 

[Kruezerman]

Was it? It sure looked like plastic with silver paint.

 

[pfontaine2]

I certainly read the corridor panels as brushed aluminum as well because of their reflective nature.

 

[Kruezerman]

It was when McCoy first beams aboard and complains that the engineers love to change things that it looks like paint strokes. Maybe I was seeing things.

 

[BillJ]

I always thought it looked like brushed aluminum.

 

[Maurice]

I always liked the use of colored light and the Ultrasuede covers over the aluminum panels to make the same corridor set feel like different parts of the ship. It was something I wish they'd carried forward into TNG, as it was very effective.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I always liked the use of colored light and the Ultrasuede covers over the aluminum panels to make the same corridor set feel like different parts of the ship. It was something I wish they'd carried forward into TNG, as it was very effective.

I agree. That feature didn't even carry over to the other TOS movies, and it should have. It makes a lot of sense to be able to tell which deck you're on by just glancing at the wall.