TMP - "What We Got Back Didn't Live Long, Unfortunately."

[Joel_Kirk]

Yeah, that was my first thought. Is the OP some kind of monster who wanted to see mutant Sonak suffer?!?!?!

The OP is part of a more deadly Q Continuum....with no regards for any humanoid or corporeal life! Mwahahahaaa!!!

From the novelization:

Shapes were materializing on the platform again - but frighteningly misshapen, writhing masses of chaotic flesh with skeletal shapes and pumping organs on the outsides of the "bodies." A twisted, claw-like hand tore at the air, a scream came from a bleeding mouth... and then they were gone, the chamber was empty.

*shiver*

This is an area where the novel is better as the lady victim is "Starfleet flag officer Vice Admiral Lori Ciana" rather than "some ensign", making the event a much bigger deal. She's also Kirks love interest, and as he's no idea an Admiral was about to beam aboard until he recognizes her in the beam, its presumably a personal or surprise visit that he will never know the reasons for. The scene describes their final time they appear in the Enterprise platform as having all the internal organs now on the outside of the collapsing bodies so Starfleet presumably received some further decayed version of that.

You'd think that would really mess a guy up, but of course, in typical Kirk (and Rodenberry) fashion, shes totally forgotten within 5 pages.

I vaguely remember it was Kirk's love interest.

 

[Nebusj]

Yeah, that was my first thought. Is the OP some kind of monster who wanted to see mutant Sonak suffer?!?!?!

Hey, Sonak owed him like fifty Space Dollars for over a year and this was the last chance to get any of them back.

 

[The Rock]

Here's an artist's rendition of what he might have looked like, after browsing the web (mods, is this considered hotlinking? If it is, I apologize, but I did upload this pic to a photo sharing site):

 

[Peach Wookiee]

If anyone needs an answer... try Deep Space Nine's "The Darkness and The Light."
And since you put that pic on a photo sharing site, I don't think it's hotlinking... could be wrong....

 

[Cyke101]

I can't bring myself to imagine what they'd look like, but I'm pretty sure that if I were at Starfleet Command, Kirk would hear me in the background just panicking and shouting at the top of my lungs and really just freaking out in every way.

 

[Leto_II]

Today G means (basically) okay for children, but then G meant general audiences.

For the time, the rating was correct, today the movie would probably be PG-13.

The Director's Edition actually got re-rated "PG" when it it was released in 2001, so it was definitely a shift along the spectrum, for sure.

 

[Kor]

At that time, the MPAA PG rating (also known as GP for a little while) was for movies like "Jaws" that showed severed legs, corpses, and blood. Action movies with topless scenes like "The Omega Man" and "Clash of the Titans" also received that rating. Fast-paced stuff like Star Wars (which depicted barbecued human corpses), and a drama like "All the President's Men" that dropped the F-bomb every other minute, were rated PG as well (though the latter was on appeal).

Films that weren't quite as intense as that, like "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and "The Andromeda Strain," were rated for general audiences. "General" included grown-ups. It wasn't automatically for little kids.

Kor

 

[Therin of Andor]

Sonak Night Fever by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[Terok Nor]

BTW, the thread title is incorrect. It goes, "...what we got back didn't live long, fortunately. Meaning suffering was shortened by quick death.

They probably beamed in Neelix from the future but quickly realised such an annoying character could not be permitted to live and put him out of our misery before he had the chance to do any damage. Good call, Enterprise crew. Good call.

 

[STEPhon IT]

So when poor Sonak and the poor ensign get caught in the random transporter malfunction, what do you think actually appeared on Starfleet Command's end?

Does any1 remember Cronenberg's The Fly? The failed test subject, the Baboon, all mangled inside the telepod... with vulcanian ears.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The failed test subject, the Baboon, all mangled inside the telepod... with vulcanian ears.

"I'm sorry about your brother."

 

[starburst]

One thing... the line ends "fortunately" not unfortunately... the reactions of the Enterprise crew in the transporter room and this line were enough to spell out that the two crewman they got back were very much messed up from the accident and to convey how dangerous the technology is. Something they didn't really convey again until Enterprise.

 

[J.T.B.]

The main thing that stands out for me about that scene is it has three of my least favorite line readings in all Trek: Whitney's "They're forming," Shatner's "Oh my God" and the zombie-like "What we got back..."

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The main thing that stands out for me about that scene is it has three of my least favorite line readings in all Trek: Whitney's "They're forming," Shatner's "Oh my God" and the zombie-like "What we got back..."

Yeah, they're all pretty flat in that scene. Wise should've gotten another take.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Yeah, they're all pretty flat in that scene. Wise should've gotten another take.

These scenes match the rest of the movie....flat, slow and boring.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I keep thinking what if Philip Kaufman handled the reigns instead of Robert Wise, would the pacing of the film be faster more intense?

 

[Spock's Barber]

I keep thinking what if Philip Kaufman handled the reigns instead of Robert Wise, would the pacing of the film be faster more intense?

I remember reading that the production was so chaotic and behind schedule that Robert Wise didn't even see the finished result until he hand delivered the still wet print to the film's premiere. Another director may have produced better results, but there were so many conflicts between writer Harold Livingston and GR that disaster seemed inevitable. Even Shatner admits that he fell asleep during the premiere.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I'd read Nimoy was so upset about the whole production he didn't want to have anything to do with Trek again. If he did, he demanded he be killed off. Yiikes.

 

[Spock's Barber]

^ GR was also removed from a production role in the sequels because the studio didn't want a repeat of the problems that TMP encountered. Harve Bennett and Nick Meyer saved the franchise with TWOK.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I'd read Nimoy was so upset about the whole production he didn't want to have anything to do with Trek again. If he did, he demanded he be killed off. Yiikes.

Nimoy denied that. Spock getting killed off was just what Harve Bennett came up with to intrigue Nimoy enough to sign up for a second movie.