TOS myths and misconceptions...

[Nerys Myk]

It started the process of not looking at black folks as something less than human. Took a while, and there are still a few holdouts scattered about, but the effort started in earnest with the abolitionist movement and Lincoln finally making slavery an issue in the war.

Yeah, I studied history too. I associate the shift from Negro/Negress to black or African-American more with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s than with the Civil War. Prior to then "Negro" was concidered to be correct and polite. (and black was thought of as rude) But I'm no expert.

 

[Christopher]

Anyway, talking about "anachronisms" with "The Savage Curtain"'s Lincoln seems a little off-kilter, since after all he was an alien projection based on a 23rd-century starship captain's mental image of Abraham Lincoln.

 

[Warped9]

Anyway, talking about "anachronisms" with "The Savage Curtain"'s Lincoln seems a little off-kilter, since after all he was an alien projection based on a 23rd-century starship captain's mental image of Abraham Lincoln.

Spock nails it at the end of the episode by pointing out that those they encountered couldn't be anything other than what they were expected to be because they were drawn from Kirk and Spock's perceptions.

 

[Captain Robert April]

If they'd been accurate in their recreations, Kirk and Spock probably would've been very disappointed. For one thing, by all accounts, Lincoln did not have that deep baritone voice. Probably sounded more like Jeff Foxworthy.

 

[Nerys Myk]

If you start a speech with "Four score and seven years ago", you might be a redneck.

 

[scotpens]

^ If you go around wearing a top hat even though you're already six-foot-four . . . .

IIRC, contemporary accounts described Lincoln's voice as high and reedy, with a backwoods hick accent. He probably sounded like a cross between Henry Fonda and Walter Brennan.

 

[FormerLurker]

I'm being anal-retentive about it, but Lincoln wore a stovepipe hat, not a top hat. It had a flat brim, and was circular rather than oblong in cross-section.

 

[Nerys Myk]

^ If you go around wearing a top hat even though you're already six-foot-four . . . .

IIRC, contemporary accounts described Lincoln's voice as high and reedy, with a backwoods hick accent. He probably sounded like a cross between Henry Fonda and Walter Brennan.

or Ned Flanders.

 

[number6]

Okieladokalie... Four score and seven yearinos ago...

 

[darkshadow0001]

Here's a myth/misconception:

TOS special effects were bad. I think often times they were very good, not just for their time, but some stand up now. And down right amazing what they accomplished.

I think people just say this because the show was made in the 60's, prior to when special effects started to get better. I think a lot of it was compared to Star Wars when those films came out in the 70's.

I agree though, a lot of TOS effects were good, for its time. I enjoy watching reruns whenever I can, it's by far better television then the crappy reality shows we get nowadays. Quite frankly, I'm tired of them.

 

[Warped9]

TOS' transporter effect is one of the best things I've ever seen even after all these years.

 

[estar9821]

I agree, the transporter effects are pretty good.

Ok, how in the universe did we get on the subject of Abraham Lincoln's voice?

 

[Christopher]

I agree though, a lot of TOS effects were good, for its time.

That's an understatement. For its time, they were revolutionary. TOS had four of the top FX houses in Hollywood doing its episodes on a rotating basis. That would be like a show today having ILM, Zoic, Weta, and, ohh, Stargate Studios simultaneously working on it. (I would've listed the in-house FX teams of the Stargate shows -- no relation -- or BSG/Caprica, but I guess the '60s analogy for them would be Fox's in-house FX crew that did the Irwin Allen shows and Batman). ST's FX work was Emmy-nominated three years in a row.

 

[A beaker full of death]

I'd just like to mention a certain type of effect that was so good we never even think to mention it -- the sound effects. Fucking brilliant, and still used to this day.

 

[Warped9]

I'd just like to mention a certain type of effect that was so good we never even think to mention it -- the sound effects. Fucking brilliant, and still used to this day.

Wholly in agreement. TOS' sound f/x were indeed fucking brilliant!

 

[maryh]

Yeah, I studied history too. I associate the shift from Negro/Negress to black or African-American more with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s than with the Civil War. Prior to then "Negro" was concidered to be correct and polite. (and black was thought of as rude) But I'm no expert.

I remember hearing a quote from Charlie Pride who said "I went from being Negro to Colored to Black within the course of a year."

The word Negro appears in the formal writings of that era - it's in the body of the Dred-Scott decision:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dred_Scott_v._Sandford

And that is the term used by Fredrick Douglas himself in his writings and speeches. Not sure why it became viewed as derogatory. In that era, it was not.

 

[Christopher]

^Labels tend to become associated with certain attitudes. When enough racists used "Negro" in a derogatory way, African-Americans tried to switch to a "nicer" label, "colored." But then that got contaminated by the same racism, so they switched to "black." And then 20 years later they switched to "African-American." Because the labels weren't the problem, the attitudes were. Changing the labels didn't help.

It's like when the MPAA abandoned the stigmatized X rating in favor of NC-17, which they hoped would be more respectable. Instead, the NC-17 rating was instantly besmirched with the same cultural expectations and stigmas as the X rating before it.

 

[Hober Mallow]

TOS' transporter effect is one of the best things I've ever seen even after all these years.

It's still my favorite of all the transporter FX.

 

[Captain Robert April]

"Don't be alarmed, we're Negroes." Will Smith, "Bad Boys"

 

[Captain Rob]

I'd just like to mention a certain type of effect that was so good we never even think to mention it -- the sound effects. Fucking brilliant, and still used to this day.

Wholly in agreement. TOS' sound f/x were indeed fucking brilliant!

I definitely second that. Is there any info out there on how some of those effects were created?