What Changes Would You Have For "The Enemy Within"?

[Noname Given]

Woulfe said:
OH wait this is the other one with a GREAT split-screen shot ? Isn't it ? When Kirk and Kirk are in Sickbay, one's laying on the bed the other's standing by it, holds onto the others hand, how they do that in 1966 anyway on a shoe string budget ? On second thought I don't want to know

I love how people bring up the urban myth of TOS's 'shoe-string budget'. Why? Because in 1966-1969 'Star Trek' had ANYTHING BUT a shoestring budgent, as it was the MOST EXPENSIVE TV series made to that time in the annals of TV production history. It had movie-level SFX for it's day; and if you want proof; just look at the SFX of the sience fiction films of the era. The only film that managed to match (and in some shots surpass) TOS effects was 2001.

 

[cooleddie74]

^
Well, one of the two most expensive one-hour dramas at that time...yes. MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE usually had a fractionally bigger budget because of all the props and location shooting.

 

[Woulfe]

Noname Given said:

Woulfe said:
OH wait this is the other one with a GREAT split-screen shot ? Isn't it ? When Kirk and Kirk are in Sickbay, one's laying on the bed the other's standing by it, holds onto the others hand, how they do that in 1966 anyway on a shoe string budget ? On second thought I don't want to know

I love how people bring up the urban myth of TOS's 'shoe-string budget'. Why? Because in 1966-1969 'Star Trek' had ANYTHING BUT a shoestring budgent, as it was the MOST EXPENSIVE TV series made to that time in the annals of TV production history. It had movie-level SFX for it's day; and if you want proof; just look at the SFX of the sience fiction films of the era. The only film that managed to match (and in some shots surpass) TOS effects was 2001.

Well it didn't have a film budget like 2001, and they kept reuseing shots of the ship in order to save money, I seriously doubt NBC was pileing on the cash as in thier minds Sci-Fi was kiddy fare.

Gene Roddenberry complained that they never had enough money to do the things he wanted to do, that doesn't scream we get a lot of money for this show, it says just the oppiste to me.

- W -
* Just look at how much was spent more recently per episode on Star Trek *

 

[Forbin]

^How about stop supposing and look up the actual budget numbers to back up your argument. Then you won't have to suppose any more.

 

[Woulfe]

^ I have, and quite frankly i'm surprized how much they were able to do to on such a small budget, i'm not saying the FX look bad or anything, i'm just saying it's amazeing what they did for as little as they had.

Nowadays people don't sneeze at several million dollars an episode shows, like Friends, where all the money went to the actors and not for FX or anything like that.

You're taking this the wrong way, i'm saying how great the FX they did ON a small budget, not that it looks bad or anything like that.

- W -
* Meh *

 

[Mallory]

I'd like to see someone take that per-show budget in 1966 dollars and adjust it to 2007 dollars. I'm just guessing that it would work out to more than a million per episode.

On-topic, the biggest thing I'd like to see fixed has been mentioned: fixing the uniforms.

 

[Kegek]

Noname Given said:
I love how people bring up the urban myth of TOS's 'shoe-string budget'. Why? Because in 1966-1969 'Star Trek' had ANYTHING BUT a shoestring budgent, as it was the MOST EXPENSIVE TV series made to that time in the annals of TV production history. It had movie-level SFX for it's day; and if you want proof; just look at the SFX of the sience fiction films of the era. The only film that managed to match (and in some shots surpass) TOS effects was 2001.

Actually, Forbidden Planet, which was made a decade before, surpassed TOS's SFX all round. And 2001 candidly blew it out of the water.

But you're partly right: TOS was an expensive show, and the SFX were impressive - for television.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

Inflation calculator here: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

IIRC, Justman and Solow's book gave a budget breakdown of the first season. If we drop "City" which jumped to something like $210,0000, I believe the average ep cost something like $186,000 to produce.

Sir Rhosis

 

[cooleddie74]

While cheap-ass and shoestring by modern standards, TOS was one of the most expensive one-hour TV programs of the entire 1960s. Easily.

 

[Maurice]

^^^$186,000 in 1967 becomes $1,116,511 in 2006.

 

[cooleddie74]

Which would still put it in the top ten or twenty of modern one-hour dramas if I'm not mistaken. About on par with how much it cost to make each of the first handful of episodes of TNG twenty years ago.

 

[doctorwho 03]

While an interesting discussion, I feel that talking about budgets is getting a bit off topic, which is what we wish and hope will get fixed or changed in this episode.

As mentioned above, the arrowhead insignia is missing on both Kirks shirts for the entire opening teaser. While someone mentioned that this was because of the mirror image filimg that was used in this episode, the actual story, according to the classic STAR TREK COMPENDIUM, Kirks uniform was sent away to be drycleaned, but the insignia had to be removed because it wasn't drycleanable. When they got the uniform back, the insignia didn't get put back on in time for Kirks only shots on the planet or his first shots in the transporter room as both good and bad Kirk.

Also interesting to note, this episode has two historic elements that have become major factors in the Star Trek universe; the first Vulcan Neck (Nerve) Pinch and the first "He's dead, Jim."

 

[Woulfe]

My memory must be shot, they didn't do a long shot with Shatner holding his own hand, unless it was cut for syndication, or something.

- W -
* meh *

 

[Professor Moriarty]

I would have liked to have seen the viewscreen turned on behind evil Kirk on the bridge in that final scene with both Kirks confronting each other. But no, it was still a bland, blank white panel.

 

[Cyrus]

Timo said:
Ah. No re-fllipping of mirrored shots to keep evil Kirk's scratches consistently on the same cheek?

No, that one wasn't changed. The scratches are still on the wrong cheek.

 

[cooleddie74]

And they didn't CGI any delta shield emblems on their shirts at the start of the episode either. Nothing was changed about the uniforms.

 

[AC84]

Kegek said:

Actually, Forbidden Planet, which was made a decade before, surpassed TOS's SFX all round. And 2001 candidly blew it out of the water.

Yeah.....but what about today? Eh? Eh?

TOS IS BACK ON TOP! (Kinda)

Professor Moriarty said:
I would have liked to have seen the viewscreen turned on behind evil Kirk on the bridge in that final scene with both Kirks confronting each other. But no, it was still a bland, blank white panel.

I too was hoping they would have fixed that.

 

[cooleddie74]

^
Me, too. That oversight is just stupendous laziness considering how big the screen is.