Will the production team include scientific advisors?
- Thread starter jayrath
- Start date
It is standard practice on most science or military based films to have an appropriate advisor at least look through the script. Of course, they writers are (are rather were) perfectly at liberty to ignore the advisor's recommendations. But they should catch anything truly glaring. (like, you know, warp drive 
)
)Can you give some specific examples of how "honest to God rocket scientists" as consultants materially affected the specifics of TNG in the time that Roddenberry managed the show?
And at what point, exactly, did that notorious pair "Brannon and Braga" do away with them?
Indeed, B&B actually had a number of people such as Andre Bormanis and Naren Shankar around at first as science advisors. Nick (son of Carl) Sagan did some writing as I recall, too. And a majority of the writers of Trek have been scientifically wise, that shows both in scripts and in novels. But after all it is science *fiction*. When a writer establishes a certain internally consistent speculative "science"... the goal is to stay internally consistent. There's no call for it to be "perfectly real". The fiction is in how the humans react. That's where the story is: the famous "human adventure".
Not only that, the Okudas and Sternbach and many of the designers were well versed on scientific theory... and made modern Trek much more internally consistent than TOS was....
But I understand the OP's lament: all the pre-planning still doesn't keep an unscientifically-aware director from changing (such as in Broken Bow) a sensible and informed line that read "forty days to Qo'noS" to "four days to Qo'noS".... But then again, even in TOS, Star Trek always moved not at the speed of light, but at the speed of plot. (By jove, I think they just went to plaid!)
I mean, if you're accepting numerous anthropomorphic aliens, mental telepathy, and magical artificial gravity... then I think all the JPL and NASA scientists you want aren't going to make much difference. Plus, they're not free.
Not only that, the Okudas and Sternbach and many of the designers were well versed on scientific theory... and made modern Trek much more internally consistent than TOS was....
But I understand the OP's lament: all the pre-planning still doesn't keep an unscientifically-aware director from changing (such as in Broken Bow) a sensible and informed line that read "forty days to Qo'noS" to "four days to Qo'noS".... But then again, even in TOS, Star Trek always moved not at the speed of light, but at the speed of plot. (By jove, I think they just went to plaid!)
I mean, if you're accepting numerous anthropomorphic aliens, mental telepathy, and magical artificial gravity... then I think all the JPL and NASA scientists you want aren't going to make much difference. Plus, they're not free.
Of all the things about Star Trek to care about, this one ranks just below the color of the walls in Kirk's quarters for me.
All they need a science advisor for is to make sure the science is accurate on a High-school level. They don't need to go into detail with advanced physics, cosmological concepts, and advanced technology (i.e. "technobabble").
I remember seeing a 1950's sci-fi film in which they kept on referring to our solar system as our "galaxy". That's an extreme example of the sort of mistakes a science advisor needs to catch.
We don't need this film expounding on new astro-physics concepts or give detailed explanations of how the technoloby works. It just needs to be consistent with what we know about space and future technology.
I remember seeing a 1950's sci-fi film in which they kept on referring to our solar system as our "galaxy". That's an extreme example of the sort of mistakes a science advisor needs to catch.
We don't need this film expounding on new astro-physics concepts or give detailed explanations of how the technoloby works. It just needs to be consistent with what we know about space and future technology.
Exactly so. Just as all of those putative "rocket scientists" didn't prevent TOS writers or script editors from introducing howlers like raising some number to the "first power" or describing creatures as being composed of "pure energy."
The real question is: Will the scientific advisors include any really cool people like Isaac Asimov?
If memory serves, he had this consultant position for the first movie. It'd be nice on a strictly 'oh cool' level to have an equivalent name for this film.
Not going to happen I'll bet, and certainly not necessary, but it'd be fun.
Oh, and an off-hand error I recall would be "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", where there's discussion at being in the southern part of the galaxy. Oh, come now. I don't even have the equivalent of a high school degree in any science and I know that's garbage.
Andre Bormanis credits himself as reminding the DS9 writers that, if you shrink people, they could only breathe shrunken oxygen molecules for the "One Little Ship" episode, which did become a plot point.
If memory serves, he had this consultant position for the first movie. It'd be nice on a strictly 'oh cool' level to have an equivalent name for this film.
Not going to happen I'll bet, and certainly not necessary, but it'd be fun.
Oh, and an off-hand error I recall would be "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", where there's discussion at being in the southern part of the galaxy. Oh, come now. I don't even have the equivalent of a high school degree in any science and I know that's garbage.Andre Bormanis credits himself as reminding the DS9 writers that, if you shrink people, they could only breathe shrunken oxygen molecules for the "One Little Ship" episode, which did become a plot point.
GodThingFormerly
A Different Kind of Asshole
Asimov was hired by Paramount's Michael Eisner to comment on the various scripts for ST:TMP because the studio suits felt that too many of the film's sci-tech elements would be ridiculed by critics, so putting the name of a "celebrity scientist" in the end credits as an implicit endorsement would have helped defuse such attacks. On the other hand, the Soleri arcologies, wormhole, molecular nanotechnology, linguacode, optronics, sonic showers, neural interfaces, RCS thrusters, spray-on clothing, "perscan" biometric monitors, wrist communicators, photic sonar (because virtually nobody in the audience would have heard of a LIDAR) and countless other details that helped give TMP its unmatched level of technological verisimilitude were all suggested to Gene Roddenberry by NASA engineer and strategic planner Jesco von Puttkamer. He even contributed to the development of V'ger itself. Amongst other things, Spock's "V'ger is a child" can be traced back to the line "Die Nagha war ein Kind" in JVP's 1960 novella (he also made a name for himself as a highly regarded LitSF writer and translator while attending graduate school) Die Reise des schlafenden Gottes.
TGT
Uh-huh. Writers without such "credentials" - Coon, Fontana, Roddenberry etc. - need not apply.
Some of the "science advisors" Roddenberry on TMP employed certainly enjoyed preening but delivered very little that mattered in the finished film.
There was nothing wrong with TMP that could or would have been improved by "science advisors." One of the things that movie needed was good screenwriting by competent people who weren't being hobbled by pretentious bosses.
At what? Technobabble explanations of transporters, FTL, artificial gravity or "living machines?"
Jackson_Roykirk is right: all Trek really has use for is someone to keep them from tripping over high school science...too much.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
TMP drowned in tech advisors. Von Puttkamer probably had more influence on that script than any tech advisor in history, and it was not always in service to what passed for a story. They even paid and credited Asimov to consult in order to sell Paramount on the 'living machine' notion.
If they'd left it to Katzenberg, we'd have probably had a resolution that played like the little-known STAR CRYSTAL (from what I've read, it is really really REALLY bad.)
Maybe not. But there's plenty of good Star Trek which does not fall under the 'good sci-fi' banner. As I've said elsewhere, the inclinations of the creative team behind this film will probably make them lean towards the action-adventure side of space opera; plus character material. That need not be a bad thing if done right, but whether that will occur I have my doubts.
Interesting information about von Puttkamer, TGT. Was he responsible for the whole dialogue scene regarding "V'ger is a child"? I consider that the best dialogue in the film.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
I think that child stuff might be Harold L's, from when he was conferencing with Nimoy (I know the stuff about vger needing to evolve and going on to other dimensions is Jon Povill's.)
There's a lot more Puttkamer stuff in the novelization as I recall. I think some of his stuff, which GR ate up, was likely to be disregarded on-set as production slowed down (there is something in CHEKOV'S ENTERPRISE about hours being spent on set waiting for folks to figure out what degrees of pitch roll and yaw were going to be needed to depict evasive maneuvers ... and that the end result was that they used whatever they had written down in the first place.)
BTW, I ain't TGT.
There's a lot more Puttkamer stuff in the novelization as I recall. I think some of his stuff, which GR ate up, was likely to be disregarded on-set as production slowed down (there is something in CHEKOV'S ENTERPRISE about hours being spent on set waiting for folks to figure out what degrees of pitch roll and yaw were going to be needed to depict evasive maneuvers ... and that the end result was that they used whatever they had written down in the first place.)
BTW, I ain't TGT.
