The Star Trek Thread, 3.0

Posted by TrekCore, reactions from the TOS crew on the then upcoming TNG.




And of course, Kelley ended up appearing on the pilot. And then Nimoy, then Doohan, then Shatner... One that amuses me most is Takei's comment. I knew he had been gunning for a Captain Sulu show for awhile, but I thought that started in the 90s when UPN was being formed.

Going by the long-lost-but-fondly-remembered THE MAKING OF THE TREK CONVENTIONS (yeah, that is really the title), the Sulu-for-Captain thing started in the 70s.

Got S4 of TNG on blu. Currently watching "Reunion", which has me admiring Rush's work as DP more and more, mainly in non-Enterprise-D sets. Going through the features, it just reveals more reasons for me to be happy that Roddenberry was pushed aside over the years. He was totally against Ron Moore's "Family" because of the conflict between the Brothers Picard, as it doesn't reflect his vision of humanity in the 24th century. Yeah, whatever dude, keep snorting that coke. Also want to give a shout out to "Brothers" because never once do I ever feel like I am watching the same actor play three different roles. Spiner is so good* it's easy to forget about the technical stuff behind all that, but Rob Bowman deserves credit too for blending it all nicely. I still can't believe Rick Berman wrote it, I would have guessed there was some ghost writing involved but he did it himself apparently. Weird. I did like "A Matter of Time" as well though, after that it went downhill for him as a screenwriter.

*= Made me realize that every season has at least one episode with Spiner playing a different character.

S1: "Datalore"
S2: "The Schizoid Man"
S4: "Brothers"
S5: "Power Play"
S6: "A Fistful of Datas" "Descent 1 & 2"
S7: "Masks"

If it were VOY, there probably would have been five of these a season.

^ Mention of 'The Schizoid Man' there made me think 'Hold on, there was an episode of the original series of The Prisoner called exactly the same thing' -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Schizoid_Man_(The_Prisoner)

A peek at the Wiki page for the TNG ep says it was so named because Patrick McGoohan was originally supposed to play 'Dr Graves'. You learn something new every day ...

Odd, cuz I remember interviews with the writer which indicated the title was chosen only because he was a fan of the show -- no mention ever about getting Patrick to appear (though he WAS supposed to play the part essayed by Efram Zimbalist Jr on BABYLON 5.) And I don't see why it would have been a secret either ... I mean, the same writer was involved in the unsuccessful attempt to do a CITY sequel with Nimoy as Spock, and he talked quite a bit about that (probably in the same interviews.)

Still going through S4 on blu. One thing that always bugged me about many shots with the 4-footer Enterprise model was that a lot of them were shot by Dan Curry, as he prefers shooting his models in 30fps. I never understood what he liked about that, as it only made the footage feel like it was videotape and that made the model come off more like a toy. Thankfully with the blu-ray remastering, everything that was shot at 30fps is being converted to 24fps, so it's no longer so jarring to watch. This conversion is especially good for the later seasons, as Dan Curry took full duty of all the f/x work after Robert Legato left for DS9.

'Star Trek' Villain Michael Ansara Dies at 91

Quote :

He played the great Klingon warrior Kang on three versions of "Star Trek" and a Native American on ABC's "Broken Arrow."


Michael Ansara, the rugged character actor who played Klingon commander Kang on three different Star Trek TV series, has died. He was 91

Ansara, who was married to actress Barbara Eden of I Dream of Jeannie fame, died July 31 at his home in Calabasas, Calif., after a prolonged bout with Alzheimer's disease, his former publicist, Michael B. Druxman, said.

Born in a small village in Syria to American parents, Ansara starred as Native American characters on two 1950s primetime series: ABC's Western Broken Arrow (as Cochise) and NBC's Law of the Plainsman (as Deputy U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart, another Apache).

Ansara is beloved by Star Trek fans as one of only seven actors to play the same character -- in his case legendary Klingon warrior Kang -- on three versions of the sci-fi series: the original (in the 1968 episode "Day of the Dove"), Deep Space Nine (1994's "Blood Oath") and Voyager (1996's "Flashback").


He also had major roles in such films as 1953's Julius Caesar and The Robe (as Judas); 1955's Jupiter’s Darling (his co-star in that film, swimmer-turned-actress Esther Williams, died in June [6]); 1961's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (he also appeared in the subsequent ABC series); The Comancheros (1961) with John Wayne; The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969); The Bears and I (1974); The Message (1977); and It’s Alive (1974).

Ansara came to the U.S. with his American parents at the age of 2. As a teen, he and his family relocated to California, and he entered Los Angeles City College with the intention of becoming a doctor.

A stint at the Pasadena Playhouse (where fellow students included Charles Bronson, Carolyn Jones and Aaron Spelling) led to roles on stage and in films.

He was married to Eden from 1958-74. Their son, Matthew Michael Ansara, died in 2001. An actor, he died of an accidental heroin overdose at age 35.


The senior Ansara's many TV appearances also included The Untouchables, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason, The Outer Limits, Lost in Space, I Dream of Jeannie with his wife, Hawaii Five-0 and James Michener's Centennial miniseries. He also voiced the role of Mr. Freeze on the animated Batman series.

The deep-voiced Ansara, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, also was married for a brief time in the 1950s to the late Jean Byron, who played the mom on The Patty Duke Show. His third wife was actress Beverly Kushida, who survives him; they were married for 36 years.

His Sam Buckhart character was introduced in two episodes of another ABC Western, The Rifleman.

"After that series I went two years without working at all," Ansara recalled in a 1979 interview. "If you play one thing [in his case, a Native American], and you play it well, they would type you, and it would be difficult to get other roles."

Survivors also include his sister Rose, his niece Michelle and nephew Michael John.
A private service is pending. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Michael's Antiochian Orthodox Church [8] in Van Nuys

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/print/598786

aside from his Trek appearances it's the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea movie I'll remember him. God-fearing wretch who tries to blow up Seaview.

One of his greatest roles in my opinion was as the voice of Mr. Freeze on the 90s Batman cartoon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFDTMW3_ilE

Uploaded Ron Jones tracks from "The Price". Here's what I find to be the highlight.

There's the first of a series of 3 pricey books on TOS coming out now that I HAD intended to purchase, but it turns out they are using images illegally and without acknowledgement, so I and a few others who are boycotting it are trying to spread the word on this.

Now clearly, these are books that content-wise, are completely right up my alley, like stuff I'd kill for in any other circumstances (or kill to have gotten a chance to do myself, for that matter.) But from the way I've seen this presented, I cannot in good conscience purchase any of these things from this publisher, because it's just plain wrong for them to benefit financially from this kind of thing.

Link with relevant discussion begins most of way down the page and continues on next one at:
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=219598&page=5

post by alchemist on page 6 of thread is important, as that's the guy they are stealing from.

Watched E2 earlier. What a weird episode or one that isn't there or here. And as one writer pointed out (Sussman I think), much too close to Children of Time

It's definitely a riff on "Children of Time", but I give them points for actually making this a vital part of the whole Xindi Arc, that the events in that episode play a factor into future episodes. That's what really pleased me when watching the third season as a whole, seeing that every episode counted for something, even the awful ones like "Carpenter Street" are vital to how it all plays out.

Indeed, watched The Council today and it's good to see this continuation of the arc all the way to the end.

Actually felt a bit for Degra at his death even if the Xindi Reptile general reminds me of the villain from Galaxy Quest.

Orci wants to showrun a Trek TV series. Q help us all.

I heard of that. After getting into internet fights with Trek fans, is he just doing this to piss everyone off now? Please, just keep making shitty movies and let real writers take care of Trek on TV. In this new golden age of television, the last thing Trek needs is more hacks running it to the ground.

TrekCore just reviewed the fifth season of TNG on blu-ray. Even though I've seen enough of TNG in HD to be impressed, I'm still amazed with what I see in the following seasons. This one really stuck out for me, with the reds in Picard's uniform really popping out! Having the DVD capture next to it just really demonstrates how flat and unremarkable the show used to look, but when cleaned up looks quite stunning.


DVD 2002



Blu-ray 2013

That sure is something. Sounds stupid, but like seeing new colours.

tbh the series always looked drab and washed out on TV, I feared the source was to blame and it would never compete with the original series and its film stock....thankfully that is not the case and it does indeed make it young again...like when the world was new....

Makes one think of all the other shows that came out in the 90s, the ones shot on film but edited on videotape because it was cheaper, resulting in that drab/washed out video look. So many of them that looked fine in 90s standards TV look so crummy today. I think it's great that TNG kick started this kind of treatment and because it's been doing so well in sales means studios would look into that and want to restore their shows from that era. THE X-FILES is reportedly being restored for HD, which should be much easier to pull off since there's not a lot of elaborate f/x.

Finished going through the fifth season of TNG on blu, including commentaries and features. Seth MacFarlane's commentary on "Cause and Effect" is pretty amusing, he can do a good Picard voice impersonation. I liked the way he explained why TNG meant a lot to him. Many would say the Enterprise looks more like a luxury ship, but he says that it's realistic that the ship would look that way because with a thousand people on board likely to be spending years in space, you'd want them to be in an environment that's pleasing to the eye.

Overall, I enjoyed revisiting this season and seeing Trek TV during its prime years.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Seth MacFarlane's commentary on "Cause and Effect" is pretty amusing, he can do a good Picard voice impersonation. I liked the way he explained why TNG meant a lot to him.

I rarely visit commentaries - more keen to watch the show pure - but I might make the exception for that one, the nice thing about a fan's perspective is their knowledge is often much broader and aware of issues that other fans feel are important, the difference of talking about your job as opposed to your hobby etc.

They can be pretty informative. The most amusing bit I've heard was for "The First Duty" where Ron Moore points out a shot where a very tired Patrick Stewart had been sleeping on set, someone woke him up and they used that reaction as a shot for when vital information is presented in a court martial. It's little things like that that make it fun to listen. There's only four episodes with commentaries for each set (except S1), and it's usually the more critically acclaimed episodes.

Wow, no post in here since November. Things have changed...

Anyway, I got the third season of ENT on blu-ray. Hadn't bought the first two yet, and likely won't unless they're utterly cheap (I'm very interested in the bonus stuff). Like with the TNG blus, I love how the new bonus had so much candor about the show. Braga noting the worst of the season ("Extinction" and "Exile", I agree they're worthless), the actors on how they felt about the direction their characters went (Anthony Montgomery only talked about the storyline instead of his character, obviously!), and some factoids about the Temporal Cold War like the humanoid figure from the future giving orders from Silik is actually Archer from the future. Hadn't heard of that one!

Archer was Future Guy? That's new! But not entirely unplausible.

I looked further into it, Braga tweeted a bunch of stuff regarding the motives of Future Archer. Future Archer saves Present Archer on occasion, but at some point in the fifth season he would try to kill Present Archer because he wanted to "uncorrupt" the timeline. Sounds like VOY's batshit crazy "Relativity" stretched into an arc. Probably would have been more fun to watch than see nuKirk go through the same arc twice.