Scott Atwell Star Trek Discussion thread (Series and Films) (3 Viewers)

[jayembee]

Not to pile on more, I had to dig out my VHS copy of City on the Edge of Forever. Fun to look back on that as the medium we had to view Star Trek at home.

Speak for yourself. I was a Betamax man, myself (until I collected the laserdiscs).

 

[B-ROLL]

Speak for yourself. I was a Betamax man, myself (until I collected the laserdiscs).

Lest we forget there was yet another way to view an episode of ST-Classic ....

 

[KPmusmag]

I still have my ViewMaster of Star Trek. The Omega Glory is far from my favorite episode and I always wished they had chosen a different one for the ViewMaster.

 

[Nelson Au]

I never had the ViewMaster or those Star Trek ViewMaster releases. I’ll have to see if I can find a good set.

 

[ScottRE]

I suppose it did. But being an old fart who (a) watched TOS during its original broadcast, and (b) became part of SF fandom (though not specifically ST fandom) not long after TOS ended, I can say that "Space Seed" was a highly-regarded episode well before TWOK, and the fan interest level in that movie was because of fond memories of the

I've been around only since the early syndication days, being born in 1967, but I can't remember a point in my life without Star Trek. I wasn't aware of fandom beyond Starlog and Enterprise Incidents and a couple of reference books, but whenever I did read of the best of's in those days, City, Tribbles and Amok Time probably got mentioned to most. I felt that Space Seed was above average, but not top tier. Ricardo Montalban was the main saving grace of the episode, his charisma and ability really elevated a script that needed another polish. McGivers was not particularly well written and Kirk was really kind of a dimwit for letting Khan happily look over the tech specs of the Enterprise. And Spock is no better for letting it happen without a word of caution because both of them were aware of the era Khan came from. Meh.

And even as a kid, I thought it was weird that Kirk could beat Khan with a "paper towel roll painted grey." That's the kid mind for ya. However, as an adult, I realized Khan's own overconfident ego did him in and regardless of the super strength gymnastics later "augments" (kill me) performed, and also regardless of how overpowered the Cumberbatch version was, Khan could still be beaten in a fight and phasers could stun them. We didn't see it because Khan got the jump on Kirk, but if they couldn't, the guards at the end would have no advantage over Khan. I prefer Space Seed Khan over all of them because he's still the most realistic.

Great character, decent episode.

I still have my ViewMaster of Star Trek. The Omega Glory is far from my favorite episode and I always wished they had chosen a different one for the ViewMaster.

Blame Roddenberry. He loved his episode and wanted it showcased.

I don't rank it highly, either. But I seem to have different opinions on the movies than most people do.

That said, I do think "City" is the best TOS episode. Not that I don't think others aren't at roughly the same quantum level. But if there was a "Desert Island Disc" thing where one only got to choose one episode from select TV shows, "City" would be my TOS choice.

Certainly in the top tier but my choice for Desert Island Trek will always be The Doomsday Machine.

 

[Harry-N]

I never grabbed the ViewMaster set for STAR TREK - in fact, I really didn't think to grab ANY ViewMaster sets. I was already a teenager in the STAR TREK era so I think ViewMaster sets seemed like a relic from childhood.

There is however one story about ViewMaster and another show and me. One day, probably in 1967 or 1968, I happened into one of those discount department stores and saw a ViewMaster set for THE TIME TUNNEL. The show had been canceled and I think I wanted to grab that set, but I didn't have the cash to do so. Sometime later, that fact gnawed at me, and I went back to that store - and of course it was sold out. I chalked it up to one of those missed opportunities in life.

Flash forward to the late 1990s and the new existence of Ebay. My very first Ebay purchase was one of those TIME TUNNEL ViewMaster sets. And sometime in the last decade, I actually figured out how to scan those tiny ViewMaster images into the computer. Here's the whole set if anyone's interested:

Time Tunnel View Master — Postimages

postimg.cc

Bringing this back to STAR TREK, or course Whit Bissell played K-7 Manager Lurry in the tribbles episode.

 

[Nelson Au]

I carried on with more favorite or special and iconic episodes. I decided to go back and watch Where No Man Has Gone Before and The Corbomite Maneuver back to back. I wanted to go back to a time when Star Trek was fresh and some traces of The Cage lingered. These two episodes as we know are the second pilot and the first production episode, so it was watching in sequence the development of Kirk and Spock. The intro to Dr. McCoy and Uhura and Rand and the new versions of Sulu and Scott. It’s interesting to see there is a hint of conflict between Kirk and McCoy, they seem like friends, but McCoy is a bit more forward with Kirk in confronting him on the bridge about Bailey. Or maybe I’m just trying to find something new. Though McCoy is as forward with Kirk in later episodes.

Then I made the jump to Amok Time and The Doomsday Machine because the sound tracks of both episodes are on the soundtrack CDs that I was listening too. It was interesting to place more focus on my attention to Amok Time and T’Pring. She was a really calculating lady! In the past, I always let that go because she was so logical and unemotional about it. She made it clear what she wanted and manipulated the situation knowing in the end, she would have Stonn.

Nothing to add really except that it was great to revisit these epsiodes. Though I had seen The Doomsday Machine very recently, it’s fun to watch again.

One more thing about the music, it occurred to me that in Squire of Gothos, Trelane is playing a piece called Southern Roses and I’ve seen it called another name, Roses of the South by Johann Strauss II. I gather that there is no royalties needed for that piece as it’s old enough that it’s public domain at the time this Star Trek episode was made then later released on home video.

 

[Osato]

I never had the ViewMaster or those Star Trek ViewMaster releases. I’ll have to see if I can find a good set.

How many Star Trek reels / episodes were released? Animated series and films too?

If I recall some of the pictures used for these were alternate pictures? Was a standard camera used for these?

 

[B-ROLL]

How many Star Trek reels / episodes were released? Animated series and films too?

If I recall some of the pictures used for these were alternate pictures? Was a standard camera used for these?

I believe the images were Super 8(mm). I'm assuming from a reduction print or 35mm Transparency (or what most people called "Slides"). *

I believe there were 3 ST 3 real sets released TMP:

ST II-WoK

STC - Omega Glory which I believe one of the three pilots commissioned by NBC -after rejecting "The Cage". The others became: "Mudd's Women" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

And one from the Animated Series ...

*Lincoln Enterprises (AKA Gene Roddenberry) used to sell "Slides" obtained by taking 35mm Color work-print frames and mounting them in paper slide mounts or selling them unmounted as "film cels".

 

[Harry-N]

As I mentioned above, I only have experience with the TIME TUNNEL ViewMaster reels. All of those are indeed alternate shots taken during the episode's filming or rehearsals by the special 3D cameras. In one shot on my set, you can see the microphone clearly low in the frame.

And of course the last frame on the third reel shows the boys getting out of a jungle and back into the time tunnel - which was never in a televised version:

 

[Museum Pieces]

Did View Master images need to be taken during the actual filming of episodes or movies in order to get a true 3-D effect? Or was it something composited later? I have an extensive View Master Collection of classic TV reels (Land of the Lost, Star Trek, Six Million Dollar Man, etc.) as well as movies of the time like Poseidon Adventure and Superman. I was just curious if the photography had to be done during actual filming of the shows or composited later. Seems to me it would need to be done during principal photography.

 

[Osato]

Couple of ones I’ve never seen:

Vh1 Flix Star Trek 5. Video wouldn’t post…

Then this one for Star Trek 3:

 

[Jack P]

STC - Omega Glory which I believe one of the three pilots commissioned by NBC -after rejecting "The Cage". The others became: "Mudd's Women" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
View attachment 216526

And one from the Animated Series ...

Someone once posted scans of this Viewmaster (with written captions of the descriptions from each picture included) on YT set to generic music. I downloaded that and made a new version with some regular Trek music to underscore it (Including the cue from "Omega Glory" itself).

 

[Nelson Au]

Someone once posted scans of this Viewmaster (with written captions of the descriptions from each picture included) on YT set to generic music. I downloaded that and made a new version with some regular Trek music to underscore it (Including the cue from "Omega Glory" itself).

Thanks Jack!

 

[KPmusmag]

Oh those excruciating days when several of your favorite shows were on at the same time and there was no VCR in sight and a choice had to be made. We likely watched Star Trek because my parents loved it - and that is fine with me but I loved Bewitched and My Three Sons also!

 

[B-ROLL]

Oh those excruciating days when several of your favorite shows were on at the same time and there was no VCR in sight and a choice had to be made. We likely watched Star Trek because my parents loved it - and that is fine with me but I loved Bewitched and My Three Sons also! View attachment 217449

Not to mention F-Troop vs The French Chef ... "Bone Apehteet"

 

[Nelson Au]

Oh those excruciating days when several of your favorite shows were on at the same time and there was no VCR in sight and a choice had to be made. We likely watched Star Trek because my parents loved it - and that is fine with me but I loved Bewitched and My Three Sons also! View attachment 217449

In that listing for Star Trek, it say this series will be reviewed by Cleveland Armoray. I had to look that up! I found the text. I’ve never seen this review before:

Cleveland Amory's March 25, 1967 TV Guide Review of Star Trek.

The mission of the "Star Ship" Enterprise is to seek out and discover new worlds---"To boldly go," as is stated each week, "where no man has gone before." In other words, Enterprise not only splits the infinite---but, horror of horrors, infinitives, too. And quite a trip this good ship has each week.

The Enterprise has plenty of fun places to go, and, make no mistake about it, it has fun people to go to those fun places.

First of all, there is Captain Kirk (William Shatner), who's pretty close to the last of the clean-cutters. When he says sternly, "Affirmative" or "Negative" to some scheming girl yeoman, you just know---well, he yeomans it.

Second, there is his space mate, Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), a "science officer" who not only has pointed ears but also, we are told, a "precise, logical" turn of mind [which he] inherited from his father, a native of the planet Vulcanis, who married an Earth woman. (We've) warned you men before about marrying below you.

Third, there is Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelly) who is, we are also informed, "the oldest and most experienced space traveler on the ship." (If he's too old for you, girls, look at it this way---200 years from now, what will it matter?)

And fourth and fifth, there are Mr. Sulu (George Takei), "the helmsman", and Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), a beautiful Negro communication officer.

Altogether, they're so darn well-integrated internationally that it seems a pity to waste them on outer space. We need them right here on Earth.

Most of the trips, of course, involve shoot-'em-ups of one sort or another. Our favorite trip was to a beautiful planet where the crew saw, in short order, a large White Rabbit, a small Alice ("You follow the rabbit," Shatner barks, "and I'll backtrack the girl"), a Don Juan, a tiger, a Japanese samurai, a German strafing plane, a Black Knight (apparently a loser in the Ajax contest), as well as a rather hazy girl friend of Captain Kirk's of 15-years before (Shirley Bonne) and a man named Finnegan (Bruce Mars), an upperclassman who had actually hazed Kirk at the Space Academy.

Even when it turned out that all these hallucinations were hallucinated up by the crewman themselves, we still weren't out of the woods because one of them, the Black Knight, looked like the real McCoy---or at least real enough to kill Dr. McCoy.

"It's my fault!" cried yeoman Tonia Barrows (Emily Banks), who had Hallucinated up both Don Juan and the Black Knight. "I'm to blame!" But Captain Kirk shook her. "I need every crewman alert," he said. "Face front. Don't talk. Don't think. Don't breathe!" It was good advice---and in our opinion the best way for an adult to watch this show. For the kids, though, let 'em breathe. Let 'em even hallucinate. They'll love it.

 

[bmasters9]

Oh those excruciating days when several of your favorite shows were on at the same time and there was no VCR in sight and a choice had to be made. We likely watched Star Trek because my parents loved it - and that is fine with me but I loved Bewitched and My Three Sons also! View attachment 217449

What area is this from, where 4 is ABC, 5 is NBC and 7 is CBS?

 

[KPmusmag]

What area is this from, where 4 is ABC, 5 is NBC and 7 is CBS?

I believe it is from Seattle.

 

[Jack P]

The amusing thing about Trek and "My Three Sons" airing opposite each other is that part of "City On The Edge Of Forever" (the Mission sets) was filmed on their soundstage since "Sons" had by then wrapped up production for the season.