{"id":290,"date":"2009-06-06T17:24:39","date_gmt":"2009-06-06T16:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.staggeringstories.net\/?p=290"},"modified":"2009-06-06T18:03:48","modified_gmt":"2009-06-06T17:03:48","slug":"a-newbies-look-at-star-trek-the-original-series-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.staggeringstories.net\/?p=290","title":{"rendered":"A Newbies Look at Star Trek: The Original Series, Part 1."},"content":{"rendered":"

Prompted by J. J. Abrams’ fantastic 2009 Star Trek film, I have rented the first Blu-Ray disc of Star Trek (The Original Series, as it is now known).\u00c2\u00a0 Below are a few random thoughts that occurred to this virtual ST: TOS newbie.<\/p>\n

Before I begin I should give a bit of background on my knowledge of Star Trek.\u00c2\u00a0 As a child I grew up in the mid seventies and through the eighties, so Star Trek, to me, was a TV series BBC2 repeated a lot at 6PM and there were also a few films.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not an American and I certainly wasn’t around in the late 60s to see TOS when it first aired.\u00c2\u00a0 Star Trek was something my father watched and bored me terribly.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t as exciting as Star Wars (and all the adventures my expansive Palitoy\/Kenner action figure collection had) or as fun as Doctor Who.\u00c2\u00a0 To be honest, I hated the Star Trek TV series.\u00c2\u00a0 Boring, old fashioned rubbish.<\/p>\n

\"Rigellian\"There were also the Star Trek films.\u00c2\u00a0 I have vague memories of going to the cinema with my father to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I would have been about 4\u00c2\u00bd at the time and perhaps this film has more to do with my childhood hatred for Star Trek than the original TV series did!\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t remember much about it, except being disappointed that some humanoid turtle creatures featured in a film promo magazine (that I presumably picked up at the cinema and looked through, waiting for the film to start) didn’t actually appear in the film.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m sure they must have been there somewhere but I failed to spot them (perhaps because I had to go to the toilet part way through the very long film!)\u00c2\u00a0 [Just now I did a Google search and discover that the creatures are called Rigellians.]\u00c2\u00a0 I was hoping for something like Star Wars but what I got was anything but!<\/p>\n

Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home has rather fonder memories for me, however.\u00c2\u00a0 It was probably one of, if not the first, film that my friend Ian and I went to see on our own.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike other Star Trek, as it seemed to me at the time, this one had a sense of humour.\u00c2\u00a0 It had some action and didn’t try to preach quite so hard (though clearly it had a preachy theme at its core!)\u00c2\u00a0 I was also familiar with Star Trek 2 and 3, though I’ve never cared much for Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock.<\/p>\n

So, my knowledge of original Star Trek is mainly from little bits of the TV series I caught (or were on in the background) and the film series.\u00c2\u00a0 So, I know the characters fairly well (at least in their, fatter, film forms). \u00c2\u00a0 I was a big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, though which I first saw in 1989 (and filled a bit of gap left by Doctor Who), so am very familiar with the Star Trek universe, just not the original series.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Now the first three Star Trek episodes are behind me, I feel ready to offer my initial thoughts and observations.\u00c2\u00a0 Those episodes are The Man Trap, Charlie X and Where No Man Has Gone Before.<\/p>\n

I have watched the ‘remastered’ versions in HD.\u00c2\u00a0 Basically that means they’ve gone back to the original film footage, rescanned it in and fixed up visual defects, such as dirt on the film and faded colour.\u00c2\u00a0 On the Blu-Ray there is also the option of watched new CGI effects (most notably the new CGI Enterprise) or the originals.\u00c2\u00a0 Naturally I went with the new CGI effects.\u00c2\u00a0 Quick comparisons (via the ‘angle’ button on my remote) suggest (as does their featurette on the remastering process) that they have been very faithful to the original effects shots.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly they feel as if they fit right in to me.\u00c2\u00a0 Like the improved picture quality (and the 7.1 audio mix) I suspect that most people, when they see the new HD version with CGI effects, will think nothing has changed at all.\u00c2\u00a0 This is probably how they remember it but, of course, their memory will be cheating them.\u00c2\u00a0 Most special effects, if done well, should not be noticed by the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 The same is true of remastered and HD material in general.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course if people saw the originals on a big HD TV they would be surprised by just how bad it looks.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s almost a shame so much work has to go into remastering when so few people will notice or appreciate the difference.<\/p>\n

Onto the episodes themselves!<\/p>\n

In some ways the three episodes are quite similar, particularly Charlie X and Where No Man Has Gone Before.\u00c2\u00a0 Each of them involve a threat to the Enterprise from a lone individual who has gained power over others.\u00c2\u00a0 In the first case, The Man Trap, it turns out not to be a human being but a ‘Salt Vampire’ with the ability to project a different physical appearance and paralyse people before sucking them dry of salt (don’t we all hate it when that happens!)\u00c2\u00a0 Charlie X sees the Enterprise ferry a young man, a recently rescued marooned survivor of a transport crash, who has some incredible telekinetic powers.\u00c2\u00a0 Naturally this Charlie Evans goes bad and starts to kill people and take over the Enterprise.\u00c2\u00a0 Likewise the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before (WNMHGB!) sees someone, this time Kirk’s old friend and subordinate Gary Mitchell, gain incredible telekinetic and telepathic powers, goes bad and takes over the Enterprise.\u00c2\u00a0 Given the unconnected episodic nature of Star Trek, it seems incredible to me that the producers didn’t do a better job of shifting these stories apart in the running order – they weren’t filmed in that order.\u00c2\u00a0 I am, of course, assuming that the episodes to come don’t feaure the same basic story idea!<\/p>\n

As expected I did find the episodes quite plodding.\u00c2\u00a0 That isn’t quite as pronounced on the third of them, WNMHGB, which just felt like better TV than the other two.\u00c2\u00a0 WNMHGB is odd in that it is actually a pilot episode (the second pilot, after the suits didn’t like the first (which was, of course, partially recycled in The Menagerie – with a comedy Captain Pike and his beeper)).\u00c2\u00a0 There are many differences in WNMHGB and the other two, most notably some of the cast and the costumes.<\/p>\n

Talking about Star Trek costumes… Why, oh why did they abandon the decent female uniforms in WNMHGB for the dreadful miniskirts that we all associate with Uhura and yeoman Rand?!\u00c2\u00a0 Take a look at these:<\/p>\n

\"Star<\/p>\n

On the left we have Dr. Dehner and Yeoman Smith from the second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before. On the right we have Lieutenant Uhura and Yeoman Rand from the series proper.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn’t find decent full height shots of Dehner or Smith but they wear trousers – in stark contrast to the female uniforms from the rest of the series, as depicted here by Uhura and Rand.\u00c2\u00a0 Also the pilot costumes don’t have those stupid lopsided open necks.\u00c2\u00a0 What were they thinking when they changed them?! Let’s get rid of the practical outfits?! Don’t think I’m trying to be PC here – I honestly think Uhura and Rand’s costumes are rediculous!\u00c2\u00a0 Besides, to my taste I think Dehner and Smith look a lot more attractive in their uniforms – Uhura and Rand just look like they should be hanging around on street corners at night!\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s not even talk about those impractical and rather silly looking beehives haircuts they move to from the simple, practical ones of Dehner and Smith.\u00c2\u00a0 I like intelligent, practical women not two bit tarts!\u00c2\u00a0 Star Trek took such a massive backwards step and I don’t really understand why.\u00c2\u00a0 It is rather fitting that they parody the women’s final costumes in Futurama with Zapp Brannigan because parody is all those costumes are good for.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of a shame J. J. Abrams continues that in the new film.<\/p>\n

That’s where I’ll leave it, for now.\u00c2\u00a0 So far it hasn’t been anything like as bad as I expected.\u00c2\u00a0 It does feel very slow by today’s standards but that is equally true of Doctor Who from the same era.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t yet exhibit the fun character interplay I expect from TOS but I assume that will come soon enough.\u00c2\u00a0 I am also hoping for a bit more variation in terms of basic plot but I assume that that too will come soon enough.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m trying to keep an open mind.\u00c2\u00a0 It has promise…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prompted by J. J. Abrams’ fantastic 2009 Star Trek film, I have rented the first Blu-Ray disc of Star Trek (The Original Series, as it is now known).\u00c2\u00a0 Below are a few random thoughts that occurred to this virtual ST: TOS newbie. Before I begin I should give a bit of background on my knowledge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-review","category-sci-fi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.staggeringstories.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.staggeringstories.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.staggeringstories.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.staggeringstories.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.staggeringstories.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.staggeringstories.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.staggeringstories.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.staggeringstories.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.staggeringstories.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}