The planet scenes are so cheesy. Bad makeup for the creatures and the set design has such a lack of detail. The more gripping storylines take place on the ship.
shareIt was produced for SDTV. Did you watch it in HD?
shareI saw this as a kid and didn't think the makeup and art-direction was bad, but I recently downloaded it and am currently on season 2 and it's bothered me quite a bit. It's not HD, but I imagine that I would spot further flaws in HD.
shareYou might see ducks on the large engineering diagram of the Enterprise in engineering. I remember when the first movie was coming out in 1994 there was an article in Entertainment Weekly that mentioned Easter eggs like this. They weren’t noticeable on TV but when they shifted to a theatrical release they had to do something about it. I’m curious if on the remastered HD video (where I think they went back to the original film) if they are noticeable or if they digitally erased them.
shareIn 1966 I had an opportunity to visit the set of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." at MGM. I was quite surprised to see that the interior of U.N.C.L.E. headquarters, that looked so slick and modern when I watched the show, were just plywood, spray-painted silver. Cracks, nail heads, and even some accidentally bent-over nails were clearly visible. None of this was apparent at all on the standard-definition tv of the time. This was probably typical of sets for tv shows before HDTV became widespread.
shareProbably but for me the storylines on planets are not as good as ones on the Enterprise.
shareThe look was bad...TOS was the worst
shareI remember in two early episodes of TOS, they just shot in front of a green screen. No effects, just the literal green screen.
shareGreen screen? They never had the budget for that sort of thing. There are some matte painting shots like the exterior of the citadel in the original pilot or the Lithium cracking station in the second pilot - etc. later. And a few matte shots include a live action foreground element but those were too expensive to use all the time.
Mostly it was soundstage cycloramas on planets.
This isn't the episode I was speaking of, but this is also from TOS and looks pretty much the same as what I'm describing.
https://m0vie.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/tos-dayofthedove3.jpg
Well, ya got me there... There is a screen and it is, indeed, green. They used paint, sometimes, and lights, always, to change the color of the "sky" on the cycloramas.
shareSorry if it sounded like I was trying to prove you wrong. I just posted the pic to show exactly what I meant.
shareHey, I'm just sensitive... I remember with great sadness the early sci-fi series that did use optical compositing to place the characters in complex backgrounds. The Starlost. You can see how badly that technology could look when done on a TV budget back then. Starlost had to use video chroma-key to keep the cost within sane proportions so it looks awful.
shareI don't think you're sensitive. You just seem like you know a lot about the topic and are passionate about it.
shareDon't worry about making amends with that guy. He's an obnoxious troll and your instincts were right about his intent. The mods here just deleted one of his troll threads so now he's off spreading misery elsewhere.
shareThe first two seasons are really inferior in terms of pretty much everything. There were a couple of really good episodes in season 2 though despite that.
shareThe more I rewatch TNG, the more I'm okay with seasons 1 and 2. In my opinion, overall they're still good, but there are a few not-so-good episodes.
I guess, I've been desensitized myself through these rewatches haha
They are definitely necessary for character building so that when you get to the better seasons, they are more impactful. So you have to at least watch the episodes even if they aren't the best.
shareThe show was made week after week, so the set designer had just a few weeks to create the planet scenes, while the Ship scenes were a steady set. Furthermore, most of the ship episodes were just around our normal crew facing something irregular. The alien often showed up only in the last minutes or were only visible for a few moments during the episode. So much less, which can break in sense of narrative or design. Rewriting a couple of scenes on the Enterprise does not cost much, but when they built a fraking court room for an episode, that set has to be used.
shareI'm pretty much with you except for that one episode where Wesley stepped on the grass and was almost executed for it. It's too bad that they didn't follow through but it's the thought that counts.
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Shut up Meg!!
Oh, wrong franchise. Sorry. I just got carried away.
Yeah, the Boy really sucked.
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