MovieChat Forums > Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) Discussion > The effect of the stars flying by while ...

The effect of the stars flying by while cruising through space....


In the opening credits of this movie, and all Star Trek movies.....there is essentially a "cruising through space" effect, as if from the point of view of the ship's bridge. What always bugged me about this effect is....it's a lazy one, and not accurate. There is no....distinction in size and movement, relative to distance. In other words....sure, the stars that are very far away would appears tiny. And if there were any that were close, they'd appear larger. The tiny ones in the distance wouldn't appear to be flying right by as if they were cones on the side of the road. They'd not even appear to be moving. Too far away. And the closer ones....they fly by at the same rate of speed, yet they are very close, and still appear tiny....as if they are little balls of light, close to the ship and the size of ping-pong balls. I realize it's an attempt to show movement, like a car driving....and you're seeing trees passing by. But in reality, the movement couldn't be decipherable at all. There'd be nothing even remotely close to the ship that would show the contrast of movement. Kind of a silly effect. But I suppose no more silly than the effect of "lighted buttons"...and toggle switches, all over the walls in the ships in the first few Star Treks....the Alien movies...Star Wars, etc. Since we didn't have much computer technology yet for those first few movies, you didn't see computer screens, virtual reality, 3-D effects, holograms, etc....the way you'd see them now. All you saw was lines and lines of colored, blinking lights...in an effort to display "technology". LOL.

They had the technology to create a spaceship capable of hurling through space....but didn't yet have the technology that would indicate computers, computer screens, etc. Heck, they had the technology to "beam people up" to from one ship to another. But didn't have the technology for.....Pong? LOL

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Nitpick much? Star...Trek...isn't...real.

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I am not a fan. I just happen to enjoy movies. Fans are embarrassing.

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