Comments on: Dochterman Fires Proximity Phasers

By: Batts

Batts — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 20:52:59 +0000

When ever they get to “Who mourns for Adonais?” in the end when Apollo is shooting his own lightning I think it would be great to create the illusion of distance between his shots and the enterprise firing phasers. Maybe a lightning bursts flying from the ground then through clouds hitting the ship. Maybe showing the ship from Apollo’s point of view would be great!

By: Batts

Batts — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 20:25:50 +0000

In Errand of Mercy, the opening battle between the 2 ships would evidently be effective with the new proximity phasers. However, I think the ending were Ayelborne tells Kirk & Kor that he is standing on the homebase of the Federation & the klingon empire at the same time, would it not be great if we saw in one of each of his eyes, each planet with a little activity and his image looking at both. I cant wait to see it!!

By: Batts

Batts — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 01:38:26 +0000

I would love to see what improvements will be done with “The Cage” there is so much to change. For example when the Talosians probed the ships computers and checked earth history, the events showed shots of Kennedy, Johnson etc, since Star trek is our future, would’nt it be more powerful to give a quick glimpse of 9/11? The war in Iraq?.Adding more weight to the keepers words to pike’ the customs and history of your race show a unique hatred of captivity. this makes you too violent and dangerous of species for our needs. When the landing party tried to rescue Pike, creating a more realistic mountain landscape on Talos IV. The laser blasts and crumbling rocks would be fantastic even more so with the laser cannon involved? Perhaps showing a piece of the Columbia that Tyler picked up on the view screen? Revising the enterprises approach to the planet, instead of the planets approach to enterprise? Maybe for once, showing the enterprise in orbit? PLEASE WORK ON THIS, I know you could do it!!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 01:25:59 +0000

I would like to SEE an ion storm as referred to in “mirror mirror” that caused the transporter malfunction. Instead of the “flash effect” of the ship going from right to left, right to left, something more dramatic. Also. What would a new galatic barrier look like, for “Where no man has gone before”? Would it resemble what we saw in ST5 movie? or a little toned down? I hope you could work on this.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 05:08:37 +0000

I really like Dochterman’s version of the Proximity Phaser Shot. I prefer his “film” look over the plasticy, digital, clean look of the remaster.

By: Matt Wright

Matt Wright — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 23:39:27 +0000

That’s about right, great list of oddities and growing pains for the series effects!

We do see the sterotypical ship phaser effects in Who Morns for Adonias, and The Apple in the 2nd season.

The hand phaser effect still varied somewhat: in Season 3 the phaser was often less of a beam and more of a circular burst that eminated out from the tip. And good lord yes they could never make up their mind what color to use. Green was prevalent in season 3.

Something else that was an inconsitancy due to the early nature of the show was the fact that the use of shuttlecraft hadn’t been established in The Enemy Within and thus when the transporter went screwy the landing party was stranded. They should have been able to send a shuttle down for them, but the production crew hadn’t worked that out yet.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 23:24:21 +0000

Trivia Alert - regarding phasers and photon torpedoes...

The Cage: Hand phasers called lasers and used the right sound effect. The phaser cannon was never referred to by name but was referred to as being powered by remote from the Enterprise and it used the standard sound effect.
WNHGB: First use of the word phaser referring to the phaser rifle - sound effect is the same. The hand phasers are still the same as the hand lasers used in the Cage.
The Corbomite Maneuver: Ship’s phasers are called phasers and used the red beam effect with a slightly different sound effect.
The Enemy Within: Hand phasers used. Sound is normal but they emitted a multi beam – never used again.
The Man Trap: Phaser used on stun for the 1st time. The burst hits Crater with a splatter effect (please fix this). Crater has a Cage era hand laser.
Balance of Terror: Proximity phasers used – both visual and sound effect used would become photon torpedoes.
What are Little Girls Made of?: Brown uses a hand phaser from the Cage era.
Galileo Seven: Hand phasers used. Normal sound and visual effect. Color is blue for the 1st time.
Phaser usage is very minimal for the next several episodes.
Arena: Kirk uses a grenade launcher against the Gorn forces in the nearby hills. Visual and sound effect is photon torpedoes. Sulu fires phasers against the Gorn ship. The shot is the same as BoT except red phaser beams are used. Sound is again slightly different. Sulu also fires photon torpedoes – by name - at the Gorn. The sound effect is right but the visual effect is a red blob similar to a small burst of the phasers.
The Alternative Factor: Single beam phaser shot used to destroy the time ship. Interesting note is the unique view from astern.
Another long run with minimal phaser usage.
A Taste of Armageddon: The Eminian’s use hand disrupters that would become standard issue for the Klingons.
The Devil in the Dark: Type 1 and type 2 hand phasers referred to as such for the 1st time.
Errand of Mercy: The Enterprise is hit by several blasts from the Klingons of an unnamed weapon type. The effect is like photon torpedoes except they are slow moving, almost like mines. Phasers are returned by name but the BoT stock shot of proximity phasers is used. I really hope this is all fixed and they splurge a bit on extra effects.
Operation Annihilate!: Type 1 phasers used by landing party for the 1st time although they had been seen in the background in other episodes.
After the 1st season the effects and names are consistently used with the possible exception of the color of the phaser beam.
Elaan of Troyius: The 1st time the Klingon battle cruiser is seen and the last time photon torpedoes are used.
The Enterprise Incident: It seems that the Romulans not only use Klingon battle cruisers but also Klingon hand disrupters. And speaking of prop reuse, it looks like the cloaking devise is a combination of Nomad and Sargon’s globe.
The Lights of Zetar: The last time the ship fires phasers.

Would anyone like to expand on this list or offer up corretions?

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 19:55:29 +0000

The one thing that really stands out in the original shot is the star movement. It is obviously the stock star pattern used in many episodes and possibly the intro. The perspective shows the stars moving uniformly to the center of the shot while the Enterprise moves towards the upper right corner of the shot. Of course this a very unrealistic perspective and has always been very distracting to me. In both recreations this is corrected to show the star pattern flowing past the Enterprise with her direction of motion.

It’s the little details like that which makes these new shots look so much better even if its subtle. As I recall, the 3rd season shots (the new ones at least) had this right too.

By: Matt Wright

Matt Wright — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 18:30:52 +0000

trekmaster,
It is widely accepted that the production crew hadn’t very well established the weapons yet. The dialog clearly calls the effect “phasers” in the episode yet it behaves much more like what would become “photon torpedos”.

Because of the series early phaser/photon uncertainty, CBS Paramount decided to call the phasers shown in Balance of Terror “Proximity Phasers”.

By: trekmaster

trekmaster — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 17:51:05 +0000

@Magic_Al
I’m totally sure that phasers and photon torpedos had different sound effects and looked out different, even if there was no official naming of these weapons.