History Channel Airing Trek Documentaries – Reviews Not So Good February 18, 2007
by Anthony Pascale , Filed under: Trek Franchise , trackback
The History Channel is taking a break from its regular schedule of shows on ancient Rome and World War II to take a look at the history of Star Trek. They are running two documentaries, the first of which ‘Star Trek Tech’ will air tonight (Sunday) at 9pm. ‘Tech’ is a regular show that devotes each episode the the technology of a particular time period or event or in this case a fictional universe. The second and bigger documentary is ‘Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier’, a two hour retrospective on Trek hosted by Leonard Nimoy (airing Monday at 9 pm). ‘Beyond the Final Frontier’ focuses much of its attention on the Christies auction and includes interviews with actors from each of the Trek series, but notably not William Shatner. There are already some reviews in on the longer doc and so far they are mixed at best.
Here is what the TV critics have to say about ‘Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier’:
Using a high-stakes Christies auction of "Trek" memorabilia as its dotted through-line as well as the entire last half-hour, this project does little more than interview cast members and a few of the writer-producers about how they loved their colleagues and the franchise’s impressive longevity. All told, it invites the question: In space, can anyone hear you yawn?
- Brian Lowry, Variety
Can you produce a satisfying Star Trek retrospective without William Shatner? Nope. You need the actor who was, is and always will be Capt. James T. Kirk.
….Repetitive and padded, it keeps going over familiar territory. The special glides over the current resting of the franchise and what it means to the future of Star Trek.
- Hal Boedeker, Orlando Sentinel
The special largely focuses on a high-profile Christie’s auction of "Trek" props, and the Trekkies willing to pay big bucks for starship scale models, Starfleet uniforms, transporter-room control panels and so on. We also learn about makeup techniques, rabid "Trek" fans, "Trek" originator Gene "Great Bird of the Galaxy" Roddenberry, and more. But the documentary does not tell us how "Trek" ran aground. Why did the last TV series, "Enterprise," tank in the ratings? Why did the last movie, "Nemesis," bomb at the box office? How the heck do we get the "Trek" magic back?- Julio Ojeda Zapata, St. Paul Pioneer Press
Nearly all surviving actors in major roles share memories and insights, along with writers, crewmembers from makeup and wardrobe, and many, many others. As they give their insights and anecdotes, the scene shifts regularly back to the auction set to begin more than six months later — six months crammed with activity as 1,000 "Star Trek" artifacts are selected for shipment from Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles to Christie’s in New York. This turns out to be a useful way for the documentary to reveal the time, energy and devotion that went into the films and series. …This documentary will surely say little or nothing new to buffs who have bought the books, DVDs and products. But others will find it more engaging than they might first think.
- Ted Mahar, The Oregonian
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Comments»
first!
I always thought they show too much Rome and WW2, lloking forward to seeing these.
I don’t belive it. I think if you love Trek you sould love these programs.
What about the Luftwaffe? The ‘Washington Generals’ of the History channel?
I think the “tech” documentary will be interesting, but the BTFF doc doesn’t seem it will provided anything beyond what we already know. Usually when they interview any of the execs and writers especially, they seem to program themselves to tell the same stories and give the same lines. Nice to see something trek on the air though.
Ditto I’d be much more interested in seeing the teck doc.
LLAP
Seems for years we’ve seen “Star Trek Tech” specials on all sorts of networks. It’s usually all the same stuff: transporters, tricorders, warp drive, etc. They usually get some Trek actor to present it along with interviews of some scientist at some University lab….
….have had the TIVO programmed to record it since it first appeared on the listing two weeks ago!!!!! ;)
Tech? What tech? Did somebody say tech? I didn’t hear anything about any tech. :)
Rick
As an aside, I had a professor who once made reference to the History Channel as the “Hitler Channel” since everytime he turned it on there was a documentary on HITLER.
To prove it, he turned on the television at a random time and…well, guess who was on?
I suppose that if a Trek based show was going to be on I bet he’ll turn it on to “Patterns or Force” or an installment of Enterprise with Nazis.
I’ll check it out anyway, no matter what the St Paul Pioneer Press might think.
The History Channel?Star Trek?America is filled with pop culture nit wits who can’t comprehend real historically relevant events.As much as I like Star Trek,one does have to put things in perspective.It sounds to me like a certain powerful entertainment company is grooming a future audience with this infotainment special.
I didn’t know anything about this untill 10 minutes ago. Other than the shows I reguarly record I haven’t watched much lately, I was sitting at my sisters and the preview just happend to come on. :-) Looking forward to it, glad I found out just before rather than just after.
The History channel is currently devoting program time to cattle mutilation by UFO’s.For some reason I thought they were credible.What’s in a name?
I’ll watch it just to get a glimpse of those beautiful models and artifacts from the original series’s run of movies. With computers taking over, the artisans who built these wonderful iconic miniatures are a vanishing breed and are certainly due some recognition. That’s who they should be interviewing as they follow the auction….not the cast members.
#7 – Is that really you, Rick? If so, I just want to say, the Next Generation Technical Manual is still one of my all-time favorite Star Trek books. I read it when it first came out and was amazed at how much thought and attention to detail went into the fictional universe of the show. What really made it special was the way you and Okuda acknowledged (and sometimes fudged around) real-world scientific principles, and I’ll bet that book helped inspire a lot of kids to become scientists and engineers. Thanks so much for the part you played in making Star Trek so great!
Review #2 says it all
“Can you produce a satisfying Star Trek without William Shatner? Nope. You need the one actor who was, is and always will be Captain James T. Kirk”
J.J. Please take notice of this.
Get Shatner back as Kirk in ST XI.
SHATNER BELONGS IN THE OLD FARTS HOME.
Looks like I picked a bad week to quit satellite…
I want to see remastered In Search of…. on the history channel. I can’t find the show anywhere even an ebay bootleg would do. One of the all time best theme songs and a mustacheod Nimoy in a loud plaid jacket and grey 70’s turtleneck speaking in his huskey smoker’s voice: Could it be that this is indeed the site of the lost city of Atlantis?? or Could this have indeed been the real Jack the Ripper??? That ladies and gents was entertainment!!! God damn did it freak me out as a kid. Please join me in demanding remastered In Search Of…
My campaign continues: SHATNER AND NIMOY: STAR TREK XI. Trek will not be right again until this happens! I also still want for the subtitle:
LEGENDS NEVER DIE!
I love that UFO stuff on the History Channel- not because I’m a UFO buff, but for the narration and editing- if I ever suffer from insomnia, those shows put me to sleep within minutes.
In Search Of…. remastered because we demand it!!!
The History Channel is also rerunning “How William Shatner Changed the World” a couple of times tomorrow, too.
I’m still waiting for someone to suggest the best actor to portray a young James T. Kirk!!
Re 23 – Christian Slater. :P
22 – The thing tonight looked suspiciously similar to HWSCTW. Same interview subject. Less compelling, because the Shat wasn’t there.
Re: the tech show – I didn’t enjoy an hour of being told how most everything on Star Trek is theoretically impossible. That’s no fun. However, it was nice to see the Okudas getting some face time for all their valuable behind the scenes work.
Re: In Search Of … I would kill to have that show uncut on DVD. I loved that show as a kid and it retains considerable charm. Call it schlock, kitsch, whatever – that great opening title theme and sequence, the creepy 70s synth music, Nimoy’s pitch-perfect narration as well as his fantastic sideburns, mustaches and 70s fashion – absolutely love it. I was bitterly disappointed that those History Channel repeats edited out the classic opening. I want the real thing. If every other shitty show from the 70s can be released on DVD, then surely there’s a market for In Search Of …
Oh and those History Channel pseudo documentaries about UFOs, Majestic-12, cattle mutilations? If I am working at home on a Saturday or Sunday, those are definitely my background noise. The cheesier the better. In Search Of … left its mark.
…Bah! Who needs History Channel documentaries on Ancient Rome when we’ve got HBO’s Rome! :-)
I just watched this. There’s nothing wrong with it at all.
#2 Just because someone enjoys Star Trek doesn’t mean you automatically LOVE everythign Trek! Geez!
There have been so many “specials” about Star Trek over the years and while some have been excellent and quite enjoyable, others have been quite lame and boring. I’ll reserve my opinion and judgement about this one until AFTER I’ve watched it!
“In space…can anyone hear you yawn!” Very funny!
Mike :o
Hello all
I’ve helped to translated this shows into portuguese. They ar due to air here in a few weeks. And they are poor pieces of television. Nevertheless, it’s fine to see the “serious” channels to look at trek in a iconic way.
Well I just finished watching the late night rerun of “Star Trek Tech” on the History channel, and here’s my two cents..
Overall, it was pretty much the same stuff I’ve seen many times before in other ST specials, just rehashed and regurgitated.
I guess it would be interesting if you had never seen this information before, but for me it was nothing new.
But the Star Wars documentary that followed this program was surprising good. It’s definately worth watching.
Mike :o
Yeah that Star Wars doc – I think its called “Empire of Dreams”? – was terrific. Seeing all that footage of crowds lined up around the block really reminded me of how enormously huge a thing Star Wars was back in the late 70s and of how much fun and enthusiasm there was for it. The late 70s and early 80s was a great time to grow up if you were a sci-fi kid.
I’m looking forward to tonight’s History Channel show on the Christie’s auction, et al. Its a shame the original series has yet to have a definitive documentary about it, a la that Star Wars one. If there’s ever been a show on television that merits one, it has to be Star Trek.
re: 23. Michael Appleton
“I’m still waiting for someone to suggest the best actor to portray a young James T. Kirk!!”
No one can. They should drop the whole idea.
re: 18. The Artist Formerly Known As Picardsucks
“I want to see remastered In Search of…. on the history channel.”
The last I saw that was back in the late 80s early 90s on some cable channel. Used to love that show. And wouldn’t it be great to see it remastered from the original super 8 negatives?!?
#32 Billy….
Yes I agree with you..I wish there was a comprehensive documentary just on TOS and TOS cast movies. Maybe they have already made such a documentary, but I’ve never seen or heard about it, and it wasn’t included as a DVD extra in any of the TOS season box sets.
I think they could make a very interesting TOS restrospective/documentary with behind the scene footage, deleted scenes etc. It would also be fun if they included those hilarious TOS bloopers too!
Mike :o
I thought the Trek Tech show was pretty interesting, although they focused too much on the nitty-gritty of quantum physics. Am looking forward to the Nimoy documentary tonight.
Is it just me or does Frakes look like he’s been spending a lot of time in Ten Forward chowing down?
33- Stanky, It’s obvious the only one who can take over the Shatner mantle and play Kirk is Britney Spears. She’s got the trained voice and is currently bald. She can lip sync the Shakespearean quotes.
Too bad they never aired the documentary that was shown over in Europe for Trek’s anniversary. It goes quite in depth at times with the actors and the production of the first series. I was unaware of Nimoy’s drinking and actual contemplations of suicide while working on the show until I saw that documentary. It is available on Youtube for anyone who has not see it yet.
re: 34 The Stankster
Hell yes, complete with Nimoy’s thin mustache and grey turtleneck sweater under a plaid 70’s Sportscoat. They have all these psudeo history (What If) type shows to fill space on all the different history and science channels. In Search of… was the father of all these. And it had a freaky Rod Serling type edge to it. It was grainy and spooky and it also startled me as a kid because all of the sudden my beloved Spock had this huskier voice from too many cigarettes. This thing was brilliant on so many different levels. Even JJ has borrowed elements of it on Lost when they found the second hatch with the videotape it had a very In Search of..style and Theme song. and the scientist was dressed exactly like Nimoy from In Search Of.. Could it be that this was in fact the creature known as Bigfoot?? In Search of….. remastered the movement has become a groundswell!!!
Yes, 38, acb. That’s “After They Were Stars” and it’s probably the best of its kind I’ve ever seen on Trek. The Nimoy revelations were surprising to me, too. Didn’t know that even after reading Shatner’s tell-almost-all books. I wish History Channel would show those. They even have nifty new sfx shots of the E.
I laugh everytime I see someone made a snide condescending comment about the UFO phenomenon. It merely reinforces the notion to me that at one time people vehemently believed the Earth was the center of the universe what with the heliocentric theory, and 500 years later people as a whole are STILL brutally egocentric and self absorbed in terms of their place and status in the universe.
As someone who has seen a bonafied “UFO”, it doesn’t really matter what arm-chair skeptics or debunkers rattle on about, theirs is a mindset of “can’t” as opposed to “can,” and merely serves to refrain humanity from getting closer to the concept of truth.
It’s easy to dismiss out of hand UFO reports, but I can unequivocally assure you, not everyone, including myself, is Farmer John down the ranch, and when you have a working knowledge of aerodynamics, meteorology, military hardware, physics, and astronomy, and you experience seeing something that defies all preconcieved beliefs and expectations on what constitutes tangible reality everything we are taught to believe about the nature of the universe, it is very sobering and humbling.
The UFO phenomenon is not pseudo -science, it is a painfully neglected area of reality that has absolutely NOT been given much needed attention and scrutiny.
Just remember always, there are those whose notions on reality are so delicate and sensitive, they will argue in FACE of facts,for no other purpose BUT to argue, simply to preserve and uphold their nebulous views about themselves and the universe. It’s always more comfortable thinking you are the top of the food chain and have a unique understanding on the universe, than to suddenly entertain the notion you perhaps aren’t so special and significant in the universal order of things.
I openly challenge any skeptic or debunker to rationalize what I experienced and conclusively explain for me the nature of what I saw, whether exotic or mundane naturallly occuring phenomenon.
bonafied “UFO”
wouldn’t that be an oxymoron?
Mind you, I want to believe.
Sorry if you have explained it before #41, but what did you see?
http://indianamufon.homestead.com/Archive2006.html
Third report down, Clarksville IN
Do I believe in extraterrestrial life? Yes absolutely! Just plain silly to doubt it. Intelligent e.t.? Yes. I have faith that we’re not alone. I’m a little fuzzy on whether we’ve been visited. It could be, but I wonder why it’s always in some obscure part of the world and not a great big ballfield in Washington, DC.
Anyway… I doubt it’s much like this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y1DGZg2stYM
I think we have to keep our minds open… and be optimistic.
#45
Why not the visit to the White House?
I think in any discussion on UFO intelligence the first fallacy we always make as people, is to ascribe and apply human logic and rational to any potential outside intelligence. If these beings are infact “alien” in every sense of the word, our motives, purposes, and rational would not apply to them, and we are reflecting our own motives, rational, and expectations onto them or it.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0n8Yqw4dho8
Take a close gander at this video.
That is most certainly not a ballistic missile, notice carefully as it descends initially it is round, and on it’s side, it corrects it’s attitude just before initial impact and infact PULLS UP attempting to avoid collision.
Wow.
Roddenberry made the dramatic and sensible ‘assumption’ that humans wandering the galaxy would be most interested in ‘Class M’ planets, those similar enough to Earth that our assumptions themselves would make sense.
I’m not saying there aren’t beings so totally different from us we can’t comprehend their intentions, but I suspect they follow their own set of rules. If we can learn those rules, the rest will go more easily.
I’m married to a lovely Chinese gal. Trust me, part of that culture is diffent enough to evoke the word ‘alien,’ UNTIL you quit insisting on your own ideas and just go with it. Then, it works. It’s a stretch, but I think alien relations will be like that. I think that was Ursula K. LeGuin’s point in “Left Hand of Darkness.” In any case, it’s a good read. Kinda Dune on Ice.
Imagine if you were a Polar Bear and you could speak, imagine the story you would tell :
Honey, you will never believe it, I was out getting fish dinner for supper tonight, and suddenly this whirring, noisey THING descended right above me, I felt a sharp sting and felt sleepy suddenly, then I remember these white creatures came towards me, and put something on my ear, some sort of tag or something, then they were gone.
That doesn’t sound very unfamiliar to me.
Hmmm. That would explain my lost afternoon in the arctic, and the damn tag in my ear…
I’m just saying that if there are aliens out there, they may be looking for things familiar to themselves as well as unfamiliar. They may be looking for ’stuff’ or people to trade with.
Or eat. There’s always that.
It’s a cook book… a cooooook boooooook.
Personally I think the only real legitimate assumption we can safely work with about any potential alien influence or intelligence, is that they are probably not overtly hostile.
The fact we haven’t been utterly decimated or enslaved implies their intentions are probably something other than eradication and extinction.
There seems to be a very proactive approach they take, it seems they are ever-present during important historic events that transpire throughout our history.
If an intelligence has star-travel capability, they could have destroyed us thousands of years ago and would hardly have had to wait until we are technologically approaching interstellar infancy.
Werner Von Braum on his death bed told of an elaborate worldwide plot involving the systematic villifying of an “outside” threat to serve as catalyst to weaponize space. He stated initially the Cold War, then Terrorism, then an asteroid collision, finally the alien trump card would be used to funnel trillions of dollars into weaponizing space. The military-industrial complex wants to maintain it’s monopoly.
Lot’s of speculation on whether we’re the descendants of aliens. I’ll fess up, if any of the green guys want to claim me.
You should consider reading up on “junk” DNA, it’s purpose baffles Genome project researchers, and it comprises a majority of our DNA interestingly enough.
Hmmm… and THAT would explain my second belly button.
Oh goddess… not this “ancient astronaut” rubbish from the 70s again. I blame Erich von Däniken and his silly Chariots of the Gods book. Well hey, we all thought it was trippy in the 70s, but it’s 2007 yea?
Science children. Wild speculation is only great if your making a fantasy, or a scientology essay, not sci-fi.
I’ll remind you Professor Plum todays science fiction is tommorows science fact, fact in terms of validity, since science isn’t concerned truth, only validity.
Rick reminded me of a quote related to all this
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/aliens/carlsagan.html
So back to the History Channel show, I really enjoyed it. I had an image in my head of what Paramount’s Star Trek storage facility looked like, but it was even bigger than I had imagined. The sheer amount of material they had saved just blows my mind. I mean racks and racks of uniforms from Star Trek – The Motion Picture that had been preserved since 1979 and would never go before a camera again. Amazing.
I also want to take my proverbial hat off to Patrick Stewart for participating in that show and being such a warm and game interview subject. Everybody was interesting (I am always impressed with what a sharp and insightful guy Avery Brooks appears to be), and I have to say, it made for a very nostalgic 2 hours of television. I even got a little misty-eyed when they were wheeling the NX-01 shuttlepod down the street. The image made me think, for whatever reason, of a funeral procession, and in a way I suppose it was sort akin to a very public acknowledgment of the end of a mostly successful era of Star Trek, and the auction not unlike the reading of the will followed by the dispersal of the decedent’s estate.
What can I say, I’m weird. Good TV though.
“Could it be that Josh T did indeed witness travelers from another world?”- cue the music
On the next In Search Of…
Most of these UFO’s are mylar ballons
I definately believe people have seen “unidentified flying objects” and that many have never been adequately explained……but that doesn’t mean I believe UFOs are alien space ships!
From what I’ve seen and read on the subject, the best evidence presented by the so called “Ufologists” (or U-fooligists) for the existence of extraterrestrial UFO’s are: crop circles, strange rock patterns, vague eyewitness testimonies, conflicting military reports, (with missing documents and top secret photos) and, of course, lots and lots of extremly low quality photos and videos.
All those crackpots claiming to have been abducted by aliens, (usually near Roswell, NM of course) and the paranoid conspiracy nuts, don’t help to convince me either.
Sorry believers….before I believe UFOs are anything more than unexplained phenomenon, and not aliens visiting our planet to invade our bodies, I will need to see much stronger evidence! It would really help if we could get at least “one clear photo or video” (taken during daylight for once) that showed more than pretty lights and flying saucer shapes.
Mike :o
Everyone posting on this forum also believes without a shadow of a doubt in a planet called Mars, yet not one individual on this world has stepped foot on it, nor held it’s soil, nor smelled it’s rather thin air. Human knowledge relies on heresay and what is taught, what is observeable and tangible.
70 percent of belief systems arrise from being told, not experiencing.
“Evidence” is entirely circumstantial, speculative, and subjective for 70 percent of the truths people cling to.
For every photograph of Mars someone provides, someone could provide a photograph of a UFO. For every occasion standing outside and witnessing Mars with your naked eye, what is taught to be Mars, I can tell you about standing outside and witnessing a black square object hovering silently over a major metropolitan area.
Before this society can move forward collectively the vast majority need to get their head out of their ass and realize all of reality is not “observable” in a 9th grade science lab, nor all facets and dynamics of the universe within the realm of “proof,” science is as dogmatic as religion in that regard, there is no “proof” for what the majority hold to be true in their lives. As I said science is not concerned with proof but rather validity. prrof and truth are universal constants beyond the realm and scope of human perceptibility. Reality doesn’t bow down and subject itself to our finite scientific method of recreating observations. The sooner people realize that the sooner we can start getting some things done.
Oh, and I’m a scientist as well so.
Was that your best arguement for the belief in UFOs as extraterrestrials??
I don’t need to argue the existence of higher forms of life visiting this world, because I’m not concerned with “proving” anything to anyone, I know what I have experienced and witnessed and I know it does not conform to physics nor aerodynamics as is presently understood and I do not require the approval of anyone elses judgement on the matter. I simply find it laughable there are those that can’t see past their own daily experiences and life and are stagnant intellectually to the point of absurdity and egocentricity.
As I said previously, not everyone that encounters inexplicable phenomenon is Farmer Fred down the road.
About 45 minutes in, the smugly smarmy Brannon Braga (who always seems to be absently/nervously pivoting back and forth in his chair) offers a particularly telling quote…
“A tricorder is a medi- uh, is, uh, a device that… you know, to be honest with you, I’m not exactly sure what it does. It, it takes readings, and allows us to… progress the plot. So it can kinda read virtually anything, um, that you want it to read. In fact the tricorders are probably used a little too much on the show.”
Yes, folks – Braga (still) doesn’t even know what a tricorder does, and admits to using them too often.
Sigh…
67# you and the other can hate Brannon Braga all you want but the truth is this guy is a great writer. I bet that whatever Trek series that you were a fan of that Brannon was involve in your favorite episode was written by him or at least involve in and that goes for all the other Fans as well. Was he a good Executive producer? No but was he a good writer and the answer is yeah.
Re: #66
Is this what you saw at the BBQ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnhi8u5gkaE&NR
You know 67, I agree with you. I came on here just to type in my thought which you beat me to…lol. i pvr’d it and came to thatpoint in the show, and never in my twenty some odd years of watching Trek have I ever been compelled to stop what i was doing, and yell at the tv or get online to show my anger or sadness or whatever emotion i had. I gotta hand it to the guy, even now, he still pisses me off. I mean you are a producer/writer/whatever, and you don’t know what a medical tricorder does? Let’s take a guess. Some sort of medical thing right? right.
Oh yeah about his interview, i just wanted to nail his feet to the floor to stop him from swinging back and forth.
I am a fan of some of his work, but still, come on. I don’t hate the guy, that is a strong word to use, but dislike yes. I never bash anyone involved in Trek, even him. His writing was very good. But the rest………
Agreed.. can’t fully hate the guy.. but I do confess I cringed and scowled each time I heard Braga and Berman. Thank goodness their interviews were not the focus. The only other thing the show could’ve done without is the poodles..
But the show rebounded quickly. My tear-jerker moment was the sale of good ol’ Enterprise-A. How wonderful that all of this wonderful property is in the hands of people who truly care deeply for Star Trek.
They belong in a museum.
#69
That’s an intriguing video but no, this was a perfectly square solid black object ascending along a single vector straight up. I viewed it through binoculars and had a clear view of it. It lacked surface details completely, there was no tethers or harnasses, nothing attached, there was no reflectivity , it was not oscillating or behaving erratically it was initially motionless it appeared, and as soon as my friends and I viewed it, it began slowly ascending straight up into a cloud bank. It was in clear view long enough for us at the time to run through a list outloud to each other of what it clearly WASN’T.
Re: 67 and follow-ups, Braga did write some fine episodes of TNG, which I will give him gladly, but wow he really came off badly in that show last night. That affected “I’m too cool to give a shit about the details of the show I worked on for 15 years” attitude doesn’t help his reputation among a lot of people who are already not inclined to like him.
Best quip I heard by far was Patrick Stewart’s “It doesn’t play; it’s not a real flute!” after presumably laughing about the final sale price.
I still can’t believe the Ent-A sold for half as much as the Ent-D.
#68-
Braga a “great writer????” HAAAAHAAAHAA!! You’re kidding, right?
He was and still is an embarassment to the franchise.
#67-
Needless to say, I AGREE.
I got a little emotional seeing all the ship models and how the people that bought them were so excited to have won. Those models took a lot of time and effort from the conception to the building of them. Paramount was smart enough to hang on to thse items. I am amazed that items from 40 years ago were still around! I suppose though that in Hollywood, nothing goes to waste. Items get used again in some manner. Isn’t it true that some of the costumes from The Ten Commandments were used in ST3? I was a bit bit disappointed in the lady that decided to wear her fencing costume while actually fencing! I understand that a person would want to try on the custume they just bought… I’d put mine in some kind of display case as soon as I got the chance!
I saw most of this last night and it was O.K…nothing too original, but I did like seeing the items that had gone up for auction, particularly anything that had survived from TOS (like DeForest’s space suit from “The Tholian Web.”).
I remember seeing a ton ot TOS props, scripts, costumes, etc. at an exhibit that ran at the the New York Academy of Sciences back in the early 1990’s…I think it was mostly from a private collector who had graciously allowed the items to go on display. It was VERY cool! :)
I did have to comment on Brannon Braga’s bits during last night’s show…could this guy be any more arrogant and stupid at the same time? I’m sorry…but everything he said and even just the way he was seated was very disrepectful, IMO. For example…he misnamed ST:IV as ST:IV: Save the Whales” rather than “The Voyage Home” and he also referred to Picard’s flute from “The Inner Light” as being that “damned flute.”
Maybe I’m being overly sensitive because I hold him and Berman primarily responsible for ruining Trek lo these past 15 years or so what with their total control that so clearly turned Voyager and Enterprise into very mediocre shows at best (Enterprise showed definite improvement by the end when they FINALLY allowed some new writers on board, but it was too little, too late).
I’m sorry, but he’s an idiot.
Braga seems very keen on making sure we know how much cooler he is than the material he spent 15 years working on.
I strongly dislike that guy that thinks he looks like Patrick Stewart!!!! First, he doesnt even look that much like Patrick, and he seems very aragont by the way he acts at conventions and some posts he makes on message boards! I cant believe that ANYONE would where the costumes they just paid THOUSANDS!!! of dollars for!
#81 who would want to look like Patrick Stewart??? Young Shatner definately but Patrick Stewart???
#67
I knew there was another bit I wanted to quote from Braga :) . Yea, his bit trying to describe a tricorder had me wanting to throw some serious vegetable matter at my TV screen!
You worked on this show for 15 years and you don’t even know what a tricorder is supposed to do (other than advance the plot in some ambiguous manner)? I knew what a tricorder was for when I was about 5 years old watching the reruns on my local UHF affiliate pulled in with rabbit ears on a black and white 13″ television (around 1971) for crying out loud!
He may have written a few decent episodes here and there in his early involvement with Trek, but he ran out of original ideas LONG, LONG ago and should have moved on. But I’m sure that nice, fat paycheck and the prestige was all he really cared about after the ideas dried up…
Apologies to his defenders, but most fans I know strongly dislike him (to put it in a friendly manner :) ). And really Trek’s severely declining ratings, the failed TNG movie franchise (except maybe for “First Contact” which I didn’t think was very good as it ignored canon and ruined the whole concept of the Borg…but it did do well at the box office), and the eventual cancellation of Enterprise with no new Trek series planned afterwards speaks volumes…
Its really sad to see Paramount selling its history like this and even sadder to see capitalism rule when Trek at its heart was against it.
It’s too bad that Paramount didn’t donate the Enterprise models to the Smithosonian, instead of auctioning them off to the highest bidder. They could have been proudly displayed right next to the original TOS models for everyone to see and admire. Anway, it’s too late now…what a bummer!
PS: Was Paramount so hard up for cash they couldn’t do that? Why they sold off such important pieces of Trek history is baffling to me!
Mike :o
I was more than chagrined at the executive that said “We wanted to give something back to the fans…” What a load of dingo’s kidneys. This was Paramount’s last gasp to get some money out of the “dead franchise”… before the talk of the Abrams movie or even Trek Remastered.
They got a little over 7 million from “giving something back to the fans”…
Plus, most of the stuff was bought by the same bunch of collectors who had always collected trek stuff in the past… so very few fans got to grab a “Piece of History”.
If the studio actually cared about the fans, they would have invested in a museum for these pieces… or at least had the Hilton in Vegas put up a wing of ACTUAL props and costumes from Trek. But the condition they kept these “artifacts” in was awful… and the only thing that kept them from falling apart was the inertia they had developed after years of neglect.
Seeing a celebration of this yard sale made me a little ill.
I did cringe when they kept insisting that they were doing this for the “average fan.” I don’t know about you…but I don’t have thousands of dollars just laying around to blow on anything that was auction here.
Anybody else?
Well said, Daren.
re: 86 Daren Doc
“What a load of dingo’s kidneys.”
I didn’t see the show in question, but I really enjoyed your statement above. :)
Does anyone know who bought the TMP E model? as that heinous D model went for $500,000.00??? the TMP model, regarded by many as the single most beautiful spaceship model ever created, was a relative bargain. It really does belong in the Smithsonian next to the original E. For all his faults you don’t see George Lucas having a yard sale of historically important cinema history to make a fast buck. Get em while their hot Luke Skywalker’s original hero undies for a mere $250,000.00 because we love you the fans.
#90 I was also surprised that the Enterprise B, retrofit , TMP model, or whatever you call it (help me out her guys) didn’t go for much more than the next generation model.
I too think it’s the coolest looking space ship ever created, and it looks much more realistic than the nest generation version.
I guess it still annoys me that I will never get to see this model at a museum, but instead some “fat cat” collector has it displayed in his den now!
Ahhhh life goes on!
Mike :o
I liked the documentaries, they were well done. I think the reviews reflect current opinion of Star Trek in general. It’s too far into geek world to admit for some, while at the same time they won’t admit they themselves watched TNG. Trek is in a lull right now, and a lot depends on the next movie. If it’s great, all these same ‘critics’ will be singing its praises, and other studios, instead of saying “sci-fi is dead”, will be saying “can we make something like that?”
saw bits of both documentaries and thought both were subpar, also want to echo Daren’s comments about the total BS of “giving back to the fans.”
Also it bothered the hell out of me when they interviewed that chump that bought the transporter console from Enterprise. He spoke of it with nostalgia like it was the TOS transporter console, and even customized it with TOS sound effects, but its not the transporter he was waxing poetic about, it was the lamo Enterprise one… not sure he deserves a piece of Trek history.
Its sad to me that the Okudas were involved with this
On the other hand.. maybe when these few well to-do fans pass they’ll have the good sense to donate their collections to museums for all to enjoy. Just think: what if Paramount would have found a.. different, more depressing way to get rid of all that history!
A museum would cost a helluva lot more than $7 million to build and to operate. The existing “museum” at Star Trek The Experience probably cost ten times that amount, and doesn’t seem to make all that much money, even with a cool simulator ride and a prime Las Vegas location. (The new “Borg 4D” adventure seems distinctly low-budget.)
Star Trek has always been unabashedly about making money. Desilu took a big risk on Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. Since then, the studio (and its successors) have invested hundreds of millions of dollars more into the show. Why would they do this? Because they believed they would make a good profit on it. The corporations’ shareholders profit from this intelligent risk-takiing. And we, the viewers, have benefitted by getting literally hundreds of hours of Star Trek to enjoy.
There is nothing wrong with the studio wanting to make money from Star Trek. Indeed, the more money they make, the more willing they will be to invest money into making Star Trek.
A load of fluff, those specials.
C
There is nothing wrong with the studio making money. What I object to is the snide attitude of the people in charge when they say that it is “doing something for the fans”. This is an unabashed lie… and I don’t like being lied to by a smiling accountant. Hopefully, they will put more money into the new film as a result of this bounty, but somehow I think that the “cheaper is better” attitude will prevail.
The existing museum at Trek the Experience in Vegas is not a money loser. I guarantee if it were, it would be demolished and replaced with something that did. The problem with the “experience” is that it is VERY latter-trek centric… with only a passing nod to TOS as a “quaint” predecessor. That said, the large Movie Enterprise hanging “miniature” created by Landmark Entertainment for the attraction is gorgeous.
I didn’t suggest that Star Trek: The Experience is a money loser. I did say that it cost a lot of money and is not particularly profitable, and that this is why the capital for a Star Trek museum might be a lot harder to obtain than you might think.
BTW: I liked the beautiful TMP and TNG Enterprise models at The Experience, but I was VERY disappointed that they did not include the Classic ship.
#99 The Classic ship is hanging in the Smithsonian in Wash. DC.
#78 – I think I remember reading that some bolts of very rich material left over from the Ten Commandments was used in making the Vulcan costumes in Trek III.
Saw the show. Liked the show!