Charlie X Screenshots and Video

I don’t know…. when act one opened it would have been nice to see the Enterprise departing from the Antares. Didn’t want to see the old CGI model in some shots…. Don’t really understand all the horizontal lines on the Enterprise support pylon section as it passes by left to right. Definitely an improvement with the Thasian ship and with other Enterprise flybys. But not an episode which lends itself to stupendous new effects.

Ack — sorry, I didn’t notice the link to the clip reel was already part of the post (I’m so used to the heading being “Screenshots and Video” that I just assumed there wasn’t video yet.

So…yeah, the animation for the Thasian ship was pretty primitive. But I think the design was fine, and if nothing else the animation evokes some of the original 1960s effects in spirit….

I know everyone complains about the CGI Enterprise but I think they’ve really perfected it now. Good shadowing & proportions. It’s really looking much less cartoon-y.

I do wish the Thasian ship had been handled in a different way. Sort of like they went TOO far trying to make it look like something the show would have done at the time.

There’s one thing I’ve noticed recently about the current Enterprise model that I really like. I particularly like the fact that they’re consistently treating the bridge ceiling dome as tranlucent, rather than opaque to match the rest of the hull. That one opening FX shot in “The Cage” (which, frankly, I didn’t think of for all these years as being a *literal* view into the bridge from outside, but rather an artsy way of letting people “see through” the walls in order to show them where the bridge is) has now given some nice additional texture to our understanding of what the Enterprise is like as a ship – the bridge ceiling is a (frosted) window!

Now, we’ll see if they ever have a top-down view of the saucer, with a fuzzy little bridge crew visible….

I liked it a whole lot better when the USS Enterprise alone occupied our imaginations and represented the image dreamnt of when envisioning outerspace adventures. Her lines and symmetry are iconic, and easily translated to imaginative renderings that occupied a many a childs thoughts. Clean, sweeping lines and definition with no monkey business, the Enterprise is sleek and functional, elegant yet business- like. Anyone my age will remember all of the various incarnations in probably Treks most fruitful and imaginative years, the 1970s.

Remember all of the coloring books, postcards, posters, AMT model kits, board games, novels, fanzines, MEGO toys, etc?

Now you have more starship designs than can be counted, and the universe is alot more busy of a place, making out of contact missions and a Captain relying on their own judgement and interpretation of law obsolete.
It was a horrible mistake making the Starfleet so numerous and vast. Thousands upon thousands of starships immediately strips the allure and prestige from obtaining starship command. Now Captain everyJohn of the USS EveryShip can show up at any time on a moments cue to save your ass, interfere, meddle, cause trouble, etc.
Kirk in his era had no such luxury.
A unified fleet of hundreds of Klingon, Romulan, and Federation ships didn’t magically appear to aid the Enterprise against the planet killer, or Nomad, or the giant single celled amoeba. Kirk had to rely on his own intuition, resources, skills, and experience to save the day.
Space was vast and cold, adventurous and dangerous, exotic and unknown. Star Trek was initially about exploring the final frontier, then later became about maintaining the status quo and regulating mundane and routine chartered space. Where is the fun in that?
I wish it was like it used to be and there exists only a plethora of these lesser vessels, and a handful of starships, with extremely skilled and professional specialists commanding these few starships on dangerous and exotic missions, rather than exploring holographic lovers or soap opera like drama of raising children. Or episode after episode of nonstop warfare and ship battles. Star Trek needs a serious resuscitation, it’s been on life support for entirely too long.

CLEAR!

I like the design and appearance of the Thasian ship. It is so TOS that I couldn’t remember at first if they had even done anything with it. It moved very awkwardly, though even that was pretty TOS, too.

And what a colorful episode. They were really lighting the ship like it was a theater performance in the first season. Look at Charlie swatting Rand … is it just me or does the chapel appear to be around that corner and to the left?

anyone got any more pics of Rand?

I see Scotty has still left the light on in his very narrow room in the left pylon…

Listening to Kirk’s log entries again in the EFX vid above, I have two questions:

1. Is the Antares a cargo vessel or a “science probe vessel?”

2. Is this the first episode to mention UESPA?

#13 “We can assume then that where were smaller support vessels. As I see it how, a Carrier Task Force has numerous support ships…should the Enterprise have has such ships?”

I think the naval metaphor in play here is the nuclear attack submarine, designed to be utterly alone and self-contained for months or even years at a time. The Enterprise, as has been shown many times, required no support vessels whatever.

“Personally I am a big fan of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, where they fully embraced a post 9/11 and documentary aesthetic. I think a reboot of Trek with a darker tone would be interesting – something B&B tried with aspects of “Enterprise” but failed to pull off. They certainly don’t need a Galactica-style holocaust, but I’d enjoy them playing the story very straight with less gee-whiz technology and more dirt, grime, human conflict, ship size and quantity limitations, better ship and space physics, documentary-style effects rather than the same old beauty shots with full orchestras we’ve been seeing ever since Star Wars 1977, etc.”

I understand what you’re saying and I respect your point of view, but for myself, I have to say that I don’t really want to see darker, overtly and deliberately post-9/11-y Star Trek. Real life these days is depressing enough. I have no problem with a Star Trek that addresses the issues and concerns of the day, just as the original series did during the Cold War, but Star Trek needs to maintain a sense of hopeful optimism and “yes, we made it” for it to be Star Trek, at least to me. If I want a dose of dread and uncertainty about the future, I’ll turn on the news.

I like the Antares… sure wish either they’d stop playing TOS-R at 3 AM on Monday in New York, or I-tunes would get it together and post new eps.

Re: #26 – I just want to clarify my earlier remarks. I actually want Star Trek characters to have to make hard moral decisions. Deep Space Nine was terrific at putting its characters in thorny moral situations and forcing them to make not “the” right choice, but the best choice in a bad situation. That was a welcomed departure from NextGen, where there always seemed to be a completely and perfectly moral resolution to everything that was usually reached because everybody was just so inherently good inside. I don’t know if that qualifies as lazy writing or just a misapprehension of what makes good drama, but I much prefer characters have to struggle toward a perhaps less than perfect outcome. That’s true to human nature and it makes things interesting. If that’s someone’s definition of “dark” then I guess I’m for darker Trek. In my world, though, its just “real-er” Trek. What I don’t want to watch is a Star Trek set against some kind of quasi-apocalyptic backdrop of constant strife and struggle with the Federation teetering on the brink of collapse or something similarly BSG-esque. I get enough of that kind of “dark” from reading the paper every day.

The new Thasian ship reminds me of a ghost ship now, like a rocket fading in and out of reality. Pretty cool retro design, too. :)

13 – We really needed to see more ships in TOS, Starfleet woudl have to be huge…I mean really big if it was servinga s a Military force against the Klingons, Romulans and Tholians as being a hugh research arm for scientific exploration.

One of Roddenberry’s ideas was that the captain of a starship was ‘out there on his own.’ Originally, it was a huge deal to phone back to the base for orders. Later, the writers mucked it up with instantaneous subspace communication. That weakened the plot a lot, I think; made it less like a frontier. Also, Starfleet would need millions of ships to “patrol” space. Maybe Trillions! The logic in these eps is fine, unless — God forbid — two planets have a bad day at the same time. Some of the better episodes in TOS and TNG talk about how rare it is to visit any given world. (WNMHGB: “The ore ships only call here once every twenty years.” / FC: “We may not get back here in your lifetime.”)

I usually tout CBS-D’s work as fantastic. This week’s was fantastic too, except the Thasian ship.

I’m sorry to say this so blunty, but CBS-D: your Thasian ship SUCKED! You ruined all the rest of your work with that half-baked effort. What’s up with the colored viewscreen lights in that one scene, too? Weird! I liked it, but it was only for that one scene. Are you checking to see if we are paying attention? Guess what, we are! Fascinating!

33. CmdrR. – July 17, 2007

I give (maybe too much) thought to these things. Star Trek is one of the msot elaborate “Universes” in film/TV francises.

I think that Federation worlds normally provide for their own defense. Sort of like a “Home Defense” force. Thus, Starfleet is the “Federal” Military force will each planet looks after it own domestic, criminal (law enforcement) and disaster relief. Thus things like “Vulcan Space Central.” The Star Ships seem to be called to provide extra ordinary service (Defense of the Federation from “Threats” like Klingons and Romulans, plagues and massive relief efforts.)

In the early part of April, Pike and Kirk’s time it must have been anologous to the 19th Century…maybebecoming more like the early 20th.

April and Pike likely were the first to explore outside of the established “Federation.” Making patrols of Andorian, Tellerite and likely Vulcan areas; like ships patroling the English Channel or Mediterranean sea. There were encounters on the frontiers of “The Known Universe” and occasionally forays of exploration (like rounding CAPE HORN or exploring parts of the Atlantic what were know, but largely uncharted)

The events shortly before “The Cage” are not unlike encounting native Pacific Islanders. There must have been a rush to explore in that time that by Kirk’s Time they were going back and making detailed serveys (Like System L375 in Doomsday). Likely they negotiated an “area” for the Federation and now had to go back and consolidate that expanse and see what is there.

Kirk and Co. likely are pushing the frontier forward. Federation Outposts like Cestus 3 are established, but not “legacy” places like those established during ENT or prior to thsi exporation.

I think that is the purpose the Constitution Class serves. Developing frontier areas…slowly coming into the fold through development….patroled by these major Starships. Likely there were lesser ships…cargo transports and minor starships patrolling as well; however, like air craft carriers of today, a Starship is a symbol of Federation strength that both provides a since of safety to colonists and deterance to Enemies.

So, if I’m on the colony on “Carrales V,” and we are running out of supplies. They can send the USS Potemkin, Constitution Class, and I feel as if the Federation has its best people one it. If I’m on the outpost on “Alpha Carralesia VI” near the Romulan Neutral Zone, and strange things are happening and we suspect the Romulans, dispatching the U.S.S. Faragut sends a message to the Romulans that they has better be prepared to do more than probe. A much bigger impression than sending a cargo ship quickly armed…or a “PT boat.”

and… If a certain Starship Captain receives a priority signal with orders to proceed to Altair VI to represent the Federation at an inauguration ceremony for the planet’s new president…it supports the idea as Starships as Diplomatic Tools.

By TNG, however, Starships are more plentiful in a section of Space that is no longer “Developing.” The Deep Space exploration is just that, way out there. There are now lots of Excelsiors and Mirada Class as the back bone of the sleet, with large Galaxy Class and later Super Starships.

Thus, the “19th Century Sailing Imagery” in TOS gives way to a Modern “Naval” analogy. The 1701-D is an ordinary sight, while the 1701 was a spectacular sight. Times changed.

There are wonderful scenes in some Trek and eslewhere where the captain reviews ‘cut’ orders and grapples with how to obey them or whether to disobey. (“Damn these order, I’m going to do that Green Slave Girl!”) Subspace is like going to summer camp and having to phone home to Mommy every night. It’s out in some eps and blocked by mysterious interference in others. I say leave it out… and slave girls beware!

Hmm, just looking at the ep list to see what was up next. Looks like there are only two more episodes in the first batch of remastered eps (Squire of Gothos and This Side of Paradise). Wonder when they will put out the second list or have they?

A truly outstanding episode from start to finish, made perfect with the new ship models.

I loved seeing the cargo ship. Finally we get to see what another earth ship looks like.

The Thasian ship on the other hand….

It was called a “ship” on camera. I can’t imagine anybody seeing that will-o-the-wisp in space and calling it a ship. Maybe that’s what these advanced energy-beings used as a ship, but at first glance why would the primitive flesh-creatures recognize it as such? We all know the real reason it looked that way in the original: a blur of light is easier to do than a ship model. I don’t think there was sufficient reason for the ship to appear that way, and it was a poor choice to attempt to emulate that decision. I had actually not realized that was a new effect until I looked back on the original. I suppose some would take that as a compliment, but there’s a reason “the Corbomite Device” deviated from the original design, as did “Journey to Babel.” Those are the “ships” I want to see.

So what could have been done instead? First thing that comes to mind is something similar to the V’ger concept, with a ship in the center of an energy-cloud. Obviously much smaller, but seeing some mass inside would have done a lot for it.

Oh yeah, and as syndication cuts go, this one had some of the better ones. I remember groaning and wondering when Uhura would stop singing so we could get back to the show in the original. This time we got the essence of it with half the song.

Original, vintage Saturday Night Live. Classic!