Comments on: Official Star Trek Site Updated With Additional ‘Dossiers’ + more

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:47:03 +0000

Trekker Chick: Both the Technical Manual and the General Plans predate TMP. Roddenberry gave them his blessing after ST:Phase II failed to launch, but before Paramount greenlit V’ger (though Paramount still gets credit on the blueprints).

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:13:53 +0000

One of those buildings in San Francisco looks like an oddly modified Sears Tower,it shows.

The new spaceships certainly look interesting..I can’t wait how the time line changes effect the design of the ships.

Looks impressive so far.

By: Felix Sulla

Felix Sulla — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:46:21 +0000

146. Oh, I agree. TNG played on a lot of independent local stations, though a lot of those stations have since those days become FOX (and to a lesser extent UPN and other small network) affiliates or else disappeared entirely. I remember the days when just about every market had one or two fairly prominent independent broadcasters, which made first-run syndication much more viable back then. Nowadays, the reality is that everything has to be affiliated with a network — whether one of the big broadcasts or else a cable network — in order to go to series.

I’m not sure that is necessarily a bad thing, the proliferation of cable networks dedicated to quality series programming has made some truly great shows in the last decade or so. Omnia mutantur. ;-)

By: Jimtibkirk

Jimtibkirk — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:24:42 +0000

Sorry if mentioned, trying to avoid spoilers …

There’s also this game …

http://www.addictinggames.com/spotlight/startrek.html

By: AJ

AJ — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:16:01 +0000

143:

I thought the appeal of TNG was the supposedly freer hand that GR & Co. would have outside of a traditional network. IN NYC, TNG and DS9 were both on WPIX, the same independent that showed TOS in all its syndicated years.

However, it was annoying to have TNG or DS9 sometimes pre-empted by ballgames.

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:12:51 +0000

Oh, wow. Starfleet Academy looks awesome. 8D Can’t wait to see it on a HUGE SCREEN!!!!! ^__^

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:36:25 +0000

#138 – DS9, VOY and ENT were B-class productions???

They had multi-million budgets, each were more expensive than the preceding series. DS9 followed TNG (also syndicated) in most markets and took TNG’s spot in my market when that show ended.

BTW: Paramount wasn’t under Viacom when TNG premiered. Viacom didn’t take possession of Paramount until 1993, even after DS9 had premiered. Viacom was the major force in getting the UPN created, and VOY was the major tentpole of that venture. So to be accurate VOY and ENT were Viacom’s children, and lavished with money as such.

Enterprise would probably have finished out its run if it *had* been a low budget show. As it was they cut the budget somewhat for the 4th season as an incentive for renewal, it ended up being shot on HD video rather than film which all TREK series have been since the beginning.

DS9 went CG in the 6th season. VOY went CG midway through its 3rd season. While some VFX were hit and miss, it greatly expanded the number of shots per episode, and it went from stock-shot city to something new and interesting in almost every show. We would also have not gotten the huge battles we saw in “Sacrifice of Angels” and “Tears of the Prophets”.

Star Trek IV was a big budget film. ILM is not cheap.
Nemesis was also big budget, and one reason Paramount wasn’t interested in another TNG film was because they lost so much money on it.

By: Felix Sulla

Felix Sulla — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:53:29 +0000

141. Well, that would have depended on the area you were in watching it. At the time TNG premiered, FOX was in its infancy, its programming schedule was small, low budget, and mostly confined to the “FOX Weekend.” Most of the FOX affiliates were not affiliates in the sense they are now, but rather local independent broadcast stations that made a deal with FOX to sell their lineup. Many of those stations in later years became full-on affiliates, and of course, FOX expanded out to be a fuil-fledged network…but this did not occur until near or after the end of TNG’s run. And TNG certainly did not run anywhere, at any time, with big network support or budgeting. Which makes what they did with it all the more impressive. ;-)

(Actually, I did then and still view TNG as a retread of TOS, and in many ways, the inferior product despite clearly better effects and generally better scripting. Nothing in Trek’s various incarnations has ever exceeded the true chemistry and dynamic between Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley as Kirk, Spock and McCoy. In my opinion. ;-)

By: earthclanbootstrap

earthclanbootstrap — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:06:20 +0000

The design of the ships other than this Enterprise are great; I really love them. They seem to have really nailed a sort of pre-TOS vibe with slight overtones of Franz Joseph/ Star Fleet Battles.
This Enterprise, however, still makes my gorge rise a little bit. I just flat out think it’s ass ugly.
Bear in mind that I’m not saying the production designer is a war criminal or anything, it just absolutely fails to win me over and in fact inspires a little active dislike. And of course, aesthetic preferences are completely subjective.
BUT… the shape, proportions and detailing are just…bad. The warp nacelles are ridiculous and those wishbone support struts are even worse. The primary hull and neck are just ripped off of the TMP era refit. The secondary hull is too tiny for the rest of the ship. The bridge STILL looks like an Apple Store. It just… really seems ugly to me. Which is strange considering how much I like the other ships and the Star Base – it’s a shame they didn’t continue more in that vein, that would have really won me over.

So, what elements do those of you who love it actually prefer?
(I’m not trying to be a @#%$, I’m genuinely curious)

By: Closettrekker

Closettrekker — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:53:41 +0000

#140—-True. TNG was distributed by Viacom.

But at least where I lived, it was broadcast on FOX —which was one of 4 channels *anyone* could get without cable (and in 1987, there were still large numbers of people who didn’t have cable). I guess I just assumed that everyone saw it on FOX.

In contrast, I wasn’t even able to get UPN on cable for the first couple of years that ENT was on the air!

It wasn’t until I got Directv that I could even watch it. UPN had a limited audience, and therefore, so did the shows broadcast on it. Some cable providers had it, and others did not.

This wasn’t a problem with TOS or TNG. If you had a tv with an antenna—you could see it.