Video of the Day: Star Trek Made By 70’s Kids July 27, 2010
by TrekMovie.com Staff , Filed under: Viral Video/Mashup/Images , trackback
The video of the day is actually from way back inthe 1970s, when some kids got together and shot a Super-8 Star Trek short film. In 2009 some of the same kinds, now all grown up, added the voices, music and sound effects and uploaded their short film to the YouTube. Check out the final result below.
Star Trek by 70’s Kids
(from capecodshorts on YouTube)
Check out capecodshorts for more Alien by 70’s Kids and King Kong by 70’s Kids.
Thanks to DidiMcG for the Twitter tip
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Comments»
Cawley, eat your heart out!
LOL! When the kid gets the spear thrown at him.
LOL um…. the terrible thing is – that was kinda fun!
=oD
This is ten million kinds of adorable. I wish I was that cool when I was a kid.
i enjoyed that more than Phase II for sure. captured the adventure and pace of the original series much better than some other fan films.
Good production values. Totally enjoyed it!
that – was – AWESOME.
GREAT stage fighting for kids! I hear JJ and the Court are considering “Nightmare Planet” for their sequel. I’m just saying.
James Cawley….the early days….
Everything looks so much better in Super 8.
#5 – agreed!
the last boys say ,,,,,”I’am Tuvok” ??? Wooow the 70’s im ground in this time;) good fanfilm(Boy Fanfilm).
That was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! Makes me wanna’ dig up my old 8mm home movies my brothers and I shot of our own Star Trek episode and add sfx and music!
I used to get the transporter effect by scratching on the film with the sharp end of a protractor during the fade in/fade out time…
Nicely done, little sirs… and your bigger selves.
No school like the old school!
Ohh, laws yess. I’m gonna have to find my buddies and dig out the Super8’s we did back in the late 70’s. Theres Youtube gold there….once we update the sound and special effects :)
Very 60’s Trek!
Really good fight sequences, surprisingly.
Agreed! The fighting stunts were a big surprise. Well done!
Better than an epsiode of Voyager
Fun stuff. I especially like the fight stuff. Well done. I really like the patented Colonel-Green- Kirk Fu- knife- make -you- fall -on- your- own- knife move. Always one of my favorites.
This reminds me of something I used to do. Be creative Got start doing that again.
I really enjoyed this clip, it captured the spirit of TOS better than Trek 09.
That had better fight scenes than the real TOS — much more realistic connections!
There was A LOT of good Trek story
telling in 2:48. Now those were real fans
(and I imagine still are).
OMG, I award you guys 1,000,000 internets!!
The fight was awesome! Good judo flips, and the ‘Kirk’ actually threw punches & chops that were spot on!
Bravo, fellow 1970’s Xers, Bravo! I loved the fight scene’s choreography – looks like they studied martial arts in their spare time. Great blocks and throws. (To the “boys”: Which discipline did you study?)
Certainly my brothers and I play-acted our share of these, with rather impressive home-built props and uniforms, but we never made a film of it. I’d love to see more from those earlier posters that mention their youthful efforts. These have a charm and an entertainment quality quite unlike the three-act/52 minute fanflicks of our present time.
The other popular form back then was the radio play (anyone remember CBS Radio’s “Mystery Theater”???). I made at least one recording based on an original script (not Trek related) and I’d be surprised if there were not many Star Trek radio plays sitting on old, slowly degaussing, C-60 cassette tapes in a shoe box in some closet somewhere.
Anyway, this film was wonderful. Thanks to the “Big Three” for sharing it with us.
Sincerely,
C.S. Lewis
Bravo on the fight choreography!
The “bare-knuckle action” of Kirk vs Krell was really well done given the age and technology available.
Well done!
That was great. And really a really nice fight, too.
Those kids did a pretty dang good job!!
Fantastic. These kids were real trailblazers.
That has got to be one of the FIRST Fan Films ever produced. WELL DONE!
Click on the link to Youtube. There, on the related videos section you’ll find ’70s kids versions of King Kong and Alien. Both are equally awesome.
That kid’s a better actor than Cawley.
And at least these kids know to overdub their audio in post.
So not only did they do Star Trek before Abrams, they beat him to the punch on Super 8 too?
That was sixteen kinds of awesome and way better than *Fill in ‘the Star Trek Spin Off or Reboot or Other Project You Hold in Low Regard’ Here*
Killed a Blueshirt instead of a Redshirt……sheeesh, where is their respect for canon???
Their King Kong is equally great. Better than the Peter Jackson remake!
#36 – THIS IS A DISASTER!!!
So, this is the “Super 8″ project J.J. was talking about? ;-)
cool.
Dang that was good and takes me back to my youth in the 70’s. :] I remember playing Kirk and my bro would play bones, but eventually he quite because he thought he should be spock. But then alas Star Wars came out and all that went out the window, I made a light saber and was Luke Skywalker from then on! lol
Entertaining enough but not Phase II standards. maybe some inspiration for the next jjverse movie?
God I miss the 70’s!
Wow – JJ Abrams cd learn something abt continuity from that ;)
There are dozens of Star Trek Fan Film shorts. In addition to this, you can find some here: http://startrekreviewed.blogspot.com/2009/06/147.html (This one is listed at (R), but check out (G) and (H) in particular.
To those of you attacking fan filmmakers, I await your superior fan films. Fail to produce said film, and these attacks show you to be talentless tactless Neanderthals.
#43 they did seem to be better than the cynical times we live in now.
#46 – Cynical doesn’t even begin to describe the FUBAR times we are now living in. In the 70’s we may not have had the internet or nifty iphones but we at least still thought the future was bright. Now, I dunno…
I don’t think that fro is within Starfleet regulations.
That was chocolate covered awesome!
Reminds me of many, many, many summer days running around the neighborhood with our AMT landing party gear and whatever other gee-gaw we could find and having adventures in the fields by the river.
Better than chocolate covered awesome. Chocolate covered awesome with sprinkles.
Fubar?
Well, I guess every generation looks back on their youth with the same fondness. But there really as an *excitement* an *energy* to those days that is lacking today. The music was better. TV was more fun. Things like space travel (Skylab etc) still carried more than a hint of the excitement and wonder left over from the halcyon 60’s. I wish I could get excited by UFO stories the way I could i the 70’s. These days even the kids can’t suspend their logical minds long enough to even contmplate the idea that they exist. That depresses me. Shutting your mind off so completely to the possibilty. I even mocked up a flashing light on a helium balloon to try to get my 9 year old boy to open his mind to the possibility. He just wouldn’t give an inch even though there was ‘proof’ floating over our house!
Personally i’d happily give up the internet and iphones and all the technology to walk for an hour or two back in those days.
Surprisingly good! xD
50.
Full disclosure is coming in 2013. The U.N. had a secret meeting on UFO’s in 2008 after a surge in sightings. It had been determined the U.N. will release full disclosure on the aliens and that a “ramp up” of information will be let out to acclimated the masses. in 2009 the Vatican publicly acknowledged the possibility of the existence of alien life and that they will reveal themseleves “within 10 years”. It was also determined in the U.N. meeting that the friendly aliens will unambiguously show themselves to the Earth no matter what.
I’m not sure if I want to walk in to this conversation on the interweb! lol
But the 70’s kid inside me is bursting to engage with you on this, John! :-D
@50 I’m in full agreement. 60s 70s were the best times. It seems we were alive with wonder and discovery not just out there, but within our selvies. We were trying to go were no one has been before. It was. Happier more creative time. Then came a rainy monday morning call the 80s greed, selfcenterdness, evan makeup and clothesd took a harder,meaner, cheesy look. I agree the music went downhill. Now we are de-evolving and rebooting. I cheer the 8mm fanfilm. Thank you
haha all the sound effects are the same! It might have been more similar if it was cheesier lol.
#5- – FUBAR = F’d up beyond all recognition.
Its depressing today – even though we’ve got rovers on Mars, orbiting probes around Mars and Saturn and a probe on its way to Pluto – things we would have died for in the 70’s – today barely seems to cause a stir. Our manned space program is on life support with the plug about to be pulled and nobody seems to care. In the 70’s we thought we’d have moon bases and be an interplanetary species by now. #54 got it right – we ARE de-evolving.
#52 – OK, you’re either a crackpot or the bearer of some pretty fantastic news!
Everything is made dynamic by “that” music! You could have a nursing home wheelchair demolition derby and make it exciting by adding TOS action music. It’s classic!
All this video needs now is up-to-date special effects added by Daren Dochterman to really make it rock…
But why doesn’t it cause a stir, Horatio? Why, and when, did we, collectively, become so disinterested and cynical?
As for #52 I wondered just the same as you, but I still felt that old shiver of excitement!
#57 TOS music is the best for sure.
I hope they can reference some of the best bits in the next movie.
And I tell you what, these kids can really fight! There was some very convincing punches being thrown! And that must be one of the earliest ever uses of a head-butt caught on film? lol
#58 I think as far as cynicism about the space program it started with Challenger. Remember how cocky we were? There was nothing we couldn’t do as a nation. NASA was going to just shoot those shuttles up as fast as possible. The universe was the limit. Then the tragedy and the sobering up. We were starting to get our collective will together again and then Columbia happened. Then the politicians started playing pile-on with the help of an unsympathetic, for the most part, media.
Somewhere America went brain dead. Our heroes went from Alan Shepard, Neil Armstrong and John Wayne to thugs who beat their chests when they slam a ball through a hoop.
Cynicism is now rampant in our society as it is used as a tool to promote political agendas. Control the masses for political power, so to speak. But I tread dangerously on being out of bounds for this board so i’ll just go sulk in a corner and watch an episode of TOS.
This guy’s films are fantastic. I saw them a couple of weeks ago on another blog. The editing and sound really pull all that great vintage footage together brilliantly. I’m amazed that kids that age had the skills to shoot such great raw footage.
RE: the nostalgia party … man, you guys are a laugh. I was a child/teen in the ’70s too, and things were just as cynical and fubar as they are today. Good grief. Why do you think “Happy Days” was on TV then, and “Grease” was such a hit: everyone in their 40s in the 1970s was nostalgic for their youth too. 25-30 years from now, our kids will be looking back at the amazing ’90s or the awesome Oughts as the best time. I recently re-read “Tom Sawyer” — Mark Twain wrote that book as a nostalgia piece about HIS childhood, the wonder and adventure of which HE claimed had vanished in the “modern” times in which he wrote it.
The times are never as good nor as bad as we think they are. Enjoy today! It the Golden Time of the future! Trust me!
Scott B. out.
P.S. Personally, I hated the ’70s. Now the EIGHTIES … those were totally rad. :-)
I think its natural for people to feel nostalgia for their youth’s, for most kids it is a magical time of growth and discovery. And I also think its natural for adults to feel that the “modern world”, of what ever era, hinders that wonder and magic, In a lot of ways it can. It can be a tough world indeed and you dont usually have the mom and dad there to protect you from it like you did as a kid, your kinda on your own in some ways. So you have to work hard to make it.
As far as the 70’s go, I do agree to a certain extent that the 70’s were “somewhat” cynical, but to say it was as “bad” or “prevelant” as it is now does not ring true to me. There were certainly serious problems in those days, and IMO they have done nothing but grow bigger as the decades have went on, not better. I think theres a real possibility adults 25-30 years from now will wish it were the 90’s or 2000’s again, but not out of nostalgiac reasons.
Re: Hugh, not to hijack this thread, and the awesome little film that inspired it, but the ’70s were “the pits,” in the argot of the times.
Vietnam and Watergate had soured the entire country on politics and the military. There was an energy crisis, a recession with double digit inflation and high interest rates and unemployment. The fashions and hair were laughably horrible, music was arguably bad, sort of stuck in a creative dead zone between the ’60s British invasion and the coming of punk/New Wave (disco anyone?). Consumer products were fugly, particularly American cars, gas-guzzling rattle and death traps. And — hard to believe — many really thought we wouldn’t live the century out due to an impending nuclear holocaust. Many people love the movies of the ’70s, but with a few notable exceptions, I can now barely stand to watch anything made in the ’70s (I prefer almost any decade’s movies better, before or since). I could go on. Wait, one more thing: toys got infinitely crappier in the ’70s after the oil embargo. :-)
Nah, you can have the ’70s. I’ll take today.
Scott B. out.
Buzz Cagney your son isnt the flying saucer balloon boy is he?? Sheesh was he really in the balloon or hidinig in the attic??
this super 8 movie brought outta lotta nostalgiz huh–we made an omega man movie with super 8 and a honda sx-70 mini bike jumpin over garbage cans, fires, etc…we taped the movie soundtrack in the movies then matched our super 8 films to the sounds hahaha…
I still think ufos are interesting exciting and lately things do seem to be ramping up strangeness wise…catch some of the documentaries on history channel for proof….also check out unknowncountry.com whitley striebers(communion visitors etc) web site regularly….i am a regular subscriber to his site lots of interesting strange things happening….disclosure of ufos in 2013 will be too late since the world ends dec 2012 heahahah
I would have nostalgia for my past… if I could remember any of it.
Sniffing glue has its downside.
Could use some more lense flares! Other than that . . . PERFECT!!!!
Whoa, thanks for all the kind words! Now I know why thousands of views poured in overnight. Funny how it took 30 years for less than 50 friends and relatives to see this and only a day for another 10,000! Yup, those were the good old days when TOS aired every day on a Boston TV station, hard not to be influenced. Everything shot in one take! 3 bucks per film roll plus Fotomat developing was a lot of money for a 14 year-old in 1978! No apologies for the fro, still have it.
#65
Maybe it was events of the past which led to you sniffing glue?
#68
Maybe so. If I remember the reason, I’ll let you know. Right now I got a can of Testors cement calling me….
I can’t believe how good this video is! So fun.
Also, I remember the 1970’s, and it was neither as good nor as bad as people think it was.
Yes, there was Watergate and, even worse, avocado-colored fridges, but there were also cool things like ads for electronic calculators that you didn’t have the money to buy (the cheapest ones cost hundreds of dollars each), the Brady Bunch, and plenty of other stuff. And not everyone was dressed like a hippie, particularly not if you had a job or were in a parochial school. (The hippies were mainly concentrated among the artsy crowd.)
And yes, there was disco music, but there was also Simon & Garfunkel and Pink Floyd.
For some people, the ’70’s was a bad acid trip. But for others, and particularly for those who had never really bought into the whole Counterculture thing, it was really the early ‘Sixties in a leisure suit.
It was a big country even then. Lots of people did lots of things.
I agree, though, that Vietnam was incredibly divisive. As was busing. And the Deep South was still a lot more racist than it is now. But the ’70’s were clearly not a stereotype, no matter what you might see on those “I Love the Seventies” shows.
Now, pardon me while I feed my Pet Rock.
I still love Disco music! And I have no problem admitting it! I also like Simon and Garfunkel as well. Pink Floyd, meh.
#64 Neither, Jim, he was stood right next to me saying ‘its a balloon with a flashing light in’. A small part of me was disappointed but a big part of me was quite proud. No fool he. :-D
#71
Yeah, totally agree about Pink Floyd. Aside for maybe one or two songs, they’ve always sounded like the soundtrack to a coma to me. And I guess we can thank them for the subgenre of manic depressive, wrist-slitting tunes that are around today.
Give me Simon & Garfunkel or the Bee Gees any day. That’s right! I said the Bee Gees!
haah Buzz i Hear ya buddy…Id be proud too if I were you….
I did give hard thought to whether to do it, Jim. I don’t routinely set out to scare the crap out of the kids! lol But as he thinks Daleks are ’sucky and lame’ I figured he could take it! And his oh so sure that UFO’s aren’t for real stance was just really pi$$ing me off! :-z :-D
I didn’t think he’d take it quite as calmly as he did though! I do worry what he would do if a real saucer rocked up and landed somewhere nearby. Most likely he’d let its tyres down or some such ‘prank’!
Vultan, I love it, ‘the soundtrack to a coma’ pmsl! You are on great form this week. Keep it coming!
Oh, and I also think The Bee Gees are great!
71, 72 — Pink Floyd rulz! Dark Side of the Moon — hard to beat! Some faves: “Money” and “Us and Them.”
The Wall — “Comfortably Numb,” among others.
Momentary Lapse of Reason — “Learning to Fly” — the original “digital high.”
In fact, just thinking about “Learning to Fly” takes me up beyond the clouds.
It’s spacey music, all right. And what’s wrong with SPACE-y music? “Space — the final frontier….”
Pink Floyd is where it’s at, baby!
:-)
At least this James T. Kirk did his own fight scenes hahahaha
Some other faves worth mentioning: “Spirit in the Sky” (1969) Norman Greenbaum; “American Pie” (1971) Don McLean; “Stairway to Heaven” (1971) Led Zeppelin; “Smoke on the Water” (1972) Deep Purple; “More Than a Feeling” (1976) Boston.
And then there were the folkies, including Gordon Lightfoot (e.g., “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (1976).
I dare you to disco to any of these. ;-)
#77
That’s a great playlist, Rick. But let’s not forget Brewer and Shipley’s classic “One Toke Over the Line” from 1970. Quite possibly the best song on toking and railway stations.
“One toke, you poor fool… Wait ’til you see those g**damn bats!”
Rick, I can’t even disco to disco these days. I can tap my foot and drum the steering wheel with the best of them still though. ;-))
Yeh again for the 70s! Horatio! And as for the social ills Iraq is Vietnam ! And all that was mentioned energy, unemployment that is going on right now only worst. Mommy @ daddy were. Far away I was working and disco-ing on my own and the 70s were a ball. People were more accepting of who you were, not just what you looked like. Unlike today you did not need a boob job to get a receptionist job. Job. Or snubbed cause you did not own a BMW. No thanks I saw kids having fun playing star trek on film. Bearing out their hearts and souls in this fan film. And yes it showd in their acting. They were realy good. And fight scene too real! I kept looking for a black eye or two or a bloody nose. The scenes were that convincing! 70s forever! For letting us be ourselvies!
Re: # 67 – Thanks for writing in, Rob!! I’m blown away by the three vintage films you’ve posted on YouTube. In fact, when an acquaintance linked me to ‘em a few weeks ago, I notified one of my (other) favorite blogs, Retro Thing, and they posted an article about your films here:
http://www.retrothing.com/2010/07/70s-remastered-home-movie-epics.html
The blogmaster of that site, Bohus Blohut, would love to pick your brain about them. He teaches filmmaking, and is a great guy.
Do you have any more cinematic gems you can cut together and post?
Scott B. out.
Sorry to bash on everyone’s favorite decade. I have a few good memories of those years too, the first four glorious ones spent in England … but the middle four spent in Hell’s Own Junior High School in Georgia. I didn’t find Losira’s spirit of acceptance and free-to-be-you-and-me there, lemme tells ya.
It was the decade wherein I discovered TOS, still the greatest TV show ever.
As for the music, I’ll cop to still listening to Abba and Dan Fogelberg. How (un)cool am I?! :-D
Peace, love, ecology,
Scott B. out.
Say it as you remember it, Scott. You are free to be who and what you are on here matey. ;-)
I don’t think anybody is pretending it was perfect in the 70’s. But there was defintely something about it thats lacking today.
And yep, it could just very well be our youth! :-( !
#82 I’m sorry that you’re exp. Was bad. Often Geography plays a role in social attitudes. Being from georgia I understand. I’m a big city girl that is urban raised in Atlanta. Unfortunetly I assume you lived in. A smaller city or town. That still had some catching up to do. And feel as you did. Mom dad moved out to the sticks I stayed in the big city. The trek ons are here etc. Back then in small places whereing a trek costume could get you burned to the stake. But rest assured from the Bee Gees to Dan F. The 70s will prevail and so will Star trek! And those wonderful kids who lived the dream and put it on super 8.
Hey Buzz, it’s all good. I think I was just saying in my first post up there at #61 that everyone gets nostalgic about their youth and think “the times” then were better; my mom does the same about the ’50s (”Objectively, it was just better then,” she says. I have to remind her that there were no seat belts and everyone smoked, etc.). You’re right that what’s missing for us now is our youth. I have two kids in their teens and they’re already nostalgic about things from the ’90s — oddly, my son is a huge old (pre-70s) movie buff — kid wears a fedora when he can get away with it! I’m just happy to be living in an age with internet, lots of old and new stuff to watch on TV whenever I want to, and forums like this to vent on! :-)
Losira, yep — Albany, GA. Not a hotbed of progressive behavior. I re-read my post at #82, and thought, “Hmm … they’ll think I’m gay with that musical taste!” It was worse: I was a fat Star Trek nerd … trapped in a small town!!! :-D
But now I’m married, slimmed down, still a nerd, but fine with it. I also live in Atlanta. Life’s good. These are the days. Make the most of them.
Scott B. out.
Scott I’m delighted that all turned out super great for you. God bless you and yours. You have to excuse the musings of a near 60 year old trekkie Granny Geek. And Hey! Don’t forget to come to Dragon Con. Bring the family! And honor the city of Dr. Leonard McCoy! And I was one of the organizers of the 1st trek Con of 1974! A great year ! Dragon con is NOW! My we’ve grown up! I’m hoping these super 8 guys will come forward to submit their fanfilm to our Trek Trex con if you see this contact the Uss Republic / Capt Eric Watts the local trek chapter for info. This great for sharing
Thanks for the invite, Losira — I attended Dragon Con in 2006. A buddy of mine is one of the staff photographers, and got me and my son in. Our finances have usually prevented my attending. It’s a bit of madhouse to me — I felt like I was on Gideon part of the time! :-D But it is fun to see all the celebs, costumes, merch. I need to brave the crowds (not really my thing) again sometime!
Scott B. out.
#81
Scott, thanks for the link, and for your help getting these things seen. I will definitely contact BB, great name! I’ve got about 10-15 of these films that still need sound added, but I’d say these three are the best. Planning on posting a Jaws and James Bond in the future.
For everyone nostalgic for 70’s music, you can see I was going for a Paul Stanley ‘do.
Rob
Hey Scott, forgive me being nosey, but are you a Brit? I just wondered how you came to be spending much of the early 70’s in England?
And 88, Rob is it strange seeing these old clips of you and your crew? It must carry some great memories for you?
You are lucky to have these as my family pretty much just has photographs of my childhood.
Hey Rob — Bohus Blohut (BO-Hoosh Blo-Hoot … Czech name, but he talks like an American radio announcer) couldn’t wrap his head around how good these were for “kid” films, particularly the stop-motion work in “Alien.” He half-suspected some chicanery on your part! :-) But they’re clearly vintage to my eyes. It’s not just the excellent modern post-production work makes them great, but you kids had a script written, and the camera angles, fight choreography, blocking, etc. are so well done to begin with. I do hope you’re able to throw some more of your films up on YouTube.
BTW, I do a little Captain Action collecting, so seeing the original Dr. Evil in the “Alien” homage was awesome!
Scott B. out.
Buzz — my dad was a chaplain in the Air Force, and we were stationed at RAF Mildenhall from Dec. ‘69 to Dec. ‘73. Growing up on air bases in the 60s-early ’70s was pretty much like “Leave it to Beaver” — safe neighborhoods, etc. England was such a great place to grow up for a kid with an imagination. Seems like there’s a castle ruin about every 10 miles. :-)
Hey! Quit making me nostalgic for the ’70s!!! :-D
Scott B. out.
I did guess you were from a Service family, Scott. I’m delighted that you have fond memories of England. I’m also rather fond of her myself. ;-)
I’ve seen you on here a lot Buzz … are you British? I later went back and spent the summer of ‘85 working there with a college buddy of mine at the Apollo Victoria theater in London. Great summer. My wife and I also visited in 1990. I’d love to return again someday when money and time allows. My times there are never far from my mind…
Scott B. out.
Scott,
Yup, all animation was done by me alone as a teen at the time. I finally got a wired remote control to set off the camera when I made Starbeast so I didn’t have to keep walking back and forth every frame (you can see my footsteps animate in the sand during Kong).
The only effects I enhanced (but kept intentionally cheesy) for YouTube were Kong’s fall (the film scratches became bigger than the rubber figure I dropped, had to replace or you’d wonder where he was!), and a couple things from Trek: all dissolves, the phaser beam animation, and the Enterprise explosion was turned red and supered over an earlier shot of space (the explosion itself is from 1978, actually drops of milk dropped in a black frying pan filled with water). Plus all cast titles.
Love Captain Action, just bought a shirt with his logo at Comic-Con, even the sellers didn’t know what it meant!
Rob
Scott, yes, I’m very English! I live in Wiltshire. A very pretty, rural county but just within an hour of London so we really do have the best of all worlds here.
#95
Howdy from Oklahoma, Buzz. How’s the weather in London?
I mean Wiltshire.
Its England so pretty much a bit of everything! Bit of sun and a bit of cloud this morning. Still, its Friday so yippee!
I’m hoping its going to be a fine weekend as we are heading down to the south coast on Sunday for the Navy Days at Portsmouth. A couple of years ago I got to go aboard the HMS Enterprise. Its not a big ship but it was still a kick being on a vessel with that name. ;-)
Hows Oklahoma, Vultan? Going by memory isn’t that, like Witlshire, also farming country?
#98
Oh yes, many farms and wide open spaces, summer days so hot they make the planet Mercury look like an Eskimo’s idea of heaven, and… cows… lots of cows… and a few horses here and there. I live on a cattle ranch; so, there aren’t many ships named Enterprise around these parts–unless it’s a barge going up the Arkansas River. ;)
But it’s cool you got to go aboard the ship. Some day in the not-too-distant-future I would like to take a tour of the supercarrier USS Enterprise, which is currently docked at Norfolk, VA. She’s set to be decommissioned in a few years (after saving the day at Camp Khitomer, of course ;) and there’s already a movement to get her converted into some kind of museum ship instead of being sent to the scrapyard. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
It would a horror to send the Enterprise supercarrier to the scrapyard.
The USS America was sunk in a live-fire exercise and I really hated to see her go down like that. Read the Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_America_%28CV-66%29#Scuttling_location
The Enterprise is still the longest aircraft carrier ever built; it was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier; it served nobly throughout the war in Vietnam; it participated in vital operations during America’s space program.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_%28CVN-65%29
Reading about her missions, and the missions of our astronauts through NASA in the 1960’s to date saddens me when I think that the United States no longer seems destined to reach for the Moon in the way we had planned. (I write about this in my blog.) It appears that Project Constellation is basically a goner, despite the preservation of a few elements of it in reduced form. And the idea that we will accelerate a heavy-lift vehicle does not really infuse me with confidence given the stops and starts our space program has suffered in the last twenty years.
Why is this country no longer as capable of such great things of which we were capable half a century ago? Why did we land on the Moon in 1969, only to squander more than four decades — two generations — doing nothing but assembling a vast Tinkertoy in space?
Yes, our machine emissaries have landed on another planet and have reached out with robotic senses — but we are not robots, and we can do better than to send silicon to do what our own beings can do with so much greater import.
I fear that this nation has lost its sense of the future, its confidence and hope in its own destiny, and therefore in part its own soul.
Star Trek embodies a part of our Kennedyesque spirit of exploration, but Star Trek cannot do it alone.
We, also, must do our part.
#100
I agree with everything you said, Hat Rick. Every time it seems that NASA is back on the right track a new administration comes in with its own agenda and wipes the drawing board clean. Unfortunately, it seems to be the nature of the beast; NASA has always been a political tool, going all the way back to the Eisenhower/Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon administration’s’ space race with the Soviets to today with Obama wanting to use the agency for global warming research and “to reach out to Muslim nations,” whatever that means.
Perhaps Richard Branson and a few other visionaries could lend a hand and finally take science and exploration away from the politicians.
Its interesting to hear about your carrier Enterprise. I didn’t realise she was to be decomissioned. :-( Magnificent ship.
I unfortunately just missed out on seeing her by two days a decade or so back when she was paying a courtesy visit to these shores. She was/is so large she had to anchor out in the Solent. Just too big to fit into Portsmouth harbour!
Other US vessels do regularly show up- including a nuclear powered sub that I saw a year or so back. Her immaculately turned out crew were being given a tour of HMS Victory and seemed suitably impressed by the old girl.
Oklahoma sounds vast, Vultan. I will be Wiki’ing it (and the carrier Enterprise) later when I get a moment or two. ;-)
Thanks for your great comments, Vultan and Buzz. So much of this country is tied up in knots over political disagreements and partisan hackery. Perhaps if they would let a few scientists with vision rooted in human understanding take part in the leadership aspects of our country, it may be possible that things could be different. We need cultural leaders that can remind us that all of us — all of humanity — can be better united if we set and diligently pursue an overarching goal. That goal shouldn’t be simply to build a space station. A space station is simply a means to an end, not an end in itself. And NASA isn’t some kind of NOAA writ large — it is the cutting edge of our shared dream to leave our home planet to achieve our longest term objectives as a civilization.
The great Tsiolkovsky once said that Earth is the cradle of humanity, but that, as with all children, at some point we must leave the cradle. Would that our leaders, and we are ourselves, keep his warning in mind.
I’ve equally enjoyed this whole thread, Rick. As always with Trekmovie.
A great site with informed and intelligent posters.
A pleasure to be allowed among you.
Oh, I looked up the USS America, Rick. I’m ashamed to admit that I’d never heard of the ship before. It’s sad what happened to her, and I hope to God the same doesn’t happen to the Enterprise. It’s an even bigger shame that the WW2 era Enterprise was scrapped and not turned into a museum. Talk about a piece of history.
Hello? Anybody still on this thread? ;-)
Rob: Thanks for the details about the shoot. You did take a (wise) minimal approach to finishing them up, so I assumed that almost everything was vintage, except for the things you mentioned (I need to look at the milk explosions again). I love how you did all the voices, and did NOT go overboard trying to make the visual effects too modern. Bohus was skeptical that a kid your age could have done such amazing stop-motion, and having done a bit of that myself, I am stunned at how smooth Dr. Evil’s moves are. Cool that you’re a Captain Action fan: that’s how I came to first see the videos. There is a CA group on Yahoo that I belong to, and one of them posted a link. Good group. You should look into it, no matter what level of collecting you do.
Buzz: I’ve been to Wiltshire a couple of times … Stonehenge is there, isn’t it, and Salisbury Cathedral? Lovely countryside. I Google Earthed my old neighborhood in Suffolk not too long ago and was aghast to see how the lovely farms had been turned into dense housing tracts. Ah well.
Scott B. out.
ah Scott, I’m afraid so much countryside has been given over to housing. You wouldn’t believe how much has gone since my childhood around where I live. And they are still wanting more land for housing. I just don’t understand where all the need is coming from. We’ve had a great deal of immigration over the last 10 years and I know that is driving much of the pressure, but it really has got out of hand.
And you are so right about the density of the new housing. That was a really horribe regulation set out by the now- thankfully gone- last Government. So much housing per acre. Its made for some really horrible developments. If only we had the space they have in Oklahoma I guess. :-)
Yes, Stonehenge is about 30 miles from me. I always find it underwhelming as a construction, but fascinating as a story.
A far more impressive stone circle is Avebury. Wiki it when you get a chance. And Silbury Hill.
Funnily enough I got my first close-up look at Salisbury Catherdral in June. ItI really is a magnficent building. They clearly take good care of it.
Which part of the States do you live in, Scott? (forgive me being nosey again. I find people and their stories interesting. :-) )
I followed Ricks links to Enterprise- whoa, what a great ship she is. 50 years service! That is really something. I also hope they can find a way of keeping her ‘alive’. She deserve’s better than the breakers yard for sure.
Problem being the cash-strapped time’s we are living in I guess?
Thanks for your comments as well, Buzz and Vultan. I concur that this has been a great thread.
Buzz – I live in Atlanta, Georgia (GA). I was born in south GA, both my parents’ families having farms down there — my parents retired to one of them, in the middle of nowhere. As I say, If you drew a triangle from Alapaha to Willacoochee to Hahira … they’d be right in the middle of that. :-) I’m grateful to have been able to live elsewhere as a kid (California, Tennessee, Idaho, England), but the family farm down there is still “home.”
I visited Stonehenge as a kid, when you could still clamber around on the rocks, and again in ‘85. It is smaller than you expect it to be, but like you say, the story — those Bronze Age people carting those stones so far to build it — is pretty amazing. It fires the imagination.
Re: the Enterprise – I’m shocked some seaport city wouldn’t take her. Ship museums are fantastic, and great tourist lures. Heck, I’d go see her, esp. if they included a Star Trek exhibit inside somewhere. :-)
Scott B. out.
ah, isn’t that Bones country, Scott? Do you have that great southern accent? Or has all the moving around left you a bit ‘unidentifiable’ accent wise?
They are some great names there- Willacoochee, Alapaha! Excellent. :-D
I’ll see you with a Middle Wallop and a Tiddleywink and raise you with Collingbourne Ducis !
I actually live in a town called Swindon. It was originally a small settlement on a hill which was primarily a pig farm! So it went from Swine Down (pig hill) to Swindon!
An American comedian I saw some years ago here, you may have heard of him, Greg Proops, had fun with that when he discovered the show he was doing was indeed on the site of the very pig farm!
Sorry, I’m rambling on a bit! Just had a nice glass of cider and feeling quite relaxed! lol
When we came back from England, my cousin kidded me about having an “English brogue” — whatever that is! (The same cousin who first got me hooked on Trek, BTW). I have a pretty standard flat American accent now. People are surprised when I tell them I’m a Georgia native. I can “do” an authentic Southern accent. Not so much the fake Hollywood “Gone with the Wind” type (like McCoy affected when he got hit with the spores), but a harsher rural accent. I can also do a couple of fair English accents when I set my mind to it. :-)
English town names are a hoot! I’ve heard of Swindon, but never been there that I recall. Alapaha and Willacoochee are Indian names; there are a couple of small rivers with those names running through that part of Georgia too.
I’ve seen Proops on “Whose Line Is It Anyway.” Great show. Love the English version (the American version is okay. Ryan Stiles is always hilarious.) And I have nothing against pigs! Both my grandfathers raised them … as well as other livestock and row crops.
Enjoy your cider! I do miss that here. I got a taste for it that summer in ‘85. Good times….
Scott B. out.
As we are talking about comedians, do you remember Kelly Monteith by any chance? He was pretty big over here in the early 80’s.
Accents are interesting. I have an accent that people that live just 40 miles away would consider very ‘farmer’ if you know what I mean. :-)
Although over the years I notice the prevalent accent does appear to becoming less rural around here. Much more London. A bit harder. Not so gentle if you know what I mean. A bit of a shame.
I remember Monteith, but nothing specific about his comedy. The pop culture exchange program between the Brits and Yanks is a funny thing. Your Billy Idol was a bigger success here in the ’80s than he was back home, and our “Dallas” was still big there when that fire had dimmed quite a bit here.
Accents are indeed interesting. I wish there were a website with video-audio demonstrating and identifying all the regional British accents. I do some advertising work for a girl from Manchester, a very distinct accent. My wife and I watch a fair amount of British TV, and I can catch the differences, but can’t identify the locations/influences, other than some sounding more rural, others more posh. It’s funny to watch some shows and hear British actors doing an American accent. The best ones can do it flawlessly, but often the TV actors overdo the harsh “r” — and the “attitude.” Of course your actors usually do much more convincing American accents than ours do Brit accents. Our actors always either do Prince Charles or Johnny Rotten (both badly). :-D
Scott B. out.
The only reason I bought up Monteith was that I was a big fan of his back in the 80’s. He had his own show on BBC2 and toured a fair bit. I got to see him a couple of time’s. Anyhoo, I tracked him down via the web (not hard as he has his own website!) and he actually responded in person to my email. Quite a thrill for me! He also personally signed a dvd that I purchased off his website. Quite a quirky movie that he’d made- A Lousy 10 Bucks. Anyway, I digress!
I do squirm when some actors, Brits or Americans take a stab at the others accents. Except for one actor- Johnny Depp. He is sensational at accents. What a talent he is.
Does that guy in House, Hugh Laurie, sound good to Americans? Because he sounds awful to me!
I’ve driven the length of England- and into Scotland- and the way the accents change is quite remarkable for what is small country. Fascinating!
I know Monteith’s name, but for the life of me can’t dig up any memories of his comedy! I do associate him with the ’80s, though. I guess I’ll have to see what’s on YouTube. :-)
Laurie sounds quite good to me, believe it or not. I don’t catch the usual “tells” that he’s faking an American accent. What often gives Brit actors away in British productions is the writing. There are certain phrases that Americans don’t say … unless they’ve been living among British-Engish speakers for a while. Laurie sounds … irascible, and it works to hide any small flaws in the accent. His accent is very region-free, though. “Flat” I call it.
Depp’s a talented guy, though I’m not a huge fan, for whatever reason. He does have a pretty good knack for accents and distinct character voices. The slew of Aussies and Kiwis currently littering Hollywood seem to have a good ear for American accents — Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, Karl Urban etc.
I’d bet there are more distinct accents in the British Isles that there are in America. Not sure why that is. I’m surprised TV hasn’t had the same homogenizing effect there as it seems to have had here. I like hearing regional accents. Makes life interesting. Some are more pleasant than others though! :-)
So … we seem to have our own chat forum here, Buzz! Pretty cool! :-)
Scott B. out.
LOL yes, people are all done with this thread aren’t they.
Yes, now that you mention it the Aussies and Kiwis do seem to do accents well. Wonder why that is? Their accent is very individual and quite recognisable. And clearly quite easy to shake off!
I know what you mean about some accents being nicer than others. The scouse accent (Liverpool) I find very harsh. Interestingly I heard somebody on the radio the other day saying its not the gentle accent that it was in The Beatles day. Its evolved and taken on a far harder edge.
The accent they have on the Scottish borders I find beautiful to listen to. So gentle and unthreatening.
I think you will struggle to find any Monteith on YouTube. Find his website. He did have some stuff on there a couple of years back. In fact I think i’ll go and take a look now. ;-)
http://www.kellymonteith.com/Kelly_Monteith_BBC2_Series_Comedy_Video_Arabian_Nights_Beaded_Curtain_with_Elizabeth_Spender.html
I LIKE THIS ONE!
And I really like this one………..
http://www.kellymonteith.com/Pippa_Page_%26_Kelly_Monteith,_BBC_Series,_Squeaky_Vinyl_Pants.html
Those Monteith clips are pretty broad stuff, but funny. I don’t associate him with physical comedy — I seem to remember him doing more typical stand-up routines on chat shows back in the day.
Are you talking about a Geordi accent? While working in London I once heard someone speaking with one and thought he was Scottish, and was quickly corrected for my error. Some Scots accents are lovely, rather lilting, esp. by women. As for the Liverpool accent, I do think of the Beatles; theirs were sing-songy. So … when they want to make a character sound uneducated on telly (do you still say that? Or is it all “TV” now?), what is the default accent? Yorkshire? Here, it’s either the kind of Southern accent from my part of the South, or maybe a Brooklyn accent.
Scott B. out.
P.S. We may have to break down and take this to email!
Thats funny that you say that about Monteith, I thought just the same. To my memory he was more of an observational comedian but there was much slapstick on show there. Good stuff though. Nothing wrong with slapstick! I love Laurel and Hardy!
Also funny how you mention the Geordi accent. That’s the north east of England. Newcastle way. It’s where my family originates. Well, that and Scotland.
Though I’m not one of those people that likes to pretend I’m something other than what I am. English. There are so many people who talk of ‘the old country’ or ‘home’ just because that’s where their folks come from! Nonsense. A childhood friend of mine used to feign a Scots accent, like his parents had, although he was as English as the next pasty faced person! I think he thought it made him sound glamorous! lol.
Hmm, uneducated sounding accents?. I think its much the same as you. It can go from ‘country’ to pretty much any thick ‘city’ type of accent.
We have so many uneducated individuals to pick from. It may be unfair to say the accent betrays them, but the nonsense spouting from their mouths always does.
Well, here’s another Monday morning. Never did get to Portsmouth yesterday as the boys tonsils were giving him grief. Never mind, I’m on holiday for 2 weeks. Just this week to go!
Feel free to email. SBarcles@yahoo.co.uk
Nostalgia creates a very powerful emotion!
It certainly kept me coming back to this story, Harry! Even when I wasn’t expecting to see any further posts in here. lol