For your browsing pleasure: a grab bag of social media posts, viral videos, and behind-the-scenes images.
Frakes Goes Viral
Jonathan Frakes hosted three seasons of Beyond Belief: Fact Or Fiction back in the late ’90s. Each episode featured stories, all of which appeared to defy logic, and some of which were allegedly based on actual events. The viewer was offered the challenge of determining which are true and which are false. At the end of the show, it was revealed whether the stories were fact or fiction. The show has long had a small cult following. Over the past couple of months Frakes’ hosting segments have become a series of viral videos.
It all started with a super cut of Frakes telling the audience they’re wrong (the story was a fake)…
Then Twitter user Zane Golia made a cut of Frakes asking introductory questions to the stories out of context.
I made this for no one and no reason. Plz Enjoy….
"Jonathan Frakes Asks You Things" pic.twitter.com/A7Wt5MXP39
— Zane Golia (@zbgolia) June 11, 2019
And most recently, another user took to YouTube to balance out all the “you’re wrong” with 41 seconds of Frakes saying “you’re right.”
Chabon and Frakes
Speaking of Frakes, when he wrapped directing his two episodes on Star Trek: Picard a few weeks ago, Michael Chabon posted this great candid photo of Jonathan Frakes giving him one of his well-known friendly bear hugs.
Secret Hideout mural
At Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout offices there’s a huge Star Trek mural, which has been seen a few times in photos—most recently in one of Michael Chabon’s when he was announced as showrunner of Picard. James Frain recently dropped by the offices and snapped a nice shot of a good chunk of it.
Lawyer critiques “Measure of a Man”
A video that’s been quite popular as of late is one where lawyer Devin of the LegalEagle YouTube channel goes over various pop culture courtroom scenes. He recently tackled the beloved Next Generation episode “Measure of a Man,” where Data’s rights as an individual were challenged.
‘Discovery’ behind-the-scenes
The cast and crew of Star Trek: Discovery have been showing off their craftsmanship as Emmy voting season got underway.
The official Star Trek CBS account posted a breakdown of the visual effects needed to bring the Ba’ul and Kaminar to life in “The Sound of Thunder.”
Building a new world. See how the #StarTrekDiscovery VFX team brought life to Saru's home planet, Kaminar. #StarTrekFYC #FYC @jzvfx pic.twitter.com/Z6MbukU0mI
— Star Trek on CBS All Access (@startrekcbs) June 18, 2019
The impressive alien makeups of Discovery were highlighted in a series of videos, including one of making actor Rob Brownstein into the Talosian Keeper, and turning David Benjamin Tomlinson into Linus the Saurian.
Concept artist Rob McCallum showed off his process for storyboarding the asteroid scene in “Brother.”
The first thing is did for season 2 of Star Trek Discovery. Timelapse pic.twitter.com/6OjyYTu9cX
— Rob McCallum (@rob__mccallum) June 20, 2019
Prop master Mario Moreira showed off the sleek high tech hand phasers that Section 31 used in season two, and included a video of how the barrel automatically extends when the phaser is set for kill.
Now that we’ve shown it at #paleycentre for #startrekdiscovery #emmy display I can show you some closer images of #section31 phaser. Hope you like it. pic.twitter.com/PG4pBF61Js
— Mario Moreira (@Mario_Moreira72) May 26, 2019
Also showing you the action we built into the barrel #StarTrekDiscovery pic.twitter.com/IoeFGW5WtK
— Mario Moreira (@Mario_Moreira72) May 26, 2019
Frakes recently also appeared in the german series “How to sell drugs online (fast)” as himself.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ToEiHXS2CmY
As a version of himself playing host of Beyond Belief: Fact Or Fiction :)
Could the person Frakes is hugging be Gates on the set? Same hair now I think.
Was that facetiously said Murray?
It’s Michael Chabon himself being hugged by Frakes…and Chabon points out that he is 5’11” and still dwarfed by Frakes…
Which just shows how tall Frames truly is…
I’m also 6′-3″, I know a guy through my church who’s about 6′-10…and he’s a hugger, too. It is a strange feeling when you look into a guys shoulder like that…
:-)
I met Frakes back when TNG was on. I’m 6’6″. When my group was having our picture taken with him I moved to the back (where the tall people go) and stood behind him. Then I had to move because he was tall enough to block me. He gave me that famous Riker grin and said “It’s good to be tall.”
Discovery is so awesome…looking forward to Picard. I have been watching Trek literally since it started.
Do you love to go a-wanderin’ beneath a clear blue sky??? 😂😂😂 I love how he’s wearing a helmet on the bike, good role modeling
Wow. Frakes is Orson Wells!!
The VFX breakdown is impressive, but I still feel like the space scenes in Star Trek: Discovery are too dark, making it hard to tell what’s going on. I know it’s the “look” they’re going after; I guess I just prefer what Pixomondo and FuseFX are doing on The Orville.
Me too. But then, I prefer pretty much everything on The Orville.
I find it strange to see such dark space scenes when the ships are in solar systems and close to planets.
The disconnect from the real, bright, light saturated images we get from the International Space Station is an issue for me.
That said, the kind of lighting that the Orville or the Expanse use (or that previous Trek series used) wouldn’t be very real in deep space between solar systems.
Basically, I’d like to see more variability in the lighting in space depending on where the ships are…
I can believe dark space when they are out in deep space or in a system with a dim sun…
But much of the action in Discovery takes place close in to habitable planets….
Well, remember that the ISS is usually lit by this super-huge reflector called Earth. :) When the sun’s on the other side it’s pretty dark. I mean, our own solar system is so dark, we *know* there’s a ninth real planet-sized object at the edge of it, as inferred by its gravity effects, but we haven’t directly observed it.
To me the issue is that it resembles what you get when you get too enthusiastic with an HDR filter in your computer – it goes well beyond matching the dynamic range the human eye can see, into overly-detailed and artificial… and does every star system have to have visible nebula remnants around it? It adds visual noise to the shots, it doesn’t make it feel more real or dramatic.
I was wondering what those Frakes videos were from.
That dude is charismatic.
I love Frakes so much!!! The dude defines Star Trek and cool as ever. Loved all these of his went viral lol.
For a guy who cares so little about Star Trek, and who just got fired by CBS, Kurtzman sure has a nice Trek mural in his office . . .
Or could all those Disco hating YouTubers ever be wrong? Nah, impossible.
Doomcock wrong!?!?! SAY IT ISN’T SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Obviously, this mural is from before he was fired. He probably just put it there to trick CBS (and the entertainment media) into thinking he cared. At least now, it’s going to remind him every single day of what he got fired from. Until he paints it over.
[end of sarcasm]
Paint it Black….
It’s nice to have this compilation while TPTB have gone quiet as the Emmy votes ate collated. I guess we should expect a burst of PR once the Emmy nominations are announced at the end of the week.
But I’m wondering when we’ll start to see social media from Discovery’s cast as they relocate to Toronto for Season 3 production…
Ontario production sheets show Green Harvest (aka Discovery) starting production from as early as July 3rd (ACTRA – the actors Union) to July 19th (technical union) the Director’s Guild of Canada Hot List puts the start date on July 8th.
We haven’t even heard who will be directing the season 3 premiere. One of the production sheets lists Lee Rose, but that could be for another episode.
Hopefully, Kurtzman and CBS will provide some initial information once the flurry of S2 Emmy publicity settles. And then more at upcoming convention panels.
A huge problem I had with “Measure of a Man” was the fact that Riker had to represent the prosecution. Which, as this lawyer pointed out, is a tremendous conflict of interest. I can’t imagine a judge, even a future judge with new future laws at their disposal, allowing for such a thing. This was done to create dramatic tension but as a viewer, it took me out of the drama quite a bit. It was difficult to take the episode seriously after that, to be honest. It was a good question and one that was never really answered. But I was not a fan how the episode presented it.
I agree with that it was not sufficiently justified, but I have an issue with the legal assessment being made against the basis of procedure in
1) a civilian court rather than a court martial, and
2) United States judicial norms.
Yes, I know the YouTube show is basically comparing TV shows to US judicial process, but its a stretch to assume a future StarFleet JAG process will have the same procedural norms.
Different judicial traditions have different norms, and even those that have common roots have evolved quite differently e.g. US vs the UK or others in the British tradition such as Canada or the UK.
Certainly, in time of war or remote exploration, military courts have and do rely on serving officers to prosecute, even comrades-in-arms.
The problem in this episode is that the urgency to try the case now was not established or even a point of decision by the JAG. If the need to take Data apart was not proven to be urgent, then the hearing could have been deferred until the parties could convene at a starbase with a fully set up JAG complement.
Many of the points the lawyer made I could argue that while true with the law he studied to pass his bar, this is a made up future universe. So there very well be allowances for procedural differences in that made up fiction. That said, I still could not get around the concept of Riker doing the prosecution. That just felt wrong regardless.
Yup, while it could be necessary in an emergency, I can’t wrap my head around why it couldn’t be postponed until counsel was available.
Basically, the first judicial review established sufficient grounds for an injunction to stop both Data’s removal from the Enterprise and his resignation until his status as a person was determined.
Nothing in the Starfleet order for Data to submit to dismantling suggested any urgency.
Don’t forget: Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction? from 1995 I believe?…it’s on Netflix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyh36fQf7p8