A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Reviewing  Star Trek: The Motion Picture  is one of those “some say the glass is half-empty, some say it’s half-full” conundrums. Robert Wise’s final science-fiction film is a decent film in some respects, but a dull, even cold and soulless one in others. Greenlit by Paramount Pictures in a bid to compete with 20th Century Fox’s  Star Wars,  the film was  Star Trek  creator Gene Roddenberry’s second and last theatrical production. He didn’t write the screen story (Alan Dean Foster’s ‘In Thy Image,” the treatment for a pilot episode to a canceled TV series titled  Star Trek: Phase Two  was the movie’s starting point), nor did he write the screenplay (Harold Livingston wrote a partial script that was added on to during filming). But he sure loaded it with many of his favorite  Star Trek  tropes and saddled it with an unnecessary amount of pretentiousness and a cold, sterile look that is the antithesis of the television show that begat...

  John Colicos (as Kor) in original "swarthy" Klingon makeup and prosthetic Fu Manchu facial hair. © 1967 CBS Studios Why do the Klingons in Star Trek TOS look different than the Klingons in Star Trek TNG and the rest of Star Trek series? When Gene L. Coon and Gene Roddenberry created the Klingons as the 23rd Century avatars for the Soviet Union to serve as foils for America’s avatar, the United Federation of Planets in 1967, the new aliens were depicted as swarthy-looking humanoids with extra-bushy eyebrows and, in the case of Kor (John Colicos), a villainous-looking Fu Manchu mustache-and-goatee. Sometimes, though, the Klingons would have pigment variations and on occasion, such as in  The Trouble with Tribbles,  we’d see fair-haired Klingons alongside the basic Klingon-with-swarthy-makeup. William Campbell (Koloth) and Michael Pataki (Krax) in The Trouble With Tribbles. Note absence of swarthy makeup and more "Western-style" goatees.  © 19...

You know…I had to ask that question to a few of my friends who were into  Star Trek  back when I was in my early teens….back in the late 1970s. I was born just a few years before  Star Trek  premiered on September 8, 1966, so I wasn’t what you might call a First Generation Trekker. I think I first saw  Star Trek  in the early 1970s (or maybe 1969) when I lived in Colombia with my mom, older half-sister, and other relatives. It was, of course, dubbed in Spanish and was titled  Viaje a las estrellas.  I didn’t know what to make of it, so I didn’t watch it a lot. (Don’t judge me…I was only 7 or 8 years old at the time!) © 1966 Desilu Productions/Norway Corporation/CBS Intriguing looking ship….too bad it isn’t as detailed as the ships in  Star Wars …… When we moved back to the States in 1972,  Star Trek  was in its “lost in the wilderness” stage: NBC had canceled the show three years earlier, but it was popular in syndica...

Why is  Star Trek: The Animated Series  not often spoken of or given the same recognition as the other  Star Trek  shows? Star Trek: The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek,  as it was officially marketed, has a complex history as to its canonicity within the  Star Trek  franchise. When it was created in the mid-1970s, most of the people involved in its creation treated the series as a continuation of  Star Trek: The Original Series. (TOS).  After all, it was created and executive produced by Gene Roddenberry, it featured the voices of  most  of the main cast members (including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley) except Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov), who wasn’t hired due to budget issues. (Koenig  did  participate on the writing end; he penned the script for  The Infinite Vulcan. )  Most of the scripts were written by men and women who had written episodes for the l...

On Quora, Cameron McCall asks: Which came first, Star Trek or Star Wars?  Star Trek, or as it is known today, Star Trek: The Original Series, was created by ex-pilot, World War II veteran, L.A. Police Department police officer, and television writer Eugene Wesley Roddenberry in 1964, sold to Desilu around that time, and approved for a network run on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in late 1965. It premiered (with The Man Trap ) on September 8, 1966 and ran on NBC for three seasons until its cancellation in March 1969. Star Wars began its long creative development as early as 1971, and by 1973 George Lucas, a graduate of the University of Southern California’s film school, had a first draft for a screenplay then titled The Star Wars. After shopping it around to the big studios, including Universal Pictures, he sold the script to 20th Century Fox after finally convincing Fox’s VP for Development Alan Ladd, Jr., who didn’t quite understand the story but nevertheles...

“Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Five” Over the past few years, the Blu-ray division of CBS Studios has released the entire seven season-run of Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (TNG)  in high definition. The seminal Season Five, which connects the series with Roddenberry’s 1966-1969 “Star Trek,” is one of two complete season sets released in 2013. This six-disc collection features some of TNG’s finest episodes, including “Darmok,” “Unification, Parts I & Ii,” and “The Inner Light.” To Boldly Go…. Capt. Picard: Space... The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before. The fifth season of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” is considered by many “Star Trek” fans to be among the series’ three best years. The season kicked off with the action-packed “Redemption - Part II,” in wh...