Eugh.
It's Friday night, y'all. Time for #wenchwatches
Let's watch a bunch of upright people decide to break multiple laws and commit grand theft larceny to save their friend.
Tonight, "something comforting": #StarTrek3
First of all, if you haven't watched Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan yet, you might want to skip this one, and go watch that first. For extra points, go watch the TOS episode "Space Seed" before that.
AND, if you're a brown-nosing teacher's pet, go read the comic book series that fills in the time period between Space Seed and Wrath. Really. It's good.
This is your spoilers warning.
Star Trek 3 was revelatory to me as a little kid. I was well acquainted with Star Trek The Original Series (TOS), as I sometimes skipped out on Sunday School to watch that on a little TV in our family van.
It was a much, much better teacher of ethics and how to be a good human anyways.
TOS was always episodic. Rarely did an episode follow up on a previous one in a meaningful way. Most TV leaned on episodicness so as to make onramping viewers easier in the age before internet chat rooms and social media.
Star Trek 3, on the other hand, was a follow up. It picked up where Wrath of Khan left off. The idea of a continuous story in Star Trek was intoxicating to me. Fortunately, my dad was already a fan, and had the entire three movie cycle recorded from TV broadcast on VHS tape.
Let's watch!
It took *forever* for the Klingon empire to get off of that Atari cartage standard for ferrying intelligence information.
A think that always struck me about Star Trek 3 compared to 2 was just how *bright* the film looked. Wrath was always shot in darker, ruddier hues, perhaps to match the darker tones of the story.
I'm not sure exactly what's different, since many of the same effects companies were involved with 3 (unlike Star Trek 5, which couldn't get ILM scheduled). The filming also felt sharper and more modern that 3, and is reflected in even my cheap, multi-DVD pack I got for $20.
It's been remarked by the cast that the films until 4 where a "Live - Death - Then, Life again" cycle. Perhaps then, Search for Spock, being the last part of that cycle, was shot with brighter lights intentionally. I'm sure someone reading this may have the inside scoop here.
I have been watching and rewatching this film for over 30 years, and TODAY I catch a production mistake.
When Checkov brings up the security display to identify a life form in Spock's quarters, the starship shown dorsally is not the refit model present since Star Trek The Motion Picture. The nacelles and support pylons are the distinctive TOS style. I can only imagine the effects crew making the digital graphics for that display weren't involved with the model work. As such, it's understandable it would have been missed.
Or, if you want a Watsonian explanation, Starfleet is just a wee bit slow on rolling out those OS updates...
@socketwench - They're actually refilmed Franz Joseph blueprints from the 70s. Before TWOK they used the same blueprints, just on film!
If you REALLY want to get nerdy, the green damage control graphics on the bridge? That's the Phase II Enterprise on there.
@socketwench - The bridge was almost complete when Phase II was cancelled to become the motion picture. The only real changes were to make all the control panels black glass, remove a bridge transporter section, and a wierd round human sized targeting reticle behind Chekov's station.
The graphics were already done, and so the Phase II enterprise is on all those control panels. You can tell by looking at the nacelles. The front of the Phase II Enterprise nacelles are thinner than the rest. The TMP ones are larger. If the scene was clearer, you'd see the "notches" on the struts from Phase II.
