Original Star Trek Series: I watched a couple of original Star Trek episodes last night. How primitive! I guess fifty years ago, it was state of the art, but time moves on. The series...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I watched a couple of original Star Trek episodes last night. How primitive! I guess fifty years ago, it was state of the art, but time moves on. The series was popular enough that they continue to make Star Trek series and movies.

A bit of trivia: Majel Barrett, wife of Gene Roddenberry, played Nurse Chappell and later was the voice of the computer though all the different series and the movies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majel_Barrett

mr spock Loc: Fairfield CT

50 years is a long time Jerry. Go watch the original "Star Wars" film. Kids today consider it absolutely hokey. And it is when compared to current special effects capabilities
Is it not logical? 🙂

truckster Loc: Tampa Bay Area

In the late fifties I saw my first color Sci-Fi film in a theater. A Japanese film called "The Mysterirons" <sp> ... I thought it awesome. The greatest special effects worthy of an Oscar. Those posters and Robots were so real looking. Fast forward to mid 1980's and I'm sitting home with my four or five year old son and I see this movie is on TV. After a slight send up by Dad we sit to watch this movie. Typical 60's sci-fi "B" movie from Japan. Really third rate special effect and all. As a kid I thought this was state of the art, it wasn't close and I started to wonder what a kid whose first movie in a theater was Star Wars thought of that movie and what they would think of it now.

As for Star Trek, most of the back drops were nothing more than painted cardboard sheets.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

The Star Trek shows were not about technology but were about human interaction and society. I still enjoy the originals and they only had 3 seasons IIRC. I recall reading that they had all sorts of requests about where people could get the mechanism to open and close the doors. In reality it was two people opening and closing the doors to make that cool look. I think these shows were low tech and low budget affairs in those days. if you want really low budget and hokey special effects watch Lost In Space...

Best,
Todd Ferguson

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

Not only cheesy props and effects, but the show was sexist and chauvinistic and the plots were pathetically crude. Star Trek was nothing but a cop 'n robbers show in space. Kirk was the good guy in charge (blue eyed and white, of course) who ran around the galaxy taking care of the bad guys. The second year, there were some reputable science fiction writers contributing plot ideas but it always ended up that Kirk's brashness and quick thinking had to save the day.

Funny comment I read concerning all the Star Trek series: "Considering how often Captains Kirk, Picard and Janeway broke it, Starfleet's "Prime Directive" really should have been referenced as the "Prime Suggestion."

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

I still enjoy all of the Star trek series (except deep space nine), perhaps it's because even when I was a child, I was always interested in anything associated with the heavens. the trivia about Majel Barrett was was very interesting jerry...cheers.

mr spock Loc: Fairfield CT

What's really fun is to consider how many "far out" devices they had that are now reality.
Apple Watch
Phaser
Body scanner (MRI)
Etc.
I'm personally waiting for the transporter room.

mr spock Loc: Fairfield CT

And if you really want hokey watch "Plan 9 from Outer Space"
Considered by many to be the worst movie ever made.
They blast off for the moon seated in folding chairs!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

truckster wrote:

...I'm sitting home with my four or five year old son and I see this movie is on TV. After a slight send up by Dad we sit to watch this movie. Typical 60's sci-fi "B" movie from Japan. Really third rate special effect and all.

Funny

jmvaugh Loc: Albuquerque

Even as a kid Star Trek seemed somewhat hokey and I would tease my younger brother when we watched reruns later. Of course I really teased him about the reruns of Speed Racer - which was incredibly hokey. After 50 years hokey, primitive, and predictable becomes fun.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

mr spock wrote:

And if you really want hokey watch "Plan 9 from Outer Space"
Considered by many to be the worst movie ever made.
They blast off for the moon seated in folding chairs!

Oh My God! Ain't that the truth! My son collects old VHS movies and he has the Ed Woods definitive collection. We watched Plan 9 and I agree, it could be the all time worst movie ever made. They obviously made the up the plot and script as they went along, never rehearsed a scene, never did a second take and used top-notch special effects like a car hubcap spinning on a wire (and you can see the wire) for a UFO. Bela Lugosi must have been desperate to make a mortgage payment in order to appear in that film and threw his self respect to the wind as he appears as Dracula complete with black cape held across his face. It's so incredibly bad one has to suffer through to the end just for the experience of it.

mr spock Loc: Fairfield CT

What you missed is: Bela Lugosi DIED before finishing the film! It's why why you only see his back in the later
scenes.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

jerryc41 wrote:

I watched a couple of original Star Trek episodes last night. How primitive! I guess fifty years ago, it was state of the art, but time moves on. The series was popular enough that they continue to make Star Trek series and movies.

A bit of trivia: Majel Barrett, wife of Gene Roddenberry, played Nurse Chappell and later was the voice of the computer though all the different series and the movies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majel_Barrett

No they were just as primitive back then, every little kid with a super 8 would do better effects!

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

mr spock wrote:

What's really fun is to consider how many "far out" devices they had that are now reality.
Apple Watch
Phaser
Body scanner (MRI)
Etc.
I'm personally waiting for the transporter room.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the transporter, nor for that matter inter galactic travel.

therwol Loc: USA

Notorious T.O.D. wrote:

The Star Trek shows were not about technology but ... (show quote)

I remember the first few episodes of that show. We were duped into thinking that it was serious science fiction, but it didn't take long to see what a joke it was. Actually some of the episodes were so ridiculous that they were funny. When I was in college, they showed old Buck Rogers films that showed "rockets" suspended on very visible strings with smoke rising from the back, not shooting out of the back, but rising. I have to believe that they could have done better, even that long ago, but perhaps that would have cost money.

And then there was the Orson Wells "War of the Worlds" broadcast that had people jumping out of windows to their deaths. Sometimes the imagination is worse than anything they show you on a movie screen.