"Unbelievable. Do you recognize those uniforms?"
October 21, 2012 7:29 PM Subscribe
Artist Dusty Abell has created a massive poster featuring "at least one, sometimes more, character, entity, starship or structure from every episode of [Star Trek: The Original] series." Via io9, who ask: How many characters can you name? Stumped? Here's a key of all 123!
Some close-ups.
This is a follow-up to his "Television Sci-Fi and Superheroes of the '70's" and Saturday Morning Action Adventure TV posters.
JPG Downloads:
* Star Trek: The Original Series
* Television Sci-Fi and Superheroes of the '70's
* Saturday Morning Action Adventure TV
Mr. Abell is a character designer for Warner Bros., and a former artist at Marvel, D.C. and Dark Horse Comics.
Some close-ups.
This is a follow-up to his "Television Sci-Fi and Superheroes of the '70's" and Saturday Morning Action Adventure TV posters.
JPG Downloads:
* Star Trek: The Original Series
* Television Sci-Fi and Superheroes of the '70's
* Saturday Morning Action Adventure TV
Mr. Abell is a character designer for Warner Bros., and a former artist at Marvel, D.C. and Dark Horse Comics.
I wish this poster had more of a theme than simply "A bunch of stuff standing there", but whatevs: it's a lot of fun to look through and realize how many you know. Nice find!
(That said, I'm surprised that although he's drawn hundreds of recognizable characters, his rendition of Kirk is ... well, if I hadn't know that Kirk is in the poster and probably in a prime position, I never would have guessed that was supposed to be Kirk)
posted by barnacles at 8:09 PM on October 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
(That said, I'm surprised that although he's drawn hundreds of recognizable characters, his rendition of Kirk is ... well, if I hadn't know that Kirk is in the poster and probably in a prime position, I never would have guessed that was supposed to be Kirk)
posted by barnacles at 8:09 PM on October 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Maybe Koloth's the one taking the picture.
posted by maqsarian at 8:12 PM on October 21, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by maqsarian at 8:12 PM on October 21, 2012 [4 favorites]
How is it I new exactly where Balok would be?
posted by sourwookie at 8:27 PM on October 21, 2012
posted by sourwookie at 8:27 PM on October 21, 2012
Which Balok, the puppet or the tranya-drinking baby Clint Howard?
Uh, spoiler alert.
posted by maqsarian at 8:44 PM on October 21, 2012 [4 favorites]
Uh, spoiler alert.
posted by maqsarian at 8:44 PM on October 21, 2012 [4 favorites]
It's awesome, but I don't understand why the red color for the shadows on the faces, especially those in the foreground. It makes it look like a print job where the plates were out of registration.
posted by ericost at 8:54 PM on October 21, 2012
posted by ericost at 8:54 PM on October 21, 2012
Lovely stuff.
Really, for a space show, TOS didn't really have the Enerprise meet that many spaceships that weren't actually just the Enterprise.
posted by Artw at 9:20 PM on October 21, 2012
Really, for a space show, TOS didn't really have the Enerprise meet that many spaceships that weren't actually just the Enterprise.
posted by Artw at 9:20 PM on October 21, 2012
How many characters can you name?
All of them. Jesus.
Does it enhance or diminish my geek cred that it took me maybe four seconds to spot that Pike was in there twice?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:40 PM on October 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
All of them. Jesus.
Does it enhance or diminish my geek cred that it took me maybe four seconds to spot that Pike was in there twice?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:40 PM on October 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
This is remarkably effective at helping quantify exactly how wasted my youth was.
posted by Alexander Hatchell at 9:40 PM on October 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Alexander Hatchell at 9:40 PM on October 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
I cannot believe I stared at this for hours not being able to place the White Rabbit.
Also, the Botany Bay was a pencil?
How did I not notice that?
posted by Mezentian at 9:51 PM on October 21, 2012
Also, the Botany Bay was a pencil?
How did I not notice that?
posted by Mezentian at 9:51 PM on October 21, 2012
Radioactive Melvin Belli is my favorite.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 10:00 PM on October 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 10:00 PM on October 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
I failed to recognize only two things, and they were both ships. (105 and 114 in the key). Neither of them made any impression on me at all apparently. Which is surprising because if this illustration is anything to go by they were rather better designed than most of the one-off ships in TOS.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:49 PM on October 21, 2012
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:49 PM on October 21, 2012
It's entirely likely you've blocked The Way To Eden from your mind, because, well...
posted by Artw at 12:05 AM on October 22, 2012
posted by Artw at 12:05 AM on October 22, 2012
Hey, lay off the space hippies, Herbert.
posted by maqsarian at 12:40 AM on October 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by maqsarian at 12:40 AM on October 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
Shut it, Spock.
posted by Artw at 12:55 AM on October 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 12:55 AM on October 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
It's entirely likely you've blocked The Way To Eden from your mind, because, well... yt
I'm not falling for that one. I went looking for that song over lunch. It was.... God, I hate that episode.
posted by Mezentian at 1:02 AM on October 22, 2012
I'm not falling for that one. I went looking for that song over lunch. It was.... God, I hate that episode.
posted by Mezentian at 1:02 AM on October 22, 2012
The terrifying thing is one of those space hippies is Charles Napier.
posted by Artw at 1:06 AM on October 22, 2012
posted by Artw at 1:06 AM on October 22, 2012
An ex-girlfriend of mine had a cat named Eden; I used to pick the cat up and sing "Heading Out to Eden" to her whenever I went over. Eden... did not enjoy it. That cat was a total Herbert.
posted by maqsarian at 1:28 AM on October 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by maqsarian at 1:28 AM on October 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
Morgan Woodward could have been in there twice as well...
posted by jim in austin at 4:50 AM on October 22, 2012
posted by jim in austin at 4:50 AM on October 22, 2012
I need to send this to my housemate who's a first generation fan. I wonder if this prints out...
posted by Karmakaze at 5:47 AM on October 22, 2012
posted by Karmakaze at 5:47 AM on October 22, 2012
Morgan Woodward could have been in there twice as well...
Multiple appearances by actors is not the same thing: my fave, Eddie Paskey, could have appeared at least five times by those criteria (not including his work as a stand-in), and I am sure he is not the record holder. I cannot find a source for just TOS, but I know that if you count the later series there are five actors who have appeared as seven or more characters. What leapt out at me was the same character showing up twice (albeit as portrayed by two different actors). Of course, it would have been sly to have Sandra Smith appear twice: once as Janet Lester and once as Captain Kirk.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:25 AM on October 22, 2012
Multiple appearances by actors is not the same thing: my fave, Eddie Paskey, could have appeared at least five times by those criteria (not including his work as a stand-in), and I am sure he is not the record holder. I cannot find a source for just TOS, but I know that if you count the later series there are five actors who have appeared as seven or more characters. What leapt out at me was the same character showing up twice (albeit as portrayed by two different actors). Of course, it would have been sly to have Sandra Smith appear twice: once as Janet Lester and once as Captain Kirk.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:25 AM on October 22, 2012
I failed to recognize only two things, and they were both ships. (105 and 114 in the key). Neither of them made any impression on me at all apparently. Which is surprising because if this illustration is anything to go by they were rather better designed than most of the one-off ships in TOS.
The reason that you didn't recognize them is that--and I'm truly dismayed that they were included in the poster, which has obviously had a lot of love and care put into it, for this reason--they weren't in TOS. At least, the original The Original Series.
When TOS was filmed, it was under a very tight budget for what was supposed to be a cutting-edge SF series, and in particular filming spaceship miniatures went beyond both the money and the time that they had available to them. (Remember that TOS had 79 episodes over three seasons, about twice as many as you'd have today.) This led to some compromises; the only reason why the shows had transporters (and therefore all the episodes and plot twists centered around them) was that it was too expensive to film a shuttle landing every week. As it was, spaceship shots were used over and over again; this recycling extended to the models used, so, for example, the original Aurora (from "The Way to Eden") was the result of kit-bashing the Tholian spaceship model from "The Tholian Web" together with some bits from the AMT model kits for the Enterprise and the Klingon battlecruiser. (The FX people would also use an AMT Enterprise kit for the torn-up Constellation from "The Doomsday Machine" because they only had one Constellation-class model--the Enterprise--and didn't want to mess it up; they put the scorch marks on the assembled AMT kit with, IIRC, a cigarette lighter.) The Antares didn't appear on screen at all.
Fast-forward four decades to CBS Paramount Television (the latest incarnation of Desilu Studios) wanting to put out a remastered version of TOS. Nowadays, it's pretty easy and cheap to throw up some CGI of Random One-off Starship of the Week, so almost all of the special effects shots were redone, including all the spaceship shots. In some cases, the new spaceships were call-outs to various other things (the model that they used for the Antares was apparently based on one found in the animated series). Hence our not remembering it, just like those TV shows that have started digitally inserting ads for products that didn't exist when the episode was originally filmed. (I've greatly enjoyed the DVD version, since it showed a much cleaner version than the scratchy and often heavily edited prints that I saw on TV in the seventies, but I don't have much use for these CGI-enhanced versions.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:05 PM on October 22, 2012 [4 favorites]
The reason that you didn't recognize them is that--and I'm truly dismayed that they were included in the poster, which has obviously had a lot of love and care put into it, for this reason--they weren't in TOS. At least, the original The Original Series.
When TOS was filmed, it was under a very tight budget for what was supposed to be a cutting-edge SF series, and in particular filming spaceship miniatures went beyond both the money and the time that they had available to them. (Remember that TOS had 79 episodes over three seasons, about twice as many as you'd have today.) This led to some compromises; the only reason why the shows had transporters (and therefore all the episodes and plot twists centered around them) was that it was too expensive to film a shuttle landing every week. As it was, spaceship shots were used over and over again; this recycling extended to the models used, so, for example, the original Aurora (from "The Way to Eden") was the result of kit-bashing the Tholian spaceship model from "The Tholian Web" together with some bits from the AMT model kits for the Enterprise and the Klingon battlecruiser. (The FX people would also use an AMT Enterprise kit for the torn-up Constellation from "The Doomsday Machine" because they only had one Constellation-class model--the Enterprise--and didn't want to mess it up; they put the scorch marks on the assembled AMT kit with, IIRC, a cigarette lighter.) The Antares didn't appear on screen at all.
Fast-forward four decades to CBS Paramount Television (the latest incarnation of Desilu Studios) wanting to put out a remastered version of TOS. Nowadays, it's pretty easy and cheap to throw up some CGI of Random One-off Starship of the Week, so almost all of the special effects shots were redone, including all the spaceship shots. In some cases, the new spaceships were call-outs to various other things (the model that they used for the Antares was apparently based on one found in the animated series). Hence our not remembering it, just like those TV shows that have started digitally inserting ads for products that didn't exist when the episode was originally filmed. (I've greatly enjoyed the DVD version, since it showed a much cleaner version than the scratchy and often heavily edited prints that I saw on TV in the seventies, but I don't have much use for these CGI-enhanced versions.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:05 PM on October 22, 2012 [4 favorites]
Also, too: no Lieutenant Kyle and no Kevin Riley. I can tolerate a couple of quasi-canon starships, but this is an outrage.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:46 PM on October 22, 2012
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:46 PM on October 22, 2012
Wait, is this not actually available for purchase as a physical poster? Now that is an outrage!
posted by adamdschneider at 8:18 AM on November 15, 2012
posted by adamdschneider at 8:18 AM on November 15, 2012
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posted by maqsarian at 7:52 PM on October 21, 2012 [2 favorites]