Star Trek movies (ships only)
March 7, 2015 8:36 AM Subscribe
Youtube user ThomasHuntFilms has edited down the original Star Trek movies (i.e. no Abramsverse movies) to just the scenes with ships only.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (25 min.)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (12 min.)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (10 min.)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (12 min.)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (5 min.)
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (5 min.)
Star Trek: Generations (7 min.)
Star Trek: First Contact (8 min.)
Star Trek: Insurrection (7 min.)
Star Trek: Nemesis (11 min.)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (25 min.)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (12 min.)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (10 min.)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (12 min.)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (5 min.)
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (5 min.)
Star Trek: Generations (7 min.)
Star Trek: First Contact (8 min.)
Star Trek: Insurrection (7 min.)
Star Trek: Nemesis (11 min.)
I am not surprised to find the first Star Trek movie at the top of the duration list. As I recall that movie was 85 percent tracking shots of the Enterprise in space dock.
posted by bigbigdog at 8:49 AM on March 7, 2015 [13 favorites]
posted by bigbigdog at 8:49 AM on March 7, 2015 [13 favorites]
I am not surprised to find the first Star Trek movie at the top of the duration list. As I recall that movie was 85 percent tracking shots of the Enterprise in space dock.
Its almost pornographic.
posted by Fizz at 8:54 AM on March 7, 2015 [11 favorites]
Its almost pornographic.
posted by Fizz at 8:54 AM on March 7, 2015 [11 favorites]
For a moment there I thought I saw several TNG films that weren't First Contact. But of course, as we all know, First Contact was the only TNG film they made. I must need some more coffee.
*cognitive dissonance maintained*
posted by boubelium at 9:04 AM on March 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
*cognitive dissonance maintained*
posted by boubelium at 9:04 AM on March 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
I've only watched the Wrath of Khan one so far, but my goodness they were doing great work with model and matte effects. There's a sequence where a shuttle/maintainance craft passes in front of the Enterprise in drydock, and is briefly illuminated by a spotlight that's shining on the relatively static starship. The amount of planning and careful calculation that must have gone into shooting and compositing that is awe-inspiring.
There's also a really effective zooming-though-a-starfield shot early on, which got me curious about how it was pulled off. Assuming ILM wasn't doing it with early CG, it seems like they were probably still using this technique from the sixties. A bunch of static mattes slowly zoomed or pushed and then superimposed on each other. It doesn't look layered at all.
posted by figurant at 9:04 AM on March 7, 2015 [10 favorites]
There's also a really effective zooming-though-a-starfield shot early on, which got me curious about how it was pulled off. Assuming ILM wasn't doing it with early CG, it seems like they were probably still using this technique from the sixties. A bunch of static mattes slowly zoomed or pushed and then superimposed on each other. It doesn't look layered at all.
posted by figurant at 9:04 AM on March 7, 2015 [10 favorites]
As I recall that movie was 85 percent tracking shots of the Enterprise in space dock.
Which still never fails to me chills everytime I see it.
posted by KingEdRa at 9:07 AM on March 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
Which still never fails to me chills everytime I see it.
posted by KingEdRa at 9:07 AM on March 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
There's a sequence where a shuttle/maintainance craft passes in front of the Enterprise in drydock, and is briefly illuminated by a spotlight that's shining on the relatively static starship.
Hah, that's a reused shot from The Motion Picture. These edits definitely let you spot those more easily.
posted by figurant at 9:17 AM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
Hah, that's a reused shot from The Motion Picture. These edits definitely let you spot those more easily.
posted by figurant at 9:17 AM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
It's worth tracking down Wise's director's cut of ST:TMP. It's a little longer but somehow paced better and fixes a lot of the special effects glitches. Sadly it wasn't rendered in high-def so there's no blu-ray of it.
posted by octothorpe at 9:20 AM on March 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 9:20 AM on March 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
Its almost pornographic.
The carbon based units must comprehend its glory!
posted by Artw at 9:26 AM on March 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
The carbon based units must comprehend its glory!
posted by Artw at 9:26 AM on March 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
Hah, that's a reused shot from The Motion Picture. These edits definitely let you spot those more easily.
Paramount gave Wise a $35M budget for the first movie and then when that bombed, they would only give Meyers $10M for Khan so they had to re-use a lot of footage.
posted by octothorpe at 9:28 AM on March 7, 2015
Paramount gave Wise a $35M budget for the first movie and then when that bombed, they would only give Meyers $10M for Khan so they had to re-use a lot of footage.
posted by octothorpe at 9:28 AM on March 7, 2015
Wrath of Khan makes a really big deal out of that torpedo bay/airlock.
posted by Artw at 9:29 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 9:29 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
My brother and I were watching one of these movies in the theater, and he leaned over to me and whispered, "I've seen more of this ship's body than I've seen of my own."
posted by PlusDistance at 9:53 AM on March 7, 2015 [9 favorites]
posted by PlusDistance at 9:53 AM on March 7, 2015 [9 favorites]
Ship exteriors only.
/janbrady
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:54 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
/janbrady
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:54 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
He shipped it.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 9:56 AM on March 7, 2015
posted by evidenceofabsence at 9:56 AM on March 7, 2015
I attended a talk by Robert Wise, years and years ago. He told us how the model of the Enterprise used in TMP had the most exquisite pearlescent paint job, so that every panel of the ship glowed with subtle whites, blues and pinks. It also made the thing damn near impossible to light, and this was in a time before LEDs, so they had to construct elaborate rigs of light bulbs and dentist's mirrors in order to get just the right light on just the right surface. In later movies, the model was repainted matte white, which required a lot less finagling but wasn't nearly as breathtaking.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:10 AM on March 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:10 AM on March 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
Seven out of ten of these have some kind of space dock sequence. I didn't remember there being THAT much hot space dock action in these movies.
posted by bonje at 10:27 AM on March 7, 2015
posted by bonje at 10:27 AM on March 7, 2015
Its almost pornographic.
I'll be in my bunk.
Oops.... wrong ship....
posted by Paladin1138 at 10:28 AM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'll be in my bunk.
Oops.... wrong ship....
posted by Paladin1138 at 10:28 AM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
Which still never fails to me chills everytime I see it.
25 minutes of chills? That sounds like a pneumonia, better get that checked.
posted by Brocktoon at 10:53 AM on March 7, 2015
25 minutes of chills? That sounds like a pneumonia, better get that checked.
posted by Brocktoon at 10:53 AM on March 7, 2015
The making of story behind the whale probe is worth a read - it took a couple of goes but ended up looking great.
IIRC they broke the Bird of Prey model after Spock so it couldn't move it's wings anymore.
posted by Artw at 11:06 AM on March 7, 2015
IIRC they broke the Bird of Prey model after Spock so it couldn't move it's wings anymore.
posted by Artw at 11:06 AM on March 7, 2015
On reflection, didn't those whales in The Voyage Home get a pretty raw deal?
Welcome, noble and wise cetaceans, to the world of tomorrow. As the last of your kind you will never again hear distant whalesong, because thankfully that Outside Context Problem you briefly chatted with isn't coming back any time soon. Since the pair of you are well below the minimum viable population we look forward to once more mourning your proud species in a few decades.
This must be very confusing for you, but thanks for saving our civilization. At least we stopped you getting shanked by whalers and remembered to leave some mammal-breathable air in your tank when we kidnapped you.
Maybe Starfleet can get a Vulcan to relay those sentiments.
posted by figurant at 11:06 AM on March 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
Welcome, noble and wise cetaceans, to the world of tomorrow. As the last of your kind you will never again hear distant whalesong, because thankfully that Outside Context Problem you briefly chatted with isn't coming back any time soon. Since the pair of you are well below the minimum viable population we look forward to once more mourning your proud species in a few decades.
This must be very confusing for you, but thanks for saving our civilization. At least we stopped you getting shanked by whalers and remembered to leave some mammal-breathable air in your tank when we kidnapped you.
Maybe Starfleet can get a Vulcan to relay those sentiments.
posted by figurant at 11:06 AM on March 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
On reflection, didn't those whales in The Voyage Home get a pretty raw deal?
That Whale Probe is a total jerk probe that brings nothing but misery if you think about it at all.
posted by Artw at 11:15 AM on March 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
That Whale Probe is a total jerk probe that brings nothing but misery if you think about it at all.
posted by Artw at 11:15 AM on March 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
Ship exteriors only.
/janbrady
I thought about specifying as much, but an edit to scenes with no ship components visible would have meant removing from TWOK, for example, about four minutes at Star Fleet HQ and Kirk's apartment, 80 seconds of Chekov and Tyrell struggling through a sandstorm on Ceti Alpha V, around nine minutes of dialogue inside the Regula asteroid's caverns and a brief coda of a coffin on Mutara: a 116-minute movie becomes a 102-minute movie.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:18 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
/janbrady
I thought about specifying as much, but an edit to scenes with no ship components visible would have meant removing from TWOK, for example, about four minutes at Star Fleet HQ and Kirk's apartment, 80 seconds of Chekov and Tyrell struggling through a sandstorm on Ceti Alpha V, around nine minutes of dialogue inside the Regula asteroid's caverns and a brief coda of a coffin on Mutara: a 116-minute movie becomes a 102-minute movie.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:18 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Hmm.. I watched the first one, there are long scenes that don't have ships, just wide shots of star fields and nebula. Also Spock in a spacesuit is not a ship, and that V'Ger stuff he was flying through was not really a ship. Needs a tighter edit.
posted by charlie don't surf at 11:19 AM on March 7, 2015
posted by charlie don't surf at 11:19 AM on March 7, 2015
Ha. The Bird of Prey Is based on a swooping Leonard Nimoy.
I miss that guy.
posted by Artw at 11:25 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I miss that guy.
posted by Artw at 11:25 AM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Incidentally, "Swooping Leonard Nimoy" is the name of my new band.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:38 AM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:38 AM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
Finally! All that useless protoplasm and vocal vibration pared away.
posted by Splunge at 12:04 PM on March 7, 2015
posted by Splunge at 12:04 PM on March 7, 2015
Also Spock in a spacesuit is not a ship
An independent spacesuit like that is totally a very small spaceship.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:05 PM on March 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
An independent spacesuit like that is totally a very small spaceship.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:05 PM on March 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
IIRC originally it was originally the Romulan ships that were birds of prey, complete with bird emblem on the bottom. I had the AMT model; lamest thing ever made, it consisted of like eight large pieces and no detail of any kind except for the giant bird decal.
I guess for The Enterprise Incident they realized the ship had to be much more prominent, so they decided that Romulans would now use Klingon design ships because the original one was so uggo and cheap and they'd invested far more skill and effort in the Klingon model.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:13 PM on March 7, 2015
I guess for The Enterprise Incident they realized the ship had to be much more prominent, so they decided that Romulans would now use Klingon design ships because the original one was so uggo and cheap and they'd invested far more skill and effort in the Klingon model.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:13 PM on March 7, 2015
Balance of Terror is an awesome episode, but it's all about the on-bridge action. You could almost do it as a stage play.
Romulans got pretty cool ships for TNG after all their earlier indignities, I guess.
posted by Artw at 12:20 PM on March 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Romulans got pretty cool ships for TNG after all their earlier indignities, I guess.
posted by Artw at 12:20 PM on March 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
The TMP one is like one of those no-words eye candy documentaries (e.g. Samsara), but from the future.
Also: awww, Spock.
posted by univac at 12:53 PM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
Also: awww, Spock.
posted by univac at 12:53 PM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
Only watched Wrath of Khan, but I got a little teary-eyed at the end with Spock narrating "Space, the final frontier..."
posted by bruzie at 12:59 PM on March 7, 2015
posted by bruzie at 12:59 PM on March 7, 2015
An independent spacesuit like that is totally a very small spaceship.
Cool semi-related story. About 7 years ago, I got together with a group of 5 of my closest friends for a Star Trek movie marathon on New Year's Eve. There was lots of drinking (scotch) and hilarity. At some point around half-way the first film it turned into a drinking game. Anything that was remotely sexual or could be considered a sexual pun (take a sip). It only got worse as the night progressed. I do recall the moment when Spock uttered (while wearing a space suit):
"Captain, I am attempting to enter the orifice."
I think everyone started to crash right around the Final Frontier. There were only two of us awake for Undiscovered Country. It was an entertaining night and a horrible morning.
posted by Fizz at 1:03 PM on March 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
Cool semi-related story. About 7 years ago, I got together with a group of 5 of my closest friends for a Star Trek movie marathon on New Year's Eve. There was lots of drinking (scotch) and hilarity. At some point around half-way the first film it turned into a drinking game. Anything that was remotely sexual or could be considered a sexual pun (take a sip). It only got worse as the night progressed. I do recall the moment when Spock uttered (while wearing a space suit):
"Captain, I am attempting to enter the orifice."
I think everyone started to crash right around the Final Frontier. There were only two of us awake for Undiscovered Country. It was an entertaining night and a horrible morning.
posted by Fizz at 1:03 PM on March 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
I guess for The Enterprise Incident they realized the ship had to be much more prominent, so they decided that Romulans would now use Klingon design ships because the original one was so uggo and cheap and they'd invested far more skill and effort in the Klingon model.
There was a fire on the lot and the original Romulan model was lost. I quite liked the original design, particularly the paint job, but they did get an upgrade when they were forced to use Klingon tech.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 1:04 PM on March 7, 2015
There was a fire on the lot and the original Romulan model was lost. I quite liked the original design, particularly the paint job, but they did get an upgrade when they were forced to use Klingon tech.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 1:04 PM on March 7, 2015
If you like BoT (and by the way, get a load of the microset they use for the bridge, it's practically a broom closet), be sure to see The Enemy Below sometime; there's also a bit of Run Silent Run Deep.
As I recall that movie was 85 percent tracking shots of the Enterprise in space dock.
In this edit it's STILL more than three minutes long -- 4:25 to 7:45.
Paramount gave Wise a $35M budget for the first movie and then when that bombed
297% profit ratio is not bombing -- it's to this day the fourth most profitable of the series. Inflation-adjusted, its worldwide gross is close to a half billion. In those terms, its only competitors are the J.J. Abrams outings. (In ROI terms TWoK is first, though.)
Allegedly, though, Paramount had a lot of sunk costs for e.g. Phase II that counted against its revenue. Possibly Hollywood accounting.
posted by dhartung at 1:07 PM on March 7, 2015
As I recall that movie was 85 percent tracking shots of the Enterprise in space dock.
In this edit it's STILL more than three minutes long -- 4:25 to 7:45.
Paramount gave Wise a $35M budget for the first movie and then when that bombed
297% profit ratio is not bombing -- it's to this day the fourth most profitable of the series. Inflation-adjusted, its worldwide gross is close to a half billion. In those terms, its only competitors are the J.J. Abrams outings. (In ROI terms TWoK is first, though.)
Allegedly, though, Paramount had a lot of sunk costs for e.g. Phase II that counted against its revenue. Possibly Hollywood accounting.
posted by dhartung at 1:07 PM on March 7, 2015
I like to imagine the technology exchange was part of a grudging relationship and mutual distrust similar to China/USSR during the Cold War.
posted by Artw at 1:08 PM on March 7, 2015
posted by Artw at 1:08 PM on March 7, 2015
I'm sort of glad Phase II got a sort-of outing while at the same time it didn't, as it would have been a disaster.
posted by Artw at 1:10 PM on March 7, 2015
posted by Artw at 1:10 PM on March 7, 2015
Lots of Phase II ended up in TNG, of course - as the most boring bits.
posted by Artw at 1:11 PM on March 7, 2015
posted by Artw at 1:11 PM on March 7, 2015
Star Trek: Phase II
tl;dr, the planned revival of Star Trek as a TV show in the late seventies. Set to be the next five-year mission of the Enterprise.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 1:39 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
tl;dr, the planned revival of Star Trek as a TV show in the late seventies. Set to be the next five-year mission of the Enterprise.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 1:39 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think we might be able to pin all the most ernest Deanna Troi plots on it as well.
posted by Artw at 1:49 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 1:49 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm slowly working my way through the rest of these.
I really like how the shot of the launch of the Titan II-boosted Phoenix in First Contact tastefully pans up to avoid showing what happens to everyone standing a few dozen meters from the silo and a hell of a lot of rocket exhaust.
posted by figurant at 2:20 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I really like how the shot of the launch of the Titan II-boosted Phoenix in First Contact tastefully pans up to avoid showing what happens to everyone standing a few dozen meters from the silo and a hell of a lot of rocket exhaust.
posted by figurant at 2:20 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Lots of Phase II ended up in TNG, of course - as the most boring bits.
There were non-boring bits of TNG?
posted by octothorpe at 2:25 PM on March 7, 2015
There were non-boring bits of TNG?
posted by octothorpe at 2:25 PM on March 7, 2015
Lots of Phase II ended up in TNG, of course - as the most boring bits.
Decker/Ilia became -- with the most minor adjustment of letters -- Riker/Deanna, for instance. Parts of the Xon character made it into Data, other parts got grafted into Saavik in the movies.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:43 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Decker/Ilia became -- with the most minor adjustment of letters -- Riker/Deanna, for instance. Parts of the Xon character made it into Data, other parts got grafted into Saavik in the movies.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:43 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
My son has recently discovered that the Enterprise is a cool toy and keeps asking to see it "go very fast". He's gonna love this.
He also wants to hear the story about Kirk, Spock, and Khan and how Spock fixes the ship with only his hands. Yes, I adapted TWOK as a children's story. Sue me.*
* Please don't sue me, Paramount.
posted by The Hyacinth Girl at 2:48 PM on March 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
He also wants to hear the story about Kirk, Spock, and Khan and how Spock fixes the ship with only his hands. Yes, I adapted TWOK as a children's story. Sue me.*
* Please don't sue me, Paramount.
posted by The Hyacinth Girl at 2:48 PM on March 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
That Whale Probe is a total jerk probe that brings nothing but misery if you think about it at all.Yeah, it really seems like a 1.0 product that was rushed to market; a bunch of humpbacks in Sales just hung up on making their numbers for Q2, while the poor humpbacks in QA were all like "But we're hearing some weird feedback from the beta-testers about our transmitters effects on physical objects.... and we're still waiting to get sign-off from the hFCC..." and then some humpback in a suit from Marketing just steps in and blithely declares "Ship it!"
posted by blueberry at 2:51 PM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
Thinking of that "WEE... wah" sound that he probe makes... that would totally be the "DUN DUN" sound used on Law & Order: Special Cetaceans Unit
posted by blueberry at 2:56 PM on March 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by blueberry at 2:56 PM on March 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
I joked that the whale probe jerks only have flippers to operate things much, but really we have no idea what they are inside there.
Probably more fucking sentient clouds. Those bastards are always up to no good.
posted by Artw at 3:03 PM on March 7, 2015
Probably more fucking sentient clouds. Those bastards are always up to no good.
posted by Artw at 3:03 PM on March 7, 2015
*crosses fingers for a Swooping Leonard Nimoy/Whale Probe double bill world tour*
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 3:56 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 3:56 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD
posted by Night_owl at 3:58 PM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Night_owl at 3:58 PM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
The Sentient Clouds are totally a shoegazer band btw
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 3:59 PM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 3:59 PM on March 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
The ST:TMP models look SO good, especially compared to the CG in the reboots.
posted by wintermind at 5:36 PM on March 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by wintermind at 5:36 PM on March 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
Also, I'd like to pour one out for The USS Grissom from The Search For Spock: RIP, Gus: You deserved better than being cannon fodder for Reverend Jim Ignatowski.
posted by KingEdRa at 6:54 PM on March 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by KingEdRa at 6:54 PM on March 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Poor old Kruge - he's a pretty decent villain but had the misfortune of following Khan.
posted by Artw at 7:20 PM on March 7, 2015
posted by Artw at 7:20 PM on March 7, 2015
Poor old Kruge
Might be my favourite Klingon. If not Kang.
posted by Trochanter at 8:13 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Might be my favourite Klingon. If not Kang.
posted by Trochanter at 8:13 PM on March 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I guess for The Enterprise Incident they realized the ship had to be much more prominent, so they decided that Romulans would now use Klingon design ships because the original one was so uggo and cheap and they'd invested far more skill and effort in the Klingon model.
Fun fact: "The Enterprise Incident" was the first appearance of the D7 battle cruiser, although it had been designed for the Klingons, meaning that the first time we actually got to see a Klingon ship, it was being used by Romulans. (The waters have been muddied by Paramount's practice of redoing FX shots for remastered TOS episodes, meaning that D7s now show up in "Errand of Mercy", even though the ship wouldn't be seen for another two years at the time of original broadcast.) IIRC, the rationalization at the time was that it had taken them long enough to do a new major ship design and they wanted to get their money's worth. The retcon of a Klingon-Romulan tech exchange not only explained the discrepancy in canon, but also provided a rationalization for Klingons later having cloaking devices, as well as their own Bird of Prey, which is clearly a more Romulan-looking design. (Of course, Paramount had to muddy the waters further when, in Star Trek: Enterprise, they felt the need to establish that the Klingons had Birds-of-Prey back in the 22nd century. FFS.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:18 PM on March 7, 2015
Fun fact: "The Enterprise Incident" was the first appearance of the D7 battle cruiser, although it had been designed for the Klingons, meaning that the first time we actually got to see a Klingon ship, it was being used by Romulans. (The waters have been muddied by Paramount's practice of redoing FX shots for remastered TOS episodes, meaning that D7s now show up in "Errand of Mercy", even though the ship wouldn't be seen for another two years at the time of original broadcast.) IIRC, the rationalization at the time was that it had taken them long enough to do a new major ship design and they wanted to get their money's worth. The retcon of a Klingon-Romulan tech exchange not only explained the discrepancy in canon, but also provided a rationalization for Klingons later having cloaking devices, as well as their own Bird of Prey, which is clearly a more Romulan-looking design. (Of course, Paramount had to muddy the waters further when, in Star Trek: Enterprise, they felt the need to establish that the Klingons had Birds-of-Prey back in the 22nd century. FFS.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:18 PM on March 7, 2015
Might be my favourite Klingon. If not Kang.
GOWRON.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:29 PM on March 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
GOWRON.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:29 PM on March 7, 2015 [8 favorites]
See, when you talk about anything after TOS my mind kind of... what were you saying?
posted by Trochanter at 7:42 AM on March 8, 2015
posted by Trochanter at 7:42 AM on March 8, 2015
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posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:37 AM on March 7, 2015 [7 favorites]