Well, the goal is in sight. Last time we talked about life in Star Trek’s future, and now we get to discussing the last set of Q&A questions about writing for the original Star Trek.
This has been an interesting…trek through this guide and I still have final thoughts for the next and final installment in this series before I give writer’s guides a break. I do enjoy making these examinations, learning what shows planned versus what they put out. Maybe it’s the pitch being added, but this one has felt longer than usual plus I was fighting two other article series…when DC Heroes United actually put an episode out, something they’ve gotten spotty on since Christmas. That takes time away from other topics, but at least when I’m ready to do another one I know where to look.
I’m not sure what else to say at this point. The Q&A is basically retreading things already in the main guide, but with some extra information, adding to my theory that, this coming from the guide headed into season two, they’re clarifying things asked about in season one. This will cover the last two pages of the guide. So let’s get through the rest of this already.
Since we are continuing through the guide, the next question sounds like it’s continuing off of the last question. The last question was talking with alien lifeforms, which I decided went with the last set of questions about further Star Trek science and history. Now we’re worried about telling stories.
And, I suppose, there are always stories which can be done wholly aboard the starship?
Yes. A vessel of this size and complexity, along with a crew of 430 contrasting individuals, would have to be a plenty sterile place if it didn’t contain many tales with considerable power and entertainment value.
Those kind of shows are referred to as “bottle episodes”, stories set all in one place. The smaller the “bottle”, the less sets you need and less time and money you have to spend on new sets and resetting/redressing existing ones. Some stories are even set just in one room for at least most of it. As far as stories set on the Enterprise for this show, that usually involved some alien presence on the ship or maybe seeing the crew of the other ship on the monitor for the majority of the episode. I’m not sure if “The Cage/The Menagerie” would count. On the one hand, all but once scene with the proper cast took place on the ship, in the makeshift courtroom on the Enterprise. On the other hand, that’s because it recycled the first pilot, which wasn’t a bottle episode at all. It did lack any location shots, even for Pike’s fantasy homestead.
Must stories always start aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise?
No. We may pick up our main characters already on the surface of a planet, with the essential elements of the story already going on. Or, assuming the preceding episode involved a highly interesting planet or civilization, we may even stay on that world and do a second, or even third, new story there. This can help a given story considerably, since it allows extra time and money to be put into sets planned for multiple use.
Sadly we never got that. It would also add some continuity to the episodes. The closest thing they have is some Russian in a Davy Jones hairdo getting a hair cut. Everyone else looked the same, acted the same, no injuries or events crossed over. The Animated Series would revisit a few places, but they weren’t reusing the show’s sets. That might have been visually distinct for Filmation. We only had one multipart episode of the original series, and most of that was practically stock footage.
What is the role of female crew members aboard our vessel?
1963, folks. Charlie’s Angels would still be less than a decade away, while only three of the recurring cast, one of which was regular bridge crew, were of the not-male persuasion. Back then I could see that question being asked. Not so much in recent years. We found new ways to @#$#@ that one up.
During ship’s operations they are treated as complete equals. At other times, like females. Again, we would like to avoid dehumanizing our people and hope to retain some of that pleasant conflict which presently exists between the two genders. Marriage, love, and general hanky-panky? We’ll assume (and hope) all will still exist. We will undoubtedly have romance aboard the vessel, but whether or not it becomes full stories or merely parts of stories is up to the writer and the entertainment value he finds in it.
The only wedding I recall had a tragic ending. Romance was never the driving force of the show, but there were more episodes that leaned into it with lost loves, Kirk’s record, McCoy’s record, Chekov introducing sex to a bunch of computer-worshiping jungle natives, and so on. Come to think of it, the only characters not getting any romance were Sulu and Uhura, not counting their mirror universe counterparts. Even Nurse Chapel had an ex, an episode of the Animated Series had a security crewwoman who knew a guy they found in space (plus the Harry Mudd episode that led to Scotty briefly considering to become a furry and probably started all the Kirk/Spock fanshipping) but romance was usually a subplot. Usually. There was Edith Keller, that woman in the Arctic region that messed with Spock…not sure if I count “Amok Time”. So there was plenty of love and hanky-panky going on, but it never became a dominant part of the show since Star Trek wasn’t a sci-fi romance show, it was a science fiction show about people, and sometimes people get freaky!
What about Star Trek‘s weaponry and so on?
Once again, somebody didn’t read the guide before asking these questions. We have covered this!
Our basic hand weaponry consists of a phaser pistol and rifle, capable of anything from gently tranquilizing a victim to explosively disintegrating matter. We will assume the vessel itself has every stronger armament. We use the term “phaser” guns in the fairly legitimate fear that the use and limitations of such things as lasers may become household knowledge before too long. We wanted something that could do what we want it to do without our audience being able to contradict us.
Given that we use lasers to run some of our entertainment devices these days, I can see that. Science fiction has a habit of not only becoming reality but outpaced by it. My tablet can do more than the gear they used to carry. Of course, we didn’t have a eugenics war in our 1990s. This was actually being discussed on a panel show last week, the idea that the Star Trek timeline isn’t ours and doesn’t need to be changed to match the current world’s history. Just say “events happened differently in their history” and you’re good. Nobody ever expected that fictional futures would ever become our history.
Catch more from Nerdrotic Daily and their main channel on YouTube
In fact, both Secret Hideout and Bad Robot, who made the streaming shows and reboot movies respectively, could have benefited from reading this, especially the parts about how to write Star Trek. Even the TNG guide didn’t need that much detail because they learned from the original show. Glad someone did.
I’m a little unclear about technological devices of the future. Can we invent anything which sounds reasonable?
Most important, do not start your story with a machine of some kind and then add characters. Our series is about people, not hardware. If your people-in-conflict story needs hardware, simply think of something logical, with some kind of science or projected-science basis. Generally best are projections of things we have now or which science is beginning to build now. For example, in the pilot we had a hospital bed which continually monitored all the key bodily functions, and in fact some advanced hospitals today are already doing part of this and working on future improvements.
That was the secret to Jules Verne’s success. He took existing tech like submarines and figured out how they could work and advance. Again, many of the devices created for Star Trek from communications to medical equipment were either inspired by Star Trek or predicted where it could go, sometimes even better than what the Enterprise actually ended up with.
How much science fiction terminology do you want–“space warp”, “hyperdrive” and that sort of thing?
Generally, the minimum which is sufficient to maintain the flavor of the show and encourage believability. Our guide could be Dragnet or Dr. Kildare, both of which use terminology which the audience did not have to understand fully. Important however, the writer must know what he means when he uses sf terminology. A scattergun confusion of meaningless phrases only detracts from believability.
I point you to this video about writing good technobabble I used for a Daily Video. As far as not starting with a machine, I’m sure the likes of Llandrew or Vaal could have replaced by any cult leader or “false” god protecting what he felt was his turf, someone no different from Adonis or the beings responsible for Charlie’s powers, or from the cartoons Kubla Khan and even Lucian (the cartoon’s mistaken and poorly considered Satan stand-in…in a Saturday morning cartoon). Godlike beings and godlike computers both existed in the Star Trek universe along with other sci-fi staples. Even the M5 computer and NOMAD tales were stories more about the human factor, or lack thereof, in their development. The machine was an ends to a means of exploring human nature both positive and negative.
What about comedy and/or humor?
If you mean comedy such as on television today, no. Or, at least, not at this time. But we certainly do hope Star Trek and its characters are human enough and varied enough to be capable of humor. We have, in fact, no objection to the creation and delineation of a new member of the Star Trek continuing cast whose presence and character create legitimate opportunities for humor.
Compared to humor in sci-fi and superhero stories today, the comical moments in Star Trek, from Chekov and Sulu discussing events and talking about how great Chekov thought Russia was to Scotty’s drinking and occasional bad puns, never took away from the drama even when it was relieving tension before things got too dark and depressing. No random “lol” type stuff. Just the type of things that are natural to people acting like people. Some things are funny when you remember them down the line but not at the moment, gravity happens, people say the wrong thing or make a mistake that’s humorous out of context if not in it. That’s a good use of humor in a serious show like most Star Trek shows. Lower Decks gets flack mostly for being a parody that sits wrong because it feels out of place for a canon show (unless they also crossed realities during the Strange New Worlds crossover–I haven’t seen it), and if you aren’t into the show’s brand of humor and referencing you aren’t going to like the show on its own merits. I’ve seen it compared to Rick & Morty which some of the show’s staff worked on, but I haven’t seen enough of either show to confirm.
What about outright purchase of existing science fiction tales?
Yes. We’re interested in the purchase of any sf story which meets our needs. But to avoid duplication and conflict, a firm writing commitment should be first obtained and the negotiations must be conducted by Desilu’s legal department.
The only story I know of that came outside of Star Trek was the animated episode “The Slaver Weapon” as the writer tried to shoe in his own book universe into the Star Trek universe, probably in hopes of getting a few more eyes on his books unless he’s just being lazy. Compare that to Russell T. Davies on Doctor Who, as he turned a short story, a novel, and a comic into episodes of his two runs. At least the short story was by the same writer, who expanded “Blink” into a full episode. I can’t say the same for “Human Nature” and “Doctor Who & The Star Beast”.
And our last question of the guide is…..
You called this “Writer-Director Information”. What about directors?
Some of our best friends are directors.
Good night, folks!
Actually, there’s a bit more to discuss. I’m going to do another go over for refresher, plus watch a few episodes of a video series coming out around the same time as these articles, and sometime this week (possibly tomorrow) I do a final thoughts posting.
BW Media Spotlight 