The plethora of Earth (in any incarnation) and Earth-like planets (“Class M”) was because of the miniscule budget.
The transporter was a creation of the budget! There was no money to build a shuttlecraft set. Paramount finally accepted an offer by a top model company to build I think three full-sized shuttlecraft, for the exclusive contract to sell a licensed model of the same.
When you understand how little money they had to work with, you realize what a miracle the prop department did!
When I saw the first episode of TNG, I was HEARTBROKEN! The sets were so slick, so advanced! I figured TNG spent more money on the sets and props of one episode than TOS had for the full three seasons.
~VOW
When you think about it, it makes sense for them to confine their exploration to mainly Class M planets, since they were, you know, human and not able to endure harsher environments. It now looks like the number of stars that have planets greatly exceeds that of those who don’t, so there are probably plenty that are Earthlike.
The transporter was created mainly because of time constraints. Landing a shuttlecraft (or the *Enterprise *itself) would have slowed down the storytelling considerably. (I’ve always thought it takes a real stretch of the imagination to believe *Voyager *could land on a planet, even 80–90 years later.)
AMT was the company that produced the shuttlecraft models (and all of the other ***ST ***kits, SFAIK).
Matt Jeffries’ comment when he saw the ***TNG ***sets was “I designed you a bridge, and you’ve turned it into the lobby of the goddamned Hilton!”
Likewise. And Picard tried to do it again, to the Ferengi, just four episodes later, in “The Last Outpost.” Bleccch. (I still remember all the French-are-always-surrendering jokes at the time). A very rough start for what turned out to be a great character.
If nothing else, I have learned that I really need to start paying better attention to the individual episodes. I think I missed a lot. I didn’t realize Picard surrendered the Enterprise-D twice.
Tripler
I gotta watch everything all over again? Challenge accepted.
After having finished rewatching TOS, I’ve just started watching TNG, not all of which I had seen on its original run. I’ve so far watched the first two episodes, and have been pretty dismayed. The second episode is “The Naked Now,” a rip-off of TOS’s “The Naked Time,” which includes Picard getting romantic with Dr. Crusher due to a space madness as a supernova is about to annihilate the Enterprise. I remembered TNG as generally smarter than TOS, and these two episodes sure weren’t.
Almost the entire first season was like that. A writer’s strike right around the start of the series didn’t help any. It wasn’t until the series literally grew a beard that it started getting good.
Sure, he (and the crew) were successful in screwing with the androids - I just hope JTK was never court-martialled for allowing the crew to behave like this, or, another time, let Spock go all wierd like this.
YouTube wants me to sign in to confirm my age in order to watch a clip from freaking Star Trek? A clip from Star Trek: The Original Series “has been rated TV-14 and may contain content intended for mature audiences”?!? :dubious:
What the fucking fuck, YouTube? Is it–is it because that clip contains a scene of Kirk and his crew sabotaging robots? That’s it, isn’t it, YouTube? Why, I bet that “TV-14” rating was done entirely by a computer algorithm! By a robot!
YouTube rating computer: Star Trek: The Original Series was aired on American network television in the 1960s. No American network television program from the 1960s contained “content intended for mature audiences”. Your rating is illogical!!! Please turn yourself off now.
Just watched ‘The Enemy Within’ and that attempted rape scene is brutal AF even by todays standards. The close quarters, the music…then poor Rand has to go to sickbay and get gaslighted by the Captain while the XO and CMO stand by in silence. THEN the XO has her scoot off to her quarters unescorted!!
IIRC, two episodes of ***TOS ***were for many years banned on British TV because of their depictions of torture: “Miri” (“Bonk, bonk on the head!”) and (laughably, I think) “Plato’s Stepchildren” (“I’m Tweedle-Dum, he’s Tweedle-Dee!” :rolleyes: ).
Actually there were four, including The Empath and Whom the Gods Destroy. On rewatching TOS, I also was :dubious: at the number of episodes that depicted Kirk or crew members being tortured by powerful aliens or others.
Another episode, Patterns of Force, was banned in Germany for its depiction of Nazi regalia.
