Yes, I think the attempts at “aliens” in the original series should be given a pass. Hell, the FIRST thing you are shown in the first movie is an attempt to completely re-imagine the most iconic aliens of the series (Klingons)! Kinda says it all about the ability to make up weird looking creatures in the 60s.
A bit of this is advancing television technology, too. Things like Yvonne Craig’s green paint would not have shown errors using 1967 broadcasts while on digital television - 50+ years later - they’re obvious.
There’s a bit in ‘The Man Trap’, I believe, where Spock is thrown against a wall. In the original it’s fine but in digital playback you can see where the wall broke like lightweight cardboard or balsa or something when he hits it. It’s just not the sort of thing old TVs could show.
In an interview years ago, Leonard Nimoy said that, in the 3rd and final year of the original series, they were virtually broke, and it affected all aspects of production including makeup.
“Production for the initial season of Star Trek (TOS) cost an average of $190,635 per episode. (Memory Alpha) In contrast: Star Trek: The Next Generation was shot on 35 mm film, and the budget for each episode was $1.3 million, among the largest for a one-hour television drama.”
After paying salaries to the actors and production/filming people, what the heck was left for anything else?
The tests were for Vina in the first pilot. According to Herb Solow and Bob Justman, the actress in the test shots was Majel Barrett (“Number One,” “Nurse Chapel”).
Also according to Solow, there was a problem in the beginning with Spock as well. The lab kept correcting his color so that he had a normal complexion, until they were told to leave him alone: “He should be as yellow as your [Jewish] grandmother’s chicken soup.”
Spock was originally supposed to have a reddish compexion, since he was “probably half Martian.” The red makeup looked fake in color tests, so it was switched to yellow.
The same thing happens in “The Cloud Minders,” when Kirk knocks the Grand Vizier (or whatever he’s called) against the wall of a mining tunnel, and the whole thing shudders.
The fixtures on the walls of the Enterprise were pieces of styrofoam packing salvaged from Desilu dumpsters and spray-painted in bright primary colors. They would crumble if you didn’t handle them gently.
In the 1970’s reruns, when I was a kid, digital television wasn’t a thing, and resolution wasn’t THAT great. OK, maybe I sat closer than kids did, and maybe the color rendering was better, but I dunno if you could miss it, even on a black and white set.
Although I do remember on a rerun of Bonanza, its the episode where they try to revive a well, it guest stars James Dohan, without Scotty accent, the closeup of the astroturf set flooring gets dragged for a bit under wagon wheels. So maybe early 60’s TV just didn’t do re-shoots. Perhaps they just admitted to to the viewing audience – its a play, transmitted via radio waves to your TV set, we’re just not hung up on verisimilitude.
I’m not going to fault the makeup people on that one. According to Yvonne Craig, the green stuff simply wouldn’t stay on and they constantly had to reapply it. If you closely look at her dance for Kirk you’ll see she doesn’t actually touch him - probably because it would have smeared green makeup all over his shirt.
They weren’t really aliens, they were illusions. The actual alien was a lot more interesting.
The Horta was the best alien, but most TOS aliens were identical to humans, with Chicago gangster or Nazi or Native American costumes.
But not even trying seems to me to work better than the nose appliance of the week.
Believe it or not, “The Devil in the Dark” was inspired by the Horta, instead of the other way around. Janos Prohaska made the costume on spec and then showed it to Gene Coon.
IIRC, the script was written over the weekend.
Even illusions need to be dressed by Wardrobe.