Any info' about the "Planet Killer" filming model?

[Christopher]

Hmm, yeah, "Immunity Syndrome" is right up there with the spectacle, but I've always felt it had more drama to it too -- and not as much laughably over-the-top action/melodrama stuff like smoke bombs going off on the transporter stage and William Windom overacting to death in the shuttlecraft. But again, a large part of what makes it feel emotionally effective is that it recycles a lot of Kaplan's "Doomsday Machine" score.

 

[plynch]

Oddly, I find Immunity a snoozer. I like the pacing in DS, and back and forth of ships in jeopardy, ww's performance, yes, the music, yes, the smoke bombs, the whole chain of command thing. Synergy. Karma, whatever, the whole thing works. Except the ending. Clank.

So it goes. This might be my second fave ep. No rationale. I just like it. We are emotional beings who also sometimes think, and I claim that birthright.

 

[Anji]

If you're looking for exactly how the creature was made I would check into the records of The Westheimer Company, who did all the special effects for the series. The Howard Anderson Company, who also did mostly the opticals, may be a possible source

Somewhere there has to be a bill from the company to either Desilu or Roddenberry himself for the effect. I would also see if the archieves from Desilu exist somewhere.

 

[Christopher]

Westheimer was just one of about five FX houses that did photographic effects on Star Trek. The VFX for "The Doomsday Machine" were credited to Cinema Research Corporation, a company that apparently still exists and has worked on later Trek productions (also modern Trek's VFX producer Dan Curry worked there before joining TNG).

 

[Borjis]

unfortunately I only have a few very small pieces, not nearly enough to recreate even a small scale planet killer.

 

[Rulius]

For what it's worth, I read somewhere (maybe here) that it was made of paper mache.

 

[Nerys Myk]

After filming it became a volcano for the prop masters kid's science fair exhibit.

 

[Captain Tracy]

After filming it became a volcano for the prop masters kid's science fair exhibit.

Very, Very Close,... after filming it ended up across the street for this episode of The Brady Bunch

 

[Nerys Myk]

Jan or Marcia?

 

[Sindatur]

Jan or Marcia?

I thought Marcia at first, but, I think Marcia's hair was really long early on, and got shorter, and Peter is too old for it to be early on, so, if I don't have it backwards, it must be Jan

 

[Nerys Myk]

I was totally in to Jan as a kid. (Perhaps I've said too much.)

 

[Gary7]

Spray paint can do wonders to almost any material. Without touching it, you'd swear it was constructed of seriously solid wood or metal, not paper mache. Regardless, it was a throw-away prop that wouldn't have likely survived in someone's closet beyond a decade or so. I don't quite get why knowing about the construction materials is important. If you capture the surface contour and texture visualized in the episode, you're all set.

That reference to Bugle snacks was hilarious! I found another video on You Tube that's somewhat amusing: Best Dutch Snack Ever.

 

[Christopher]

I don't quite get why knowing about the construction materials is important.

Because it's interesting. Special effects are an art form, and it's worth studying the techniques of artists. Also because it's history. Learning or reconstructing the facts about things that happened in the past is worthwhile in its own right.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Because it's interesting. Special effects are an art form, and it's worth studying the techniques of artists. Also because it's history. Learning or reconstructing the facts about things that happened in the past is worthwhile in its own right.

Exactly. While I wasn't that surprised that the TOS Troyian uniform pieces made use of commercial plastic placemats of the day, it was interesting that the same brand of placemats were used to make the Tholian as well.

Ditto when Fred Phillips told me that TOS Andorian antennae used cotton spools scavenged from the costume seamstress' workroom.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

^Well, it's not as if "The Doomsday Machine" is a particularly deep episode. It's basically TOS's special-effects extravaganza, a story driven mainly by action and spectacle over story. If you ask me, the only thing that makes it work is Sol Kaplan's fantastic musical score. If it had been tracked with stock music instead, I don't think it would have anywhere near the same reputation.

Or maybe people like some action and spectacle.

As for the story - well - the episode was nominated for a Hugo award. However, I won't speak to the criteria used for the nomination. Fans also seem to really like Balance of Terror, too, a lot. The music of The Doomsday Machine is memorable, but that's not why I like the episode so much. I personally like it just because it's a space battle, and it was pulled off without getting too cheesy. It's a nice change of pace.

Fighting a giant robot in space is also an intriguing concept. Kirk's hypothesis of the backstory is fascinating, beyond the subtext of Armageddon, and raises some interesting unanswered questions (that I prefer to remain unanswered) with respect to exactly who was fighting the war.

Well, "The Doomsday Machine" was an science fiction story with a strong science fiction premise, written by a remarkably good science fiction writer. Most of the worthwhile TOS episodes were, to some strong degree, representative of so-called "Golden Age" sf and pulp sf of the 1950s and most were written by exceptional writers of the prose form of the genre - Ellison, Sturgeon, Bixby, Bloch, Sohl...

By the middle of the second year, though, the producers started settling for "Star Trek stories," a pretty hermetic and self-referential subgenre all its own which came to dominate the modern Trek franchise.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Thanks for including Jerry Sohl in your list. He is so often overlooked as an sf writer.