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View-Master Presents Star Trek

Sir Rhosis

Sir Rhosis

Commodore
Commodore
Here's a fairly humorous site recreating the old View-Master version of "The Omega Glory." Recreates is the key word as he could not use the 3-D shots--screengrabs approximating the original pictures are used instead.

For those concerned, Sirah's crotch is in shadow...

http://members.aol.com/graemecree/trekmisc/viewmastertrek/index.htm

One of the things this guy goes on and on about is the acronym FSNP, which stands for "Famous Spock Neck Pinch." He doesn't seem to know it, but this probably comes from the script given to the View-Master guys to use. In almost all of the scripts I own in which Spock delivers the Vulcan Neck Pinch, this acronym (and parenthetical explanation, or vice-versa) is used.

Sir Rhosis
 
Hmm, I just tried it and it worked fine. Could it be working for me and not others?

Sir Rhosis
 
Hmm, works for me this time. But what's with all this about the "taping" of the show??? TOS was not videotaped, it was filmed! I mean, come on, you can tell that just by looking at it.

I used to be annoyed when people used "filming" to refer to videotaped shows or reports or whatever (or to Exeter log entries, on Screen 4). Now we've reached the point where people use "taping" for filmed productions. I guess that's what you call progress....

EDIT: Now I'm getting "can't find that page" screens again, right after Screen 18. Apparently whatever server or ISP or doodad that it's on has intermittent service dropouts.
 
^^^Okay, I remember I got that. I quit using the "arrow" and started clicking on the numbers on the panel. Once or twice I still got "Can't find that page," but when I went back and clicked on it a second time it worked.

Dave
 
middyseafort said:
Flashback! I had this one and the one made for "Yesteryear" when I was a wee tike (four).
Click to expand...

I still have mine. The TAS episode was renamed "Mr. Spock's Time Trek" for the View-Master set.

There were also View-Master sets for ST:TMP, ST II and the TNG episode, "A Matter of Honor".
 
middyseafort said:
Flashback! I had this one and the one made for "Yesteryear" when I was a wee tike (four).
Click to expand...

All new artwork was created for this release. I wonder how that came about. Any info Therin?

temp_view.jpg
 
Kail said:
All new artwork was created for this release. I wonder how that came about. Any info Therin?
Click to expand...

I hadn't really thought about the View-Master "Yesteryear" images not being actual stills and cels from the show itself, but then all those old "Peanuts" (Charlie Brown and Snoopy) animated specials, and "Bugs Bunny" cartoons were reels of images recreated with little three-dimensional statues, and filmed with a stereo camera!

Additional work was done for live-action, too. When the View-Master cameras visited the live-action sets of "Batman" and "Star Trek", for example, they took stereo photos alongside the guys filming the episodes! And the Enterprise and Exeter in orbit was a shot re-created with a licensed AMT model kit (for Exeter), and filmed in stereo in View-Master's own studio.

I've just been checking out "Mr. Spock's Time Trek" anew. Some frames have over seven layers of 3D action. Like the now rare Tuttle & Bailey TAS collector cels (including the six-fingered Spock from "Yesteryear", and Arex and M'Ress with the "Jihad" aliens), and the ones provided to Japanese Starlog (eg. Arex and M'Ress interacting with the kzin Chuft-Captain), it seems that Filmation was happy to create special all-new images for these TAS tie-ins. The booklet also seems to have newly-created artwork, and different to what's on the reels.

By the 80s, View-Master wasn't using stereo cameras at all, but simulating 3D effects with 2D images of studio publicity photos. Sigh.
 
He's wrong about the models. The one in the background is certainly an AMT kit. However, the one in the front looks like the original 3 foot model. It appears to have a smaller deflector dish like the series production version.
 
KUROK said:
He's wrong about the models. The one in the background is certainly an AMT kit. However, the one in the front looks like the original 3 foot model. It appears to have a smaller deflector dish like the series production version.
Click to expand...

So I'm not "wrong". The only way the shot could be made in stereo by View-Master was to use an AMT model for Exeter. It's not a still from the episode made 3D, it's a recreated shot made with physical models.

If you like I'll remove the plural from the term "model kits" in the above post. ;)
 
I'd like to point out that the images on the bridge don't seem to have been filmed at the same time as the scenes were shot for this reason: None of the bridge blinkies are lit. It looks like they had Takei and Nichols take their places on the set after the technical crew had gone home. Given union rules at the time, I can't say I'm surprised. The production would not want to foot the bill for the overtime, and Viewmaster surely wouldn't have the budget to employ a dozen unionized guys to run the lighting.

Either way, the 3D reels are still glorious. I posted a set of images of the ship models derived from scanning my reel. Here they are:

Color Image
BW 1
BW 2

As you can see, the models are definitely the AMT in the background, and the series revision 3-footer in the foreground. Also, due to the stylistic lighting rendered in complementary colors from two distinct angles, I was able to break out two different lighting schemes of the models at precisely the same angle.

Enjoy!

M.
 
So I'm not "wrong". The only way the shot could be made in stereo by View-Master was to use an AMT model for Exeter. It's not a still from the episode made 3D, it's a recreated shot made with physical models.

If you like I'll remove the plural from the term "model kits" in the above post
Click to expand...

Sorry, mate. I was refering to the author of the viewmaster site, not you. He stated that both models were $5 kits.
 
I've always loved 3D images, so I've been playing around with creating authentic 3D images from Trek film clips. I've found that if you can find a set of clips from film footage where the camera rotated around an object, then you can use them to reconstruct the shot in 3D without any photoshop trickery. For example, see this test:

Cage in 3D

This is a cross-eye 3D image and to see it you have to look at the images and cross your eyes. If you do it right you should be able to see Pike in the foreground. BTW, the scratches on the dailies mess up the effect a bit, but it still demonstrates the point.
 
MGagen said:
I'd like to point out that the images on the bridge don't seem to have been filmed at the same time as the scenes were shot for this reason: None of the bridge blinkies are lit.
Click to expand...

I did once read an interview (in Starlog?) with someone who described the day View-Master came visiting Desilu. Yeah, they had to snatch their moments - at rehearsals and after the film cameras moved off to other locations, but they weren't any more obtrusive that the Desilu stills photographer who turned up all the time.

I was always flummoxed as to why they didn't choose a more colourful episode, like the alien-filled "Journey to Babel", but essentially View-Master had to take pot luck with all the TV production sets they went to in the 60s and 70s. They were actually due to visit "Star Trek" the previous week, but Gene Roddenberry kept putting them off, which seemed weird in retrospect since Gene Roddenberry was rarely down oon the studio floor and was busy prepping Art Wallace's "Assignment: Earth", the Gary Seven/Roberta Lincoln "back door" pilot, which was due to film the next week.

But, of course, moving View-Master's appointment by a whole week meant that it was a pure (even if not good) Gene Roddenberry script that was adapted, and not DC Fontana and Laurence N Wolfe's "The Ultimate Computer". So Gene picked up another royalty: adaptation rights for the little View-Master booklet!

Mind you, DC Fontana had her revenge, as it was her TAS episode that got adapted by view-Master a few years later.
 
That's great Sir Rhosis, thanks! I was only able to see half of it, but it was still pretty cool. Thanks again.
 
MGagen said:
Either way, the 3D reels are still glorious. I posted a set of images of the ship models derived from scanning my reel.
As you can see, the models are definitely the AMT in the background, and the series revision 3-footer in the foreground.
M.
Click to expand...

Can anyone make out the registry number on the model of the Exeter?

I'd love to know what the View-Master guys thought it should be.

-- Kenny
 
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