Josh Hill wrote:
> This was in the days before motion control, and they didn't have
> anything like the budget or the time to perfect the models and effects
> as Kubrick had in "2001." It was a struggle just to get the episodes
> out on time and live within the budget, most of which went, in the
> first year, to creating the bridge. As I recall, they didn't always
> succeed.

Oh, I know. But the fact remains that you cannot simulate the motion of 
a 3-D shape as complicated as the Enterprise with a zoom lens. It ends 
up looking like a paper cutout -- which defeats the purpose of having a 
model in the first place.

> I've always thought [the use of freelancers] was one of the show's
strengths. They tapped
> some "real" silver-age science fiction writers, and that gave TOS a
> depth that's atypical for Hollywood. It also helped them avoid the
> "writers in a cabin producing next week's show" trap, which, however
> talented the writers, tends to produce ever more elaborate
> permutations and combinations on the Same Old Episode. That works fine
> in a show like "Perry Mason" or "Bonanza," but
it's deadly to science
> fiction. TOS was essentially an anthology show with a repeating cast.

Some of the better early episodes (at least) weren't even written by SF 
writers, but by experienced TV writers with backgrounds from "Gunsmoke" 
and "The U.S. Steel Hour".

We've lost something in television since those days, but I'm not sure I 
can put my finger on it. Perhaps character and plot have become 
disengaged; characterization has come to be seen as a sort of condiment 
-- necessary for full flavor, but not essential to the dish. (The "Hill 
Street Blues" model may have become pernicious in this respect.)

-- 
John W. Kennedy
"The grand art mastered the thudding hammer of Thor
And the heart of our lord Taliessin determined the war."
   -- Charles Williams.  "Mount Badon"
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