70s Trek: Star Trek in the 1970s

With his work on Star Trek The Motion Picture, he created the musical template for the franchise for the next 26 years. Composer Jerry Goldsmith re-imagined what Star Trek music could be in 1979.  He created a score unlike anything that had come before.

This week, co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto talk about this award-winning composer who made a lasting impact on the franchise.

It’s safe to say that the legacy of Jerry Goldsmith is that he set the standard, and in deed the template, for what Star Trek music would be for the following 26 years.

Even if he didn’t work on it, every movie and TV show that followed through 2005 all had his influence. They were all the same musically.

And it’s all because of the work Jerry Goldsmith did for The Motion Picture.

When it was revealed at the end of Star Trek The Motion Picture that a Voyager probe was actually the mysterious V’Ger, moviegoers experienced instant recognition.

Voyager 1 and 2 had launched just two years before and in 1979, both probes were in the news again as they approached Jupiter. So audiences easily recognized the name and the shape of the Voyager probe in the movie.  Talk about being timely! The star Trek production team hit a home run with this surprise reveal.

NASA Inspires Livingston and Roddenberry

It’s brilliant what Harold Livingston and Gene Roddenberry did. By placing a Voyager probe at the center of the story for The Motion Picture, they tied their futuristic movie to real events that were happening in 1979.

Voyager 1 was in the news in the fall of 1978 as it approached Jupiter. Clearly Livingston and Roddenberry heard the news, and decided to make it part of the story.

And Voyager 1 and 2 remained in the news from January to August in 1979 as both probes passed by Jupiter. So audiences heard the name Voyager, and saw images of the probes for 8 months in 1979. So all of it was still fresh in their minds when they watched Star Trek The Motion Picture in December 1979.

On this week's episode of 70s Trek, Bob turner and Kelly Casto tell you about the two Voyager space probes that inspired The Motion Picture.

In 1978, a movie hit theaters that showed just how far special effects had come. Superman The Movie Wowed audiences and set the bar really high when it came to special effects.

The tagline in the marketing campaign for Superman The Movie was, “You’ll believe a man can fly.”  That tagline was something of a message to the creators of the new Star Trek movie. By December 1978, principle photography was wrapped and it had moved into post-production.

But you could say that with Superman’s impressive special effects and story, Star Trek needed to ensure that audiences, “would believe space travel is real.”

And pressure was already mounting internally on the production as it ran over schedule and budget. Visual effects were going poorly, as well, as the company in charge of producing them fired not long after.

Then, there was Superman The Movie, a huge blockbuster hit in the same genre. That had to add the pressure to the production team. 

But Superman did something else for The Motion Picture. It got audiences ready. It’s safe to say that the two franchises probably share fans. So Superman just got that fan base jazzed up and excited. 

After the dust settled from Superman and we were well into 1979, fans most likely began looking to December for the premiere of Star Trek The Motion Picture.

In 1979, visual effects supervisor Doug Trumbull walked into an impossible situation on The Motion Picture and completely turned it around.

Douglas Trumbull

It’s fair to say that when you think about visual effects from the 1970s, two names come to mind: John Dykstra and Doug Trumbull. 

During the 1960s and 70s, Trumbull developed an impressive resume. When he finally came to Star Trek in 1979, he had worked on four of the biggest sci-fi movies in the previous 11 years.

And it was that experience that helped him do the impossible on The Motion Picture. 

Trumbull came to Star Trek late, and as a result had very little time to execute on a huge amount of work. The company that had previously been hired to produce the effects, Abel & Associates, had produced practically nothing that could be used.

Trumbull joined the production after Abel had been fired. He only had 6 months left until the premiere date and had 525 special effects shots to produce.  This was a near impossible task.

Added to this situation was the impending class action law suit that theater owners threatened to bring if The Motion Picture did not arrive by December 7, 1979, its opening date.

So Trumbull needed to produce the needed shots or there would be, literally, hell to pay.  The pressure was immense.

In this episode of 70s Trek, we’ll tell you about Doug Trumbull, who could easily be called, “The Man Who Saved Star Trek The Motion Picture.”

In the 1970s, there was a version of Star Trek produced that did not feature the original actors. The audio adventures of Star Trek produced by Power Records did have a different cast and featured all-new stories of the crew of the Enterprise.

They stand out as something unique in the 1970s.  It is the first produced version of Star Trek that featured an entirely new cast.  Unfortunately, we don’t know who they are.  The voice actors were not listed on the albums and they don’t appear anywhere on the internet.  So their identities have been lost through the years.

There is more about these stories that we don't know, as well. For instance, these stories were sold with comic books. And the identities of the illustrators and writers for some of them are not listed.

But we do know that there were a few big names connected with the stories.  Several were written by some notable names like comic book writers Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, John Buscema and Cary Bates.

Another writer of these stories was author Alan Dean Foster.  He penned the Star Trek Log Books and would go on to create the story for Star Trek - The Motion Picture.

She was not only a major contributor to The Original Series, but also broke new ground for women in the 1960s.  

Dorothy Fontana went from Gene Roddenberry’s secretary to being the Script Consultant on the show in just a few months.  It was her story telling skill and intellect that made those stories she touched...memorable.

She achieved what few women could in the mid-1960s.  Not only did she have a professional career, but she achieved a position that, at that time, was usually reserved only for men.

And she did it before she was 30!

So it seems fitting for our 100th episode that we’re talking about someone who had such a huge impact on Star Trek, while also being a ground-breaking figure.

It was the moment that many Star Trek fans thought would never happen. Production on The Motion Picture began on August 7, 1978. After being off the air for nine years and experiencing so many false starts, it seemed hard to believe that work on a Star Trek project was really happening!

It had been 3,497 days since production ended on the last episode of Star Trek's original run, Turnabout Intruder.  That was the last time that live-action Star Trek had been in front of the cameras.

That was way back on January 9, 1969.  And now some 9½ years later, a new Star Trek was finally in production.  This time, a major motion picture.

Production took 125 days and wrapped on January 26, 1979. After that, it was time for the special effects and post-production team to work on the film.

There was just 11 months before the premiere.

When Paramount decided to make Star Trek The Motion Picture, executives wanted to make sure that everything got updated from the 60s show. That included the Enterprise.  This week we tell you about how the starship was redesigned.

The Origins

The legendary Matt Jeffries designed the original Enterprise. And when Star Trek Phase II was in pre-production, Jeffries was asked to update his design.

Jeffries began his work using a drawing he made back in 1964.  This was an alternate version of the ship that he created as a back up.  He wanted to make sure he had something ready just in case Gene Roddenberry didn’t like the Enterprise design that Jeffries pitched for the show.

He also thought that if Star Trek lasted for several seasons, the Enterprise might need updating. So he saved these designs.  Jeffries thought that if anything would change on the ship, it would be the warp engines. 

In those early drawings you can see the flatter engines and the swept back support pylons that would eventually show up on the Enterprise in The Motion Picture.

The Devil is in the Details

But when Paramount execs made the decision to make The Motion Picture, the Phase II design needed updating again.  They were highly influenced by the movie Star Wars. In that film, the spaceship models all had a high level of details.  Executives at Paramount believed that this was one of the factors that helped make that film a success.

So, it only seemed natural that the Enterprise needed lots of detail too! This started the creation of an entirely new model for The Motion Picture, one that would take nine months to create, have leading-edge technology installed in it, cost $1 million and face several accidents on the way to the studio.

One of the hallmarks of The Original Series was its use of color.  In the mid to late 60s, color TVs were finally available and Star Trek went out of its way to make use of that new technology with colorful uniforms, sets and lighting.

But as pre-production was under way on The Motion Picture, director Robert Wise decided to take the film in a very different direction.

He introduced a very monochromatic look. He used shades of gray and silver everywhere and played down bright colors.  He decided to do the same with the new Starfleet uniforms, as well.

His view was that the multi-colored uniforms were OK for the small TV screen, but replicating that look on the big screen, might be unrealistic to moviegoers.

He wanted the new uniforms to be simple and lack color.  What we ended up seeing on the screen showed up only once.  But they have become symbolic of this time in Star Trek’s history.

Some people love them and some people hate them. But no matter how you felt about them they’ve become part of Star Trek’s history and lore. When you see them, you know they’re from The Motion Picture.

Robert Fletcher

Bill Theiss worked on the uniforms and costumes on The Original Series and was asked to come back to work on Phase II. But when The Motion Picture became a reality, and Bob Wise was hired to direct, Theiss was let go.

Wise wanted to go in a different direction with costumes. So he brought in designer Robert Fletcher. The costume designer was pretty established by 1978. He had created costumes for ballet, opera, Broadway plays and TV shows.

His job was to come up with a totally new look for the crew. Mini-skirts were no longer in fashion in 1978, and producers were afraid that if they included them, it might appear sexist. As we mentioned earlier, the brightly colored uniforms were also out. Wise was afraid they would detract from the story when they were seen on the big screen.

So Fletcher wanted to make sure his new uniforms didn’t detract from the action and the relationships, but also needed to make sure they looked like an evolution from the TV show.

That was his challenge when he began designing them in 1978.

Is there one episode from Star Trek, The Original Series that best exemplifies the show? Co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto believe there is and they tell you their choices on this episode of 70s Trek.

Which Episode Is It?

Pretend that you have a friend that has never seen Star Trek before. You want to recommend an episode that really exemplifies what the show is about so your friend will get it.

What show would you suggest?

Is it The City on the Edge of Forever? Or Space Seed? Maybe it’s The Tholian Web?

It’s a debate that has raged for decades. What episode best exemplifies Star Trek?  And everyone has their own choice. To help us make our selections...logically...we compared the episodes against certain criteria before we making our choices.

First, we define Star Trek as an action adventure drama that occasionally has a message or moral to share with the viewers. 

We also considered classic Star Trek themes such as thinking their way out of a situation, Starfleet ideals, and even the friendship between the main characters.

Then we made our choices. What are they? You'll have to listen to this episode of 70s Trek.