This scene is almost finished, I'll probably have the full thing up sometime tomorrow. In the meantime I thought since the cat's out of the bag, I'd post some trivia about this scene:
-the sound of the TMNT Technodrome makes its second appearance
-now that the android has been revealed as the "mystery find," go back and look at the other clips in the main room of Garr's lab. In the room to screen right of the main doorway, you can see what looks like a body lying on a biobed in a side room. That in actuality was an early draft of the female android, and that side room is in fact the same room (lit differently) in which Lt. Erickson discovers the "real" android
-the computer graphics Reyf is looking at on the computer monitor are from the Star Trek Online computer game, meant to imply that the hidden base's computer system operates on a different program than regular Starfleet computers (the "real world" reason was to give the STO graphics a cameo appearance, one of three they will receive in the film; in-universe, this is never directly addressed in dialogue but one may assume that Garr programmed his own operating system to suit his specific needs)
-when Reyf contacts Ronston to order the rendezvous, the room Ronston is in is a replica of the Transdimensional Portal Room, from the original Ninja Turtles cartoon series. This is one of only two appearances by that room in the film; it will appear once more near the middle of the film, and for part of that appearance will be lit normally.
-a fraction of a second before Garr appears behind Ronston, a faint red glow can be seen in the shadows where his eyes are. Although we have to wonder why Ronston didn't hear Garr's footsteps, the fact that his tricorder didn't register Garr's life signs is correct, as the earlier scene aboard the Fitzgerald clearly established that Garr is masking his biosignature
-the part of the female android is played by the Victoria 3 figure by DAZ Productions, featuring hair by Neftis and clothing from the Girl Next Door package; the incomplete right arm is brought to you by the Victoria 3 Robo Arm
Here there be spoilers for parts of this seen y'all haven't scene yet (we REALLY need the ability to make text the same gray color as the backgrounds on these threads! Either that or to highlight in white text we want to "hide"): -remember Reyf's seeming familiarity with the android's identity
-the moment she opens her eyes is accompanied by a portion of "First Sign of the Borg," from the expanded soundtrack of "Star Trek: First Contact"
-the sound of Erickson's phaser rifle powering up is taken from the DVD of "Star Trek: First Contact"
-listen carefully as the android sits up; in a Star Trek first, we hear the sounds of servomotors whirring (this is an unspoken allusion to the fact of the android being incomplete; it will be explained in dialogue later as her servos not having been fully calibrated)
-the android's reaction to not being able to speak is exaggerated slightly, a move meant to clearly convey to the audience that she has emotions
EDIT: ONE MORE SHOT...just ONE more shot to do and then you'll have Part 8. Y'all are gonna hate me for this, cuz this mystery is about to make a whole lot less sense 8-)
Hellsgate's REALLY gonna hate me for this one, but...YouTube - Specter v9 Pt 8 Hi Res is up! (NOTE: even if you've seen the preview clips I would still highly recommend watching this all the way through, there's some new material in this cut)
Some more trivia:
-shooting within the tight and barely-lit confines of Garr's side lab proved an exceptional directorial challenge, especially in the final moments of the scene
-in the script, the android was deliberately described as "looking at her own hands as if she'd never seen them before," a move meant to immediately give her the trust of the audience, even knowing that Garr had built her
-Reyf's line, "Hi...I'm Gaius; do you have a name?" is spoken with tempo and inflection similar to Robert Picardo's utterance of a similar line in "Deadlock" (VOY); the line is an homage to Picardo's character, the Emergency Medical Hologram
-though the android does attempt to speak in answer to Reyf's question, the mouth animation was deliberately done without benefit of a vocal template, to better convey the sense that she knows she's supposed to say something, but isn't sure what; her immediate reaction of surprise, followed by her obvious fear (as evidenced by her immediately reaching out to touch Reyf's hand with her own), is another move meant to ingratiate her to the audience as an innocent participant in the happenings around her
-Ronston's line "her neural structure is unlike anything I've ever seen" is a deliberate move to set her up as part of the story rather than a simple curiosity; it also clearly establishes that this is not a Soong-type android, suggesting that Garr has pursued his own cybernetic venue
-Lt. Erickson's response to Ronston's request to transport the android aboard the Fitzgerald is a deliberate homage to the inflection of Michael Dorn when delivering a similar line in "Star Trek: First Contact," on the bridge as he and Picard square off over the evacuation of the Enterprise; this is an unspoken reminder that Erickson is this movie's version of Worf, and that despite her feminine appearance she's every bit as capable as Worf
-unlike the last time in the Dimensional Portal Room, Garr's sudden appearance is not accompanied by a red flare
-Garr's sudden appearance in the light of Erickson's phaser rifle was one of three possible means of revealing the mad doctor. In an earlier draft of this scene, Erickson caught Garr's reflection in a control panel; when a redesign of the side lab set moved that control panel farther down, that approach became impossible; in another, Garr was to have appeared in one of the two dark corners of the room, to be noticed by either Reyf or Ronston. That approach was scrapped because it was thought to make Erickson look less-than-alert. The fact that she discovers Garr observing them (appropriately, "under glass," as he is standing in the higher main room of the complex looking down at them in the side lab) while sweeping the area with her phaser does the opposite, portraying her as an effective security officer
-how exactly to show Garr once he was revealed became a subject of several discussions among the writers; eventually, it was decided that, realistic or not, he should be portrayed in as unsettling and eerie a manner as possible. As such, when Erickson's light shines on him, his expression is deliberately crafted to frighten onlookers--and judging by Erickson's immediate yelp, it proved an effective tactic.
-Note that when Garr beams out, the color of the transporter beam is a silvery blue rather than the blue-purple of the Fitzgerald beam we saw earlier. This was done deliberately to set the two apart; the silver-blue color was actually sampled from a season four episode of "Star Trek: Voyager"
-the sound effects of the two transporter matter streams are also different. The sound of the Fitzgerald transporter echoes that of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek Generations and the Enterprise-E in subsequent films; Garr's transporter uses the sound effect from "Star Trek: Voyager." Like the color, the sound is meant to imply that Garr has transported to the ISS Voyager.
-the shot of the Fitzgerald breaking orbit is recycled from "Unification," in which we saw the Enterprise-D maneuvering in an identical way inside the Qualor II surplus depot.
This is getting good. Garr's got some kind of (protective) emotional attachment to the android or he would've been long-gone the second he knew Reyf & his team were in the lab. And, had the juiced-up Intrepid-Class (in orbit in Grey Mode) locked onto the Fitzgerald for demolition or self-destructed the lab with Reyf & his team vaporized in the process. Is "Andrea" (as I distinctly heard Reyf call her,) Garr's kid sister? Ex-wife/fiancee? The android obviously knew Reyf as if she wanted to explain her presence in Garr's lab.
MORE. Please MORE. This is a novel I can't put down!!!
Garr's got some kind of (protective) emotional attachment to the android or he would've been long-gone the second he knew Reyf & his team were in the lab.
And, had the juiced-up Intrepid-Class (in orbit in Grey Mode) locked onto the Fitzgerald for demolition or self-destructed the lab with Reyf & his team vaporized in the process.
Nah, they make it safely back to the Fitzgerald before it leaves orbit. But I will point out that when last we left, there was a shuttlecraft in VERY close proximity to the evil genuis' sinister flying fortress. *innocent whistle*
Is "Andrea" (as I distinctly heard Reyf call her,) Garr's kid sister? Ex-wife/fiancee? The android obviously knew Reyf as if she wanted to explain her presence in Garr's lab.
I think you're hearing things--Reyf doesn't call her by name (in fact, it's a deliberate plot device that neither the crew nor the audience learns her name until about 2/3 of the way through the movie); where did you hear it? (Seems like subtitles for this wouldn't be such a bad idea after all)
You're absolutely right though, she obviously recognizes Reyf, but even though he handles the moment well, it comes out later in a conversation with special guest star Deanna Troi, visiting from the USS Enterprise along with Lt Cmdr Data, that he thinks he knows her but can't place the face. (Of course we as the audience know there's some connection to both he and Garr that might explain what our resident supervillain is up to).
Activate the android. Let's see if Garr had time to leave a message in its' Operating System.
He didn't, and yet...he did. Sort of...
BTW: I just want to remind everyone of Lt. Erickson's observation when they first entered the lab: "This looks like the main work area, but whatever was here seems to have been removed." And, starships have cargo bays.
I also have a question: in Star Trek TOS, one of the running gags was that on each away team there would be one extra security officer (or sometimes an unlucky engineer), who would inevitably be the first one to be killed off, providing Dr. McCoy a corpse to examine later. As those security officers (or engineers) wore red, they were affectionately dubbed "redshirts" by fans (and then, later, the practice itself became known as "redshirting"). But, in the 24th century, security officers (and engineers) don't wear red anymore do they? They wear gold. Could we rename this practice "goldshirting"?
Wait, wasn't someone on the shuttlecraft wearing gold?
While Brandon's story is pretty decent, and the production is awesome considering his budget, I do have a few nitpicks
Now now, we can't have any of that--half the fun is guessing what the supervillain's motivation is. Besides, when did supervillains EVER do the sensible thing? A good villain is one whose motivation is one we can understand, but who takes their response to the complete extreme. AND how do you know I haven't changed up the plot?
Actually, I was hoping it would've been something a tad more dramatic. The woman Reyf & Garr are bickering over either left Starfleet and/or died as a result of some controversial reason.
Possibility One:
Died as a trillion to one long odds 24th century "Cancer" or botched back alley abortion of a pregnancy she informed neither of her suitors about until the death was uncovered by local law enforcement & the case was passed along to Starfleet Security.
In the process, Garr gains access to Starfleet Security, downloads her engrams from the relatively-fresh corpse & then goes plain bullmoose nuts. In the meantime, Reyf learns of the baby that might've been & understandable grief sets in.
The choice to keep this fatal medical procedure on the down low was due to personal family values/religious convictions. Garr wants Reyf's head slowly turning on a barbeque spit or mounted on a spike for target practice. And that's when Garr's in a GOOD mood lately.
Possibility Two:
She left Starfleet because she realized she loved Reyf, (in the meantime also realized Garr was a Class A clinical nutjob,) BUT, like Kirk & Carole Marcus, she continued to realize the Fitzgerald & exploration would always come first with Reyf before her.
She dies as a result of being too far from a Medic/G.P. on whatever homeworld & no EMH immediately on-site. She very suddenly gives birth to a healthy child Reyf & Garr are left to bury as she bled out in labor without help and no-one was there to clear the baby's mucus plugs in its nose & throat. You can guess what I'm thinking from here.
Possibility Three:
Reyf allowed her to die on a mission that went horribly horribly awry (Wolf 359?) & Garr understandably wants Reyf to suffer.
homerpalooza I really wish you hadn't done that. The story I'm telling is a little different than you outlined (script revisions) but you've not only blown the plot (those who hadn't gone through the last 14 pages of this thread were obviously enjoying not having the plot spoiled), you've managed to make it sound completely boring and uninteresting.
Thanks a lot. :rolleyes: Now I have to rewrite this script AGAIN. And I was just getting it down to a point where I was happy with it.
man, calm down, good story is still good if you know the end...You didnt watch star trek for more times than once? And i think this is very nice story where even a love have place...this is more than usualy is in trek... keep posting....its like drug i need next part of story XD
Well...if you insist :-) I guess I did kinda lose it, but can you blame me after fine-tuning the story so much? (Besides, half the fun lately has been trying to build suspense about what's going to happen next--and there's still plenty of untold story to come, remember this IS a two-hour film we're dealing with; plenty of room for unexpected plot twists!)
well tnpir4002 if your worried about spoilers, i remember stumbling on a wiki site after you started posting these that had the entire plot on it, and i have still been dying for the next part to be released, so dont worry about rewriting the story cause its already good, and dont worry about the people with nitpicks, cause you'll get those with every story...
Will you guys mellow & let things continue on? I'm hooked & I can't wait to see where things go from here.
I can't wait for the novelization of this story in Microsoft Word from the authors of "Specter", (so I can upload it to my next update of "Star Trek: New Worlds" at Tripod.)
My old site will be gone as Geocities intend to kill my personal website account with the rest of their advertisement-supported website service on October 26.
Alright, I'm convinced, no work stoppages coming :-) Choreographing the upcoming scene IS going to be a challenge though so it might take time for Part 9 to come out. I'm also doing double duty building a new set (a recreation of one of the sets from TNG that saw very little use in the series, only three appearances IIRC, for a new scene written at the last minute).
This is the recreation I was talking about before...I changed some elements and updated others, but hopefully not so much that y'all can't tell what set this is.
Yup, 'tis the counselor's office. Wonder what that could mean?
(Just curious, the table that plant is sitting on looked a little more green in some episodes, I can't help but wonder if it would look better with a slight green tint instead of the pink hue it's got now; what do you guys think?)
I did put in spoiler warnings and black font so that those who were not interested in spoiling it, it would not be spoiled :rolleyes: It's nothing you havent posted already, and while it is interesting the way you have it unfolding - about 40 minutes of a 2 hour movie so far - try and keep it more "real" for the audience; many potentially great star trek stories were spoiled by unrealistic plots, and even some of the movies could have used some tweaking (and some were unsavable, and should be burned in fire!!).
But since you asked, i will remove my "spoiler" comments from the above post. I really do enjoy where you are going with this, (but a few plot changes may be in order )
Yup, 'tis the counselor's office. Wonder what that could mean?
(Just curious, the table that plant is sitting on looked a little more green in some episodes, I can't help but wonder if it would look better with a slight green tint instead of the pink hue it's got now; what do you guys think?)
I think the pink is fine, the green tint was probably due to film printing and conversion to television format.
I am going to guess that either the ships counselor speaks to Rayf about the incident, but more likely you are trying to surprise us with something unexpected??
Glasses are pointless. You wear glasses now, but you wouldn't in the 24th century. Back in the 2280s, Kirk had to wear glasses because he was allergic to the medication "Retinax V". Now fast-forward 100 years. I'd wager they're up to Retinax XVIII at this point, and if Geordi LaForge can have ocular implants instead of his old visor, then the "medical mysteries" of the human eye are pretty much solved.
Don't make yourself the main character. That's what immature kids do. Like "This is me as a Super Seiyan 4" or "This is me as a Dark Jedi with a lightsaber like Darth Maul". We all know how those turn out.
You wear glasses now, but you wouldn't in the 24th century.
This is just one of several touches to the Braiyon Garr character meant to a) help easily distinguish him from the other stock Poser 4 figures running around, and b) to establish that he's just "a little off," eccentric you might say. An upcoming visit to the holodeck on the Fitzgerald serves to further reinforce this fact by showing the kinds of holoprograms Garr designed. (Hmmm...now what could this mean?)
Don't make yourself the main character. That's what immature kids do.
Again...don't hold back, tell me what you really think. :rolleyes: (Hint: insulting a filmmaker's choice of casting or cameo-guest-appearing is neither smart nor respectful). As for your accusation that I'm making myself "the" main character, I'm not doing anything of the kind. Of the thirty-four minutes of film we have so far, Garr has had a lot less screen time than pretty much anyone else (well, except for Dr. Chellik and the bridge crew of the Daystrom), a combined total of about four minutes (three in the opening, about one at Mellis II, and two brief cameos at Beta Reticuli). Most of his remaining appearances will be brief, and it won't be until he and Reyf meet again that he really gets any notable screen time (even then, it's limited to three short scenes aboard the ISS Voyager, and one short one in the Fitzgerald guest quarters; after that he's only seen once more in a communication via viewscreen). Most of the action thus far has followed the Fitzgerald crew in general and Gaius Reyf specifically, and if anyone's "the" main character it's Reyf. Garr is indeed the villain in this story, but that's a far cry from being "the" main character.
Like "This is me as a Super Seiyan 4" or "This is me as a Dark Jedi with a lightsaber like Darth Maul". We all know how those turn out.
No, we know how it turns out when people do it badly. If done properly, a filmmaker appearing as his own villain can work extremely well (especially when you're trying to create a complex villain).
In a lot of the fan films I've seen, in which case people play their own villains, they take it to the extreme, with parts that are poorly written, and performances tend to come across either as overly rehearsed or just plain cheesy. (You have EVERYONE wanting to "break out" with things like villainous laughter, delivering over-the-top dialogue, and sometimes you see them focusing the entire story on "their" surrogate character, to the expense of the storyline).
My villain doesn't suffer any of these tropes. As I mentioned earlier, if anyone's the main character it's Gaius Reyf, and Garr doesn't get nearly as much screen time. I hate to sound smug and superior but at this point in the film you just have to take my word for it, Garr is written to be less a frightening villain and more a creepy-sneaks-up-behind-people-in-dark-rooms-in-furtherance-of-his-unknowable-evil-plan kind of guy, who strikes fear into his foes by his sheer unpredictability and the fact that so little about him is actually known--except by one character (THE main character), and he's not telling.
Unlike most other fan villains you see out there, he's not written to be over-the-top, and as such there's no sinister cackling, no badly-written or cheesy dialogue, no yelling (except for TWO lines later when he does finally raise his voice), and no gaping weaknesses in his evil plan. This is a classy, cultured, intelligent villain that likes to keep his opponents guessing, and therefore you can respect him (with the implied "or else" hanging over you like an axe when you're confronted by him, as demonstrated by the scene in Chellik's office), with aims higher than simply causing pain and suffering if certain demands aren't met. For most of his appearances in the "present day," Garr either doesn't speak or speaks very little (in fact a big challenge was crafting the "Garr's Nightmare" sequence with no dialogue whatsoever), a way to preserve the mystique of his character and instead let the audience connect to his emotions.
This is a man with real emotions and a source of pain with which we can all identify (once we learn what it is, that is). He's a villain with depth...not one of these supercilious morons with a devious plot to steal the world's supply of cheese danishes and then disappear into some cave in Bosnia.
IronScythe: Writers take from Life, as do every other format of artist out there. It's his project, let him enjoy it however which way it turns out. Not a lot of people are into my Shatnerverse stuff either, but I still get a kick out of it as a worthwhile boredom project. I'd love to help him create additional/alternate characters for his *NEXT* adventure, with a bit more of a blended TAS/TOS style crew (Andorians, Edoans, Humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, et al.)
Perhaps, next time, a non-canon Starfleet vessel that looks more like one of Jim Martin's DEFIANT-CLASS prototypes or one of the VOYAGER sketches/prototypes.
Perhaps, next time, a non-canon Starfleet vessel that looks more like one of Jim Martin's DEFIANT-CLASS prototypes or one of the VOYAGER sketches/prototypes.
I've seen some of the sketches for the earlier versions of the Defiant and Voyager. Let me just say, those would make some KILLER starships if they'd ever been seen. (I've been dying to get my hands on the "Voyager Pathfinder" that appeared in "The Art of Star Trek," the one with the yellow nacelle grilles and the closeup of the crew outside the airlock on the hull--if I'd had access to that, I might well have used it instead of the Intrepid)
But, indeed, one of the main reasons for using a canon starship in Specter is so I can deliberately play up the differences between the real thing and my villainous knockoff (that's the whole purpose of the shuttle flyover sequence, of which I STILL need to upload the full version, I know--to show the characters' shocked reactions at seeing a ship with so much over-greeble-ization, and with a blue hull besides, emblazoned with the name "Voyager" and the registry number "NCC-74656").
According to TVTropes, that's called the "Rule of Cool."
And as for you, Ironscythe, I refer you to the trope called "Evil is Cool."
I wasn't going on about the writing at all, just the visuals. And really, I was "geeking out" over the prospect of a person wearing glasses in the 2370s. Also, I've never seen someone do the "me as the main character" thing well, so I can't help but be biased.
To tell you the truth, I don't have access to headphones or speakers presently, so I was just watching your v9 video without sound and going off of that.
I owe you an apology, you've obviously done your homework when it comes to writing.
Give us a more informed review once you hear the audio track. I think (hope?) you'll find you missed the mark by a wide enough margin to drive a Technodrome through.
I'm telling you, getting the first shot of Scene #17 blocked is proving a tough challenge. The script says that Reyf comes "charging out of the turbolift," but conveniently I left out which one ("I'll figure it out later"). And now I can't decide which would be better, to have him come out of the aft turbolift by the Tactical station or the forward one by Ops. Lt. Parks (at the navigation station) is the one who answers his first question, "Where are Prentice and Garrett?", and that's not something they ever di on TNG--so I have no guide. 'tis proving quite the challenge!
you can do it. P4 characters are not so easy to animate, but if you know what your doing, it can be pulled off quite well. Obviously you know what your doing :thumb:
Okay, I figured out the blocking issue...but then my mind started to wander, and before I knew it I'd come down with a case of Tinker-itis. (You know, that vicious little ailment that compels you to start tinkering with your supposedly "perfect" creation, to make it just that much better?)
Well before I knew it I'd turned out a second edition of the USS Fitzgerald bridge. And ten minutes after that I'd cranked out THREE new turbolift interiors (what started out as a simple lighting fix to the alcoves on the main bridge just kinda took off and became its own monster). Anyways, now I can't decide what I like best! I wanted to see what you guys thought (I used to hate it when people did this to me so to those who are slapping themselves going "just PICK ONE already!", I feel your pain). Help me decide which of the following you like better:
Turbolift - Plain Blue
Turbolift - Dark Page
Turbolift - Purple
Turbolift - Sub Rosa
The "Sub Rosa," "Dark Page," and "Plain Blue" versions all have colors sampled from various TNG eps (actually I think "Plain Blue" actually has the colors from Generations but still), while the "Purple" one is my imagination kind of wandering (just to see what might be "in line" but still be a little different). Which one do you like better?
As I mentioned, this effort also brought us two editions of the main bridge. First, the original:
And then the new one:
The main difference between these two is the lighting in the alcoves. In the second one the lighting is VASTLY improved in those areas so hanging on to that is a given. But some other things aren't nearly so certain--notice that in the newer image, the blue color of the lights above the side station is less saturated, and that the room's ambient lighting is of a slightly softer color (instead of harsh white it's a little redshifted). Some of the colors look different as a result. Overall, which bridge do you like better?
Last but not least, the ready room and transporter room. The ready room is less a "this versus that" and more a "how do you like it" affair--I've got a version that's lit like Picard's ready room actually was on the series, but I got to tinkering with it and a more dramatic lighting scheme seems to work better for a movie.
Anyways, enough of my babbling--on to the visuals.
This was actually inspired by something I saw in "The Art of Star Trek" once, a promotional shot of the ready room set with a similar lighting scheme. How do you like it?
Alright, so hopefully the first thing you notice about this is...it's the transporter! And with luck that covers (for the most part) the fact that the colors are just a little bit...off. That's because although this transporter room is a perfect replica of its TNG-season-five counterpart, the colors were sampled from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. I did that because the green color of the transporter room walls never looked right to me (the gray-green used in the earlier seasons looked indescribably better to me).
...but, just to prove I'm not a total nutjob...here's the reverse angle, featuring TNG (season 7) colors. What do y'all like better?
Posts
-the sound of the TMNT Technodrome makes its second appearance
-now that the android has been revealed as the "mystery find," go back and look at the other clips in the main room of Garr's lab. In the room to screen right of the main doorway, you can see what looks like a body lying on a biobed in a side room. That in actuality was an early draft of the female android, and that side room is in fact the same room (lit differently) in which Lt. Erickson discovers the "real" android
-the computer graphics Reyf is looking at on the computer monitor are from the Star Trek Online computer game, meant to imply that the hidden base's computer system operates on a different program than regular Starfleet computers (the "real world" reason was to give the STO graphics a cameo appearance, one of three they will receive in the film; in-universe, this is never directly addressed in dialogue but one may assume that Garr programmed his own operating system to suit his specific needs)
-when Reyf contacts Ronston to order the rendezvous, the room Ronston is in is a replica of the Transdimensional Portal Room, from the original Ninja Turtles cartoon series. This is one of only two appearances by that room in the film; it will appear once more near the middle of the film, and for part of that appearance will be lit normally.
-a fraction of a second before Garr appears behind Ronston, a faint red glow can be seen in the shadows where his eyes are. Although we have to wonder why Ronston didn't hear Garr's footsteps, the fact that his tricorder didn't register Garr's life signs is correct, as the earlier scene aboard the Fitzgerald clearly established that Garr is masking his biosignature
-the part of the female android is played by the Victoria 3 figure by DAZ Productions, featuring hair by Neftis and clothing from the Girl Next Door package; the incomplete right arm is brought to you by the Victoria 3 Robo Arm
Here there be spoilers for parts of this seen y'all haven't scene yet (we REALLY need the ability to make text the same gray color as the backgrounds on these threads! Either that or to highlight in white text we want to "hide"):
-remember Reyf's seeming familiarity with the android's identity
-the moment she opens her eyes is accompanied by a portion of "First Sign of the Borg," from the expanded soundtrack of "Star Trek: First Contact"
-the sound of Erickson's phaser rifle powering up is taken from the DVD of "Star Trek: First Contact"
-listen carefully as the android sits up; in a Star Trek first, we hear the sounds of servomotors whirring (this is an unspoken allusion to the fact of the android being incomplete; it will be explained in dialogue later as her servos not having been fully calibrated)
-the android's reaction to not being able to speak is exaggerated slightly, a move meant to clearly convey to the audience that she has emotions
EDIT: ONE MORE SHOT...just ONE more shot to do and then you'll have Part 8. Y'all are gonna hate me for this, cuz this mystery is about to make a whole lot less sense 8-)
Some more trivia:
-shooting within the tight and barely-lit confines of Garr's side lab proved an exceptional directorial challenge, especially in the final moments of the scene
-in the script, the android was deliberately described as "looking at her own hands as if she'd never seen them before," a move meant to immediately give her the trust of the audience, even knowing that Garr had built her
-Reyf's line, "Hi...I'm Gaius; do you have a name?" is spoken with tempo and inflection similar to Robert Picardo's utterance of a similar line in "Deadlock" (VOY); the line is an homage to Picardo's character, the Emergency Medical Hologram
-though the android does attempt to speak in answer to Reyf's question, the mouth animation was deliberately done without benefit of a vocal template, to better convey the sense that she knows she's supposed to say something, but isn't sure what; her immediate reaction of surprise, followed by her obvious fear (as evidenced by her immediately reaching out to touch Reyf's hand with her own), is another move meant to ingratiate her to the audience as an innocent participant in the happenings around her
-Ronston's line "her neural structure is unlike anything I've ever seen" is a deliberate move to set her up as part of the story rather than a simple curiosity; it also clearly establishes that this is not a Soong-type android, suggesting that Garr has pursued his own cybernetic venue
-Lt. Erickson's response to Ronston's request to transport the android aboard the Fitzgerald is a deliberate homage to the inflection of Michael Dorn when delivering a similar line in "Star Trek: First Contact," on the bridge as he and Picard square off over the evacuation of the Enterprise; this is an unspoken reminder that Erickson is this movie's version of Worf, and that despite her feminine appearance she's every bit as capable as Worf
-unlike the last time in the Dimensional Portal Room, Garr's sudden appearance is not accompanied by a red flare
-Garr's sudden appearance in the light of Erickson's phaser rifle was one of three possible means of revealing the mad doctor. In an earlier draft of this scene, Erickson caught Garr's reflection in a control panel; when a redesign of the side lab set moved that control panel farther down, that approach became impossible; in another, Garr was to have appeared in one of the two dark corners of the room, to be noticed by either Reyf or Ronston. That approach was scrapped because it was thought to make Erickson look less-than-alert. The fact that she discovers Garr observing them (appropriately, "under glass," as he is standing in the higher main room of the complex looking down at them in the side lab) while sweeping the area with her phaser does the opposite, portraying her as an effective security officer
-how exactly to show Garr once he was revealed became a subject of several discussions among the writers; eventually, it was decided that, realistic or not, he should be portrayed in as unsettling and eerie a manner as possible. As such, when Erickson's light shines on him, his expression is deliberately crafted to frighten onlookers--and judging by Erickson's immediate yelp, it proved an effective tactic.
-Note that when Garr beams out, the color of the transporter beam is a silvery blue rather than the blue-purple of the Fitzgerald beam we saw earlier. This was done deliberately to set the two apart; the silver-blue color was actually sampled from a season four episode of "Star Trek: Voyager"
-the sound effects of the two transporter matter streams are also different. The sound of the Fitzgerald transporter echoes that of the Enterprise-D in Star Trek Generations and the Enterprise-E in subsequent films; Garr's transporter uses the sound effect from "Star Trek: Voyager." Like the color, the sound is meant to imply that Garr has transported to the ISS Voyager.
-the shot of the Fitzgerald breaking orbit is recycled from "Unification," in which we saw the Enterprise-D maneuvering in an identical way inside the Qualor II surplus depot.
MORE. Please MORE. This is a novel I can't put down!!!
I hope it's BEEN good before now
I can only answer with this:
Nah, they make it safely back to the Fitzgerald before it leaves orbit. But I will point out that when last we left, there was a shuttlecraft in VERY close proximity to the evil genuis' sinister flying fortress. *innocent whistle*
I think you're hearing things--Reyf doesn't call her by name (in fact, it's a deliberate plot device that neither the crew nor the audience learns her name until about 2/3 of the way through the movie); where did you hear it? (Seems like subtitles for this wouldn't be such a bad idea after all)
You're absolutely right though, she obviously recognizes Reyf, but even though he handles the moment well, it comes out later in a conversation with special guest star Deanna Troi, visiting from the USS Enterprise along with Lt Cmdr Data, that he thinks he knows her but can't place the face. (Of course we as the audience know there's some connection to both he and Garr that might explain what our resident supervillain is up to).
He didn't, and yet...he did. Sort of...
BTW: I just want to remind everyone of Lt. Erickson's observation when they first entered the lab: "This looks like the main work area, but whatever was here seems to have been removed." And, starships have cargo bays.
I also have a question: in Star Trek TOS, one of the running gags was that on each away team there would be one extra security officer (or sometimes an unlucky engineer), who would inevitably be the first one to be killed off, providing Dr. McCoy a corpse to examine later. As those security officers (or engineers) wore red, they were affectionately dubbed "redshirts" by fans (and then, later, the practice itself became known as "redshirting"). But, in the 24th century, security officers (and engineers) don't wear red anymore do they? They wear gold. Could we rename this practice "goldshirting"?
Wait, wasn't someone on the shuttlecraft wearing gold?
While brandons story is pretty decent, and the production is awesome considering his budget, i do have a few nitpicks - edit: spoilers removed
Now now, we can't have any of that--half the fun is guessing what the supervillain's motivation is. Besides, when did supervillains EVER do the sensible thing? A good villain is one whose motivation is one we can understand, but who takes their response to the complete extreme. AND how do you know I haven't changed up the plot?
Possibility One:- Died as a trillion to one long odds 24th century "Cancer" or botched back alley abortion of a pregnancy she informed neither of her suitors about until the death was uncovered by local law enforcement & the case was passed along to Starfleet Security.
- She left Starfleet because she realized she loved Reyf, (in the meantime also realized Garr was a Class A clinical nutjob,) BUT, like Kirk & Carole Marcus, she continued to realize the Fitzgerald & exploration would always come first with Reyf before her.
- Reyf allowed her to die on a mission that went horribly horribly awry (Wolf 359?) & Garr understandably wants Reyf to suffer.
In the process, Garr gains access to Starfleet Security, downloads her engrams from the relatively-fresh corpse & then goes plain bullmoose nuts. In the meantime, Reyf learns of the baby that might've been & understandable grief sets in.
The choice to keep this fatal medical procedure on the down low was due to personal family values/religious convictions. Garr wants Reyf's head slowly turning on a barbeque spit or mounted on a spike for target practice. And that's when Garr's in a GOOD mood lately.
Possibility Two:
She dies as a result of being too far from a Medic/G.P. on whatever homeworld & no EMH immediately on-site. She very suddenly gives birth to a healthy child Reyf & Garr are left to bury as she bled out in labor without help and no-one was there to clear the baby's mucus plugs in its nose & throat. You can guess what I'm thinking from here.
Possibility Three:
Thanks a lot. :rolleyes: Now I have to rewrite this script AGAIN. And I was just getting it down to a point where I was happy with it.
**THREAD TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED PENDING SCRIPT REVISIONS**
keep up the amazing work!
I can't wait for the novelization of this story in Microsoft Word from the authors of "Specter", (so I can upload it to my next update of "Star Trek: New Worlds" at Tripod.)
My old site will be gone as Geocities intend to kill my personal website account with the rest of their advertisement-supported website service on October 26.
This is the recreation I was talking about before...I changed some elements and updated others, but hopefully not so much that y'all can't tell what set this is.
Let the speculation begin.
(Just curious, the table that plant is sitting on looked a little more green in some episodes, I can't help but wonder if it would look better with a slight green tint instead of the pink hue it's got now; what do you guys think?)
But since you asked, i will remove my "spoiler" comments from the above post. I really do enjoy where you are going with this, (but a few plot changes may be in order
I am going to guess that either the ships counselor speaks to Rayf about the incident, but more likely you are trying to surprise us with something unexpected??
i did not even notice the black font. i thought you just put the spoil tags for the hell of it. now i wonder what i have missed....
Don't make yourself the main character. That's what immature kids do. Like "This is me as a Super Seiyan 4" or "This is me as a Dark Jedi with a lightsaber like Darth Maul". We all know how those turn out.
Don't hold back--tell me what you really think. :rolleyes:
This is just one of several touches to the Braiyon Garr character meant to a) help easily distinguish him from the other stock Poser 4 figures running around, and b) to establish that he's just "a little off," eccentric you might say. An upcoming visit to the holodeck on the Fitzgerald serves to further reinforce this fact by showing the kinds of holoprograms Garr designed. (Hmmm...now what could this mean?)
Again...don't hold back, tell me what you really think. :rolleyes: (Hint: insulting a filmmaker's choice of casting or cameo-guest-appearing is neither smart nor respectful). As for your accusation that I'm making myself "the" main character, I'm not doing anything of the kind. Of the thirty-four minutes of film we have so far, Garr has had a lot less screen time than pretty much anyone else (well, except for Dr. Chellik and the bridge crew of the Daystrom), a combined total of about four minutes (three in the opening, about one at Mellis II, and two brief cameos at Beta Reticuli). Most of his remaining appearances will be brief, and it won't be until he and Reyf meet again that he really gets any notable screen time (even then, it's limited to three short scenes aboard the ISS Voyager, and one short one in the Fitzgerald guest quarters; after that he's only seen once more in a communication via viewscreen). Most of the action thus far has followed the Fitzgerald crew in general and Gaius Reyf specifically, and if anyone's "the" main character it's Reyf. Garr is indeed the villain in this story, but that's a far cry from being "the" main character.
No, we know how it turns out when people do it badly. If done properly, a filmmaker appearing as his own villain can work extremely well (especially when you're trying to create a complex villain).
In a lot of the fan films I've seen, in which case people play their own villains, they take it to the extreme, with parts that are poorly written, and performances tend to come across either as overly rehearsed or just plain cheesy. (You have EVERYONE wanting to "break out" with things like villainous laughter, delivering over-the-top dialogue, and sometimes you see them focusing the entire story on "their" surrogate character, to the expense of the storyline).
My villain doesn't suffer any of these tropes. As I mentioned earlier, if anyone's the main character it's Gaius Reyf, and Garr doesn't get nearly as much screen time. I hate to sound smug and superior but at this point in the film you just have to take my word for it, Garr is written to be less a frightening villain and more a creepy-sneaks-up-behind-people-in-dark-rooms-in-furtherance-of-his-unknowable-evil-plan kind of guy, who strikes fear into his foes by his sheer unpredictability and the fact that so little about him is actually known--except by one character (THE main character), and he's not telling.
Unlike most other fan villains you see out there, he's not written to be over-the-top, and as such there's no sinister cackling, no badly-written or cheesy dialogue, no yelling (except for TWO lines later when he does finally raise his voice), and no gaping weaknesses in his evil plan. This is a classy, cultured, intelligent villain that likes to keep his opponents guessing, and therefore you can respect him (with the implied "or else" hanging over you like an axe when you're confronted by him, as demonstrated by the scene in Chellik's office), with aims higher than simply causing pain and suffering if certain demands aren't met. For most of his appearances in the "present day," Garr either doesn't speak or speaks very little (in fact a big challenge was crafting the "Garr's Nightmare" sequence with no dialogue whatsoever), a way to preserve the mystique of his character and instead let the audience connect to his emotions.
This is a man with real emotions and a source of pain with which we can all identify (once we learn what it is, that is). He's a villain with depth...not one of these supercilious morons with a devious plot to steal the world's supply of cheese danishes and then disappear into some cave in Bosnia.
So in short...you're just wrong
Perhaps, next time, a non-canon Starfleet vessel that looks more like one of Jim Martin's DEFIANT-CLASS prototypes or one of the VOYAGER sketches/prototypes.
I've seen some of the sketches for the earlier versions of the Defiant and Voyager. Let me just say, those would make some KILLER starships if they'd ever been seen. (I've been dying to get my hands on the "Voyager Pathfinder" that appeared in "The Art of Star Trek," the one with the yellow nacelle grilles and the closeup of the crew outside the airlock on the hull--if I'd had access to that, I might well have used it instead of the Intrepid)
But, indeed, one of the main reasons for using a canon starship in Specter is so I can deliberately play up the differences between the real thing and my villainous knockoff (that's the whole purpose of the shuttle flyover sequence, of which I STILL need to upload the full version, I know--to show the characters' shocked reactions at seeing a ship with so much over-greeble-ization, and with a blue hull besides, emblazoned with the name "Voyager" and the registry number "NCC-74656").
According to TVTropes, that's called the "Rule of Cool."
And as for you, Ironscythe, I refer you to the trope called "Evil is Cool."
EDIT: And, just for good measure: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilOverlordList
To tell you the truth, I don't have access to headphones or speakers presently, so I was just watching your v9 video without sound and going off of that.
I owe you an apology, you've obviously done your homework when it comes to writing.
Give us a more informed review once you hear the audio track. I think (hope?) you'll find you missed the mark by a wide enough margin to drive a Technodrome through.
I'm telling you, getting the first shot of Scene #17 blocked is proving a tough challenge. The script says that Reyf comes "charging out of the turbolift," but conveniently I left out which one ("I'll figure it out later"). And now I can't decide which would be better, to have him come out of the aft turbolift by the Tactical station or the forward one by Ops. Lt. Parks (at the navigation station) is the one who answers his first question, "Where are Prentice and Garrett?", and that's not something they ever di on TNG--so I have no guide. 'tis proving quite the challenge!
Well before I knew it I'd turned out a second edition of the USS Fitzgerald bridge. And ten minutes after that I'd cranked out THREE new turbolift interiors (what started out as a simple lighting fix to the alcoves on the main bridge just kinda took off and became its own monster). Anyways, now I can't decide what I like best! I wanted to see what you guys thought (I used to hate it when people did this to me so to those who are slapping themselves going "just PICK ONE already!", I feel your pain). Help me decide which of the following you like better:
Turbolift - Plain Blue
Turbolift - Dark Page
Turbolift - Purple
Turbolift - Sub Rosa
The "Sub Rosa," "Dark Page," and "Plain Blue" versions all have colors sampled from various TNG eps (actually I think "Plain Blue" actually has the colors from Generations but still), while the "Purple" one is my imagination kind of wandering (just to see what might be "in line" but still be a little different). Which one do you like better?
And then the new one:
The main difference between these two is the lighting in the alcoves. In the second one the lighting is VASTLY improved in those areas so hanging on to that is a given. But some other things aren't nearly so certain--notice that in the newer image, the blue color of the lights above the side station is less saturated, and that the room's ambient lighting is of a slightly softer color (instead of harsh white it's a little redshifted). Some of the colors look different as a result. Overall, which bridge do you like better?
Anyways, enough of my babbling--on to the visuals.
This was actually inspired by something I saw in "The Art of Star Trek" once, a promotional shot of the ready room set with a similar lighting scheme. How do you like it?
Alright, so hopefully the first thing you notice about this is...it's the transporter! And with luck that covers (for the most part) the fact that the colors are just a little bit...off. That's because although this transporter room is a perfect replica of its TNG-season-five counterpart, the colors were sampled from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. I did that because the green color of the transporter room walls never looked right to me (the gray-green used in the earlier seasons looked indescribably better to me).
...but, just to prove I'm not a total nutjob...here's the reverse angle, featuring TNG (season 7) colors. What do y'all like better?
2nd Turbolift, 2nd bridge, first transporter are my picks. more shots of the transporter please,