Mon, 29 February 2016
The Commodores of The Original Series. Several episodes in The Original Series introduced a few high-ranking and "intrusive" characters that shared one commonality: the rank of Commodore. From the Ahab-esque Matt Decker in The Doomsday Machine, to Robert Wesley who was in charge of the M-5 Multitronic System proceedings in The Ultimate Computer, to Commodore Stone who moderated the legal proceedings in Court Martial and several more; the Commodores were an authoritative, bureaucratic and at times overbearing extension of Starfleet Command. The Commodores added an additional layer of dramatic effect in The Original Series as they were usually at odds with Captain Kirk, Mr, Spock and the ongoing Five Year Mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise. They were akin to the overbearing and controlling "authority figure" that Kirk, Spock and others had to struggle against and overcome; a dynamic to which many younger viewers in the late 1960's related. In the end, the Commodore rank never extended past The Original Series save a few minor references in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Feature Hosts Production |
Mon, 22 February 2016
The Enterprise Incident Commentary. As a follow-up to Standard Orbit 116: The Real Enemy Is War Itself, The "Refit" Crew wanted to take a look at the only other episode in the entirety of the 79 of The Original Series that featured the Romulans. We also wanted to do something a little unorthodox for this podcast. We are doing a "live commentary" of The Enterprise Incident–a very polished and exciting episode from Season Three and what we felt was the perfect compliment and a fantastic continuation of the Romulans and their alluring mystique that began with Season One's Balance of Terror. Please note that we will be commenting specifically on the HD remastered version and several of our comments address the amazing quality of the visual effects and overall production of The Enterprise Incident. If you are listening to this show in your car, or commuting to work or school, this probably won't make that much sense to you, unless of course you have this particular episode committed to memory. We hope you take the time and opportunity to sync up your rewatch of The Enterprise Incident with our commentary to accompany you. Enjoy! Feature Hosts Production |
Mon, 15 February 2016
How The Enemy Below Influenced Balance of Terror. The Enemy Below tells the story of the epic "cat and mouse" game between an American Destroyer Escort Captain and the commander of a German U-boat. This 1957 World War Two classic film directly influenced Star Trek writer Paul Schneider as he crafted the narrative for what would become one of Star Trek's greatest episodes. Balance of Terror was a ground-breaking episode for Star Trek, as it brought a "military" essence to Starfleet and allowed the audience to grasp the political tapestry of The United Federation of Planets in the 23rd Century. Balance of Terror is a fan favorite for many reasons: the introduction of the Romulans, the humanizing of the enemy, and the application of sound naval tactics to help drive the narrative tensions. It was also famous for its bold decision to break yet another convention of the time: Women serving in combat. Almost 30 years later after this episode was produced, women were finally allowed to serve on warships. In addition, the military does not normally allow married couples on the same vessel for fear of that couple being killed outright in combat as almost seen with Robert Tomlinson and Angela Martine. Hosts Guest Production Chapters Send us your feedback! Support the Network! |
Mon, 8 February 2016
The Alternative Factors. Alternate realties, alternate universes, and alternate timelines essentially share the same family tree if you will. The point where the tree trunk meets the ground is the Big Bang; the focal point for every conceivable timeline. As the tree grows, limbs sprout off in every direction, branches sprout from those limbs, twigs sprout from those branches and so on and so forth. Most of the realities that we have seen on Star Trek are universally similar; the laws of physics, historical figures and events, significant locations and most importantly, the main cast of characters. On May 8th 2009, the eleventh Star Trek feature film boldly went where no Trek had gone before: rebooting and reimagining the franchise under the aegis of J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot Productions. The film paid homage to the previous Star Trek continuity via a time-travel plot that ultimately created a new timeline; now only loosely connected to the prime universe. Whether it is called NuTrek or the JJ-verse, the Star Trek film continuity from 2009 is its own timeline. But the question remains: At what point did the timeline diverge from the original? Hosts Production Chapters Send us your feedback! Support the Network! |
Mon, 1 February 2016
Dissecting Spock's Brain. On this episode of Standard Orbit, we prep for surgery and perform a deep dissection and examination of what Star Trek fans have labeled as the "worst" episode ever in the history of The Original Series, and was even parodied as a stage production in 2004 for a limited run in Irvine, California at the Irvine Improv! William Shatner, in his autobiography Up Till Now, and in his memoirs Star Trek: Memories, called this one of the series' worst episodes; a "tribute" to NBC executives who slashed the show's budget and placed it in a bad time slot. There was a great deal of unrest happening behind the scenes at the beginning of Star Trek's third season. Gene Coon was trying to complete his writing contract and director Marc Daniels felt marginalized by executive producer Fred Freiberger. The show budget was always under pressure which in turn forced co-producer Robert Justman and Fred Freiberger to constantly redirect creative to fit production, increasing tensions between them and the NBC front offices. Did these underlying forces ultimately affect the return The Original Series on September 20th, 1968? Hosts Guest Production Chapters Send us your feedback! Support the Network! |
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