Star Trek

[Valka]

Ah, the Romulan Commander.

There's a weird bit at the end of the episode where Spock is escorting her to the brig, and she says, "I know the way."

So much for Starfleet security! 

[Buster's Uncle]

There's a weird bit in a lotta fanfic she appears in where they describe her as "beautiful" - must not have seen the same episode I did, with the decent-looking older lady...  Poser/Daz is bad for doing likenesses; that's not the right nose.

[Valka]

Beauty is one person's opinion, which may not be shared by other people.

[Buster's Uncle]

Yeeeaahh...

[Buster's Uncle]

I mean, absolutely.  Not an ugly woman by any stretch of the imagination, but not QUITE right, In My Arrogant Opinion, to play the episode's love interest.  Decent legs in the boots, but --- there's no accounting for tastes, or that would have been one less thing I HATED about The Price of the Phoenix and The Fate of the Phoenix...

(First place goes to Kirk is, under NO circumstances, ANYBODY"S [girldog].)

(In fact, I can't imagine how he made it through whatever passes for bootcamp in Star Fleet as a positively grim kid.)


Topic for discussion: Much as Roddenberry surely would have had it otherwise in his Better Future, they DO have to have something like bootcamp - the main function of which is to make recruits more afraid of Sarge than the enemy in battle, or militaries just wouldn't work; you can get killed obeying an order to go over the top.  Sane people have to be brainwashed first, or they make lousy troops.  There is a bootcamp for Starfleet recruits.

[Buster's Uncle]

Is Axanar vs CBS/Star Trek Hurting All Fan Films?

[Buster's Uncle]

The Underground Star Trek Scene

[Buster's Uncle]

I am shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, to see that Star Trek Equinox (John Savage as Captain Ransom from Voyager - a still-technically-alive Gary Lockwood as Gary Mitchell; I gave this one down the road GOOD a year or so ago) has fallen through.

This may have been news to the people involved, but surely to no one else.  It had the worst stank of never-gonna-happen--AND-sucks I've ever seen on a fanfilm project - worse than that Captain Pike thing...

[Buster's Uncle]

I understand the next Episode of STC, "Come Not Between The Dragons" is scheduled for a May 29 release.

[Buster's Uncle]

-Not that I hate the idea of a Captain Pike show - that's the first example I always give of what I'd do if I could travel alternate timelines; amass video of different versions of Star Trek, like from timelines where Jeffery Hunter took the gig...


Yesterday was Marina Sirtis' 61st birthday.

[Buster's Uncle]

Last night I got to wondering if the magic that is Photoshop would allow me to pull off an "Ensign Kirk" flashback. Not a whole issue, mind you. Just a few pages.



My big concern would be ending up with those plastic mask faces we see in movies these days, when attempts are made to "youthify" old actors.

Not bad at all, but he missed a pretty basic trick - obvious, considering who.  Stay tuned; I'm gonna have a run at making Ensign Kirk even younger...

[Buster's Uncle]

I did a lot more to Ensign Kirk's face - but the two key changes are lowering the hairline and thinning his neck...

My version is far right, of course.  I'd estimate he looks 10-15 years younger than the Captain on the left, which seems logically about right; the fellow in the middle with some wrinkles smoothed and wearing his mature-hairline hair longer only manages maybe five.

[Valka]

It would be interesting to compare those with RL pictures of a young William Shatner.

[Buster's Uncle]

That toupee blog I linked last page has quite a few - they're apparently quite hard to come by, Shatner never having kept pictures of himself...

[Buster's Uncle]

...I'm really pretty surprised a professional cartoonist missed the hairline and neck tricks, actually - Kirk has a face that's hard to draw likenesses of, lacking any individually distinctive features like a big nose, but hairlines and necks (I also toned down the highlight shine to de-accentuate his cheekbones, and made his ears stick out a teeny bit more, and gave him a slightly closer shave, and shortened his nose, and narrowed his jaw, and made his chin smaller - all age cues) are really elementary features to alter for a youthful appearance.

I reckon he passed on the hairline as too tricky and too much work -true; it was time-consuming and I can see the shoop, knowing what to look for- but the neck was pretty easy in that lighting.