more writers guide stuff
DEY...@mis.arizona.edu
request to enter the whole thing. Unfortunately, aside from the fact that
I don't want to do that much typing, that would be a pretty flagrant
copyright infingement, so... sorry. However, here are a few summarized
pieces I thought might be of interest. If people have specific questions,
feel free to E-mail me and I'll look them up. If I get a lot of the same
question, I'll post it; otherwise I'll just E-mail you back the answers.
In addition to what follows, there are also bits on what kind of stories
they are and are not buying, a page or two on each character, descriptions
of the sets and ship, etc., etc. The following is summarized from the
season 2 guide.
.......................................................................
SCRIPT STYLE
We need a teaser and five acts.
The teaser can run as long as five pages if necessary, but should not be
shorter than three. Each act should be approximately 10-11 script pages
long.
The total length of the first draft script should not be more than 58
pages.
Because the style of the show is a fast paced action/drama, long rambling
scenes are to be avoided. The actual running time of each episode will be
43 minutes.
.....................................................................
MISC.
Stardates:
A Stardate is a five digit number followed by a decimal point and one
more digit. The first 2 digits are '42'. The 4 stands for the 24th
century, the 2 indicates second season. The additional three digits will
progress unevenly during the course of the season from 000 to 999. The
digit preceding the decimal point counts days, and the digit after the
decimal point counts one tenth of a day.
Consoles are programmable workstations
The starships workstations look like flat black panels until they are
activated -- then they light up and become interactive display screens with
custom keyboards as well. A crewmember simply touches the part of the
display that has been programmed to be the keyboard. This allows any
crewmember to work at any console with a high degree of familiarity.
[Presumably this allows any crewmember to custom design the control layout
they feel most comfortable with, then call up that layout from any
console.]
Transporters:
Range is about 40,000 kilometers, give or take. "It will be established
that the transporter is designed to filter out viruses, bacteria, and other
alien matter that might be picked up on an away visit. ....and will also
detect illicit weapons, drugs, and other forms of contraband material being
beamed aboard if these items have been programmed into the transporter
memory."
Weapons:
The writers guide indicates that ship's phasers cannot be used at warp
speed (use photon torpedoes instead), as the phaser beam is basically EM
radiation; I don't know if this has been changed or not - anyone remember
seeing the Enterprise fire phasers at warp speed?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Any questions? Let me know...
-Chris DeYoung
dey...@mis.arizona.edu
Night Watchman
>Stardates:
> A Stardate is a five digit number followed by a decimal point and one
>more digit. The first 2 digits are '42'. The 4 stands for the 24th
>century, the 2 indicates second season. The additional three digits will
>progress unevenly during the course of the season from 000 to 999. The
>digit preceding the decimal point counts days, and the digit after the
>decimal point counts one tenth of a day.
Holy cow!
Pulling out my trusty calculator, this means that, as of the end of season
three, the crew has been together for EIGHT YEARS!
These people have gone EIGHT YEARS without a promotion! And Starfleet is
STILL trying to get Riker into the Captain's chair?? And Wesely must be
in his early-to-mid 20's by now! And he JUST became a full ensign? (He
must be pretty dumb if he STILL can't get into the Academy.)
On the other hand, this means that it took the Borg 3-5 years to get from
where the Enterprise encountered them in "Q Who" to Federation space
(assuming they haven't been lurking around the Romulan Neutral Zone all this
time).
I could go on and on, but I think this is pretty firm proof that Paramount
(or whoever wrote the writer's guide) does NOT know Star Trek best. :-P
--
Michael Rawdon
Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana
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Disclaimer: Opinions mine, typos and grammar errors someone else's
Jay Hinkelman
>>The digit preceding the decimal point counts days, and the digit
>Holy cow!
>Pulling out my trusty calculator, this means that, as of the end of season
>three, the crew has been together for EIGHT YEARS!
Well, who says they're EARTH days?
8-)
--
Jay Hinkelman, a...@mentor.cc.purdue.edu, ja...@purccvm.bitnet
"Lord Julius, the Minister for Executive Planning requests an audience."
"Not a chance -- the last time I gave him an audience, he just stood
there and stuttered until everyone walked out on him..."
Seth C. Grandeau
> The writers guide indicates that ship's phasers cannot be used at warp
>speed (use photon torpedoes instead), as the phaser beam is basically EM
>radiation; I don't know if this has been changed or not - anyone remember
>seeing the Enterprise fire phasers at warp speed?
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
In TMP when they enter the worm hole, Kirk calls for the Phasers, but
the guy who was supposed to be captain fires the torpedoes.
Afterwards, he makes some explaination about the new phasers being
tied into the engines, thus they wouldn't work in a wormhole. Kirk's
asking for them, implies that on the old design, the phasers worked in
a worm hole, which is, I believe, at warp speed.
-Seth C. Grandeau
gra...@aerospace.aero.org
Ben Ragunton
>>speed(use photon torpedoes instead), as the phaser beam is basically EM
>>radiation; I don't know of this has been changed or not - anyone remember
>>seeing the Enterprise fire phasers at warp speed?
>In TMP when they enter the worm hole, Kirk calls for the Phasers(some text
>deleted). Kirk's asking for them, implies that on the old design, the
>phasers worked in a worm hole, which is, I believe, at warp speed.
This is a case of retcon. When Gene decided to do TNG, he came up with
the rule that phasers could never be fired during warp travel. I guess he
just wants us to imagine we saw something else whenever a ship used
phasers at warp speed. It's the same with the klingons. They looked more
human in TOS than they did in the movies and now. When everybody started
theorizing as to why the difference in appearance, Gene came forth and
said that the klingons always looked the way they did. Gene has this
thing for retroactive continuity.
Lara Gerofsky
strictly copyrighted material.
Just a friendly note.
Lara
(who owns her own copy of the Writer's Guides from 1-3rd seasons already)
david lu
>more digit. The first 2 digits are '42'. The 4 stands for the 24th
>century, the 2 indicates second season. The additional three digits will
So ... what will happen at the 10th season? Will it wrap
around like an odometer, or will it be the next century (E-E)?
Assuming we get that far, of course.
- David
--
---==lulu@ucrmath==--- just another bewildered college undergraduate.
David T Lu, Amateur Thinker: lu...@ucrmath.ucr.edu, {ucsd, uci}!ucrmath!lulu
"After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless."
- Geoffrey James, _The Tao of Programming_
Hammer
>I would be *real* careful posting from the Writer's Guide. It is
>strictly copyrighted material.
Well, it isn't like the whole thing is going to be posted. Just little
bits and pieces here and there, with attribution I believe. Not much
unlike citing an article in a paper.
>Lara
>(who owns her own copy of the Writer's Guides from 1-3rd seasons already)
How would one go about getting a legal copy? Was it ever considered to
be made available in libraries, or do you have to be a prospective writer
for the show or of books?
__ ___________ __
/_/\/_/_______\_\/\_\
\ \_\ \__ __/ /_/ /
\ __ \ | | / __ /
\_\/\_\|_|/_/\/_/
/ /_/ /| |\ \_\ \
/gr...@hoss.unl.edu\
/_/ /_/_______\_\ \_\
Ralph P Carpenter
>How would one go about getting a legal copy [of the Writers' Guide]?
You can order one from Roddenberry's Lincoln Enterprises, or
pick one up at a con (for more dinero).
--
| Ralph P Carpenter | InterNet: Ral...@acc.fau.edu | Blake's 7: |
| Sr Programmer/Analyst | Carp...@SerVax.Bitnet | The |
| Florida Atlantic Univ | Ci$: 74015,644 GEnie: Ralpho | Motion |
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david lu
>In article <1990Jul29.0...@hoss.unl.edu> gr...@hoss.unl.edu (Hammer) writes:
>>How would one go about getting a legal copy [of the Writers' Guide]?
>
> You can order one from Roddenberry's Lincoln Enterprises, or
Anyone got the address or phone number?
Ralph P Carpenter
>In article <10...@kluge.fiu.edu> [I] write:
>>In article <1990Jul29.0...@hoss.unl.edu> gr...@hoss.unl.edu (Hammer) writes:
>>>How would one go about getting a legal copy [of the Writers' Guide]?
>>
>> You can order one from Roddenberry's Lincoln Enterprises
>
The latest (1986) address I have is
Lincoln Enterprises, Inc.
Box 691370
Los Angeles, CA
90069
Paul S. R. Chisholm
> Enterprises, or pick one up at a con (for more dinero).
I don't thing so. A huckster at a con told me that the only way to get
a legitimate copy was "from Majel" (Lincoln Enterprises); they weren't
licensed for anyone to re-sell.
The Writer's Guide is just a few dozen pages, run off on a copier and
bound like a term paper. It wouldn't be hard for someone to run a few
off and sell them. That means it wouldn't be hard for a huckster to
purchase (say) three for resale, and sell twenty. (The guide isn't a
great document; you won't find any surprises in there.)
Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories
att!mtunq!psrc, ps...@mtunq.att.com, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm
I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind.
Ralph P Carpenter
>In article <10...@kluge.fiu.edu> carp...@serss0.fiu.edu (Ralph P Carpenter) writes:
>> You can order [a ST:TNG Writer's Guide] from Roddenberry's Lincoln
>> Enterprises, or pick one up at a con (for more dinero).
>
>a legitimate copy was "from Majel" (Lincoln Enterprises); they weren't
>licensed for anyone to re-sell.
Um, /what/ don't you think so? I merely said that it was
/possible/ to pick up copies at cons. I've seen them. Whether they
were legitimate or not, I didn't inquire: I moved along.
If the Writer's Guides aren't "licensed for re-sale", then, of
course *RED ALERT RED ALERT* /don't/ buy them at cons, buy them from
Majel.
--
| Ralph P Carpenter | InterNet: ral...@acc.fau.edu | Blake's 7: |
| Sr Programmer/Analyst | ral...@fauvax.bitnet | The |
Ben Ragunton
>"from Majel" (Lincoln Enterprises); they weren't licensed for anyone to
>re-sell.
They are available at cons. In fact, Lincoln Enterprises themselves are at
almost every convention I go to, and they sell writer's guides from every
season along with final scripts from episodes. In fact, these scripts even
have scenes that are cut out due to the episode running long.
Ben Ragunton
"God, I liked him better before he died!" - McCoy
John W Connelly
>In TMP when they enter the worm hole, Kirk calls for the Phasers, but
>the guy who was supposed to be captain fires the torpedoes.
>Afterwards, he makes some explaination about the new phasers being
>tied into the engines, thus they wouldn't work in a wormhole. Kirk's
>asking for them, implies that on the old design, the phasers worked in
>a worm hole, which is, I believe, at warp speed.
I think that Kirk's ordering phasers only implies that before the refit,
phasers were not channeled through the warp engines as they were under Capt.
Decker's new ship. True, they were going FTL while in the wormhole, but
Decker's explanation as to why phasers wouldn't work had nothing to do with
being in a wormhole per se. His explanation, if I remember it, was that the
phasers were cut off because the warp engines went into imbalance.
--JC
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