CompuServe Messages

Grant, I decided to move this thread to the Ramblings section. Hope you and everyone else don't mind. A number of the Scala crew here in the Herndon, VA office got together and watched "ST:Voyager" with Cokes and pizza in hand. Some of us commented that the Voyager looked like a squid. The one sequence where the crew tried to disperse the "wave" with a "plasma" spread, cemented the squid idea, as the plasma was blue in color. We all smiled. Who's idea was that anyway? I think I could tell which were CGs and which were models. What tipped it off for me were scenes (typically far left towards camera) where the "skin" color of the Voyager against the background of space, seemed to have more "alias" than the scenes where models were used. Possibly other shots with CGs were some panning shots where the Voyager increased acceleration. It seemed that the renderings were done by frame rendering, instead of field rendering. Thus these scenes were less smooth. Am I even close? Its OK. I'm ready for you to disprove me. I'm sitting down. ;-} We also noticed that the space backgrounds contained more stars and nebulas than the other ST productions. Yours and the work of your collegues? Producers should continue to keep such high-level detail in the backgrounds. I definitely enjoy and appreciate them! Space does contain more than just points of light. The transporter effects, Federation and others, are brilliant! Great work and my compliments to you, John Gross and the rest of the Amblin Imaging team! I like Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway. Indeed, she has a great precedence to follow, but I'm confident that she will bring a new dimension to the role of captain. Indeed, I'm interested what the writers will do with her character. One thing that bothered some of us who watched when Mulgrew is "on" as Captain, she acts and sounds too much like Katherine Hepburn! I love Hepburn, but, er, not in the Star Trek world. Given time and excellent writing, I think Mulgrew will be able to mature her character and stand side by side with Kirk and Picard. Indeed, I'm glad that Mulgrew was finally cast as Janeway. I've seen Genevive Boujold's previous work and I do not think she could fulfill the role. If anything, Ms. Dennehey (sp), who played Commander Shelby in "Best of Both Worlds", involving the Borg, is the only other possibility who could play the role of Janeway, IMHO. I really had my doubts about the holographic doctor. Now I think he is going to be one of my favorite characters. I detect a little McCoy in this character. Good. I think ST:Voyager is a step forward in this wonderful television series. It certainly has a better "feel" than Deep Space Nine (DS9) and I look forward to every episode to come. To you, John, the rest of the Amblin crew, kudos, bravo and encore! Now, go across the Paramount lot and help those poor people doing DS9. They need it! ;-} Regards, John Chang