This is one of the coolest, boldest, most brilliant things Voyager ever did! Captain Proton was inspired!
One of the most remarkable experiences I had while working so many years on Star Trek, was being on the Captain Proton sets. Richard James and company did a wonderful, brain warping job. You were instantly transported to the late 30’s, but that’s not all… the sets were painted in the B&W. You didn’t just time travel, but felt as though you had leapt into 1940’s serial. What an uncanny feeling.
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Screen caps courtesy Jörg .
Is it bad that I’m disappointed that you didn’t build a plastic model and dangle it on strings? ;-P
And the SETS were black and white? I want to see a shot of them on set!
I kinda wish they’d done that, too
Saw this episode again recently and I just loved the over-the-top, lets have fun with it, cheesiness. Kate Mulgrew really seed to be enjoying hamming it up.
This was the look of the future for a very long time. It took people like Matt Jeffries to completely change our notions of what a spaceship might look like.
Didn’t Robert Duncan MacNeill burn his butt on that jetpack?
I especially like 7of9s no-nonsense way of dealing with science-fiction threats from the 1930s.
I can’t imagine how difficult it would have been to paint the sets in B&W. Oil painters are taught to make underpaintings in a B&W tonal scale, but paintings are 2-D. Holy Cow.
I bet this was one of the fun ones for everyone involved, I mean we all watched the old Flash Gordon serials and wanted those adventures. I laughed out loud when they had to get Capt Janeway involved, Kate Mulgrew should have gotten all kinds of awards for this one.
Terry
I can imagine you guys would´ve loved to have more time to spend working on these shots ^^
Flash! Aah-aaahhhh!!! Saviour of the Universe!
Yes! I love the campy fun of the 1980 Flash Gordon movie, and the Queen soundtrack rocks!
I just started watching this movie late last night and was thrilled to hear a “new” Queen soundtrack! They did it all, just like Highlander (Princes of the Universe – best ever!), great! I was too tired to get more than started on it, but I’m looking forward to some popcorn fun later on.
Princes of the Universe video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnrXiaPVeHY
Two of my favorite movies and my favorite band! You have excellent taste, young lady.
There can be only one!
Gordon’s alive?!
Somehow, despite all the campness, Flash was still a great film.
I find the camp very much a part of its charm. When Dale walks down the aisle to the sound of Brian May playing “The Wedding March”? Brilliant, fun, and hilarious.
These were always great episodes. Martin Rayner as Dr Chaotica cracked me up with his interpretation of the line “Fool!”
The Captain Proton segments were great fun and loaded with Art-Deco goodness.
Put me down as another who’d like to see pictures of color people on B&W sets, if such exist.
I can savely say that this cool little bugger has never been reused in any other episode or series
Sure it’s not in the ragtag fleet?
This is the one episode of Voyager I’ve never seen…but have *always* wanted to see!
I find the idea of the sets being painted B&W to be remarkable…that would indeed be one heckuva feat to pull off without screwing up the tones and contrasts. I’d love to see some “colour” photos too. Question though: what was the need to paint them in B&W in the first place? Couldn’t they have just shot with B&W stock?
doubleofive: Great idea about the “model on wires” bit.
What’s really amazing is the longevity of the “Lydecker Rig”. This technique of rigging music wire through a model and “flying” the model on them was still in use until the 1980s, when it was used to good effect in both “The Right Stuff” and “Top Gun”. Many of the effects in those films were very primitively done, and actually looked the more realistic for it.
James Cawley, the guy behind “Star Trek: Phase II” has also acquired the rights to do a “Buck Rogers” series, which he says he plans to do as a period piece. Wouldn’t it be cool to see Captain Proton’s ship go flying by in an establishing shot?
I absolutely love anything Captain Proton! Hey, Doug, did you see the Proton “retrospective” in a recent issue of ST Magazine……?
Proton’s rocket actually looks like an Okazaki UESPA ship. Very nice indeed, and I’d love to see shots of the set if you have any
I love the texture on the model of Proton’s ship. It actually looks like it’s carved from wood! (And it would’ve been wood back in the ’30s, or metal, not plastic. Heck, the original Enterprise was mostly wood!)
It would’ve been cooler if you’d actually turned out a wooden model and flown it Lydecker-style in front of a black velvet sheet with pinholes in it (or maybe with Christmas lights taped onto it like in Space Academy). But since what we were seeing was the holodeck’s computer-generated recreation of the Captain Proton serials, I guess I can buy using a CGI simulation of a small wooden ship model.
The exhaust smoke in the screencap doesn’t look CGI, though. I figure that was a live element composited onto the digital ship?
I’m not sure that’s a wood texture. It looks like motion-blurred Photoshop noise, which could just as well have been intended to represent brushed metal of some kind.
I’m referring to the orthographic images, not the screencaps, so motion blur wouldn’t be involved.
I always perked up when Tom and Harry even mentioned Captain Proton! What a great idea for this series. It was perfect for the character to have this escape on the holodeck, especially seeing as the plan is to travel as quickly in one general direction for 70 years – a little imagination can go a long way to keeping your sanity. Until the program goes a bit wrong, that is!
Love the ship, and the campiness on VOY was priceless. Janeway in that getup…crazy!
Love it
Always loved FG, and Captain proton on Voyager was always a treat.
The campness, the ridiculous soundtrack, the screaming women, the funny looking ships, the questionable technology, that dustbin-robot (oh, he was called Satin’s Robot wasn’t he? haha!!), the bonkers costumes, all those ingredients that were brought together to become the Captain Proton episodes were absolutely fantastic! I loved it all but like a pet that you look after for a friend whilst he goes off for a week on holiday, I was glad to send it back to the 30’s (the Proton-universe, not the pet!) where it came from and return to Voyagers 24th Century! (thank god Sci-Fi grew up!)
Lightening shield! Death ray!! – Excellent! The guy who played Chaotica was an absolute hoot to watch as well! Well done guys and gals!!
And cheers Doug for posting the renders of Proton’s ship! I never thought too much about it at the time but now that I can get a good eyeball on it I would dare say that Proton’s ship still looks too good to be representative of the kind of sci-fi ship that was being depicted in the thirties! Having this design made into a hold-in-your-hands model so it could fly around on strings probably would have been a good idea!
I loved Capt. Proton, but I’m definitely glad they didn’t overdo it! I’m with you on that one, Stu.
“You were instantly transported to the late 30’s, but that’s not all… the sets were painted in the B&W.”
Interesting; I don’t suppose you have any photos of them ‘in living color,’ as it were?
Captain Proton
I mean you have a holodeck that isone of the coolest things to have ever !!!
You can make any thing you want in Hollow Pursuits you can even make upyou own Troi.
What would anyone make a black and white TV show.
Things i would make
Troi (in her wedding outfit)
Kitt from Knight rider action adventure
Megan fox action Beach adventure
Flying a viper from the 70s series ( not the political drama from today)
Jennifer love Hewitt Vrs Jeri ryan in a jelly fight.
Theese things i think about when at work…….
Hey, wouldn’t it be great if somebody rendered the 50’s Deep Space 9 from “Far beyond the stars” as a companion piece:
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/en/images/f/f4/‘Far_Beyond_the_Stars’_sketch.jpg
That’d be a pretty simple job, I reckon.
this was on episode of voyager i enjoyed. i watched the flash gordon serials repeatedly when i was a kid in the early nineties, i couldn’t get enough of them, then i discovered the movie and the soundtrack and i couldn’t get enough of that. this episode was a great way to pay homage to the sci-fi of yesteryear.
Captain Proton was priceless! I loved it when Voyager stepped out of the Trek universe for a little bit and did these episodes. They looked like so much fun and the music that was written for them was spot on! (I think it was David Bell?) The VFX they used to make these episodes were top notch.
I too enjoyed the Captain Proton episodes. I really lik the idea that in-universe they enter the holodeck and everything turns b/w even for the players.
On the set being painted b/w – I too would love to see some shots. A while back I saw a picute of a WWII diorama with a M4 Sherman tank crossing a bridge (even with bullets spraying the water below) and everything was painted in b/w. It was pretty amazing.
@Jörg
I am with you regarding the “Far beyond the stars” space station. To me, on of the best and most beloved DS9 episodes (amongst those with a darker, more serious tone).
“You are the dream, and the dreamer.” “it exists, it is real…” man, what a performance by Avery Brooks and the rest of the cast. But I digress.
Cheers
Thorsten
Someone has “Bride of Chaotica” on YouTube. Here’s Part One starting with the teaser entirely in the holodeck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3ZxOiXtWtg
I *love* the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials. I had given up on Star Trek: Voyager before the first Captain Proton episode aired… but these images have just about convinced me to buy the DVDs for seasons which feature that “universe.” Thanks for the blog entry!
I LOVE CAPTAIN PROTON!
And it was a fun bonus level for the “Elite Force” game!
How long did it take to model the ship?
I just reread this blog… and I’m even more fascinated with Captain Proton. Time to figure out which episodes featured that “universe”… and then to price pre-owned DVD box sets.
The set was painted black and white?!?!?! Wow! The whole Captain Proton thing was really interesting. Pure fun to watch.
I wonder who his brothers are: Captain Neutron and Captain Electron
and his arch nemesis is Captain Positron or antiproton.
I spelled it wrong sorry.