Science Fiction Effect

The Science in Science Fiction: The Changing of Times and Special Effect in Producing Sci-Fi Programs

Captain Kirks 1960s TV series Opening Narration:

“Space. The final frontier. There are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It’s 5 year mission: the explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before”.

Since the beginning, the sci-fi genre has used special effects and sound to create the technologically advanced future worlds including space exploration and adventuring to alien planets. Traditionally, the sci-fi genre has been used to display a technologically advanced future and in some cases involving space travel. Since George Melies’s Trip to the Moon (1902 film), the

These special effects were heavily used in the 1960s Star Trek TV series. With a low budget, it took innovation to achieve the number of shots of ‘film quality’. The Howard Anderson Company was the original effects studio that contributed in the building of the USS Enterprise and for devising the effect used for the transporter, an effect present throughout the Trek series for years to come. The transporter is what the crew of the Enterprise used to beam to planets from the spaceship or anywhere. This special effect was achieved through a low-tech way, involving aluminium powder and optical compositing. The way it worked was simple, first footage had to be taken of the character or characters that were being transported, then of them stepped out of the frame while the camera captured an empty set. A “mask” was needed of the figures being beamed, the outline of the figure. Aluminium powder would be dropped from above and lighting with an intensive light against a black background which was photographed separately. It was the use of aluminium powder and lighting gave the glittering or beam effect to this visual effect (Ian Failes, 2016). This special effect used for the transporter really made an impact as scene in shot 5 in the selected clip of the original series, when Scotty, Spock and Bone beam up Mudd. This helped create the illusion of technologically advanced future of man kind, where they can transport from one place to the next. Whereas in the Reboot films, miniature models have been replaced by digital models created by