Photographic Effects

This is a post born largely out of ignorance. I understand the basics of how Star Trek's special effects were produced -different visual effects houses around Hollywood were commissioned to produce the special effects shots for each episode- but I'm not really sure how that worked on a week by week basis. When Cinema Research Corp. made the effects for Miri were they supplied with pre-shot footage of the duplicate Earth globe, star fields, and the Enterprise and just asked to combine the footage to make the final shot? Or, did they make the globe, and combine it with stock footage of the Enterprise.

I first started wondering about this while watching Mirror, Mirror (Van De Veer Photo Effects). The transporter effect seemed cruder than in other episodes with a noticeable black line almost like a drop shadow around the landing party as they beam up to the Enterprise. In the episode which follows in production order, The Deadly Years (Westheimer Company), the drop shadow effect is still present, presumably a legacy of the optical printing process, but it is nowhere near as pronounced. Since then I've come to suspect the more visible black line is actually a result of the colour grading, as the colours in Mirror, Mirror are more vivid than in The Deadly Years, but it did get me wondering about the differences between the work of each effects house.

Mirror, Mirror

The Deadly Years

The result is the list below showing which companies worked on which episodes, in production order, and there are patterns to the list which fit with stories from other sources. Inside Star Trek by Herbert Solow and Robert Justman recounts a disastrous screening of months of work by Howard Anderson Co, only one moth before Star Trek was due to air. The result was, “six good shots and some others that were partially usable,” when asked where all the other shots were Darrell Anderson, “began to shake. He jumped to his feet, screaming, “You'll never make your first airdate.” Bursting into tears he ran out of the room, still screaming...” “We later found out he had been working both day and night for months, trying to satisfy our needs. That afternoon Darrell went to Palm Springs for a rest cure.”

Sure enough the list shows Howard Anderson Co. is credited for photographic effects for the first six episodes made, with the exception of Mudd's Women (Westheimer Company). Then after a credit for The Menagerie Part II, presumably due to the use of footage from The Cage, they are not used again until halfway through season two. Film Effects Of Hollywood and Westheimer Company handle the majority of the effects for the rest of the first season. Film Effects Of Hollywood are not used after the first year. Inside Star Trek says, “its costs were too high for a television budget.” They were responsible for many of the ambitious first season matte paintings; Starbase 11 in Court Martial and The Menagerie Part I, Eminiar VII in A Taste Of Armageddon, and Janus VI from The Devil In The Dark.

Cinema Research Corp. initially keep producing a blue transporter effect, rather than a yellow one. It can be seen in Miri, The Doomsday Machine, and The Gamesters Of Triskelion before someone obviously has a word and their next episode The Omega Glory has the standard yellow coloured effect. In The Doomsday Machine they also don't hold Kirk frozen on the transporter pad for quite long enough when he beams back from the Constellation. He begins moving while still partially transparent from the cross fade effect. Still he was in a hurry to get to the bridge. 

Miri

The Doomsday Machine

The Gamesters Of Triskelion

The Omega Glory

For some reason Effects Unlimited only ever worked on one story, Who Mourns For Adonais? The episode is unusual in that it features effects combining live action elements, Apollo's hand grabbing the Enterprise and the shot of him towering over the landing party, so possibly Effects Unlimited brought some unique skills to the production which were never needed again.

Howard Anderson Co

Pilot: The Cage
1x01: Where No Man Has Gone Before

1x02: The Corbomite Maneuver

1x04: The Enemy Within

1x05: The Man Trap

1x06: The Naked Time

1x07: Charlie X

1x16: The Menagerie Part II

2x13: The Trouble With Tribbles

2x21: By Any Other Name

2x24: The Ultimate Computer

3x02: Elaan Of Troyius

3x04:The Enterprise Incident

3x10:For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky

3x14:That Which Survives

3x16:Whom Gods Destroy

3x20:The Way To Eden

Westheimer Company

1x03: Mudd's Women

1x09: What Are Little Girls Made Of?

1x10: Dagger Of The Mind

1x12: The Conscience Of The King

1x17:Shore Leave

1x19:Arena

1x21: Tomorrow Is Yesterday

1x24: Space Seed

1x25: This Side Of Paradise

1x27: Errand Of Mercy

1x29: Operation - - Annihilate!
2x01: Catspaw

2x02: Metamorphosis
2x05: Amok Time

2x08: The Changeling

2x09: The Apple

2x11: The Deadly Years

2x15: Journey To Babel

2x18: Obsession

2x20: A Piece Of The Action

2x23: Patterns Of Force

3x01: Spectre Of The Gun
3x06: Spock's Brain

3x08: The Empath

3x11: Day Of The Dove

3x15: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

3x17: The Mark Of Gideon

3x21: Requiem For Methuselah

3x24: Turnabout Intruder

Film Effects Of Hollywood
1x08: Balance Of Terror

1x13: The Galileo Seven

1x14: Court Martial

1x15: The Menagerie Part I
1x18: The Squire Of Gothos

1x20: The Alternative Factor

1x22: The Return Of The Archons

1x23: A Taste Of Armageddon

1x26: The Devil In The Dark

1x28: The City On The Edge Of Forever

Cimema Research Corp 1x11:Miri
2x06: The Doomsday Machine

2x17: The Gamesters Of Triskelion

2x25: The Omega Glory

3x07: Is There In Truth No Beauty

3x13: Wink Of An Eye

3x19: The Cloud Minders

3x23: All Our Yesterdays

Van Der Veer Photo Effects

2x03: Friday's Child

2x07: Wolf In The Fold

2x10: Mirror, Mirror

2x12: I, Mudd

2x14: Bread And Circuses

2x16: A Private Little War

2x19: The Immunity Syndrome

2x22: Return To Tomorrow

2x26: Assignment: Earth

3x03: The Paradise Syndrome

3x05: And The Children Shall Lead

3x09: The Tholian Web

3x12: Plato's Stepchildren

3x18: The Lights Of Zetar

3x22: The Savage Curtain

Effects Unlimited
2x04: Who Mourns For Adonais?