Flare Sci-fi Forums
Flare Sci-Fi Forums Post New Topic  Post A Reply
my profile | directory login | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Flare Sci-Fi Forums » Star Trek » General Trek » Car Trek (Page 1)

  This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3   
Author Topic: Car Trek
The_Tom
recently silent
Member # 38

 - posted      Profile for The_Tom     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
(quite a few images, so apologies for the wait)


Once upon a time, there was a television show entitled "Car Trek". It was about the adventures of a guy named Kirk who crisscrossed the American heartland in the mid-seventies. He drove a 1975 Chevy Monte Carlo, which the show's devoted fans nicknamed "Ol' Constitution."

The show would spawn a movie franchise, and the producers decided to freshen the look of the "Ol' Constitution" by this time using a 1979 Monte Carlo.

In Car Trek III: The Search for a Short-Cut, we caught a glimpse at the future of car design when we saw the "Excelsiorific" 1985 Ford Taurus, which was far sleeker and more modern-looking than anything that had come so far.

The show's producers went a step further when they put together a sequel show, Car Trek: The Next Gas-Station, jumping a whole twenty years to the mid-nineties. In accordance with this, they used a car a whole 20 model years in advance of the original "Constitution." This time, a curvier, larger, and more comfy car was used, the "Galaxy" 1995 Oldsmobile Aurora

This show was wildly successful, and between it and its numerous spinoff series and films a whole family of cars from about the same time would be introduced...

One was the smaller and sleeker lines of the "Intrepid" 2000 Ford Focus.

Another, the longer and still-sleeker "Sovereign" 2001 Chrysler 300M.

Often, the show's production staff would look for ways to create a unique-looking car. One way they came up with was to radically alter the back end of the cabin by removing the back roof altogether, resulting in something called a "convertible." One such car, a little older in vintage than the Galaxy-Aurora, was the "Akira" 1992 Chrysler LeBaron.

And then word came that there would be a new "Car Trek" show, taking place in the distant and primevial mid-fifties, and with a car as much older than the original as the "The Next Gas-Station" was ahead of it. Now, the fans had never actually seen a car from before the seventies, but by now the show's devotees had figured out a pattern to the design lineage of these cars... as time went by they got bigger and sleeker looking, while preserving the same basic shape. So they all guessed that the car in this show would look like this.

But, no, a picture of the car leaked, and it didn't look anything like that. It was a Plymouth, apparently from 1955.

And there was outrage online! "It looks all curvy and modern-looking," said one. "It's just a ripoff of the Akira-LeBaron," said another, "I mean, look, the entire arrangement of the back of the cabin is exactly the same!" "There's no way this could predate "Ol' Constitution," they all howled.

And they all lit torches and charged off into the deep dark forest, looking for the Big Bad Plagiarising Wolf named Eaves.

--------------------
"I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)


Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Aethelwer
Frank G
Member # 36

 - posted      Profile for Aethelwer     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
That post is beautiful.
Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Mark Nguyen
I'm a daddy now!
Member # 469

 - posted      Profile for Mark Nguyen     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
I'm still laughing. That was a wonderful perspective on the whole affair.

And honestly, this is just another example of how Paramount tries to give something the fans will like, and we ram it down their throats. It's clear that the fandom loves the Akira class - there are hundreds of fanboy "WHY DON"T U MAKE A SEREZ BOUT AN AKIUH CLASS SHIP????????" proposals that attest to it. So when TPTB gives them something that looks like one for a main ship even if only in general arrangement, we go nuts. Sow and reap, gents.

Regardless, I'm still gonna wait until we get a decent five-view or three-quarter view before rendering judgement on the ship. And certainly until after a few episodes air before judging the series on the basis of its ship.

Mark

--------------------
"This is my timey-wimey detector. Goes ding when there's stuff." - Doctor Who
The 404s - Improv Comedy | Mark's Starship Bridge Designs | Anime Alberta


Registered: Dec 2000  |  IP: Logged
Siegfried
Fullmetal Pompatus
Member # 29

 - posted      Profile for Siegfried     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
The_Tom, that post was !@#$ing beautiful, man. Just really !@#$ing beautiful. You, sir, should be worshipped as a god.

I'm still laughing about that!


Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
TSN
I'm... from Earth.
Member # 31

 - posted      Profile for TSN     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Hm... Would've been more accurate if, instead of a '55 Plymouth, you'd used another LeBaron, but w/ different rims and a different paint color... :-)
Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Mark Nguyen
I'm a daddy now!
Member # 469

 - posted      Profile for Mark Nguyen     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Actually, when I was clicking the link to the diagram, I was half-expecting to see the Flintstones' family car.

Mark

--------------------
"This is my timey-wimey detector. Goes ding when there's stuff." - Doctor Who
The 404s - Improv Comedy | Mark's Starship Bridge Designs | Anime Alberta


Registered: Dec 2000  |  IP: Logged
Wes
Over 20 years here? Holy cow.
Member # 212

 - posted      Profile for Wes     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by TSN:
Hm... Would've been more accurate if, instead of a '55 Plymouth, you'd used another LeBaron, but w/ different rims and a different paint color... :-)

I do belive his point was to demonstrate that, although the car from 1955 was more 'curvy' then the ones that came after it, it still predated it because 'curvy' isnt recent concept... apply this to the Akira/Akiraprise


Registered: Aug 1999  |  IP: Logged
colin
Active Member
Member # 217

 - posted      Profile for colin         Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Good illustrative analysis of the issue.
Registered: Sep 1999  |  IP: Logged
AndrewR
Resident Nut-cache
Member # 44

 - posted      Profile for AndrewR     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
LOL! Great! Bernd should put this up at his site!?!

and

Akiraprise - PERFECT!

--------------------
"Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)

I'm LIZZING! - Liz Lemon (30 Rock)


Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Bernd
Guy from Old Europe
Member # 6

 - posted      Profile for Bernd     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
I had a good laugh about it, although I disagree about the punchline.

The_Tom must have fallen for a hoax. The new Car Trek car is actually an "Akira" 1957 Chrysler LeBaronWhoCares, with a chrome-plated bumper and white sidewall tires, ABS, airbags and GPS.


Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Siegfried
Fullmetal Pompatus
Member # 29

 - posted      Profile for Siegfried     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Ah, but in the Car Trek universe, we do not know when chrome-plated bumpers, white sidewall tires, antilock brakes, airbags, and global positioning devices were invented. We have references on the order of "hundreds of years" and "several decades," but General Motors has never told us when these options started being installed in its production models.
Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Austin Powers
Slightly warped
Member # 250

 - posted      Profile for Austin Powers     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Aren't we all just crazy? I love it! Simply great.
Registered: Nov 1999  |  IP: Logged
OnToMars
Now on to the making of films!
Member # 621

 - posted      Profile for OnToMars     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
A ragtop is a far more general feature of cars than is analagous of the Akira/Akiraprise.

We saw the Cheyenne and did not consider it a rip-off of the Constellation. We saw the Nebula and did not consider it a rip-off of the Miranda. That was because they shared only general design similarities and there was a visible lineage.

A convertible Lebaron and a convertible '57 Chevy are nowhere close to the similarity between Akira and Akiraprise.

[ July 09, 2001: Message edited by: Stingray ]



--------------------
If God didn't want us to fly, he wouldn't have given us Bernoulli's Principle.

Registered: Jun 2001  |  IP: Logged
Siegfried
Fullmetal Pompatus
Member # 29

 - posted      Profile for Siegfried     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Hey, Stingray. Your all but one of your pictures is coming up as a big ol' box with a red "X."
Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
OnToMars
Now on to the making of films!
Member # 621

 - posted      Profile for OnToMars     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
yup, noticed. edited it right away, but figures somebody catches me in the act...

And it figures of all those pictures, the Miata is the one that shows up.

[ July 09, 2001: Message edited by: Stingray ]



--------------------
If God didn't want us to fly, he wouldn't have given us Bernoulli's Principle.

Registered: Jun 2001  |  IP: Logged
  This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3   

Quick Reply
Message:

HTML is enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.

Instant Graemlins
   


Post New Topic  Post A Reply Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


© 1999-2008 Solareclipse Network.

Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3