Spinning “The Tholian Web”
I don’t remember what the first episode of Star Trek was that I watched as a kid, but for the longest time, “The Tholian Web” was my favorite. I had a poster similar to the one above on my wall, courtesy of the Star Trek Giant Poster Book that was out around 1976. I wanted to use this image as the first entry on Trektography because it was such an iconic image to me growing up.
In a time before flashy, quick edits, shots like this allowed the viewer to absorb what was put on screen. There were several other great shots of the Enterprise in this episode as well, and none of them cut away too fast.
As for the effects themselves, these shots of the Enterprise surrounded by the Tholian web had to be done in three layers: background, Enterprise, and foreground. Mike Minor, who worked on the episode said, “Finally, ‘The Tholian Web’ came up. That was the one [episode] I worked longest on; it involved three or four months out at Frank Van der Veer’s Optical Company. I storyboarded the 17 cuts of effects that the script called for, shot the raw footage and executed all of the animation plates [….] I’m told there was a $90,000 optical bill on that one show.” (Starlog, issue 25, pp. 36 & 61)
The Tholians, and the Defiant would return in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “In a Mirror, Darkly”
The Tholian Web
Aired: Nov. 15, 1968 (Season 3, episode 9)
Effects: Mike Minor and Van der Veer Photo Effects
Category: TOS
