Re-Mastered & Enhanced Classic Star Trek

[Supplement Four]

How the heck did I miss this? How long as it been going on?

Re-Mastered and Enhanced CLASSIC STAR TREK aired on TV?

As much geekness that I'm tied into--that my friends are tied into?

How did we miss this?

I gotta catch some of these.

 

[Scarecrow]

Not long. About a year.

The idea was mooted a few years back by the guy in charge of the cgi special effects on the Director's Cut of the Motion Picture. He redid a section of a show and it was done superbly. It's online (legally and officially) somewhere. As far as I understand it, Paramount at the time didn't want to know. Now they've gone ahead and done it and he's not involved, strangely.

I've seen one of them but I wasn't impressed. They didn't do as much as they could have in my opinion. Not as good as the prototype. I'd like to see some others though.

Crow

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Not trying to threadcrap, but the special effects are secondary to a good script. You can add any amount of CGI you want to The Trouble With Tribbles or The City on the Edge of Forever and it won't change the fact that those episodes were great because they were written great.

Sorry if I seem cranky, but I often wonder how much better some science fiction TV shows and movies would be if the production company had spent the same amount of money on a writer as they did on the special effects.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Since as a german I can compare "Raumpatrollie" (bad to decend tricks(1), good writers, good actors) to TOS (slightly better tricks, acceptabel writers, don't get me started on the actors):

MUCH BETTER!

Seven 1 hour space patrol shows tell us more about the universe, organisations and technologies than the whole first season of TOS. At the same time the show has a "I want to serve there/live there" feeling and enough action and humor.

ORION (secondary title) lived on as a pulp series with 150+ stories (60 pages A5) and a short lived novel series (6 novels IIRC), adding more depth to the universe (and another 3 ORION ;=) )

Therefor: Lichtspruch from ORB over EAS4 to all TRAV units: Rücksturz to Earth ;=)


(1) They did re-use common household inventories and some drawings but on general decoration and tricks where on the same level as TOS 1. season. Hey, they even showed landing scenes and shuttles.

 

[Scarecrow]

Well, that's the thing. All that the CGI in the Trek Special Editions is doing is enhancing the things they either couldn't do or couldn't afford or just plain got wrong in the 60's. It's only improving the exisitng effects shots. The actors and the story are untouched.
The external ship-shots are more convincing and at more dramatic angles. Ditto the images on the main viewer. The static computer displays on the bridge now animate. The Enterprise in the opening credits flies forwards instead of slightly to the side etc etc...
It's trivial stuff and doesn't necessarily need to be done but it looks cool and I don't think it's in any way intended to encroach on the story.

That's where the Star Wars special editions went wrong: Spend a fortune adding in a rubbish Jabba scene that no-one wants or needs. Adjust the Han/Greedo scene so that Greedo shoots first - again not wanted or needed - but don't touch the painted stick lightsabres! Where's the sense?

Crow

 

[Andrew Boulton]

There was a thread about this in Random Static last year.

I'm not too happy about these "special editions". I don't mind them cleaning up the image or fixing matte lines etc, but once they start "improving" things just because they have money and technology that the original creators didn't, IMHO they cross the line.

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by Jeff M. Hopper:
Not trying to threadcrap, but the special effects are secondary to a good script. You can add any amount of CGI you want to The Trouble With Tribbles or The City on the Edge of Forever and it won't change the fact that those episodes were great because they were written great.

Sorry if I seem cranky, but I often wonder how much better some science fiction TV shows and movies would be if the production company had spent the same amount of money on a writer as they did on the special effects.

Amen.

I didn't even have the heart to cut your quote down.

Not too many shows these days are Battlestar Galactica. I don't think I've ever been able to sit through an episode of Stargate or its spinoff. And, although I have sat through an episode or so of Farscape, I kept repeating to myself,"What an opportunity lost."

Star Trek (especially some gems in The Old Series and Next Generaation, and the later episodes of Deep Space Nine)
Babylon 5
Firefly
Battlestar Galactica

The good ones are far too infrequent.

With the success of Galactica, I was hoping we'd see some quality stuff coming up the pike. Out of all the new shows on the SciFi Channel, I haven't seen one other show that intersts me.

So much for the "quality" clones.

It's gotta be so much easier to just put out some crap.

-S4

 

[Supplement Four]

Whaddaya know...

I see THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE was actually on last night, and I was able to tape it before I went to bed.

I watched the first 15 minutes.

Yep, just the SFX shots are improved (and the faded color and stuff is given a face lift).

Heck, I liked it. I'm going to finish watching the episode, and then try to catch all the others when they're broadcast (Saturday and Sunday nights, here in Houston).

But, hey, I love TOS anyway.

-S4

 

[Klaus]

Heroes is damn fine and has become my 'favourite new show'. Not a spaceship in sight though...

BSG and, coff, SG Atlantis are now the only spaceship shows around... Not good.

 

[Supplement Four]

Originally posted by Klaus:
Heroes is damn fine and has become my 'favourite new show'. Not a spaceship in sight though...

I've got a couple of friends who love Heroes. I was really excited about it, but let down once I saw the premier. Then, since my two friends were so into it, I gave it about 4-5 shows to catch my attention.

It never did.

I can see what people like in it--it's just not for me. Of course, my two friends who dig the show are also comic book readers. I don't read comics--they don't do anything for me. I'd rather spend my time on (and money on) a good scifi novel.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

I've not seen it yet, but Heroes - like Lost and BSG - seems to be picking up a large non-geek audience.

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

The Doomsday Machine was one of my favorite episodes from TOS, I just checked and it was written by Norman Spinrad.

 

[Jeffr0]

The shows were great because the special effects stunk.

They had to use the fx sparingly and instead focus on crazy things like character and dialogue....

 

[Starviking]

Originally posted by Scarecrow:
The external ship-shots are more convincing and at more dramatic angles. Ditto the images on the main viewer. The static computer displays on the bridge now animate. The Enterprise in the opening credits flies forwards instead of slightly to the side etc etc...

I actually hate that about the new series. From a distance the external shots are fine, but close-up they are too "perfect". I preferred the grainy footage of TOS.

I really hate the way the ships fly now. In the original series it felt very naval, which fitted in with the "Hornblower in space" feel. Now ships handle more like fighters or dune-buggies (spinning on a dime...). There is no feeling of grandeur or majesty in that.

All the other clean-ups are fine, but really, they don't bring much to an already excellent show.

Starviking

 

[Jame]

I've seen a few of these (miraculously, someone put it on the local non-cable ABC affiliate), and I actually like it, mostly.

The stories do seem somewhat simple compared to what's on nowadays, though, or even compared to the TOS movies.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Watchabel episodes of TOS:

Patterns of Force:

Never shown in Germany but thankfully availabel in english. Nice comedy, dialogs like:

Kirk: My uniform is much more decorated than yours Spock
Spock: Indeed Captain, you make a very convincing Nazi

The one where the meet "Apollo" and the god takes a liking of Scottys love interst.

Tribbels. Almost as good as the DS9 version of it

Otherwise I prefer post Roddenberry TNG, DS9 after first season and Enterprise.