Star Trek - Remastered

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Digital Jedi

Digital Jedi

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Well, in spirit anyway. I don't what time they've been showing them nationally, but at 8 pm here on Saturdays there showing Star Trek and they're doing something with the episodes that I said they should have done away back when DS9 was on the air. During the last seasons of DS9, they had the crew go back in time and interact with the crew of the classic Enterprise. The did it so flawlessly, updating the Special effects from the "Trouble with Tribble" episodes, that I said they should do that to the classic series. Update the Special Effects ala Star Wars Special Edition.

Well, come to find out they did just that. I'm watching the classic episode "I, Mud" and I'm seeing all kinds of thing I don't remember, and special effects that I definitely know have been updated. And it's flawlesly done. Even the colors have been enhanced. It looks pretty good.
 
At least you didn't have to stay up until 4:00 to see it. My local airing of them is at 3:00am Sundays. Ugh. (It's on WBFF-DT2 [45.2] in case anyone in Baltimore has been looking for it)

I made it until about 3/4 of the way through "I, Mudd" last night. Couldn't pull that one out. I did manage to stay up for all of "The City on the Edge of Forever" last week :)
 
Yeah, there wasn't much to update on "The City on the Edge of Forever", other then the colors. Though I did notice something different about the Guardian that looked different, but couldn't quite place it.

Now on "I, Mud", I did notice the little gears and gizmos in the androids belly were completely redone. When he closed his stomach panel, it merged seamless with his skin, and the gizmos were more believable. Plus, there was this awesome beauty shot at the end with the Enterprise breaking orbit.

I wish I had been paying attention to these. I've known about them for weeks, but I was always doing other things while I listened to them. I hate that I paid no attention to "Balance of Terror" when it was running. Hopefully they'll show reruns.

Coincidentally they show it here at 3am also on Sundays. Maybe it is on on Saturdays at an earlier time in your area.

What I really want to see redone is "Catspaw". That was one of teh worst visually effects episodes they ever had, and in desperate need of a redo. And I would love if they could do something with that goofy Gorn costume.
 
Digital Jedi said:
Coincidentally they show it here at 3am also on Sundays. Maybe it is on on Saturdays at an earlier time in your area.
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Dude, if you can find me a reliable schedule for WBFF-DT2 (Baltimore Metro) I'd be forever in your debt. I've even e-mailed the station and they don't seem to care. Everything I've found is just a regurgitation of WBFF-TV's primary schedule. It's called "Good TV" and airs things like Magnum, PI, Sanford and Son, all kinds of old shows.

The station information is as follows:

WBFF-DT2
Neilson Metro: Baltimore, Maryland
Actual Channel: UHF 46.2
Mapped HDTV Channel: 45.2
Comcast Cable Baltimore Channel: 206
www.foxbaltimore.com
 
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/25835.html

Here's an episode guide of the remastered series. I'm was so looking forward to "Catspaw" and missed it this Sunday. There may be a slight chance they are rerunning it on Saturday, but we'll see. What I was really looking forward to were the aliens at the end of the episode. They were probably the WORST special effects the series ever had, as they didn't even attempt to conceal the strings controlling the puppetry. I caught a glimpse of the new aliens on the websites preview and they were total CGI and very cool looking. But "Catspaw" is the only episode of the original series I've never seen all the way through. I always catch the end. <sigh>

Now I'm really looking forward to "The Menagerie", "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (it was the first regular episode and Kirk's tombstone as reads James R. Kirk. :haveaday ) and "Arena" (except it doesn't look like they did much about that rubber Gorn costume <double sigh>. I could be wrong though. Well see.)


LOL, Check these videos out: http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/23775.html
 
Digital Jedi said:
Now I'm really looking forward to "The Menagerie", "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (it was the first regular episode and Kirk's tombstone as reads James R. Kirk. :haveaday ) and "Arena" (except it doesn't look like they did much about that rubber Gorn costume <double sigh>. I could be wrong though. Well see.)
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"Arena" wasn't much different. Although I really think they added some scenes in the beginning. I just don't remember the opening mortar sequence being nearly that long :)

I missed "The Trouble with Tribbles" this past weekend. I just couldn't make it to 4:00am, but this week ... "Mirror, Mirror"! Evil Cartman, er ... I mean Spock!
 
I saw the Cat's Paw episode and the did clean it up alot. I was looking for the strings at the end, but nope. they could've smooothed out the slow-mo a little better (one of the things that bugged me in the beginning, along wiht only showing the large cat in shadow, but what could they do about that). Short of remastery on a Lucasian level, I think they're doing pretty good with what they've got to work with and keeping the original intact.
 
Yeah, they said they didn't want to change the content, just smooth out what was already there. Hence the reason why you don't see the enterprise doing barrel rolls or anything like that. But you know what I really hope they do? CG in Kirk's face into his body double in a few fight scenes. Like the one where Kirk splits in two and fights himself. They used to make no attempt at hiding body double faces in the 60s, largely, I think, because TV screens were much smaller back then, so you shouldn't have been able to pick-up on it. Still, I'm getting tired of seeing that guy fight all the time. LOL
 
Should be easy enough, they did it for that girl on Jerasic Park, when she fell throughthe vent....her stunt double accidentally looked up and they didn't catch it, so they had to superimpose in Post. Of course, it' won't be as easy to do with archival footage (getting the light right and everything), but with computers being what they are today, it couldn't be too hard.
 
Well, when they did the DS9 episode where they went back in time and boarded the original Enterprise (during the "Trouble with Tribbles" episode), they replaced whole characters using the process. Like when Kirk was chastising his crewmen for brawling, they replaced two of the crewmen in the lineup with Bashir and O'Brien. Obrien even replaced one of the guys Kirk speaks directly to. They also did it at the end where Sisko has a conversation with Kirk (Which they snagged from the closing scene in "Mirror, Mirror"). Some some of the security guards in the background where replaced with staff members making cameo appearances.
 
"Space Seed" airs today in my area. I didn't go to bed lat night, so I'm not sure I can hang till 8 to watch it. it's getting kind of hard to type and to focus. I usually don't stay up this long. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing the episode in those great colors. Apparently their only remastering the episodes with the hottest chicks. :D

I really liked "Mirror, Mirror". The remastered Agonizer and Agony Booth were a nice touch. I particularly liked the Agony Booth. There was a sense of real pain being inflicted, rather then just Chekhov standing under a light screaming. Though I thought they would have remastered the "secret weapon" a little bit. Maybe I just don't remember the actual vaporizing correctly.

There's not much I can remember from Space Seed that needs remastering other then music, sound and colors. Though from the online preview, it looks like Enterprise crew members get smacked around a bit more. :)
 
Digital Jedi said:
Though from the online preview, it looks like Enterprise crew members get smacked around a bit more. :)
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They knew the risks when they put on the RED shirts. Dummies. :p
 
Episode 2, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" airs this weekend. While this is the second episode, it's actually the first time a Star Trek actually aired on television. The original pilot, "The Cage", with a completely different cast, not counting Spock, was rejected by CBS because they thought it was to brainy for television audiences. They wanted more action. So Roddenberry recast most of the crew and came up with this slightly more knock-down-drag-out version. Interestingly, they ended up ditching the greenish-grey uniforms they wore in episode 2 for the more colorful versions they wore in the original pilot for the rest of series.

I nabbed some screen shots from startrek.com of one of the original space sequences and the remastered version. The bottom is the original, as if you couldn't tell. I never could understand how the Great Barrier could be one long straight line and be the barrier that surrounds the galaxy. The remastered version makes a lot more sense.

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djp952 said:
"Arena" wasn't much different. Although I really think they added some scenes in the beginning. I just don't remember the opening mortar sequence being nearly that long :)

I missed "The Trouble with Tribbles" this past weekend. I just couldn't make it to 4:00am, but this week ... "Mirror, Mirror"! Evil Cartman, er ... I mean Spock!
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Turns out they enlarged the devastation area in the opening shot of "Arena". There's a big sheet of crumpled metal in the background of the original shot that was inconsistent with the rest of the episode. They added a crater and a mountain range more consistent with the episode. And in the actual show, there's smoke billowing from that crater. They also added the Gorn ship, which wasn't shown in the original episode. Although they only show it from far away to be more consistent with the storyline, they still whipped up a digital configuration we've never seen before and added it to the Star Trek mythos. They did the same thing for the shuttle in the episode "The Menagerie". The shuttle Kirk and the Admiral pursue the Enterprise in was only seen from far originally. In the new one, we can see the shuttles name, The Picasso and designation, which it never had before. Before, it was just a re-use of the Galileo.

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As great and timeless as Star Trek is, I am against any changes to the original episodes just to impress the newer generations that can't appreciate the series for what it was. Why not spend this time creating a new series of something (but not Everybody Loves Raymond); this is almost as bad as remaking movies that were good to begin with; why not remake bad movies and make them good?
 
I, personally, and coincidental, had this same idea back when they made the "Trial and Tribble-ations" DS9 episode awhile back. If you watch these episodes closely though, they've changed nothing. The stories are identical. The pacing is not affected at all. And no revisions to history, they have been extremely faithful to what has gone before.

The only thing that has been changed are (by the series creator's and cast's own admission) the limited Special Effects they had at that time. Did you know that there were only three to four shots of the original Enterprise printing a planet in the original series that they just reused over and over again? There were strings on some aliens that were clearly puppets, and scenes that were constrained to to budget concerns. Add to that, they high def-ed the color from the original negative so were seeing what original came out of that camera all those years ago, which we've never had a chance to see.

So their not really making the shows more interesting for a newer generation, their giving them the treatment that they couldn't afford or didn't have the technology to do before. As a long time Trek fan, I think this was ling time in coming. You have no idea how grateful I am to see the Enterprise moving in a straight line, instead of sideways. =/
 
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