Why did they have the letters and name on the TOP of the starship? I know it looked good on TV, but wouldn't you have it on the bottom? Where someone on a planet could actually see it? Who's ever going to see the top?
Well, there’s really no top or bottom or upside down in outer space… but like you say, it looked really cool on TV.
I liked the upgraded effects episodes a lot more than I expected to. I'm usually against that kind of thing but it was like watching them for the first time again almost and I liked that. Had various Gold Key comics around growing up, those and the animated series were my only extra hits of Trekness.
No, there isn't any top or bottom, or anyone to see the ship most of the time. But when they orbited planets, the bottom part was the part visible from the planet. I know there were cases where they brought those ships into atmospheres.
Yes, there are some episodes where the science fiction comes second to soap. For discovering "new worlds" etc., there isn't very much of that. The civilizations they come across tend to be ancient and only exist to put some member of the crew in danger. BUT nevertheless it's still a great watch. I always feel sorry for the expendables who get beamed down with Kirk and the other regulars.
If you mean the sound being too low, I'd agree. I have to keep turning up my TV. Then, when my wife switches on next day for the news, we get suddenly blasted with sound! But I've got lots of DVDs of old movies that suffer from the same problem. For some reason they never seem to think we want to hear the things as well as see them.
It was perceived, back around 2000 or so, that the old starship effects, and other special effects in STAR TREK were old, grainy, and it was thought that those shots didn't match the live action clarity. So Paramount/CBS took it upon themselves to update the effects using CGI and attempting to meld those shots into the live action. In my opinion it had middling success. Some of these shots look too fake, making them worse than the old grainy ones. They also re-did the opening credits and re-recorded the theme. Here's a video comparison of the original effects and the updated ones: The Blu-rays allow you to choose either effects-set and sound choice.
Paramount remastered all the episodes and "updated " as they say some of the exterior shots with some CGI ... Some of the planets and ships were enhanced from the limitations back in the '60's...I think CBS even showed them when they were first available.Overall most are subtle and were tastefully done.
It still holds up, for the most part. Some female roles are a bit cringey now But the show had a great cast and a lot of heart. the City on Edge of Forever is one of best TV episodes of all time.
Yes, the Enterprise flies all around the universe but only finds planets with more humans who speak perfect English!
Great video, and I definitely prefer the updated version. I've only been watching them on tv channels though, don't know if there might be issues with DVD playback (always good to have the choices there), but for something they weren't going to spend a million on per episode I think they hit a home run and didn't go 'too far'. I think it will be much more watchable and involving for newer viewers.
You’d need really good eyes to read it But yeah a humorous pet peeve of mine in all sci-fi Tv shows and movies is that when space crafts meet each other they’re always lined up on the same plane. Odds are they’d encounter each other at angles and different 360 degrees alignments.
One of my favorites had this alien... Mr. Spock had an odd craving for pizza for a few stardates afterwards though. The planet of Vegas Showgirls definitely stretched credulity however...
I seem to recall at the time there were two companies that competed to do the effects, and in retrospect once some demos came out from the other company, the thought was that CBS might have chosen poorly... Still, they're not *bad* and there are a small handful of additions that work well. But the original effects as presented on the Blu-ray are a little rough and show their age, so YMMV.
Yeah, I find it a tough choice sometimes. I've mostly been watching the updated effects, as that's what's shown when I flip by MeTV or H&I broadcasts. But I've had in the back of my mind that if I put on a Blu-ray, it'll be back to the originals. One of the problems with the updated effects is that they sometimes occur with a fade-in from the live action, which means that the live action has to get cut short to avoid the fade part.
I like to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume there's some kind of auto translation device continually in operation. Maybe those little fish you put in your ear in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
In the very early 80s, when I was about nine or 10, I would go to visit my grandparents in the summertime. Their house had a big front porch, as well as a little space along the side. The porch was the bridge, and the indentation on the side of the house was the transporter room. I would flip my wallet open to be the communicator, and I could play Star Trek by myself for hours. Scotty was my favorite back then, so that’s who I always pretended to be. It’s been an important show in my life for as long as I can remember.
OP, when you finish, be sure to watch Star Trek Continues. It’s a fan created show, but it’s on another level from any other fan created show I’ve ever seen. It will take you only a few minutes to get used to all the new actors playing characters you know so well. The writing is fantastic, the acting is superb, and you even get a few guest appearances from TOS actors. You can watch it for free on YouTube, or you can download disk images from their website if that’s your thing. Of course, they don’t charge any money for it. It was just a labor of love.