„Star Trek“ original series appreciation thread!

gotcha... thanks...

 

William Shatner Interview: ‘Star Trek’ Feuds and Bezos Space Agenda

 

Looking forward to seeing that documentary. He's such a fascinating human being to me. I saw him speak at a convention a few years ago, expecting a typical Star Trek Q&A kind of thing. It was more of a "life-coaching" speech or "pep talk," and a very entertaining one at that. He did talk quite a bit about his horses, and barely anything Trek-related. It was fantastic.

 

The upcoming documentary? I'm one of the investors on it! It premiered at South by Southwest last night and got some fairly positive reviews! I'm not a huge investor in it by any means, but to be a part of it in some way is nothing short of a dream come true for me.

I've been a TOS fan all my life (second generation or Next Generation, lol - parents started watching it in 1966) and reading about Shatner was a big inspiration to me in performing on stage. Although I'm a guitarist and singer, his passion for acting gave me the courage to use my musical talent to be on stage.

 

Interesting interview. My brother used to own the car they drove in Star Trek IV. He signed the dash for him after flirting with my sister-in-law. He was a crack up at the time. Still is. I think that all of the issues that he and George Takei have will never be resolved. He wasn’t very nice while shooting the show according to many in the set but he did try and improve as he got older. Thar’s all one can ask I suppose.

He still managed to alienate Nimoy later in life so he can still be quite tone deaf.

When Shatner was at his best as an actor, he could be riveting but when he hammed it up, it could be an issue.

 

Yes, that documentary! Congrats on being a part of it - that has to be very cool for a longtime ST fan. Glad to hear it got positive reviews.

 

I didn’t read the entire thread, so maybe (likely) this was addressed. Is there a consensus for the best Blu-ray version of the series (any region) as far as PQ goes? I think I like the idea of seeing the “enhanced” scenes, but from what I’ve read I might not. As I understand it, at least one version provides both options.

 

As far as I'm aware all Blu-ray editions are the same, with the ability to select either original effects or remastered effects, whether they're in the individual season sets or the big box.

 

My only complaint about the Star Trek TOS blu-rays
is that there is no option to "Play All" episodes. You
have to select one episode at a time.

Is that reasonable?

 

That does seem like an obvious oversight.

 

The wife and I have been watching it lot lately on our local retro-TV station they could have not put together better cast\crew than this one, the other series that followed pale in comparison

 

Which is better . . . or a more satisfying viewing experience, the new or old effects? I’ve seen both views, as well as some screen grabs. I would think the new effects would look really good, but one criticism is that they look like video game effects.

 

It's hit or miss. Nothing is egregiously bad, but I wouldn't call it cinematic quality either; it should be noted the CGI is 17 years old. There are also some minor visual effects added in the live action footage, particularly one instance where Scotty is attempting to phaser his way through a panel. In the original, there's no beam there, and they've added a thin phaser beam to the footage, so a few little changes like that are actually quite nice. Also, per Memory Alpha, the first few episodes remastered were rushed compared to the rest of the series, so there's that.

The flipside is that while the original effects have gotten remastered in the same way that the live action footage has, there's so much noise from 1960s era visual compositing that it can look a little, uh, crunchy compared to the pristine and gorgeous footage of the actors.

The tl;dr is that it's hard to say for your tastes, but the original effects are obviously more authentic, although it's showing its age. That's the wonderful thing about the Blu-rays: you always have both.

 

That's a pretty good summary of things.

Re-watching the original effects in HD, I was surprised at how much variation there is. Some shots look like they were filmed with a potato for a lens, and some are almost as sharp and clean as the CGI effects.

Personally, I prefer the original effects, even though some of them can be kind of rough. They don't clash with the style of the show the way the (already dated looking) CGI effects do.

 

The updates were done a while ago, but when done, they didn't try to make them look state of the art (for the time). I think they did a great job updating them. I think they blend in well. I wouldn't hand wring over which is better. The sets include both new and original effects, so you can pick what you like best. You can even compare on the fly with your DVD remote's angle button.

 

One thing going for the original effects is the timing of scene crossfading. To insert new effects, they had to cut short the live action stuff that waa being crossfaded, so at times, the new effects feel like they are "just not right". I can live with them, and often do if I'm watching a syndicated showing with new effects, but given the choice, if I dig out a Blu-ray, I'll choose the original effects.

 

The problem with the episodes themselves that boast the original effects is that they weren't remastered by Paramount -- as a result, the episodes with the enhanced effects look better overall.

 

My understanding is that on the Blu-rays all of the film footage was remastered, whether effects or actors. Then the CGI replacements took place and those were slotted in.

It's just hard to see it sometimes because of the generations of VFX compositing used for the original effects.

 

Joshua Zyber, who reviews discs for Home Theater Magazine and other outlets, told me on Home Theater Forum that the original episodes were never remastered -- just the ones with the newer effects, and as such, the episodes with the original effects look much dodgier (which I concur with).

 

I thought all of the shows had updated effects, essentially because (I thought) shots of the ship and planets and the like were given such updates. I read somewhere (I don't think at this site) that one of the benefits of the enhanced effects was that they gave the Enterprise a consistent appearance, which varied throughout the original series. I can't recall a show that did not have shots of the enterprise and other space shots.

Also, what do you mean by "dodgier"? Worse than they would look had no enhancements been made for any of the episodes?

 

Yes, all of the episodes were given updated effects, but on the Blu-rays, they were available to view with or without these new enhancements. If you chose to watch without the new effects, those original episodes were, as I was told, untouched in terms of remastering, whereas the ones with the new effects were remastered in a general sense. This is why I called the original episodes on the Blu-rays "dodgy" looking because to me, they look pretty cruddy even in 1080p. The episodes WITH the new effects look polished all the way around, not just in the effects shots.

 

Some episodes had very little in the way of special effects footage, but yes, there was nearly always at least a shot of the Enterprise orbiting a planet or traveling through space.

 

The shows are on TV and as I understand it (based on an article posted here) these TV versions use the CGI effects. Anyone seen these TV versions? Comments (e.g., "the TV versions don't remotely do justice to the overall effect provided by the Blu-ray").

I note the screenshots here - Star Trek Season One Blu-ray - William Shatner Leonard Nemoy - indicate the Blu-ray blows away the earlier DVD version even without the CGI.

 

That assessment gives me an itchy click finger over at Amazon.