Star Trek - Special Edition

Deathlizard writes "Confirming rumours from last month, Trekkies will finally join their Star Wars brethren and get a taste of the 'George Lucas Treatment' this year. CBS will be rebroadcasting The Original Star Trek Series for it's 40th anniversary. The catch? New Digital Graphics." From the article: "Digitally created images will replace the miniature-scale models used for exterior shots of the various spacecraft on the show, including Kirk's Starship Enterprise and the enemy war vessels of the alien Klingons and Romulans. Shots of distant galaxies and planets also will be touched up with computer graphics to give them greater depth. The flat matte paintings used as backdrops on the surface of the strange new worlds visited by the Enterprise crew will be digitally enhanced to add texture, atmosphere and lighting."

Re:Next up for 'improvement'

"Where will it end?"

The moon, Alice.

Re:Next up for 'improvement'

Too late:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0373908/ [imdb.com]

Re:Next up for 'improvement'

It didn't end with Fred Astaire selling a vaccum cleaner. Zombie Hepburn will be eating brains of people on Rodeo Dr very soon, while Gap ramps up its fall campaign.

The only way to redirect this abberant behaviour is a) don't pay attention, and b) for god's sake don't BUY anything related to it.

Part of the charm of watching old Tom Baker Dr Who or ST:TOS episodes is to see how _good_ the shows were with such primitive budgets. I will go on a shooting rampage is someone tries to add CG backdrops to the scenes in I, Claudius.

Re:Next up for 'improvement'

The only way to redirect this abberant behaviour is a) don't pay attention

Of course, your comment will sound better when Paul Anka's singing it.

Re:CBS raped my childhood!

I think the interview I saw with Shatner and Nemoy was the best perspective I've seen on any of this entertainment news.
 
  If you ask them what still gets them fired up about the late producer Gene Roddenberry's creation after all these years, you get an answer that -- underneath the glibness -- is very telling: [cnn.com]

SHATNER: Money.

NIMOY: Yeah. The big, the big bucks.

SHATNER: Money. The money gets you fired up.

TOGETHER: The biiiig bucks.

Seriously?

SHATNER: Yes, that was serious. We were very serious about that.

NIMOY: Yeah. But seriously, folks.

Re:CBS raped my childhood!

Okay, wise guy. Just relax and take it easy. Paramount is not "raping your childhood", or even improving the effects. (Much.) All they're doing is resampling the film for HD broadcasts. Unfortunately, a lot of the effects shots and audio will stand out as REALLY bad in High Definition, so they're recreating much of it.

What do I mean by "recreating"? I mean that they're matching the original shots (from what I've seen, mistakes and all) so that the jump to HD doesn't make them look like cheap models with sparklers on them. The theme song is being re-recorded to match the original exactly, but using modern sound capture technologies. The sound effects will be redubbed over the audio of the characters, again to take advantage of modern sound systems.

The result is that it will look like Star Trek, feel like Star Trek, and be like Star Trek. It will just look a little better on HD, while SD viewers will notice that the picture is a little cleaner and the audio a bit crisper. Go see for yourself [youtube.com].

Re:CBS raped my childhood!

Okay, wise guy. Just relax and take it easy. Paramount is not "raping your childhood", or even improving the effects. (Much.) All they're doing is resampling the film for HD broadcasts.

They're doing a bit more than that.

But unlike with Star Wars, I'm all for this. There's one crucial difference: the original version is still available, and always will be. Nobody's suddenly denying the existence of the original model-based Star Trek, or telling anyone they "lost" the original negatives, or calling the new version "the Star Trek we had always meant to make".

There's another big difference: the dramatic content was not changed. Only the FX shots have been changed/cleaned up. I wouldn't have had such a problem with the Star Wars Lucas treatment if he hadn't also gone and made it so Greedo shot first, or Hayden Christensen appeared at the end of Jedi (a face Luke wouldn't even recognize!), or whatever.

I don't mind updating films and TV shows provided the original is preserved for archival purposes and made available in some form to the public. And I don't mind the updates themselves provided it only applies to the technical aspects of the film rather than the content.

It sounds to me like this is a worthwhile update to the original Trek, and I'll be watching. (I'll also be buying once it's inevitably released on an HD video format.)

The R-r-r-omulans have r-r-r-idges!

or calling the new version "the Star Trek we had always meant to make".

I remember Roddenberry's original explanation for the new look of Klingons in the movies was that Klingons were always intended to look this new way; they just didn't have the budget to do them right in the original series.

Or afford to pay for artists of sufficient skill capable of doing them that way for the animated series either, apparently.

("Heart rate too high, internal organs all wrong, pronounced ridges on the cranium-- Jim, this man's a Klingon!")

If it weren't for the retconning of DS9 and Enterprise, then I'd expect that in this remastered version, not only the Klingons, but also the R-r-r-omulans would have r-r-r-idges on their foreheads if these were "the Star Trek we had always meant to make".

Will they be fixing the flying pizza bats in "Operation: Annihilate!" as well?

I'm easy to please.

As long as Kirk shoots first (or only, as applicable) I'll still be happy.

Re:I'm easy to please.

As long as Scotty throws the first punch at the Klingon for saying that the Enterprise should be hauled away as garbage, I'll be happy. :P

Re:I'm easy to please.

Luckily if you actually read the official site (startrek.com though the site seems to be down so I can't give you the actual part concerning this show). They state that they are making extra careful attention to not change the plot or feel at all. Mainly they are cleaning up the grainy film and turning it into HD, and taking the models and redoing them to look exactly the same. Several mentions on their site on how they actually had to cut back the effects to match the old style as to not make the changes obvious.

Re:I'm easy to please.

Because it's being done in HD. While the live action can hold up pretty well to HD (as it was shot on film), the SFX look like hell. I have actually seen shots of the FXs for the original done in HD and it was complete dog shit. This is a needed improvement.

Re:I'm easy to please.

As much as you want to bitch about your opinion of William Shatner's acting, no one else could have embodied the character of Captain Kirk as he.
Jeffery Hunter, while probably a better actor, would have been as forgotten as the captain of Time Tunnel by now.

Face it, the entire cast of Gilligans Island will be known as those characters forever as much as Thomas F Wilson will be forever known as Biff Tannen. Those performances would be nothing without the contributions of those actors. How many Gingers were there?

Star Trek would be just another crappy 60's Sci Fi show without Shatners contribution.

Probably the best actor to reinvent himself each decade would be Lee Majors.
He has been iconic in his roles in Big Valley of the 60s, the Six Million Dollar Man of the 70s, and the Fall Guy in the 80s and was married to THE hottie of the 70s.

The only one who comes close (and forgive me) would be David Hasselhoff of Knight Rider and Baywatch fame. (and I can personally attest that Hoff is a wuss in real life)

Most of the Trek episodes weren't that good anyway so any 'bad acting' fixing isn't going to matter. I'd like to see how they fix the western episode and if they remove the wires from those creatures in the halloween episode.

If you were an actor, how would you handle the following episodes:
-evil twin episode
-evil twin in another universe episode
-old age episode
-episode with a guy in love with a bunch of lights
-a greek god episode
-episode where a main character loses his brain
-halloween episode
-western episode
-Nazi episode
-Chicago gangster episode
-Indian episode
-Abraham Lincoln episode
-Hippie episode
-episode where they're all in an empty room with some chick that heals
-the episode with the midget in some greek setting with the first interracial kiss

Yeah, god bless William Shatner and the stuff he had to go through.

Say it aint so

Next they'll be digitally editing Shatner's hair and waist lines.

Please God, NO!

The flat matte paintings used as backdrops on the surface of the strange new worlds visited by the Enterprise crew will be digitally enhanced to add texture, atmosphere and lighting.
 
Obviously the dorks at CBS/NBC/ABC or whomever seem to have missed the point: It's the cheese that makes Trek taste so good after all these years.
 
TOS is a classic, in part, because we get to sit back and see the innovation Roddenberry and crew had enough insight to bring to the surface but not enough FX abilities to make it convincing (even back when TOS was in first run). Aside from Shatner's bad acting what else will we have to cheer for?
 
Frankly, this blows. If people like it I have nothing against it but I will not be party to it either. This is akin to updating all the antiquated language and references in, let's say, War of the Worlds and try to make it new and accessible to a new fanbase... Oh, sorry! (See! I've proven my own point)

It's not the cheese

I hear this argument about Doctor Who all the time and I call bullshit either way.

You like to think that you like Star Trek (or Doctor Who) because of the cheese, but you didn't. If you saw these shows as a kid, you fell in love with them because of the memorable characters, engaging plots, the strong moral messages, and (yes) a sense of wonder at the imaginative settings, creatures, and situations. Seriously. You fell in love with these shows because you liked them -- don't try to intellectualize your way out of it now that you're all growed up.

Re:It's not the cheese

It makes me cringe that there are so many Trekkies who have seemed to have lost hold of the concept. It's actually one of the few things I truly give Shatner real credit for; his ability to laugh at how absurd a majority of the Trek Nation has gotten about a TV show.

The funny thing is, Shatner seems to agree with me about Star Trek. He doesn't claim to be a big fan of the show, but I've never heard him say "oh ho ho, people love it because it's such high camp. Oh ho ho, what a stupid joke it all is." He, like me, believes the longevity of the show is due to the relationship between Kirk and Spock -- either that, or nobody really knows [cnn.com] what makes it so popular.

I'm not an idiot. When I was a kid, I thought the Horta (the monster that burrows through solid rock) looked like a piece of slightly burnt lasagna. That didn't make me say, "Hee hee hee, I want to watch that stupid lasagna show." I bought the premise anyway, despite the fact that it obviously wasn't "real." It was a sci-fi show. Obviously it was about your imagination.

Forty years after TOS aired and they're still making rehashes of the same ideas... they're still making TV shows about spaceships that travel faster than the speed of light and beams that can transport people from one place to the other. And you're telling me the original is camp??

Bottom line, if the only way you can enjoy a dated TV series is by laughing at it, well ... I kinda feel sorry for you. You keep trying to imply that I'm some kind of rabid Trekkie. Unfortunately, it's you who sound like one. You seem to have a lot more invested in your "ho ho ho" than I do in just enjoying the reruns. Maybe it's you who needs to get over yourself. Maybe if you weren't so self-conscious about whether people are going to think you're a Trekkie or not, you could enjoy the show for what it is. As it stands, I'd say your insecurities are getting in the way of enjoying some fine old television.

Ah, well

At least we still have the motivational posters [echosphere.net]...

And to improve the acting.

And to improve the acting, Kirk will now be played by Jar Jar Binks. Thanks to the wonders of digital compositing.

"Mesa shout, Kahn?"

Understatement

I hope it's a labor of love where they replace the crude effects with superior ones without letting themselves get carried away. Hopefully they won't go the Hollywood route and let the effects overwhelm and upstage the episodes. The real test will be if the episodes look better, but someone has to point out the changes.

CBS?! *splutter*...

Anyone who saw these episodes when they originally appeared (I was 10 at the time - I got a special dispensation from my parents to see the third season even though it was past my bedtime) knows they came out on NBC. How did CBS get to show them, much less get permission to tart them up?

Re:CBS?! *splutter*...

CBS bought Desilu. [wikipedia.org]

this is not the george lucas treatment

TOS [amazon.com] is still available via DVD, it will be rebroadcast in its original form on TV LAND [tvland.com]... there's just no comparison to Lucas' repeated muddling of the Star Wars plot and effects. The only reason Lucas has decided to sell the original unmodified trilogy is because so many people downloaded or bought used laserdisc copies, rather than buy his recent updated box set.

I mean, I grew up with TOS and think it's kinda cool CBS will rebroadcast it in HD - but I'm not clamoring for it either. I just think the comparison between Paramount's changes tp TOS vs. what Lucas did to the original Star Wars is just plain unfair.

*shrug*

Animated series

I think the bigger news is that they're finally releasing the animated series on DVD. I have good memories of these cartoons from when I was a kid, but I never had a chance to watch more than one or two. I'm looking forward to renting them - it's almost like having new episodes of the original series to watch.

Yes... but

Are they ... going to ... fix up ... the choppy audio ... coming from ... Shatner's ... microphone?

"Special" edition?

Does this mean they ride in the short Enterprise?

Trailer

Here is the trailer [startrek.com] (QuickTime and Windows Media formats) for the remastered version.

Re:How about...

Still... if there was a phone on the market with stun/kill settings I'd probably get it.

They're all like that now, just slow-acting. The settings are "stun with bill" and "kill with brain tumor."

Re:Klingon foreheads

they can't actually do it without breaking canon.

You mean the revised canon.

Roddenberry always said since the first movie with Klingons in it, they always looked like that, he just didn't have the budget to do them right back then. He also retconned all the books out of the official history and all of the animated series except some elements of the backstory of Spock's childhood. (Animated Klingons also looked human.)

That was the official canon until the DS9 episode, after Gene had no more say (being dead does that), and they found they still couldn't afford to CGI the Klingons.

And how can you watch "Mirror, Mirror" now knowing that despite Mirror-Spock reforming the Terran Empire, the human race ends up subjugated by an alliance of Klingons, Cardassians, and Bajorans?