Star Trek, Digitally Remastered
September 15, 2006 8:11 PM   Subscribe

Star Trek, upgraded. The Trek Enhanced project (previously discussed here) is now a reality. CBS has remastered the show for broadcast with digital enhancements to both visual effects and sound. Daren Dochterman (of the original project) offers his commentary here.
posted by O9scar (38 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
They're not going after the real problems. Digitally scrape off most of the foot-thick makeup on some of Kirk's old flames and dub in Billy Connolly over Jimmy Doohan's hysterical accent and you'd have something.
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:19 PM on September 15, 2006


Digitribble.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:34 PM on September 15, 2006


Oh dear. They still don't get it!
posted by longsleeves at 8:39 PM on September 15, 2006


Perhaps we should wrestle sometime, Spock. Do you like the taut roundness that exercise brings to the buttocks? Do you enjoy the warmth of the Mediterranean sun on that self-same place? I once wrestled a man on the steps of the Acropolis, when the sun was at its height, wearing only what God sent me into the world with. Can you picture that? That's where we'll wrestle, my semi-Vulcan lad. That's where I'll make a man of you.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:45 PM on September 15, 2006 [2 favorites]


Oh no! but the bad special effects are an important aspect of the appeal of blah blah blahhh...

You shut up! I want to see Joan Collins run over in traffic more realistically!
posted by longsleeves at 8:46 PM on September 15, 2006


Amok time: facelifting Star Trek
posted by muckster at 8:56 PM on September 15, 2006


All these decades-later fix-em-ups remind me of that South Park episode where Parker & Stone were talking about how they didn't originally have the budget they needed to get the effects they wanted, so they'd gone back and redid some of them. And then they showed a scene from one of the UFO episodes, where the new footage has this giant extraordinarily detailed 3-D CGI UFO descend into a snow covered paper-cutout field where everyone walked sideways because it was easier to animate.

Supposedly Spielberg sent them a very politely worded "fuck you" after that, but really they have a point.
posted by Tuwa at 8:59 PM on September 15, 2006


so wtf man, isnt this on in the bay area? "balance of terror" is on saturday night at 11pm, but is that really the ep they are starting with? thats s01e15...

i just want to witness the trainwreck first hand, i assure you.
posted by joeblough at 9:03 PM on September 15, 2006


Seriously, 200 stations tomorrow? I live in Houston and I can't find a listing. Does anyone know what station it will be airing on? CBS did the facelift. Which cable stations does CBS own?
posted by SkinnerSan at 9:08 PM on September 15, 2006


Does this mean the green woman will be extra green?
posted by ryoshu at 9:12 PM on September 15, 2006


Kahn shot first!


I'm mixing memes now... I am a meme DJ.

But to be a good contributor to the MeFi community: I think that it's about time! As long as they don't muck about with plot lines and don't edit in a gigantic, CG stadium of Vulcan onlookers into Amok Time, I think it's a great way to appeal to youngsters marinated in the pretty pictures of the computer age.

Nah, who am I kidding! This is terrible, terrible news. I grew up with The Next Generation, to be honest, but I liked plain ole Star Trek with cheesy props. They're erasing my memories, man, erasing my MEMORIES. Why not just redo every scifi television show? Like BattleStar Galactica, huh? Why not just stick in CG starships, perhaps a whole colesarned replacement for all those old graphics and change the plot so that Cylons aren't toasters! Better yet, make the toasters themselves CG!

Or old BBC stuff, like Red Dwarf. Take out the model of Red Dwarf in the intro and turn it into some new fangled CG Red Dwarf that looks like it's longer than the original model, and then explain it away with some plot device in the fifth season?

Please tell me it's a hoax. Tell me Paramount is pulling our collective chains. If something as classic as Star Trek goes this route, who's to stop them from opening the floodgates on everything else? Digitally enhanced Full House? Can you imagine that? CAN YOU IMAGINE, COMRADES???
posted by Mister Cheese at 9:13 PM on September 15, 2006


Am I the only one who thinks Star Trek could do with a (tasteful) face lift. They are replaying the original series here in New Zealand, and while the show still holds up well, it is let down by the space scenes which almost always look awful. I thought the pitch videos that were posted here a few months ago looked pretty good.
I agree that they should not try to add digital characters or insert extra scenes. And, for the love of God, don't let them change the sound effects (or the music).
posted by AndrewStephens at 9:31 PM on September 15, 2006


From what I have seen, it looks like they are doing a good job. Not re-imagining anything, just cleaning up. If obvious models were what attracted you to the original Trek, then this is not for you. But the stuff I saw was purely "remastering." Imagine a new SciFi show that assumes that the fashions of the future would look vaguely "60s."
posted by SkinnerSan at 9:47 PM on September 15, 2006


Without the distraction of low-budget production design, what will distract me from the acting?
posted by mkultra at 10:14 PM on September 15, 2006


Sorry, I'm one of those types who was angry when the Star Trek DVD's I bought had the matte borders and incongruities "remastered" out. This new bullshit is beyond the pale.

Why stop there? Why not "re-imagine" the Wright brother's airplane wings with carbon fiber?

But then again, I just turned 44, so get off my lawn!
posted by Tube at 10:43 PM on September 15, 2006


I for one have no intention of watching shitty old TV series on my nice new HD LCD screen. I expect, no, I demand that all the old classics be remastered to conform to my new expectations. It's really not so much to ask, and I'm pleased to see the studios finally getting their asses in gear.
posted by slatternus at 10:56 PM on September 15, 2006


This is almost as bad as getting rid of smoking in old Tom & Jerry cartoons and redubbing Mammy's voice.
posted by mrbill at 11:03 PM on September 15, 2006


I'm a doctor, not a (whatever)
posted by longsleeves at 11:18 PM on September 15, 2006


so wtf man, isnt this on in the bay area? "balance of terror" is on saturday night at 11pm, but is that really the ep they are starting with? thats s01e15...

Balance of Terror is, in my opinion, the best episode from the original series. It is the only episode I'll watch repeatedly even if I have something to do. Great episode to start off with. Spock's brain and the Landru episode would be a huge mistake.

Well directed, tight, to the point, etc.

As for remastering, I couldn't care less.
posted by juiceCake at 12:34 AM on September 16, 2006


I'm with SkinnerSan. Check out the side-by-side clip -- it's very understated, very un-Lucas. It reminds me a bit of Mars Attacks!: the sensibilities are completely retro, it's only the capabilities that are modern.
posted by bjrubble at 1:18 AM on September 16, 2006


I can't find a Bay Area listing, either. My heart is breaking.
posted by puddinghead at 2:04 AM on September 16, 2006


I love the old series. I don't care if the effects are "unrealistic" - how the hell am I suposed to know what an alien world looks like? But the artistry that went into those effects shouldn't just be erased, anymore than someone would dream of "enhancing" any of Ray Harryhausen's work. And the new special effects don't even fit into the old universe - the acting and costumes are all 1960s, but the special effects scream 1990s (not 23rd century). I keep expecting to see Babylon 5's crew, or Battlestar Galactica.

I did like some of the cleaning they did for the degredation of the old film, but I wish they would just at least release an unchanged version as well. The original effects worked really well with the more theatrical writing and acting style. The whole show just isn't the same genre as today's science fiction, and trying to shoehorn it in just destroys what it was.
posted by jb at 3:46 AM on September 16, 2006


That is, I wish they would do some of the cleaning for colour and fuzzyness, but without changing any of the special effects or backgrounds.

As it is, I will never purchase any of the enhanced DVDs. They aren't the shows I watched (every Saturday, for two hours - I loved syndication).
posted by jb at 3:50 AM on September 16, 2006


That side-by-side clip is from the guy who didn't get the job. There's no telling what direction they went in. I'm betting the Gorn end up looking like blonde supermodels.

If you want to watch it:. "The Star Trek episodes will begin airing on the more than 200 stations that own the rights to the weekend broadcast syndication window starting September 16.
posted by fuckwit at 7:43 AM on September 16, 2006


Jesus, does anyone but the studios ever think that this sort of "re-mastering" is a good idea?
posted by Afroblanco at 8:47 AM on September 16, 2006


I'm not buying the '200 station' statement... I can't find it, either...

There are only 210 DMAs (TV markets), it would stand to reason that if '200 stations' had it, nearly everyone in the country should be able to see it...
posted by WhipSmart at 9:07 AM on September 16, 2006


Ah, 3:35a in NYC. Excellent.
posted by thejoshu at 9:11 AM on September 16, 2006


I'm mixing memes now... I am a meme DJ.
No... You're a mejay.
posted by verb at 9:25 AM on September 16, 2006


This is almost as bad as getting rid of smoking in old Tom & Jerry cartoons and redubbing Mammy's voice.

No, this is absolutely nothing like that.

These shows are not having their content changed. The stories aren't changing at all. What is changing is cleaning up some of the elements (such as horrible, chattering matte lines) which upon watching the series now might actually distract from the story.

I'm reserving judgment at the moment, remembering that what this show was really all about was the setting, the story and what it had to say, not any kind of period brushstrokes of 1960s-era special effects which are incidental to the story, despite our childhood nostalgia for the look of the show. For the first season at least, the writing on this show was outstanding, unprecedented for sf on TV, and that's what counts.

I have to admit I'm very curious about this, and I'll be TiVoing it this weekend. (It's running at a very odd time in the L.A. market -- 12:05am Monday morning, on the NBC affiliate.)
posted by chuq at 9:39 AM on September 16, 2006


Look, any of you huge Trek nerds (like me, yeaahhh, Brother...) out there who are bitching about this know that you have all the original episodes on DVD sitting on your shelf, so you can watch them in all their original shabby (but lovable) glory anytime you want. So quit yer grumblin' will ya? :)

Besides, Paramount's gotta keep milking that cash cow until that new Indiana Jones flick comes out, or they might have to get rid of their platinum ashtrays and Italian marble-floored executive bathrooms with the gold toilets. And that would just be too much hardship to bear, really. They're still annoyed that they turned Lucas down when he pitched them Star Wars, and lost out on all that free money.
posted by zoogleplex at 10:01 AM on September 16, 2006


I wonder if they'll butch Sulu up a bit, while they're in there.
posted by Optamystic at 10:30 AM on September 16, 2006


Star Trek, Enhanced along some other lines.

I watched the side-by-side and felt some of it was a bit unnecessary. I never cared that they were using obvious models, for instance -- in fact, I thought it was really cool that the Constellation they used in that episode was actually one of the Enterprise kits that any kid could buy, touched up with an acetylene torch! And the planet looked fine as a disc. Stuff like showing moving rocks on the viewscreen as Kirk walked past was more showing off to me rather than "enhancing" but I didn't mind it. The stuff with the planet killer showing a real maw was an improvement that I liked. So, mixed results.

I'm not gonna treat it as something holy. (I'm assuming they do nothing so sacrilegious as showing Greedo shooting first.) I mean, it would cost a bundle more, but you can imagine some executive insisting on a) making the women officers wear slacks, b) making the women officers have more decolletage, c) helping out Shatner's waistline, d) making the TOS Klingons conform with the TNG+ Klingons ... you get the idea. In short I didn't see anything to wildly object to and actually liked a few. Most I'm indifferent to, and you just have to consider that had history gone a little differently -- say, some other show had held that late-night spot at so many 1970s stations -- Trek would long since have been remade as a stupid Hollywood movie with Harrison Ford as Kirk, Peter Coyote as Spock, and Uma Thurman as Dr. McCoy.
posted by dhartung at 12:28 PM on September 16, 2006


These are the affiliates that are set to air the remastered episodes. There's a ton, but I'm sure due to preemptions and the nature of Star Trek on TV, they'll never be shown at the same consistent time.
posted by zsazsa at 12:32 PM on September 16, 2006


zsazsa, thanks for that link, it looks like "balance of terror" on KFTY is the remastered one. i set my tivo, we'll see what happens.
posted by joeblough at 2:32 PM on September 16, 2006


okay, now i get it. KBHK 44 was renamed KBCW 44 because of the merger of WB and UPN. KBCW is owned by CBS. the page linked above shows KPIX as the station, but its not on KPIX... KPIX is owned by CBS as well, hence the confusion.

KFTY is too far north for me to receive, but KBCW should work. phew.
posted by joeblough at 2:48 PM on September 16, 2006


Always a trekkie, never a Trekker.

Oh wait, that was the last thread.

No, really, so far I have no problem with this. The point was always the basic content, not the cheese that surrounded it, though that added a layer of silliness and fun that we all got off on. As long as this leads to more people watching the original series, I say Live Long and ...

Wait, that was last thread, too. OK, I got nothin'.
posted by soyjoy at 5:52 PM on September 16, 2006


As long as they don't give the Klingons clamshell foreheads or turn the Gorn captain into some sort of velociraptor, I'm sure it'll be fine. With a little luck they'll just make it look like it was filmed in a modern studio with modern cameras.
posted by Citizen Premier at 6:08 PM on September 16, 2006


I watched the Balance of Terror update. I was pretty underwhelmed. Looks like they did most of the new FX on a single computer, using really cheap rendering software. Ship looks good, but the phasers etc. not so much.
posted by zoogleplex at 1:28 PM on September 21, 2006


« Older crocheted hyperbolic flora and fauna   |   WW2 Tank Recovered Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments