ST:TOS Blu-Ray Remastered Effects

[DutyCat]

Okay, the Blu-Ray set arrived yesterday, so I popped the seal on it immediately and put in Disc 3, which is where to find the correct "first" episode. The episodes are in broadcast order....a misguided decision made by some suite. The preferred order for Trekkies is production order, which is how I will be watching them. Easy problem to solve, if you can call it a problem. I am watching this on a 52" Sony LCD.

The first thing that struck me was the crystal clear image of the Enterprise as the episode opens. It is so clear it is almost like it is on the screen in 3D. Honestly, I was shocked. The sample YouTube videos that people have posted don't do it justice by a long shot. It makes a dramatic difference seeing it on a real TV.

The next thing I noticed was the opening theme song. It has been remastered, and at least for me, it is better. The female voice underlying the original version clearly dates the show to the "Spacy 60's." The new version, although tonally the same, is a little more subdued....an improvement.

Color saturation to put it mildly, is "brilliant." Almost eye-wateringly briliant. I have mixed feelings about this. It makes the sets look rich with depth and purpose. Your eye responds to all of the bright colored buttons and such, stuff that you may not have paid much attention to before. Unfortunately, it overwhelms the reds somewhat, to where the color of a "redshirt" is so saturated it is practically trying to escape from your TV set into your living room. With Scottie's uniform shirt, some fabric detail was lost because it is so "RED." The Gold and Blue Shirts don't suffer so much. Skin tones and such are also substantially elevated in value. The color saturation, combined with the high def, makes everything feel vibrant and alive, like it was just filmed yesterday. On the other hand, you can see the tonal values of make-up more clearly, as well as every single skin imperfection our beloved actors had. If you look close, you can see where Spock's ear texture on the pointy parts is a little different in color and texture.

Because of the Hi-Def, you can see some "imperfections" of the sets. That red bridge double door doesn't look quite as smooth as one would expect on a 23rd century starship, and that tabletop display monitor has a few very minor (but visible) scratches and dents. But all in all, the loving attention to quality and attention to detail in design and craftsmanship is very evident.

Back to the outside of the ship. You can tell it is CGI, but it is really good. Not quite top top top of the line photo realistic, but very close. Certainly good enough. I was astonished that I could make out little rooms through the windows changing perspective as the ship cruised by.

The Thesarius (sp) was much more detailed, and there are some nice new camera angles when the E is stopped in front of the rotating space buoy.

About the only negative thing I can say about the Thesarius was that the illumination intensity of all of the little bulbs and such were not as bright as the original effects..and that goes for the small detached tow ship as well.

All in all, a huge thumbs up. There is so much new, it is almost like trading in your old 1966 car for a new one that looks exactly like it, but is built to a much higher standard of quality.

And yes before you ask, there ARE grid lines, on top and below the saucer of the new CGI ship.

Edited December 11, 2012 by DutyCat

[majortomski]

My son and I went to the big screen premier of ST TNG. There was almost an hour of how much work they are putting in to each film recoreded episode to get them up to modern standards.

Glad you like it

[crowe-t]

Thanks for posting this detailed review. :)

Did you watch any of the episodes with the original FX shots? I'm curious how well the original FX miniatures hold up in HD. I'm also not a fan at all of the new remastered CG FX shots. I'm a model builder and a purist at heart and hate to see a classic like Star Trek changed. It kind of reminds me of what George Lucas did to the original Star Wars movies.

Edited December 12, 2012 by crowe-t

[boom175]

One of the really cool features of the blu ray set of TOS is the ability to switch between the old effects and the remasteresd effects. When there is a remastered effect on the screen press your remotes "change angle" button (depends on the player) and it will switch from new to old and old to new. Its pretty cool!! Also take a look at the uniforms you can spot all the zippers and hand stitching etc!! :-) The computer "chips" that you see spock put in the computers have visible wood grain showing!! Its great!!

[DutyCat]

Thanks for posting this detailed review.

Did you watch any of the episodes with the original FX shots? I'm curious how well the original FX miniatures hold up in HD. I'm also not a fan at all of the new remastered CG FX shots. I'm a model builder and a purist at heart and hate to see a classic like Star Trek changed. It kind of reminds me of what George Lucas did to the original Star Wars movies.

Not yet, but supposedly one of the reasons for the remastered effects was because the original effects don't hold up so well. But they also took advantage of modern technology to create some new visuals. I would say watch it before you cast judgement. The ship looks great, and in my view adds to the viewing experience. In this episode, the space buoy scenes in particular are fantastic, with the illumination of the rotating buoy reflecting off of the E hull, plus there are some new angles.

The only thing negative that I have noticed is that CGI artists clearly don't have a handle on ballistic motion yet. They need to plug in some mass vs thrust numbers into their rendering models, so that huge ships behave somewhat like huge ships should. They should not be flying around like aircraft. Aside from "warp drive," in a straight line, the ships should be more ponderous. A good example would be the movement of the Klingon ship in ST6: The Undiscovered Country. Make it look like you have some mass there. No fighter break turns.

I understand the value of tradition. I was watching Trek when it was first broadcast on network TV. Not all of the new visuals in the remaster are perfect, especially with regard to ship movement. But it is better that the ship moving hardly at all, or seeing the same stock shot over and over again with a different color filter on the planet below. Some of the new visuals are spectacular. Overall, what they have done is clearly an improvement, IMO.

I will take a look at the original ship effect shots when I get a chance.

Edited December 12, 2012 by DutyCat

[crowe-t]

I'm not casting judgement, I'd just rather not see a classic like this changed. I know CG can look really good but it still lacks something that an actual model has. The TOS Enterprise always had a certain 'look' and I've seen some of the CG shots and it looks like a different ship. I have no doubt the CG FX look good in the episodes and when I eventually get the Blu-Rays I'll most likely watch them with the CG.

[DutyCat]

My son and I went to the big screen premier of ST TNG. There was almost an hour of how much work they are putting in to each film recoreded episode to get them up to modern standards.

Glad you like it

Yes, I went to that also. They are doing a great job there as well. But in this thread I am referring to TOS.

[DutyCat]

I know CG can look really good but it still lacks something that an actual model has. The TOS Enterprise always had a certain 'look' and I've seen some of the CG shots and it looks like a different ship. I have no doubt the CG FX look good in the episodes and when I eventually get the Blu-Rays I'll most likely watch them with the CG.

Oh, I definitely agree. The model work done in the Original Series Trek movies was the best model work ever filmed, IMO. For the TNG movies, they went with mostly CGI once they got to the Enterprise E in First Contact. Real models look better at this point, if they are well made and photographed properly.

The CGI classic Enterprise looks WAY different than the way the original model showed up on film.....coloring, lighting, pretty much everything except the basic design. It is something you have to get used to. But it also looks better in many ways....more detailed and textured....greater relief and contrast than what showed under the studio lighting used to photograph the original model. I already mentioned how you can see a room inside of a window change perspective. Tough to get that on a model, unless you build a little mini room behind every window. I would have loved to see a little person walking around in there, but, they did not go that far.

Edited December 12, 2012 by DutyCat

[Andre]

After viewing some of the new versions, I think I'll stick to the original effects myself.

Enjoy all the new CGI wizardry to your hearts content, everyone, but to me it's just a bit too much like watching Casanova or Citizen Kane colorized.

Cheers,

Andre

[midnightprowler]

After viewing some of the new versions, I think I'll stick to the original effects myself.

Enjoy all the new CGI wizardry to your hearts content, everyone, but to me it's just a bit too much like watching Casanova or Citizen Kane colorized.

Cheers,

Andre

What he said!

[Vidar 710]

To me it's like re-discovering the show all over again! The new scenes to tie things together better makes a tremendous improvement to the story line. One of my favorite examples is in Amok Time when they walk across the natural rock bridge to the arena.

I love the facelift

Tracy

[Vidar 710]

Loops double post

Tracy

Edited April 21, 2013 by Vidar 710

[Mark M.]

I think CGI is too poorly used as a substitute for practical effects (aka, physical effects, stuff that's actually done and filmed, and then processed afterwards to get the proper result).

This is quite evident in almost every movie that uses CGI. I know it's breaking genres here, but what if they "remastered" The Empire Strikes Back but put in an entirely CGI battlefield on Hoth? It would be atrocious! You can TELL. I've seen a few of those remastered TOS episodes on TV. I was rather outraged. It's about as bad, morally, as going back and erasing the cigarettes from classic films with digital editing. Leave the classic as it was. A slice of time. A portal into the past. They stand up on their own. Trying to ONLY remaster the effects is a lame marketting ploy to appeal to the kids of today. I don't see them going back through TNG and remastering all those cheesy looking makeup jobs, or editing out the atrocious '80s clothing with CGI altered fashion styles.

The only thing that is accomplished is they butcher the spirit of the originals. Remastering should mean taking them back from the original masters. Scan them in higher resolution as needed, tweak colors and balances and whatnot, but leaving the original product as it was.

Unless they're going to recast Kirk, Scotty, McCoy, Sulu, Spock, Uhura, and the rest all one by one and re-act every episode on new stages, new sets, with new effects, they shouldn't frak with it.

Speaking of Frak.... Imagine some kind of TOS remake in the modern quality and effects of the New BSG series. Unless they're going to go that far, they shouldn't go at all. I would expect this is what they will do if the new reboot of the movie franchise takes off. New stories, for a new timeline, etc... New way to rehash what's already been done without having to think up anything new for themselves.

[Andre]

what if they "remastered" The Empire Strikes Back but put in an entirely CGI battlefield on Hoth?

Funny you should mention that specific example - I still maintain that the 1920's (Willis O'Brien!) technology, stop motion animated AT-AT's of TESB blow the CGI prequel walkers straight out of the water.

Cheers,

Andre

[Mark M.]

Agreed... I rolled my eyes when I saw a CGI army of robots and a CGI army of reptiles on dinosaur-back and they both looked fake. Even if they had put men in robot suits and men in lizard man suits at the distances they were shot you couldn't tell the difference.

This is why movies like Gone With the Wind and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly will never be surpassed by CGI. The scenes where you have a hundred REAL people will always stand the test of time better than CGI will. Why? Because real people scale. Pixels don't.

[midnightprowler]

I think CGI is too poorly used as a substitute for practical effects (aka, physical effects, stuff that's actually done and filmed, and then processed afterwards to get the proper result).

This is quite evident in almost every movie that uses CGI. I know it's breaking genres here, but what if they "remastered" The Empire Strikes Back but put in an entirely CGI battlefield on Hoth? It would be atrocious! You can TELL. I've seen a few of those remastered TOS episodes on TV. I was rather outraged. It's about as bad, morally, as going back and erasing the cigarettes from classic films with digital editing. Leave the classic as it was. A slice of time. A portal into the past. They stand up on their own. Trying to ONLY remaster the effects is a lame marketting ploy to appeal to the kids of today. I don't see them going back through TNG and remastering all those cheesy looking makeup jobs, or editing out the atrocious '80s clothing with CGI altered fashion styles.

The only thing that is accomplished is they butcher the spirit of the originals. Remastering should mean taking them back from the original masters. Scan them in higher resolution as needed, tweak colors and balances and whatnot, but leaving the original product as it was.

Unless they're going to recast Kirk, Scotty, McCoy, Sulu, Spock, Uhura, and the rest all one by one and re-act every episode on new stages, new sets, with new effects, they shouldn't frak with it.

Speaking of Frak.... Imagine some kind of TOS remake in the modern quality and effects of the New BSG series. Unless they're going to go that far, they shouldn't go at all. I would expect this is what they will do if the new reboot of the movie franchise takes off. New stories, for a new timeline, etc... New way to rehash what's already been done without having to think up anything new for themselves.

What he said!!!!!!!!

[Ken Cartwright]

I think the new effects in the TOS re-releases are fine. I think the reason the effects were re-done wasn't so much because the effects weren't good enough, but that the actual image quality was so low when viewed in HD that it just didn't work. Compositing multiple layers of film will lower the quality, just like photocopying something lowers the quality with each generation, and I think they felt it was just too faded and grainy for HD viewing. I think the did a pretty good job of keeping the spirit of the scene intact.

To me, that's more the key issue - if the spirit and structure of the movie haven't changed, I don't mind the changes as much. I think the effects in the TOS release keep the spirit, but removing a cigarette would change the scene too much, in my opinion.

In "The Empire Strikes Back," the Star Destroyer models were great, and I think look as good as you could get without building a life-size Star Destroyer, but other effects are a little weak, like the Tauntauns. I'm not sure I'd really mind if they reshot the Tauntaun scenes with CGI, as long as they didn't change the flow. CGI frequently has a CGI look, but I think it can be done right. I think the CGI in the LOTR movies looks pretty good overall, and the Transformers, while not great movies, had robots that to me looked much more real than many of the Star Wars scenes. Done with that quality, I think it could look pretty good.

Lucas made changes to some of the actual scenes in the Star Wars Blu-Ray releases, and that's the issue to me. Adding scenes that weren't there, the infamous Han not shooting first, etc., really changed the movie, as opposed to just making a given scene look a little better. But regardless of any effects changes made, I'd still like the originals to be available as an option.

Edited May 8, 2013 by Ken Cartwright

[Rocky]

I think the remastered Star Trek is a huge improvement. The planets are vastly more realistic, and we get to see the Enterprise from many new perspectives. But I do think the studio model looked more realistic than the CGI Enterprise. One thing they did wrong was to add panel lines to the Enterprise. They were overdone. The new Enterprise is a little darker too.

[DutyCat]

Whether or not you like the concept of remastering using a CGI Enterprise, it had to be done. The quality of the original technicolor film print interior shots is excellent, like it was shot yesterday. But the original ship effects shots are nowhere even close to handling the transfer to high def. If you watch the show on Blu-Ray with the original effects, the transition is jarring. They either had to CGI the ship or leave Trek in standard definition. And that would be a shame given the print quality I mentioned. Overall it is a huge improvement, and they have taken the opportunity to show us some different angles, close ups, and a few other little treats they could not afford or did not have the time to render back in the 60's. If the ship looks a little CGI'ish, then that is because of present limits of the technology. Just suspend disbelief in a different way. IMO it is way better the original, low res, limited viewpoint grainy images of the original.

If you really don't like it, just stick with the original SD, I guess.

Oh, and Rocky.....not the panel lines argument again! Give it a rest! lol.