Season 3 Blu-Ray: December 15

[jefferiestubes8]

Maxon’s Cinema 4D were used to recreate backgrounds in high definition for release of the original Star Trek television series on Blu-ray Disc. Relying primarily on Cinema 4D’s BodyPaint 3D texturing capabilities, acclaimed matte painter Max Gabl worked closely with CBS Digital over the course of nearly two years to restore and update visual effects for the legendary ’60s series.

Working under the direction of Star Trek: The Next Generation art director Michael Okuda, longtime Star Trek producer Dave Rossi, and visual effects supervisor Neil Wray, Gabl was tasked with elevating production values across all 54 episodes, which contain many original shots that were filmed with very simple lighting setups and hastily painted and poorly lit backdrops. Gabl deployed BodyPaint 3D as a core software application to bring the look of backgrounds up to present-day high-definition standards, recreating 33 establishing shots and scene extensions, as well as 47 planets and several paintings of nebulae and other planetary system objects.

...the planets rendered at 4000x4000 pixels. While Gabl worked on planets and establishing shots, another team of modelers, animators and texture artists worked almost exclusively on a new CGI version of the fictional starship, Starship Enterprise.

Maxon Cinema 4D Takes Blu-ray Star Trek Out of This World
22-Dec-2009
http://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/Web-...-Out-of-T.aspx

We haven't heard much about the CBS Digital people but it is nice to know they had a little outside expert help on the new visual effects.

The article has a little more info but above is the good stuff.

[jefferiestubes8]

The production quality of episodes in the second and third seasons is generally sloppier than the first. The photography is often grainier, softer (with many missed focus cues), and not as expressively lit.
This is reflected in the restorations, perhaps more so than was visible in TV broadcasts of the past.

Just compare the restored version of 'The Cage' to any other episode in this set, and you can't help but be struck by the difference in production values.

The Cage – Extended Version (SD, 71 min.)

The episode was reconstructed for the first time in the late 1980s by cutting the 'Menagerie' scenes together with footage from Gene Roddenberry's personal 16mm black & white reference print of the original episode.

only in standard definition!?! they could have telecined it in HD and put it on in HD.

Where No Man Has Gone Before – Alternate Version (HD, 53 min.)
The episode is presented only with its original special effects, and has not been Remastered like the other episodes.

season 3 Blu-ray review
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/2715/stos_s3.html

[Doug Otte]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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Very interesting info, but...54 episodes?

Doug

[Doug Otte]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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The Cage – Extended Version (SD, 71 min.)

only in standard definition!?! they could have telecined it in HD and put it on in HD.

season 3 Blu-ray review
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/2715/stos_s3.html

Very interesting.

Two things:
1) That '87 version of The Cage (w/ Roddenberry's intro/outro) probably only exists in SD. I guess they could have remastered the original film elements of the episode to HD, then reinserted the SD Roddenberry segments, but I wouldn't expect them to go that extra mile when it's not one of the core episodes.

2) Saying the alternate WNM was not "remastered" is misleading. It had never been "mastered" for video, at least "officially." This was the first time the film version had been mastered for video.

Doug

[Hober Mallow]

Doug Otte wrote:

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2) Saying the alternate WNM was not "remastered" is misleading. It had never been "mastered" for video, at least "officially." This was the first time the film version had been mastered for video.

I don't know about misleading, but it's confusing. It says right there it's in HD, then it says it hasn't been remastered. Which is it?

Granted, the packaging of season two says that "Trials and Tribble-ations" is in HD when it actually isn't. But what's the case for WNMHGB?

[Doug Otte]

Hober Mallow wrote:

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I don't know about misleading, but it's confusing. It says right there it's in HD, then it says it hasn't been remastered. Which is it?

It's both. That's what I was trying to explain. The alternate WNM previously only existed in some SD pirated copies (please correct me if I'm wrong about that).

The German fan had a film copy of it (don't remember if they ever said it was 16mm or 35mm). He lent it to CBS. They telecined it and made an HD master.

So, the "re" part of "remastered" is what's confusing. It was recently mastered to HD for the first time.

Doug

[Hober Mallow]

Doug Otte wrote:

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So, the "re" part of "remastered" is what's confusing. It was recently mastered to HD for the first time.

Doug

Ah, gotcha.

[Oso Blanco]

So, there are additional scenes to the full color dvd/vhs version of The Cage? What exactly are those scenes?

[Hober Mallow]

Oso Blanco wrote:

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So, there are additional scenes to the full color dvd/vhs version of The Cage? What exactly are those scenes?

I don't have the set yet, but my assumption was that the "extended version" is just the old spliced together color/BW version with the Gene Roddenberry intro and outro.