Is it a bit dubious that all TNG episodes that were filmed when Roddenberry was involved, now look faded and dated?
Well, they are the oldest. Although for my part, I feel many of the first-season episodes were better science fiction than the seasons that followed. They dared try out new things, rather than just settling for a rather repetitive pattern of plot elements. And they had some mighty good visual effects, too, such as in "Where No One.." - something the later CGI hasn't really surpassed. Roddenberry might not have been able to write worth shit, but under his guidance, some good writing and acting and producing was still taking place in the 1980s. Timo Saloniemi
I think TNG was still good after Roddenbery was not involved, but not as good as they could have been. They all seemed to be rather Worf-centered and seemed to be about Worf getting away with murder, to me.
Can you be more specific? Do you mean visually faded? Are you implying that Roddenberry's involvement caused the tapes to fade somehow? Doug
What I am saying is that Paramount may have not made as much effort to restore them and make them look as good as the later ones, because Roddenberry was more involved in them, and they concentrated in the 'philosophy' and 'evolution of man' aspects, more than action etc. Roddenberry has been known to have fights with the studios over this going back to the 60's.
I remember watching Farpoint when it first came out, and thinking at the time that it looked somewhat odd. For example, the top of Picard's head sort of fades out here: http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s1/1x01/farpoint1_182.jpg So I'd reckon that they were using some way of filming or processing that gave it that look, and later abandoned it for a clearer system.
The big difference in the look of the series in the first two years compared with the last is usually put down to the change in cinematographers - Marvin Rush preferred a brighter colour scheme than Edward Brown, who went in for darker shadows and coloured lighting.
Okay, that's reaching. If that were the case, then why would they have spent so much money on TOS Remastered? Not to mention that "Paramount" is just the name of a business. The people who worked for/ran that business in the '80s and had conflicts with Roddenberry have long since moved on to other jobs. There's no reason why the institution would hold a grudge, because an institution has no mind or identity. It's just the sum total of the people who work for it, and there are different people running the business now.
C'mon gang, show the great bird a little love. He was the one who started it all. Now, a couple of things to keep in mind. When TNG was launched, it was a giant question mark. The studio, the actors, and even Gene didn't know if they could make lightning strike twice. Star Trek was bankable on the big screen, but could they do it again on TV? I've seen interviews with Stewart where he laughed about living out of his suit case the whole first season because he figured he'd be heading back to England at any time. When Season One was deemed enough of a success to be picked up for another year, the studio went ahead and started to pump more money into the show, and that's were things visually started to change. Then as Tomalak pointed out, the big change came at Season Three when the new cinematographer came on board.
Thanks. Now I understand. However, there's been no restoration. In addition to the change in cinematographers, as already noted, I believe they also changed the type of tape they used for the final edits, starting around the beginning of the 3rd season. It's been discussed ad nauseum on various threads here over the years. Doug