What if TOS Season 1 was filmed in Black and White?

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by TheSubCommander, Aug 27, 2014.

  1. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    Yep. In my teens I recorded some TOS episodes on audio cassette, back before VHS was introduced. It seems so quaint now, but back then it was the only way to access the episodes outside of reruns. That and James Blish's adaptations.

    Back in the early to mid '70s if we had been told one day we could collect and enjoy the episodes anytime we wanted and in pristine picture, colour and sound we probably would have thought we were being teased cruelly. Our likely response would have been, "Get outta here! No freakin' way!" :lol:

    Today I appreciate the poetic irony of watching TOS and other SF on a big flatscreen display that looks remarkably like the Enterprise's main viewscreen on the bridge.
     
  2. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Same here. My family had a B&W TV, and that's how I discovered TOS, but a couple of years later, we bought a color set, and the series took on another life. This was the early 70s where there was not wealth of TOS color photos around, except on a couple of novel covers and the random product (I was not raiding the movie memorabilia stores for stills at that time), so when I watched TOS in color...wow.
     
  3. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    My first association of colour with Star Trek did not come through watching television, but by seeing an AMT model kit of the Enterprise in the stores and seeing some Gold Key comics on the magazine rack at the corner variety store.

    My very first "love" was getting a Corgi toy of the Batmobile (the large one that fired pellets) for Christmas in 1966 or '67. My second "love" which eclipsed all else was getting the model kit of the Enterprise on Christmas 1970. That Christmas I was on the freakin' Moon. :lol:
     
  4. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    Almost kind of makes up for the lack of flying cars, doesn't it?

    [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRl_D_CunWA[/yt]
     
  5. Push The Button

    Push The Button Commodore Commodore

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    Wow, I did the same thing when I was in high school. I used to make "highlight reels" of my favorite scenes. Ah, the good old days..
     
  6. HarryM

    HarryM Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I did that once (audio tape) with The Enemy Within, which is quite suitable for it.
     
  7. TheSubCommander

    TheSubCommander Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Not crazy at all. I sometimes set my TV to watch things in B&W intentionally. B&W is easy. Just go to your picture settings and set it to 0.

    As far as snowy TV, you' have to experiment with brightness, contrast, tint, and sharpness to get it the way you remember.
     
  8. ZapBrannigan

    ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Metryq has mentioned this in other contexts. He said that today's TV and movie pros have the digital tools to replicate pretty much any artifact from the analog era.

    When they're trying to be stylish or do period work, what was once a bug is now a feature.
     
  9. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Exactly—the artifacts that old engineers strove to eliminate are now plugin FX for a new generation of engineers. I have a terminal emulator called Cathode that recreates all the artifacts of old CRT terminals: static, ground loop hum, screen curvature, lag, random twitches in the power causing raster instabilities, etc.

    If anyone is really gung-ho, there's a plugin in FCPX (and no doubt many other NLEs) that recreates all the off-air and old CRT artifacts. Time for a "retro-TREK" release?
     
  10. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Captain Captain

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    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Harry
     
  11. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    ^^ Yep, that's pretty much what it looked like to me when I started watching TOS way back when.
     
  12. LMFAOschwarz

    LMFAOschwarz Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    You guys were luckier than I was...this pretty much was my view on a fairly good day in the beginning.. :crazy:

    [​IMG]
     
  13. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    When I started watching TOS we had one of those rotary antennas that helped you get a clearer signal. And since we were living in Mississauga just west of Toronto and the Canadian station airing Star Trek was beaming its signal from Toronto we got a pretty clear signal. We rarely had ghosting or even snow in the picture.

    The GTA area was actually a pretty good place for aerial television reception back in the '70s. We were getting about a dozen VHF and UHF stations then with a few more where the reception was not so good.

    Funny really. Back then we had only about a dozen channels and we thought we had plenty of interesting stuff to watch. Now with cable and everything we have easily about 200 or so channels available and it feels like there's hardly anything worth watching.
     
  14. HarryM

    HarryM Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Those were the days. Watch the show then go outside on a "landing party" and act it out again, such fun.
     
  15. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Sixty kilometers from the broadcast tower, it was a bit more like this (sometimes with more static, depending on the weather):

    [​IMG]
     
  16. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    I think mine was closer to that than to the clear images in the previous post.

    Also worth remembering that TV screens at the time had rounded corners so portions of the image would be cut off. And can you do a gif of the picture flipping because you don't have the vertical hold knob set juuuust exactly right?
     
  17. LMFAOschwarz

    LMFAOschwarz Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    That was a neat idea, Christopher! :techman: How's this for starters?

    [​IMG]
     
  18. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^Oddly, I can't see any difference in the image on this page, but when I click on it, it opens a new page where the image is slightly different.
     
  19. LMFAOschwarz

    LMFAOschwarz Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    :shrug:

    The last time I posted a gif image, it "worked". I know not what was difference was this time..
     
  20. Hober Mallow

    Hober Mallow Commodore Commodore

    That's about as good as I could get it with the help of a little tin foil on the antenna.