Can you give one or two examples? I've not had the chance to read the book and I'm curious to know if there was an original intent back in 1979 in any form, or if the theatrical version was in fact, the original intent.
Will TMP DC (& II/VI) ever come to blu ray?
- Thread starter Khan 2.0
- Start date
Can you give one or two examples? I've not had the chance to read the book and I'm curious to know if there was an original intent back in 1979 in any form, or if the theatrical version was in fact, the original intent.
It wasn't really an extrapolation. They always knew what V'ger looked like once Syd Mead designed it. It's just they ran out of time to build a model of the entire thing they could use in a reveal shot (they did build the nose, tail, and one of its six sides... which was something like 60 feet long).
Maurice, what about the ancient statues on Vulcan that replaced the overhead scenes of T'Khut from the theatrical? Was that envisioned in '79 or was it an idea born in 2000 by the DE team? And can you tell me from the book, was the scene between Kirk and Nogura ever filmed or not?
I always saw the TMP DE more of a "finish the movie" than a straight up "This is totally what I intended!". After watching the theatrical cut upon realizing I've only been watching only the DE since it's release, the film feels so hilariously unfinished. I hate the male computer voices, the editing feels awkward and some of the effects shots really could have used some touch ups (which the DE provided).
If you listen to the commentary track that was available on startrek.com, they state fairly early on that the intent wasn't to change it dramatically. So as far as I'm concerned, there was never any intent to bring TMP back to what they had intended in 1979.
And really, the term 're-thinking' is more appropriate to describe the director's cut of Highlander 2. The DE of TMP is still the same exact story.
The mattes based on Mike Minor's design were junked deliberately as it was felt (apparently by Trumbull who may have convinced Wise) that the landscape wasn't "far out" enough and looked too Earthlike, hence it was completely redesigned.
The Nogura scenes appear to have been dropped well before the film started production. They don't appear in the July 19, 1978 draft of the script, several weeks before the August 7, 1978 commencement of principle photography. The walls for Nogura office set for "In Thy Image" became the cargo pod walls of the live action cargo deck (the plans for the office appear in the Phase II book).
Since this thread seems to be about people getting the book, I decided to start a thread about what we grok from it over here (link).
The Nogura scenes appear to have been dropped well before the film started production. They don't appear in the July 19, 1978 draft of the script, several weeks before the August 7, 1978 commencement of principle photography. The walls for Nogura office set for "In Thy Image" became the cargo pod walls of the live action cargo deck (the plans for the office appear in the Phase II book).
Since this thread seems to be about people getting the book, I decided to start a thread about what we grok from it over here (link).
It makes a kind of sense. In terms of pacing, the Nogura scenes worked well in context of 'In Thy Image' as a TV show pilot episode, as it was all exposition (mixed with character establishing for Kirk's position in the Admiralty). But when it got turned into a movie, they probably wanted to 'cut to the chase' and just get Kirk back into the ship's command structure as soon as possible.
One noteable change is that in the television treatment it's Nogura who convinces a reluctant Kirk to go back to the Enterprise, whereas in TMP it's implied that Kirk convinces Nogura to let him command the ship once more. A subtle, but important, change of emphasis.
Last edited:
The last draft that the Nogura scene was in was the May 17, 1978 Revised Draft. It was dropped by the time Livingston finished the Shooting Script a month later.
AFAIK, the "Special Longer Version" was never televised outside the USA. Certainly, the Australian TV premiere of TMP was the theatrical version. I finally got to see the SLV when visiting a penpal in USA (December 31, 1983), and it had only recently come out on sell-thru video there, eventually completely replacing their home video version of the theatrical (until its rerelease in widescreen; but with the longer, incorrect running time on the box art).
Australia did get the SLV on home video, but not till the late 80s. Here, too, it replaced the earlier theatrical release and the widescreen turned up in a boxed set of widescreen movies (ST I-V).
What is this scandal about? I'm not familiar with it.
It was a few months ago. The actor who was Decker admitted to some... heinous things.
But I don't see it derailing Trek releases. I just saw Capricorn One on Blu-Ray...
The director's cuts of the second and sixth films are available, in HD, from the iTunes Store.
The TMP director's cut is there too, but not in HD.
The TMP director's cut is there too, but not in HD.
I've often wondered about that window-boxing at the beginning of III.
upon closer inspection,
If it wasn't window-boxed, the credit for Dame Judith Anderson would be cut off on the sides.
I've seen this done with other movies as well when the intro credits go to the edge. Usually a problem
with wider aspect ratio films.
I spoke in person to someone who worked on the DE and asked them about the vfx rendering.
YES it was only rendered at Standard Def.
I won't say who it was because they also said the people he worked with at Paramount
didn't really care at all about the TMP DE and wanted to spend the absolute minimum amount of
expense to get it out. Something about "making Robert Wise happy and lets be done with it."
Last edited:
I've been told similar things, like how they asked to do additional cleanup of the print but were told "no".
I really the the DE gets a proper revamp for the anniversary.
The bare bones DVD as well as the SE DVD do not have the opening credits window boxed, yet there is nothing cut off on the sides. On the contrary, it had even more space on the sides than the window boxed BD!
whoa! not cool of them!
I'm a bit confused. By "windowboxing," do you mean squished? Because that's how I used to see the credits for ST II and III when I had them on tape.
It'd certainly be easy enough to downplay him in any advertising, as he wasn't featured on the release poster along with Kirk, Spock, and Ilia. You could even cut together a good trailer for the movie without him and it wouldn't seem especially odd.
And I don't think anyone thinks of ST:TMP as "a Stephen Collins movie" the way that 7th Heaven is thought of as his TV series.
Window-boxing, as far as I understand it, is usually when an image has been letterboxed on top and bottom, and pillar-boxed on left and right, resulting in a noticable 'border' around a central image.
