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do you think TOS should have been remastered?

One would think that regardless of which version someone prefers, the thing to do for the 50th in particular, is watch them as they aired back in the day.
 
What "early" CGI D7? To my knowledge there was only the one low-poly atrocity used on the show, just retextured with the bird underside for "The Enterprise Incident".
 
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There is only one Klingon model, and one Romulan, used throughout the project. The Enterprise model underwent several changes and mods, but only one base model. (They claimed it was 'too detailed' originally, I'm not sure what downgrades were made after the first 10 episodes).

I don't remember them scratch building two models for anything.
 
What "early" CGI D7? To my knowledge there was only the one low-poly atrocity used on the show, just retextured with a the bird underside for "The Enterprise Incident".

Pretty sure this was discussed this here before on this forum, and it was established the later D7 designs were different. In looking at the two models, it seems clear that someone made a deliberate choice to "segment" the front of the D7..my thought is they thought it looked too smooth and lacked detail, so they added a little.

I tried before to get polygon counts on some of the ships but haven't seen any.. I do know the city from "Wink of an Eye" was 1.75 million polygons. By comparison the First USS Voyager model for the credit sequence was 300,000 polygons..greater than Jurassic Park's dinosaurs. Babylon 5 had poly counts in the low 1000s even on Lost Tales. I'm guessing the poly count on TOS-R was between 300,000 and 1.75million.
 
In looking at the two models, it seems clear that someone made a deliberate choice to "segment" the front of the D7..my thought is they thought it looked too smooth and lacked detail, so they added a little.
Bad call, and typical of the approach that TOS-R used way too often. "Oh, those poor dumb people in the 60s didn't know how to do this properly... We'll fix it!" :rolleyes:
 
Weren't both versions released anyway? The person who wants to watch the old stuff can watch that and the person who wants to watch the new stuff can watch that, right?
edit:cleaned up two words ;)
 
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Finally watched the entire STC episode. Frankly, the only ship shot that I thought couldn't have been done in 1969 was the zoom in through the hull breach. Everything else looked pretty darn period.

And... Gigi Edgley!!!
 
Why do they have to "pay double" to have both, when even the public don't with the Bluray versions? which were the main way of making the projects money back.

The main reason for the remastered TOS was to get it back into Syndication, not DVD/Blu-Ray versions. And Syndication/Streaming makes CBS a lot more money than DVD/Blu-Ray sales.
 
Finally watched the entire STC episode. Frankly, the only ship shot that I thought couldn't have been done in 1969 was the zoom in through the hull breach. Everything else looked pretty darn period.

And... Gigi Edgley!!!
Actually Doug Drexler asserts it could have been done utilizing a series of mattes. It mighn't have been as seamless and polished as today, but it could have achieved a similar effect.

The real issue is two-fold though. Firstly there is the issue of the required time and money--that wasn't available. Secondly is whether anyone would have envisioned such a shot back then.

Resources and technical ability would not have been the obstacle if additional time and money were available. So that leaves whether anyone would have thought of it in the first place. That can only be answered if one could find an example of something similar having been done somewhere during that time.
 
When it comes to the general idea of starting with a shot of the exterior of the ship and zooming into an interior, there's some precedent from the opening of "The Cage."

Realistically speaking, if that STC sequence had been done in the '60s, there would have been a noticeable transition between the exterior shot and the interior, such as matte lines and discrepancies in angle and perspective.

Kor
 
^^ Would it? "The Cage" shot has the p.o.v. approaching a model changing orientation. Well, the camera is changing orientation for effect. But in STC it's a straightforward shot. It should actually be easier.
 
Before CGI, shots like that were done with little tricks like a flash of light obscuring one full frame, or the camera seeing a blank wall for one full frame, giving the editor a point to splice two shots together to simulate a seamless shot.
 
Weren't both versions released anyway? The person who wants to watch the old stuff can watch that and the person who wants to watch the new stuff can watch that, right?
If you go to the expense and trouble of buying the show on BluRay, sure. If you're watching on Me-TV or Netflix and you'd rather see the original versions, you're SOL.
 
Remastered is so arbitrary, which is what really bothers me about it. It's not like principles of aesthetics apply, anywhere. It's just some supervisor saying, "punch up the contrast, here. Replace this element, there ...". But when they use the word "remastered," it's supposed to sound so technical, or something, when it's not. I like the idea of making TOS accessible to modern audiences, but I've never really been a fan of what was done with it. The drop-ins and re-dos look like shite, for the most part. For example, the Enterprise, herself. The ship looks really bad ... cheap. But from a marketing point of view, it was very smart to keep both versions available, because there are "purists" around, like myself, who prefer originals, as they were first released.
 
The main reason for the remastered TOS was to get it back into Syndication, not DVD/Blu-Ray versions. And Syndication/Streaming makes CBS a lot more money than DVD/Blu-Ray sales.

Actually, Toshiba approached CBS with the offer to pay for the remastering of TOS to kickstart interest in their Blu-ray competitor, HD DVD.
I'm happy with them, the upgrade to the image is stunning the sheer amount of detail plastered a big smile on my face. Thankfully with branching I can watch the episodes with the original effects.
 
If you go to the expense and trouble of buying the show on BluRay, sure. If you're watching on Me-TV or Netflix and you'd rather see the original versions, you're SOL.

That's because only about 2% of people want to see the old FX. That's life. Most want to see the upgraded versions. I'm glad they're out there, but I have no desire to see them.
Romulan_flagship_TEI_remastered_zpsvbzm0lxb.jpg

new_tosr059_08_zpse5hksekr.jpg

RAMA
 
That's because only about 2% of people want to see the old FX. That's life. Most want to see the upgraded versions. I'm glad they're out there, but I have no desire to see them.
Romulan_flagship_TEI_remastered_zpsvbzm0lxb.jpg

new_tosr059_08_zpse5hksekr.jpg

RAMA

You're just digging in. If you can't tell how shitty that model is, then you really need to go pick up some prescription glasses.
 
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