Why did TOS:R recreate crappy effects?

[WarpFactorZ]

I've been watching episodes of TOS:Remastered, and am curious (as the subject suggests): why did those in the know faithfully reproduce shitty special effects? When the Enterprise goes to warp, nothing happens (why no movie era warp effect?). The ship itself looks like a CGI recreation of a cheap plastic model. What gives? Whomever did TOS:R had the chance to Lucas-Special-Edition the shit out of the series, yet all we got was updated crappy 60s FX. Any reason why?

 

[johnnybear]

The flashy effects of the ship going to warp as seen in the movies were over done in my opinion and not for the TV series! The over obvious view of the nacelles on their screen and on my television set was what put me off the idea more than anything! The planets they re-did were very good, especially the earth type worlds!
JB

 

[Tosk]

As I recall, there is a single "going to warp" shot in TOSR, but no streaks or rainbows, the ship just jumps suddenly away from where it was. (The camera stays with the ship.)

Whomever did TOS:R had the chance to Lucas-Special-Edition the shit out of the series

Like the Jurassic Park leftover Rontos? Or the Dewbacks that move in a way that you wonder why a Trooper would ride them?

Oh wait, you mean the Jabba scene so terrible that Lucas threw it in the bin and did it all over again for the DVDs?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Warp jumps wouldn't work in TOS, since it was created before they were thought of (thanks, Star Wars). Watch "Balance of Terror" where the Enterprise is at warp and the Bird of Prey at impulse, or "Elaan of Troyius" where a stationary Enterprise battles Klingons at warp 7. You'd have to totally re-engineer the scene to make it work with warp speed effects.

 

[MacLeod]

I've been watching episodes of TOS:Remastered, and am curious (as the subject suggests): why did those in the know faithfully reproduce shitty special effects? When the Enterprise goes to warp, nothing happens (why no movie era warp effect?). The ship itself looks like a CGI recreation of a cheap plastic model. What gives? Whomever did TOS:R had the chance to Lucas-Special-Edition the shit out of the series, yet all we got was updated crappy 60s FX. Any reason why?

$ $ $ $ $

 

[ChristopherPike]

Nerd rage. Three years of discontented bad word of mouth had just brought down the franchise - and they weren't prepared to take any chances. Given that audience was all Star Trek had left. Enterprise reruns were curtailed in syndication and first run remastered TOS took its place, with CBS Digital being very careful how far they strayed. The Gorn on Cestus III blinked and somebody's adorably cute beagle probably died as a result.

 

[alensatemybuick1]

I hope they Never de-crapify my beloved crappy show.

 

[BillJ]

Why would they need to stray far from what the original effects team accomplished? Their mandate was to update the effects to match the live action material in 1080p, because the effects elements no longer existed. Not reinvent the wheel.

 

[Herbert]

I've been watching episodes of TOS:Remastered, and am curious (as the subject suggests): why did those in the know faithfully reproduce shitty special effects? When the Enterprise goes to warp, nothing happens (why no movie era warp effect?). The ship itself looks like a CGI recreation of a cheap plastic model. What gives? Whomever did TOS:R had the chance to Lucas-Special-Edition the shit out of the series, yet all we got was updated crappy 60s FX. Any reason why?

A better question would be why did they feel it necessary to introduce new effects at all, in place of the old ones. It almost ruins it for me when the Enterprise is in orbit and the planet doesn't look that yellowy/orange color they used so much in the original series. I don't think the new effects add one bit to the show. I know others will disagree and that's fine.

As an aside, I don't like the new effects Lucas used on the original SW trilogy either.

 

[BillJ]

A better question would be why did they feel it necessary to introduce new effects at all, in place of the old ones.

Because the effects footage had degraded from years and years of copying and the original elements no longer existed (like they did for most of TNG). I still watch the original effects, but there's a huge difference between them and the live action picture quality in 1080p.

 

[Forbin]

The mandate was to simply recreate the existing effects so they looked cleaner than the originals. There was no call (or reason) to turn it into a Lucas-like whiz-bang digital crapfest. As it turned out, they took more liberties than they should have, and lots of the CGI came out looking like crap anyway.

 

[johnnybear]

I still prefer the original effects like a lot of us still do!
JB

 

[feek61]

I NEVER watch the remastered effects. To me it was just a gimmick to sell Blu-Rays. Its been said a hundred times before but the new effects do not match the feel of the live action. I would have much preferred they spent the money on cleaning up the original effects. They really could have done a fantastic job on the Enterprise shots based on the original high quality footage they found which was included in the "Vault" series discs. So much of the remaster stuff looks like cartoons to me. There are a few cool things they did but for the most part they just are terrible.

 

[Spock's Barber]

I still prefer the original effects like a lot of us still do!
JB

My daughter asked about the 'new' special effects and I replied "Kind of looks like cartoons, doesn't it?"

 

[CaptainMurdock]

They wanted to spruce up the effects but still be faithful to the filming techniques of the time. They briefly touch on that in the special features.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Whomever did TOS:R had the chance to Lucas-Special-Edition the shit out of the series, yet all we got was updated crappy 60s FX.

The Lucas Special Editions... Now those were real crap.

 

[Maurice]

They wanted to spruce up the effects but still be faithful to the filming techniques of the time. They briefly touch on that in the special features.

And on that count they failed pretty miserably in many cases.

 

[CaptainMurdock]

And on that count they failed pretty miserably in many cases.

I liked it. It was my introduction to TOS. YMMV.

 

[Maurice]

I liked it. It was my introduction to TOS. YMMV.

Did you ever read what I was replying to? I was saying those effects failed pretty miserably at being "faithful to the filming techniques of the time", and hadn't (yet) commented on the quality of them.

 

[CaptainMurdock]

Did you ever read what I was replying to? I was saying those effects failed pretty miserably at being "faithful to the filming techniques of the time", and hadn't (yet) commented on the quality of them.

Yeah I read it. And I replied.