Hi all, I've started watching 1-6 and upon watching 'Star Trek The Wrath of Kahn' I've come across all these extra scenes that had been cut out of the theatrical cut. Are there 'Directors cuts' for the other films or did they only do this with 'Kahn'
The only other one that comes close is TMP, which had a Director's Cut released on DVD in 2001, essentially using CGI to finish sequences which could not be complete in 79 due to issues like budget and deadlines. There are also other stuff, like the Vulcan scenes are re-done to make Vulcan more accurate to how it's depicted in the rest of the franchise. This has not been released on Blu-ray, the stated explanation that the remastering techniques were incompatible with HD. Though some experts claim that should now be possible using a technique similar to how the HD remastered TNG episodes were done. Still, no effort has been made at all to do an HD remastered TMP Director's Cut.
ST6:TUC has a "Director's Cut" on DVD but not blu-ray. As I recall, the differences are slight. There's also the matter of the "Scooby Doo ending" in various home video releases of the movie. Kor
IIRC, that's basically the VHS cut of the film inserting the scene with Colonel West briefing the President, and later revealing the Klingon assassin Scotty shoots at Khitomer is West disguised as a Klingon.
The Nick Meyer "Director's Cut" DVD also has some weird flashback stuff when Spock is violating Valeris's mind. Kor
I haven't seen a version with that on, just the briefing and scooby doo scene. Is it on the blu ray? I'm still holding on with my 10 disc DVD box set til a decent hi def release of the 10 films takes my fancy.
As far as Leonard Nimoy was concerned, the theatrical versions of ST3: TSFS and ST4: TVH were his director's cuts, and he saw no need to either revise the films or let the public see what had been discarded on video. A proposed director's cut of ST 5:TFF has been floated several times over the years (with fans even attempting to revise the laughable special effects themselves), but Paramount sees the idea as throwing good money after bad and won't consider it.
I originally bought all of the silver-boxed TOS movies when they were released as "Directors' Cut's" or "Special Editions". I still have them to this day. It was the first time I ever watched the TOS movies, or TOS in general to be honest. I didn't get to see the actual series until much later. It was really an exciting experience to put one of these babies in the DVD player. Why you may ask? Well, each DVD had great animated menus that were pulled from each movie. The TOS TMP DE DVD had a recreation of the TMP bridge, the special features disc a recreation of various interiors of V'GER. For TWOK, I believe the DVD menus were Regular One, and maybe the ENT refit bridge bridge? TVH had a really cool menu in that it was a recreation of SFC HQ when the whale probe is attacking. This idea was carried over into the TNG and DS9 DVD releases. The Voyager releases were a fairly generic background with various angles of one ship from the show. Rather uninspired compared to the great LCARS animations and set locations for each TNG DVD season release. (Which compared to the blurays, I wish they also remastered. The LCARS menu is nice for the TNG blurays, but the DVDs just had a little bit more to them. ) There was a lot of love put into those DVD's. I always had wished/hoped they would get the HD treatment in bluray. Instead, we got the generic blue text/white background motif for TMP through NEM. Although it provides a level of consistency in terms of menu layout for each disc and movie, it just isnt the same experience as navigating through a virtual recreation of a scene from the movie to select chapters, special features, etc. This in addition to the unreleased cuts of the DE is one of the big reasons I still have kept all of my TOS movie DVDs.As with remastering DS9 and VOY in HD, I hope one day they release the DE for the remainings TOS movies in HD (with cool menus).
I don't find any of the directors cuts for 1-6 to be improvements on the theatrical editions and some to be marked steps down. None of the alternate takes stand out as better to the takes used in the theatrical editions; many are worse. Pacing is generally ruined by the extra scenes. In the case of the TMP DE version, we have the additional problem that the sound FX are hands down superior in the theatrical edition. Cutting the universal translator on Epsilon IX harms that scene. Overall it's a bad trade that doesn't affect or fix the main problems in TMP, and nor is it plausible as a cut that Wise would have considered his objective circa 1979; this has been discussed on the board before in detail. Even the subplot scenes involving Colonel West in TUC don't add anything that wasn't already there in broad strokes in the theatrical edition. It's of zero bearing to the overall story who the assassin was on Khitomer, and it's ridiculous that it would be West himself. YMMV.
Oh, hogwash. Most of the original sound work done on TMP was irritating and repetitive. The DE fixed a lot of that by first removing that annoying computer. If there's something going on that needs attention, let the actual characters be the one to announce it. Because scenes where characters quietly watch a wall of text being read aloud makes for gripping cinema? Regardless, I think Robert made the right call on this scene for a couple of reasons. 1. It doesn't sound like something the Klingons would do. Why would Klingons be transmitting jargon like this during an intense situation? Call the Klingons for help? Nope because no help ever arrives. Inform the Klingon Empire about it? If they did, nothing ever came of it. 2. "Believe luminous cloud to be enormous power field surrounding alien vessel." So Epsilon Nine gets information about the Cloud telling them that there's an alien vessel on the inside. Now the information we get later on during their final transmission has become redundant since they should already know that. It was a good editing choice to not reveal too much about the cloud so early into the movie. 3. "Continuing to attack" What? The Klingons just saw three torpedoes disappear and their reaction was utter confusion. They were FLEEING, not attacking.
Interestingly, I think the reason they cut the Klingon translation scene is because there was some thought that the idea of a vessel being at the center of the cloud should be kept secret until Spock announces it later. If you watch the DE carefully, all references to "an object at the center of the cloud" are edited out prior to that point, inclusive of the Klingon report in this scene.
It does give a bit more weight to Spock's deduction, which in the original almost seems like he's just desperate to say something to divert the tension and keep Kirk and Decker from throwing down in the middle of the bridge. Thank you, Spock, I know you got here late, but literally everyone has figured out there's a ship creating the cloud.
I think I prefer the DE's mostly because I watched those versions first before seeing the original cuts. So for me, anything but the DE's seem... less I guess you could say? Put simply by others YMMV. It all comes down to personal taste.
I like the DE's for the same reason I like remastered TOS: I've seen the originals soooooo many times that I find the differences fascinating.
Slight correction. Epsilon Nine still makes the discovery during their final transmission. During the commentary, Robert Wise wanted Epsilon Nine to discover the presence of the ship and have Spock confirm it when the Enterprise arrives. I know Spock says he suspects there's an object, but I'm going under the assumption that he didn't watch the transmission. Having both Epsilon Nine and Spock discover it on their own kind of confirms it for Kirk.
The words that spring to mind are "fannish retcons". Yep. They cut two lines to try to facilitate that, but in the original it's said so often that when Spock finally chimes in it's like "Well, now, tell us something we didn't know." Emphasis mine. Italicized lines removed from the DE. KLINGON CAPTAIN (TRANSLATION): Believe luminescent cloud to be enormous powerfield surrounding alien vessel. KIRK: We assume there is a vessel of some kind at the heart of the cloud. BRANCH: Enterprise, the cloud is definitely a power field of some kind. Measures, my God, over two A.U.'s in diameter. Must be something incredible inside there generating it. We're transmitting linguacode friendship messages on all frequencies. No response. TECHNICIAN: I have a null reading at the center of the cloud. LIEUTENANT: Definitely something inside there but all scans are being reflected back. SPOCK: Captain, I suspect there's an object at the heart of that cloud. But the Epsilon Nine dialog still makes it too clear there's "something" in there instead of allowing our heroes to figure it out on their own.