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STAR TREK V DIRECTOR´S CUT

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I think some decent visuals would improve the film massively, personally. It's one of my main bugbears about TFF, amongst other things.
 
I think a STV DC could allow Shatner to remove the weak VFX scenes, and replace them by new ones (no crazy CGI, something according to 1989), to show his original vision of the film.
-The "Rock beings" he planned could be added.
-New "God" scene
-Some shots of the Bird of Prey and Enterprise A replaced by new ones using the original model.
-Frame by frame restoration of the film, that would give new life to scenes like the "Enterprise over the moon" one or Yosemite´s landscapes.
-Removal of silly moments like Uhura´s dance or "Cat-girl" in Paradise City
-Deleted scenes?

Usuras dance and the cat girl scenes aren’t silly in the context of TOS to be fair.
The deleted scenes are kinda good tbh...the nimbus ambassador stuff really sets the place up.
A scene making the link between the god thing as Syboks Vger, and showing him affecting the (skeleton) crew with his telepathy a lá bendii syndrome would be useful. Somehow. Most people’s problems with the story, plot, certain events in the film, comes more from them than the film itself.
 
I think some decent visuals would improve the film massively, personally. It's one of my main bugbears about TFF, amongst other things.
The scene I found odd at the time was the shuttlecraft, which picked up Kirk, Spock and McCoy from Yosemite, not going through spacedock but going straight to the Enterprise. Even though that was done, I would've liked to see spacedock in the background along with Earth. Another thing I thought the Enterprise should've had at least one space battle with the following Klingon ship.
 
The scene I found odd at the time was the shuttlecraft, which picked up Kirk, Spock and McCoy from Yosemite, not going through spacedock but going straight to the Enterprise. Even though that was done, I would've liked to see spacedock in the background along with Earth. Another thing I thought the Enterprise should've had at least one space battle with the following Klingon ship.

They couldn't even get basic shots of the enterprise right, I dread to think what a space battle would have been like.
 
The scene I found odd at the time was the shuttlecraft, which picked up Kirk, Spock and McCoy from Yosemite, not going through spacedock but going straight to the Enterprise. Even though that was done, I would've liked to see spacedock in the background along with Earth. Another thing I thought the Enterprise should've had at least one space battle with the following Klingon ship.
What's sad is the VFX budget for V was much higher than for IV, so where they spent it, God-thing only knows.
 
What's sad is the VFX budget for V was much higher than for IV, so where they spent it, God-thing only knows.

Same as TMP. Wasn’t an established FX house, só had to set up shop. ILM already has its gear, so the money gets to the screen.
Saying that, there are a lot more FX shots in V than IV, and IV has the benefit of everything being in place from the last few movies. They probably had to ship the models too, which wouldn’t have been easy.
 
Same as TMP. Wasn’t an established FX house, só had to set up shop. ILM already has its gear, so the money gets to the screen.
Saying that, there are a lot more FX shots in V than IV, and IV has the benefit of everything being in place from the last few movies. They probably had to ship the models too, which wouldn’t have been easy.
Plus with IV, a large chunk of it was set on 'contemporary Earth' so they probably saved a bundle on space shots, though what shots they had were good.
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Nick Meyer has the most mature view, regarding TWOK and TUC: he actually says while he's happy to provide an alternative version, it shouldn't ever be to the detriment or unavailability of the theatrical cut. Neither is "better" than the other, they're just different takes on the same material, and consumers should always be able to make their own choices about which version they prefer. :)

Too bad Paramount doesn't share Nick Meyer's enlightened view as only the theatrical cut of ST VI is available.

Actually, Paramount is considering a High Definition reissue of the Director’s Edition of TMP for next year. I asked VFX Supervisor Daren Dochterman, and he told me that all of the CG assets still exist. All that’s needed is the green light from Paramount.

:techman::hugegrin::hugegrin::techman:
 
Same as TMP. Wasn’t an established FX house, só had to set up shop. ILM already has its gear, so the money gets to the screen.
Saying that, there are a lot more FX shots in V than IV, and IV has the benefit of everything being in place from the last few movies. They probably had to ship the models too, which wouldn’t have been easy.
Yes, but IV's VFX budget was higher than III's. and that had no shortage of effects shots. IV also had more VFX than most people realize.

IV
  • Numerous whale probe shots
  • USS Saratoga gets whacked
  • Matte painting of SFHQ exterior (1)
  • Matte painting of SF seen outside SFHQ window (this might be a cyclorama tho)
  • Matte painting of BOP on Vulcan
  • Matte painting of Vulcan with BOP liftoff from Vulcan
  • Spacedock interior
    • Power fades on starships
    • Tug shuttles sputter out
  • Spacedock knocked out by Probe
  • Ocean water shooting up into sky
  • BOP going to warp in space
  • Shots of the sun on the viewscreen
  • BOP arcs towards Sun
  • BOP screams away from the Sun
  • Zoom into BOP engine dissolving to...
  • Kirk's hallucination (montage, several lengthy shots)
  • Earth seen from orbit (matted into BOP viewer)
  • Invisible foot crunching garbage can and indenting ground (miniature)
  • BOP ramp drops from invisible ship
  • Matte shot of the Cetecean Institute's whale tank and SF beyond (live action of the Monteray Bay Aquarium with its tidal pool filled in by matted in water and whales and painted skyline)
  • Every single shot of the whales underwater and in the BOP tank, except for Spock's closeup mind-meld
  • Spock beams up/in
  • Helicopter lowers plexiglass into invisible BOP
  • Gillian and Kirk beam up/in
  • BOP decloaking over the whaler
  • Harpoon bouncing off invisible BOP
  • BOP hanging over the whaler
  • Whales in ocean get beamed up
  • Whales materialize in cargo bay
  • BOP going to warp from the atmosphere
  • Kirk and Gillian and the "beasties"
  • Slingshootting around sun (again)
  • Forced perspective miniature of the Golden Gate bridge used for several shots including the BOP screaming under it
  • BOP hits the water
  • Whales swim towards the Golden Gate
  • Spacedock interior shots with shuttle and travel pod, Excelsior and -A
  • Big finale shot of the -A exiting spacedock and blasting off to warp
V
  • Matte shot of Yosemite Valley
  • Kirk falling and Spock in pursuit
  • Shuttle departs Yosemite
  • Shuttle approaches Enterprise (the ship reflected on the shuttle window was a still image projected on-set and not an optical)
  • Shuttle enters hangar deck
  • BOP decloaks behind Pioneer 11
  • BOP gun fires
  • Pioneer 11 blowed up
  • Shuttle approaches Nimbus III
  • Shuttle swoops across Nimbus III
  • Phaser fire during assault on Paradise City (where the grass is dead and the girl's a kitty)
  • Shuttle approaches Enterprise (several shot)
  • Klingon ship in warp & cloaks
  • Klingon ship decloaks
  • Shuttle crash (several angles)
  • BOP fires
  • Enterprise (lamely) goes to warp
  • Enterprise (lamely) at warp
  • Enterprise approaches Great Barrier
  • Shots inside Great Barrier
  • Reveal of ShaKaRee
  • ShaKaRee for rear-projection onto viewer
  • Miniature of temple pieces shooting up
  • God-Beam shooting past Enterprise
  • God-Thing various shots
  • God zaps Kirk and Spock
  • Sybok rassles God
  • Spock & Bones beamed out
  • Enterprise fires torpedo
  • Torpedo hit
  • God in a few shots chasing Kirk
  • BOP hangs over injured Enterprise
  • BOP to the rescue
  • BOP blasts God
  • Kirk beamed in
  • Enterprise and BOP in orbit
  • FInal pullback shot matte
Minatures built specifically for each film

VI
  • bridge
  • Whale Probe
  • Whales (2)
  • Foam BOP to skip over water
  • BOP cargo doors
V
  • Shuttles (2)
  • Hangar miniature
  • Pioneer
  • God-Thing temple
That may not be all of them for either film.

Reportedly the whales where really expensive.

It looks like a pretty close match in terms of total shots, but I daresay the ILM stuff shots were generally more complex in terms of number of elements per shot.
 
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I think you may see a DE of TMP on Blu-Ray some day. The creators of the effects said they have all the material and it can definitely be done. All Paramount needs to do is call. I really wouldn't be surprised to see a 40th anniversary edition of it next year.

Your prediction could become reality quite soon :)
 
Why? Do you have inside information that none of us are aware of?
No, sorry. I just have the info that came in the San Diego Comic-Con when Paramount announced that It had plans to release a remastered ST: TMP Director's Cut. Since then i didnt heard more news until a few days ago, when someone in the post about that said we could have news on the 40th Anniversary day.
 
One little thing that would be interesting is that Shatner put a lot of thought into framing shots, but then had to crop and zoom them because a faulty camera had scratched the side of the negative. Now that could be mended digitally, allowing a return to the shot-as-planned, which might be better (but still wouldn't deal with the many other flaws).
Putting in new Rockmen... well watch the special edition of the Who story Enlightenment to see how poor combining new fx with old actor footage can be.
 
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Here's hoping. It's the sole reason I've put off buying movies 1 to 10 in hi def.

I've held off on TMP for that reason. TMP is my favorite Trek film and I loved the DE. The special effects upgrades were nice, but what I really liked about the DE version is it had a lot better pacing. They re-ordered some scenes and cut out some scenes and the DE seems to flow a lot better as a result.

I also have to admit I liked that they changed the 82 AU line to 2 AU's. I know there is some, er, debate about that line but I personally felt 82 AU's was just way to massive. 2 AU's is still incredible large after all.

I did buy TWOK on Blu-Ray when the director's cut of that was released. I also bought the 4 TNG movies in a Blu-Ray set. I figured in that case there's no real director's cuts out there for those and the versions on Blu-Ray of those is pretty much the same as the Special Collectors Editions of the DVDs---and I have the 3 Abrams movies on Blu-Ray.

I still have to get TSFS, TVH, TFF and TUC on Blu-Ray at some point. I believe those Blu-Rays are also similar to the SCE DVD versions.

I keep hoping, however slim it might be, that someday Shatner gets his wish and they redo the special effects for TFF. Nowadays it can probably be done at a minimal cost and still bring it up to the level of the other 12 films. And I actually think there'd be a market for it. TFF, with all it's flaws, still holds a soft spot for many people. And I think a lot of fans would love to see it at least given a good special effects treatment.
 
I've held off on TMP for that reason. TMP is my favorite Trek film and I loved the DE. The special effects upgrades were nice, but what I really liked about the DE version is it had a lot better pacing. They re-ordered some scenes and cut out some scenes and the DE seems to flow a lot better as a result.

I also have to admit I liked that they changed the 82 AU line to 2 AU's. I know there is some, er, debate about that line but I personally felt 82 AU's was just way to massive. 2 AU's is still incredible large after all.

I did buy TWOK on Blu-Ray when the director's cut of that was released. I also bought the 4 TNG movies in a Blu-Ray set. I figured in that case there's no real director's cuts out there for those and the versions on Blu-Ray of those is pretty much the same as the Special Collectors Editions of the DVDs---and I have the 3 Abrams movies on Blu-Ray.

I still have to get TSFS, TVH, TFF and TUC on Blu-Ray at some point. I believe those Blu-Rays are also similar to the SCE DVD versions.

I keep hoping, however slim it might be, that someday Shatner gets his wish and they redo the special effects for TFF. Nowadays it can probably be done at a minimal cost and still bring it up to the level of the other 12 films. And I actually think there'd be a market for it. TFF, with all it's flaws, still holds a soft spot for many people. And I think a lot of fans would love to see it at least given a good special effects treatment.


Agree with all points. I'm still holding off though. I've got the 1-10 DVD box set which is still serving me well for the time being.

TMP deserves a proper release. It was one of the biggest films of it's day, and wether you like it or not (it's absolutely one of, if not my favourite Trek movie alongside TWOK) was an epic, landmark sci fi movie that deserves to be preserved. TFF, I couldn't really care less about.
 
TFF, I couldn't really care less about.

TFF does rank 13/13 for me. I usually watch it when doing a film series rewatch, but it's not one I pull out at random. The special effects are what tank it for me. If they were to fix that flaw I'd probably switch it with Insurrection which is my 12/13th film.

I don't hate Insurrection--but it's another one I only usually watch when doing a film series rewatch. But it's a weaker film nonetheless. The only reason it's ahead of TFF for me is it's at least competently made. It had some beautiful cinematography and the special effects, while not spectacular, were at least up to the usual Star Trek film standards. If TFF at least looked like the other Star Trek films in quality I could switch it with Insurrection.

But Hell, I'd love to see a 13 film Blu-Ray box set with all the special edition DVD features. Why not include the Abrams films as well? ;) Too bad they can't do it in such a way that you can add to the box set as future films come out (use similar style packaging or something to that effect). I loved the 10 Special Edition DVD's because they look like a set. I'd love them to do that with the Blu-Rays with room for future expansion.
 
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