Remaster the Animated Series Anyone?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Again, how and why do you see that happening in the real world? Where would official money come from to pay for modern CG animation on top of what is known to be an OK series but otherwise not that groundbreaking? Everyone likes to invest in something that at least has a chance of becoming more than just fine; TAS is a known quantity.

I didn't say I expected it to happen, just that I'd love to see it.

Remember, TOS-R wasn’t accepted as the definitive version of the show

Speak for yourself.

I know the pink uniforms were a mistake

That only happened because Hal Sutherland was colorblind. He thought they were gray.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Waste of time and money. TAS has beautiful artwork as it is.

If you modernize the animation, it'll just draw attention to the weak voice acting.

Put time and money into a new animated Trek - which is exactly what they're doing.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

I didn't say I expected it to happen, just that I'd love to see it.

But if you’d love to see it, what follows is that you’d really be OK with an official production directing actual resources towards creating the 2020 version of TAS as opposed to creative and original animation. I’d hate to see it because I know it would be a waste of resources.

Speak for yourself.

You’ve accepted TOS-R as definitive (when at the very least its CGI needs work) and therefore TOS as an early draft? TOS-R is interesting for its additions to the canon, but otherwise it’s just the 00s spiff-up of a classic.

 

[Warped9]

For me the only real thing TAS lacks is fluidity of movement. As is it was fine back in the day, but I feel the static animation really hurts in terms of rewatchability. It doesn’t need cgi style animation, but good 2D animation like we saw in the Batman and Superman animated series of the 1990s.

 

[Warped9]

Some of the stories I find disappointing, but redoing the animation wouldn’t fix that.

Candidly I’d rather see a new TOS era animated series produced where the ‘60s era aesthetic wouldn’t be considered a drawback. I’ve recently reread Marvel Comics’ short lived Star Trek: Early Voyages series and something like that animated could be fun and interesting.

But I won’t hold my breath.

 

[Relayer1]

Hmm. I see leave it as is as the current leader. I'm sort of a in between guy. I guess remaster is the wrong word, but I was thinking of how they did the original series. Update the episodes but keep the original intent of how they were designed. I noted the Kzinti. I'd want them to be recognizable from the original but with added detail. I'd even keep the pink uniforms, but again with a bit more detail. I know the pink uniforms were a mistake but you could say pink is an aggressive color in Kzinti society.

I wonder too, some people noted upgrading to computer animation. What about the possibility of updating but using traditional animation? It's still a children's oriented show and traditional animation may retain that element of the episodes.

Or how about do what the they did with the original series and just update the space and landscape shots and leave the characters as is?

I'd never do away with the originals though. Unlike Star Wars, Paramount/CBS has always been good about giving you both options. Star Wars seems to want to hide the original version of some of their work. But with Star Trek you always have the option of watching the original version. I'd still keep that and in fact do what they did with the remastered series, have them side by side.

This is all just fan speculation though. I seriously doubt CBS will ever reanimate the animated series. It's a pretty niche market for that series and they probably figure it's not worth the money. There'd probably be a bigger market for redoing the special effects of Star Trek V (God I wish they'd do something with that--I DO think there'd be a market for that)

I'd certainly keep the originals available and base the designs of a CG reimagining largely on the originals.

Probably not much of a business case for doing it, but it's part of the fast disappearing TOS cast and as such deserves better.

Maybe a fans project ?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

But if you’d love to see it, what follows is that you’d really be OK with an official production directing actual resources towards creating the 2020 version of TAS as opposed to creative and original animation. I’d hate to see it because I know it would be a waste of resources.

You're probably right. Resources and effort would be better used for an all new series.

I know full well it would have been extremely unlikely for a CGI remake of TAS. But hey, a guy can dream.

You’ve accepted TOS-R as definitive (when at the very least its CGI needs work) and therefore TOS as an early draft? TOS-R is interesting for its additions to the canon, but otherwise it’s just the 00s spiff-up of a classic.

I'm not really a purist.

 

[Damian]

Maybe I don't quite expect as much but I think the remastered original series still looks great. When I did my original series production order rewatch (just before rewatching the animated series) I watched the remastered episodes and I think it still looks fine.

On occasion I'll rewatch the originals. For instance before Halloween I watched the original version of "Catspaw". But I really enjoy the remastered work and I have no complaints. One of my favorites was "The Doomsday Machine". I love the remastered work on that episode.

 

[Maurice]

That "Hal was color blind" excuse for every odd color choice on the show was debunked a while ago.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

That "Hal was color blind" excuse for every odd color choice on the show was debunked a while ago.

Explain.

 

[Mytran]

Explain.

Regarding the pink colouring - Hal Sutherland's colour blindness has long been assumed to be the reason behind this oddity, but according to an interview with TAS storyboard artist/character designer Bob Kline (in the recently published "Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series") colour director Irvin Kaplan simply liked the colour pink.
Extract from page 26:

The reason pink was used has always been attributed to [Hal] Sutherland and Kaplan both being color-blind. However, that is not exactly the entire story. Sutherland was color-blind, but as it turns out, Kaplan was not.
"Pink equals Irv Kaplan," shared Kline... "Irv was in charge of ink and paint, coloring the various characters and props (and he would do it himself in his office, he would sit down with a cel and paint it). He was also referred to by many people there as the purple and green guy. You'll see it in a lot of scenes, purple and green used together -- that was one of his preferences. He made dragons red, the Kzintis' costumes pink. It was all Irv Kaplan's call. He wasn't listening to anyone else when he picked colors or anything."

You can hear the entire interview if you search out the podcast "Saturday Morning Treks", episode 26
http://www.trek.fm/saturday-morning-trek/26

 

[Maurice]

NINJAed!^^^ But anyway...

Explain.

I think it was in this interview with Bob Kline that the issue of pink on the show was addressed. I thought we had discussed it here on the board around that time but I'm having no luck finding it right now.

If you're interested in TAS in general it's worth listening to both episodes with Kline:

1. SATURDAY MORNING TREK 25: KLINE'S PASSION
2. SATURDAY MORNING TREK 26: IT IS GREEN...AND PURPLE AND PINK

 

[Damian]

If I were redoing "The Slaver Weapon" I'd keep the Kzinti uniforms pink. It'd be an interesting contrast. On Earth Pink is generally considered a soft color--it makes the Kzinti seem a bit more alien to have them wearing pink and be a hostile species.

Now maybe some pinks during the series I would change--if it didn't match something from the live action series for instance. But some I would leave as is.

 

[johnnybear]

Who knows if the Kzinti were dressed in pink or not? But one thing I know for sure is that the Klingons weren't!!! But they are in pink for TAS!!!
JB

 

[Damian]

Who knows if the Kzinti were dressed in pink or not? But one thing I know for sure is that the Klingons weren't!!! But they are in pink for TAS!!!
JB

Yeah, the Klingons would be one where I would correct the color to match the original series more. The Kzinti were new with no original series counterpart so I wouldn't have a problem leaving them the same.

 

[Ronald Held]

How much would it cost to remaster the episodes?

 

[Kor]

Yeah, the Klingons would be one where I would correct the color to match the original series more. The Kzinti were new with no original series counterpart so I wouldn't have a problem leaving them the same.

The Klingon vests in TAS were more purplish than the Kzinti pink. With the segmented design, I always got the sense that they are supposed to be different stuff than the metallic lame/mesh of TOS, more like a padded leatherish material like what would be used on the Mego Klingon action figure not long after TAS debuted, or an early precursor to what many of the Klingons wore in STVI:TUC.

Kor

 

[uniderth]

My vote would be for keep everything the same but remaster it in HD. Did they already do that?

 

[johnnybear]

Plus they had perms!!!!
JB

 

[Maurice]

How much would it cost to remaster the episodes?

Depends on what you mean by "remaster". Because most of what's being discussed here is altering them.