The One Thing You Could Change, TOS Edition...

I assumed that the two Moloch's had the same spelling! But I was sure there was someone who they just beamed into space without a bracelet? I think I need a rewatch. I did see the first series again a couple of years back but never continued...
JB

 

Look I don't know much about the restoration process but didn't they do a frame by frame of TOS restoration to get rid of the scratches, fade out. I thought I saw an example scene where they fixed Kirk's face pixel by pixel.
Or is this not possible with VT. I'm assuming they still have frames?
I'm not talking about changing the special effects. They are what they are. The best I would hope for is to disguise the set pieces moving when touched. LOL.
The problem I remember was the outside shots where they were so white.

Why doesn't scify show the old scifi favourites like Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Planet of the Apes, Blakes 7, UFO, Original BSG, Space 1999. Is it too old or is the print quality too bad or both?

 

I wish they did that level of remastering for B7. They did do that for DW, going by every frame to fix every issue, regardless if it was on tape or film.

I tried looking for the source of that quote - I wasn't able to find it.

VT does have frames, just created electronically and at far lower resolution, then stored on tape. Between 1978 and now, means to edit frames from tape sources became possible. The BBC was unable to do the amount of restoration that they were able to provide for Doctor Who (with a larger audience).

I found a video that explains some of the differences between film and video - he's an interesting presenter and half the people I'd shown this to didn't like his style. The other half did.

Understandable, about not changing effects.

Regarding "they were so white", the film had the ability to hold more color and shadow detail (contrast). Videotape's range for color and contrast is much lower. When transferring film to videotape, a lot of detail was lost - the brighter white areas are known as "blooming". Conversely, darker gray shades would become black, which is known as "crushing". In the 70s, they had a video camera recording the film footage, and if its light settings weren't set properly blooming would be far worse... Nowadays, if the film existed, they could scan it with a drum scanner and capture every last bit of color, contrast, and other information then remove scratches and stuff afterward. The cleaned print could then be spliced between the videotaped elements instead of the grainy, bloomed, scratched and nicked material.

Being "too old" is possible; when I had subscribed to them 25 years ago, I don't recall them showing the Buck Rogers serials from the 1940s, and all those shows you'd mentioned are 40~50 years old and more.

Or because the licensing costs are too high for the estimated amount of viewers that would watch. But a lot of subscribers did flee as they started dropping shows from their schedule, and that started even before the rename to "Syfy" - which led to a lot of sardonic quips from folks as a result...

 

Surely they could spare an hour on a Friday night to show a retro scifi show maybe followed by a Hammer Horror film. Surely they must be cheap by now - they should practically be giving the rights away?

I must say I did stop my scify because of its lack of content.

Maybe the Blakes 7 fanbase could do a crowd funding to support a proper restoration if they could get a good enough base print. You know before the old geezers die off...

 

Kinda agree with this except - part of that is a little too much like Buck Rogers' second season with the Searcher trying to contact lost colonies.

I do agree that it should be set further into the future ~550 years from today. This would allow for a slow boat colonizing period (though - keep in mind that 'slow boat' has limits). I think the better solution for having so many humanoid cultures around this region would be fairly simple (and this was alluded to by someone here a few years back) - "The Preservers" cause it in the distant past. This could even be used to explain Klingons and Vulcans - though I would probably make the Andorians and Tellarites distinctly non-human by intent...

But anyway - I digress...

 

I would like Klingons having ridges

 

Theres a TNG episode which touches on this. If I’m remembering it right, most sentient life is humanoid because an ancient empire transplanted early hominids from Earth to other planets.

 

Close. A humanoid race was the only intelligent species in the galaxy, and they decided to put DNA strains on various worlds that will guide evolution. So very similar to the Preservers idea.

It would be really cool if Star Trek took place in evolutionary time in the future, and many of the alien races are descended from humans.

 

The Preservers transplanted endangered cultures to other planets and were active just a few Centuries prior to TOS. They didn't do any sort of work with DNA,they just set the people on a planet and said "run free!". And set deflectors to shoo away asteroids.

 

Thats right, yes. It’s been forever since I’ve seen that episode.

 

"The Chase", season 6.

 

Though according to Star Trek Online, they are somehow the same species...

 

Did the Preservers also move the Dino -people?

 

The one thing I’d change, figure out from the very beginning the year the series takes place, the government and branch of service the Enterprise reports to. It took them a while to settle on the 2260s, the Federation and Starfleet.

 

I wish it was more of an ensemble-style show and we got more stories featuring and developing the side cast -- though perhaps that would be too much of an overhaul to the fundamental structure of the show to count as "one thing" I could change.

On a smaller scale: especially compared to later entries in the franchise, I think the TOS uniforms look really cheap, flimsy, and silly. If I could deepfake the episodes to add TNG-style uniforms to all the characters, I would. I don't particularly have a problem with the skirt-style uniforms (though they'd be less dated if they were a tiny bit longer), and actually quite like the design of the "skants" in TNG season 1, so I'd put female crew members either those or the pants.

 

They could be still active during TOS, and still hidden. Hmm, sounds like Gary Seven's hiding Aliens.

 

Were they cheaper than the turtleneck sweaters in the pilot episode? Those sweaters looked really classy, and I don't imagine they saved all that much money by replacing them.

 

Chakotay theorized in the episode that they evolved on Earth and left when they saw an asteroid coming, but that was just him guessing (badly). In the novels the preservers had saved a dinosaur species from Earth before that evolved later, so there's precedent.

According to the Return of Kirk books, they're still around behind the scenes in the late 24th century.

 

I absolutely hated the skants. They were one of the worst things about TNG. If all the men and women in TOS wore skants. If Kirk wore a skant I wouldn't have watched TOS after the first episode. I think TNG survived in spite of the ugly uniforms. Yes I alone think most of the uniforms in TNG were unflattering except for the variations. The dress uniforms were pretty nice. But the regular uniforms were pretty drab. T'Pol, Dr Crusher, 7of9, Kes all wore non-standard uniforms and looked good.

But I agree the women in TOS should have worn pants (especially on landing parties) or slightly longer skirts. They still would have looked good but I suppose the short skirts were one of the reason TOS stood out.

Watched "Plato's Stepchildren' today on TV and there were some unfortunate cuts made to fit the commercials in. I thought they should have just cut out the Kirk horsey bit then that would stop some complaints.

 

I don't love the look of the skirt uniforms in TOS but they are very much "of the time" and I can definitely believe that Uhura and Rand would have chosen to wear them if they were an option...Chapel maybe I'd like to see in something a little more appropriate for the demanding, hands-on, on-your-feet look of nursing.

The skants look a little bit stiff and uncomfortable, but I overall liked the shape and design as well as the idea that we'd no longer be so strict about "skirts = women" in the 24th century. They seem impractical for certain jobs, though, so I'd imagine them as a variant for lighter work more than anything else.