It could have been an arbitrary choice. It's either going to be left or right. Also, with "west" being typically camera left, someone might've felt "west is the frontier".
TMP-DE fully restored in 4K…it’s about time!
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
Okay, so not the DE per se but disc 3 of the Star Trek I: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition Complete Adventure, with the "deleted scenes, and this...
I've wanted to set this footage for 42 years, but the people putting this stuff together cannot resist tampering with it. I get cutting these missing shots into the scene for context but their insistence of adding effects to shots that never had effects created for them creates the false impression that that this is how the scene would have looked. But it isn't. They badly duped the probe in from other shots and it changes the context of what happens. The probe wasn't supposed to be visible in that shot, it was off camera; had it been they'd have had the big xenon light source on the frame. As a result, the actors eyelines are all wrong: they're clearly looking off the left side of the frame. Now people who've seen this slipshod reconstruction are saying the guard didn't really have time to fire, but that's only because this shot's not edited in in the manner that was intended. (I have no idea know how much coverage (angles/framing) was shot of this action, but this angle would require the guard to fire OFF CAMERA, which would then require a shot of the probe being hit by the phaser with no effect and then zapping the guard.)
So what this does is misrepresent what this action was supposed to be.
The film historian in me is very very angry.
Grrrrr!
I've wanted to set this footage for 42 years, but the people putting this stuff together cannot resist tampering with it. I get cutting these missing shots into the scene for context but their insistence of adding effects to shots that never had effects created for them creates the false impression that that this is how the scene would have looked. But it isn't. They badly duped the probe in from other shots and it changes the context of what happens. The probe wasn't supposed to be visible in that shot, it was off camera; had it been they'd have had the big xenon light source on the frame. As a result, the actors eyelines are all wrong: they're clearly looking off the left side of the frame. Now people who've seen this slipshod reconstruction are saying the guard didn't really have time to fire, but that's only because this shot's not edited in in the manner that was intended. (I have no idea know how much coverage (angles/framing) was shot of this action, but this angle would require the guard to fire OFF CAMERA, which would then require a shot of the probe being hit by the phaser with no effect and then zapping the guard.)
So what this does is misrepresent what this action was supposed to be.
The film historian in me is very very angry.
Grrrrr!
Wasn’t there supposed to be a close up shot of the floor with mound of ash? As it’s edited, it feels very rushed. I dunno if that’s just due to a lack of coverage or whatever. But it goes by quick.
It'd likely have been dramatic, but it'd've also been redundant to the story. With the guard already scanned—which is what it would have looked like, had they used VFX similar to those we saw for Ilia's disintegration—there would have been no need for the probe to sample Ilia.
Additionally, the idea that hand phasers would have posed any threat whatsoever to the probe is ridiculous.
Additionally, the idea that hand phasers would have posed any threat whatsoever to the probe is ridiculous.
I don’t think the guard was supposed to be scanned like Ilia. He was just to be flat out killed, whereas Ilia was essentially digitized and used for as the basis for the probe’s next form.
The script changed a lot in various drafts. Here are two version of this action. The probe uses a "SMALL WHIPLASH ENERGY BOLT" in both. It grabs Ilia with a "tendril", like when it is gathering data from the consoles.
This first redshirt death is in a script dated July 19, 1978. In this one both guards get zapped just for drawing their phasers.
In this revised page from late September 27 where one guard fires at the probe and gets zapped...
...my guess is it's this second one that was filmed because in the footage the one guy clearly aims his phaser at the probe.
This first redshirt death is in a script dated July 19, 1978. In this one both guards get zapped just for drawing their phasers.
In this revised page from late September 27 where one guard fires at the probe and gets zapped...
...my guess is it's this second one that was filmed because in the footage the one guy clearly aims his phaser at the probe.
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It was supposed to be in the final cut, but they weren't able to deliver the final effects in time for the theatrical premiere.
Yup, the re-revised page in the editor's script dated 10/2/78 kept the action descriptions unaltered.
IIRC according to Return to Tomorrow they decided to cut all the action of the first part of the probe arrival in order to cut down the optical effects load. This is why we first see it in front of the viewer instead off to the starboard side where the guards are looking in the cut shots.
I should add that while they were in principle photography the "digitization" effect seen on the Klingon ships and Epsilon Nine hadn't yet been thought of, as storyboards show both being blowed up good by V'ger weapons.
... which makes the VFX added to the scene even more inaccurate, since they're missing the phaser fire.
Whatever the intent was, every time we see V'ger use its plasma weapon in the final film,* something is scanned into its memory bank, so the weapon is intrinsically tied into scanning, to learn all that is learnable. This goes for the Klingon ships (one or more Klingons are visible in the mind meld sequence), Epsilon IX, and Ilia. My point was that, if the VFX were the same as for Ilia's disintegration, there would be nothing to differentiate the guard's disintegration from Ilia's getting destructively scanned. Hence the redundancy of it.
* - The only exception is when the Enterprise's new shields prevent the first attack, which was utterly ridiculous, but I digress.
You were probably replying as I posted my last reply that the effect that grabs Ilia wasn't intended to be the same as zapped the guard. Ilia being a memory engram is a result of Trumbull totally redesigning the spacewalk.
Ah, thanks. That would have cleared that up.
I agree that the edit is rushed, and if the scene had been included, there would've been a little bit more breathing room in it, either because more coverage would've been shot, or because not enough footage that was shot was recovered now to rebuild the scene properly.
Even if the deleted scene was paced well in a hypothetical finished form, I think including the guard being zapped would've detracted from the scene. It doesn't feel like anyone's reacting like it had already killed someone as it makes its way around the bridge. They're intimidated by it, but not actively threatened. Likewise, Spock destroying the console directly seems a lot more reckless if he'd already seen how it would react to being threatened (and it makes less sense that the probe just slaps Spock around a little rather than killing him immediately).
On the subject of the presentation of the deleted scene being altered from how it was as-shot for clarity, in a BTS interview, it was mentioned that for the Engineering scene, the brief snippet of Kirk on the loudspeaker is actually taken from an unused captain's log which covered more-or-less the same ground as the intended voiceover, which was either lost or never completed along with the dialog in the sickbay half of the scene.
I just watched the disc. I'm sure it's my imagination, but the lounge scene seems slightly less awful than I remember when I streamed it. It's still very much Not Good, though.
I won't receive my copy for about a week. Can you describe specifically what about the scene isn't quite right?
Just to be clear, if the probe security guard zap footage had been released without the crude effects slapped on then I'd have no issue, but altering the footage in this manner misrepresents it, and the casual viewer will think this is an actual shot, not an attempt to illustrate roughly what it would have looked like.
Yeah, in the film it's not clear that they've circled around and approached V'ger from the rear - although it is mentioned specifically in the novel that's what Kirk meant by "conic section flight path", so the idea was definitely there. I didn't recall those lines from the novel when rewatching, so for years, I thought the first view of V'ger when they break through the clouds was its front, and the maw was at the rear.
It's been mentioned a few times in this (long) thread:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/tmp...…it’s-about-time.308466/page-29#post-14099091
I just noticed another little glitch. There's an error with the "Starfleet Headquarters Stardate 7410.2" text that comes up. It fades in, and then a subtle dropshadow pops in just for a moment, then pops out again before the text fades out. I don't know if it's supposed to be there at all, but I'm sure it's not supposed to just blip in and out like that. I'm starting to wonder if the air tram sequence was done in a rush...it seems to have more than it's fair share of glitches.
Added:
The pod they added to the wide shot of the station glitches in the final frame before cutting to the next shot.
The left porthole as the pod docks with Enterprise has a big chunk of frozen grain surrounding it. (Due to them fixing the interior set dropping)
Added:
The pod they added to the wide shot of the station glitches in the final frame before cutting to the next shot.
The left porthole as the pod docks with Enterprise has a big chunk of frozen grain surrounding it. (Due to them fixing the interior set dropping)
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