Restored 1960s VFX of the Enterprise

[Lord Garth]

This video has restored 1960s VFX of the original Enterprise. I never felt the 2000s CGI ever meshed well with the 1960s footage in TOS-R. I always thought to go from one to the other was too jarring. And I haven't bought TOS on Blu-Ray where, from what I understand, both versions are available. So, this is my first time getting a chance to see the 1960s model shots of the Enterprise upscaled.

My take on it is this: If you're watching TOS, you're probably already expecting things to look 1960s anyway. So, they should fully commit to what it is when presenting it to the people interested in watching.

"But new viewers won't like it!" I've seen enough YouTube Reactions to know better. The people interested in watching are more open-minded to how the show used to look than we give them credit for. No, they don't represent the average television viewing audience overall, but they do represent the people who are most likely to watch TOS.

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[Richard S. Ta]

99% of the time, the original model work holds up.

I watch the TOSR versions now, because that's what is available on Netflix, but the one and only time that I marathoned TOS in the early 00s was with the unmastered versions.

It is what it is. In the UK, we'd say something like TOSR is like 'putting lipstick on a pig'. As you (@Lord Garth) say, it's a 1960s thing. Like, over 60 years old. So let it be a sixties thing.

In many ways, the original model/VFX work is one of the least embarrassing aspects of TOS anyway.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Star Trek Continues redid all 17 or whatever original shots of the Enterprise in CG, so exact they scaled the models to the filming miniature rather than 285m. If they'd just done that instead of making so many changes... it comes out very half baked. Either go all out and do full modern effects (which could be cool) or true old skool ones. But the halfway just.... meh.

 

[Doug Otte]

I watched the new effects versions once or twice, but now I always watch with the original effects. The difference is too jarring.

But, I wonder if it's because I have decades of memories burned into my brain. I wonder what young, first-time viewers think of watching with the new effects.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The trouble with trying to just "match the original fx shots with clean and sharp CGI versions" is that the original episodes reused the same few shots way too many times.

This was something I understood and forgave even as a little kid— model shots are expensive, and it's the same "ship in space" all the time anyway, so we accept the recycled footage as placeholders for our imagination. We even forgave the ever-switching height of the bridge dome, and the globes vs. vents on the back end of the warp engines. Compared to the age of radio dramas, this was not a heavy lift for the imagination. We forgave all of it in the days of 16mm syndication.

But switch to new CGI fx, and we just naturally expect more, because it's not so difficult now, and improvement is the whole point. It's time to be spoiled and live a little. I think TOS-R struck a good balance between re-creating the best beauty shots and replacing the recycles with new shots.

"The Ultimate Computer" and "Elaan of Troyius" were the worst they did. Non-ship scenery shots were the best thing they did (the view out Pike's hospital room window in The Menagerie, the city on Scalos, and the cloud city Stratos come to mind).

 

[Metryq]

But, I wonder if it's because I have decades of memories burned into my brain.

Considering over-the-air broadcast in the '60s, and early '70s when Trek fandom really began to pick up, anything is an improvement. But I know what you mean.

The original The Terminator from 1984 had a monophonic soundtrack. ("THX," hatched barely a year earlier by Lucasfilm, was not only a sound quality certification, but a financial effort to upgrade cinema equipment.) It was several generations into home video before a remix was made—which just sounded weird to me! Guns that went "BANG!" and "BOOM!" in the original suddenly had this high-pitched "PEW! PEW! PEW!" sound, plus other changes. I was so annoyed that the original sound was not included on Blu-ray that I mixed the HD video with the original audio from DVD for my home entertainment center.

"Oh, I prefer TNG to TOS! The effects are so much better!"

What is the world coming to?

 

[Poltargyst]

and the globes vs. vents on the back end of the warp engines.

I always rationalized it that the globes were retractable and they were out when the ship was orbiting a planet but retracted so that we saw the vents when the ship was in open space. So the globes had something to do with orbiting a planet.

 

[Firebird]

Star Trek Continues redid all 17 or whatever original shots of the Enterprise in CG, so exact they scaled the models to the filming miniature rather than 285m. If they'd just done that instead of making so many changes... it comes out very half baked. Either go all out and do full modern effects (which could be cool) or true old skool ones. But the halfway just.... meh.

I believe scaling the CGI to the filming model was the intent when Doug Drexler was doing the VFX in the first half of the series. When he left after episode 6 and Marc Bell took over (IIRC), that's when the effects started looking more like a mix of TNG/modern.

 

[Forbin]

I always rationalized it that the globes were retractable and they were out when the ship was orbiting a planet but retracted so that we saw the vents when the ship was in open space. So the globes had something to do with orbiting a planet.

That was my rationale too!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I always rationalized it that the globes were retractable and they were out when the ship was orbiting a planet but retracted so that we saw the vents when the ship was in open space. So the globes had something to do with orbiting a planet.

What about the shots of the 1701 with the globes...but not in orbit, as seen in a few shots:

 

[blssdwlf]

I figured there was an in-universe reason for whenever the globes and spikes were out or retracted. It need not be related to being in orbit.

I imagined the globe retraction would look something like this:

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[Mytran]

What about the shots of the 1701 with the globes...but not in orbit, as seen in a few shots:

But...both those shots have globes!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

But...both those shots have globes!

Poltargyst's theory was:

I always rationalized it that the globes were retractable and they were out when the ship was orbiting a planet but retracted so that we saw the vents when the ship was in open space. So the globes had something to do with orbiting a planet.

In the two screengrabs, the globes are in place when the ship is traveling through open space.

 

[Poltargyst]

What about the shots of the 1701 with the globes...but not in orbit, as seen in a few shots:

In the first one, being near another ship is like orbiting a planet. In the second...um...someone forgot to retract them when they left orbit? They are approaching a planet and put them out in preparation?

 

[Warped9]

The trouble with trying to just "match the original fx shots with clean and sharp CGI versions" is that the original episodes reused the same few shots way too many times.

We know there was some footage shot that wasn’t used (as evidenced by the Roddenberry Vault) for some reason or other. Given that some of those sequences could perhaps be finally used somewhere throughout the series.

I think in going back to recreate clean shots of the originals as well as some new ones where feasible it would be best to adhere to how the ship was filmed back in the day. So you won’t see the Enterprise swooping around like a fighter jet because they wouldn’t have been able to film it that way back then.

To create new clean shots you have two ways open to you. First is to use cgi yet stay in the mindset of how the original miniature was filmed and the limitations in terms of motion. Second is to rebuild another 11ft. filming miniature and film it much like it was done back in the day. Mind you today you might be able to get away with a 6 or 8 foot miniature.

Lighting matters as well. They built a new miniature for a DS9 episode and the way they filmed it it didn’t look anything like TOS footage.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Which version of the original 1701 is the 'accepted' one? Yay to globes on the back of the nacelles or nay? Aerials on the front of of the nacelles or not?

 

[blssdwlf]

Which version of the original 1701 is the 'accepted' one? Yay to globes on the back of the nacelles or nay? Aerials on the front of of the nacelles or not?

For me, all of the above

 

[Warped9]

Which version of the original 1701 is the 'accepted' one? Yay to globes on the back of the nacelles or nay? Aerials on the front of of the nacelles or not?

It’s pretty well accepted there are three versions: 1st pilot, 2nd pilot and series production. After WNMHGB it’s all series production except for flashbacks in “The Menagerie.”

 

[Richard S. Ta]

It’s pretty well accepted there are three versions: 1st pilot, 2nd pilot and series production. After WNMHGB it’s all series production except for flashbacks in “The Menagerie.”

So the versions are considered to be the same thing, evolved and developed overtime in universe?

 

[Lord Garth]

The ship was refitted in TMP, it was refitted less drastically during and before TOS. As far as TOS is concerned, I think the Enterprise had spiked nacelles in "The Cage", the grill in the back in WNMHGB, and had the spheres in the back with no spikes in the front during the rest of the series.

Any shots of the Enterprise's exterior looking like it did in "The Cage" or WNMHGB used during the rest of the series, that's just the reality of television production and reusing shots to save money. It is what it is.