Valid points. However I enjoyed the TOS remastering. I originally watched TOS as it was, then later was blown away by the remastering of the series. It was done in a way that didn't destroy what was, but enhanced it.
Watching The Animated Series For The First Time
- Thread starter TRON JA307020
- Start date
That's different, though, since it's only small portions of the whole. What people tend to get wrong is that the new FX were the only parts of TOS-R that were not remastered, because remastering means going back to the original master print and creating the highest-quality copy of it that you can. The title "TOS Remastered" refers to how they restored the live-action portions of the episodes to the highest possible picture and sound quality; the new CGI FX shots were the exception to that. And they only replaced the FX because the original film elements didn't survive, only the completed composite shots with their degraded image resolution (since optical compositing required rephotographing the film elements multiple times). If it had been possible, they would have simply recomposited the original FX elements using modern methods that didn't degrade the film quality, as TNG-R did (although they did have to replace the original video animation which was natively low-resolution, unlike film). The CG shots were a compromise, not the primary goal of the exercise.
So deliberately replacing the entirety of TAS's animation with new footage would be a far different, far more radical thing to do in more ways than one. The CGI shots in TOS-R were kind of like the new LED lights that the Smithsonian put into the Enterprise miniature when they restored it -- replacing a small portion of the whole when the original components were no longer viable (though of course that's debatable, since I think we now have the means to upgrade the original shots to HD). Redoing TAS's animation would be like building a whole new miniature and redesigning the ship in the process. It's not restoration, it's creating a separate work entirely.
Thanks for posting those!!
Good grief, the attention to 1950s decor/style/color palette is impressive!
The TV show did show the future while still resorting to 50sisms (as this was made in 1961 or so and with each new decade, there's no on/off switch - evolution of design doesn't work that way, but I prattleblap...)The models of the people seem to be hit or miss, though, esp. George. Must be the hairdo.
Rosie overall looks great with that 50s metal look (and perfect turquoise and chrome adornments), but the proportions don't quite match the original. Still very watchable, don't get me wrong, those not versed to the original 2D animation would probably find some differences to be a paradigm shift.
How the animators would look at the 2D cartoons of TAS and pull a third dimension would be interesting!
And yet... the characters themselves just seem a tad off. Too CGI-ey? TAS aliens would easily look great, but getting used to the Enterprise crew might be a different story.
As long as the originals exist as, while YMMV, I found it easy to roll with the 2D and focus of the story. The new visuals, even in the spirit of the script, risk detracting from it. Would still be fun to see what could be done.
I watched the episode The Magicks of Megas-tu yesterday. It was a good episode but it had more glaring inconsistencies in the animation than most previous episodes. Basically ones I didnt have to hunt for. The whole magic idea was interesting but a bit strange. Spock drawing a pentagram on the enterprise floor and doing magic was weird to see. Lol. I did like the enterprise being in a strange area of space but at the near the center of the galaxy breaks what we know of how far starfleet ships could and had gone at that time.But still they packed a lot into the episode and we got a salem style trial at the end. I liked that the aliens were actual witches on earth in Salem but didnt care much for the crew practicing magic. Also what the heck was Sulu conjuring? A past girlfriend? It wasnt explained. This episode was supposedly retooled by Roddenberry so that might explain some of the things in the episide that dont fit.
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More importantly, it breaks what we now know of real astronomy and physics. "Megas-tu" was rooted in the continuous-creation theory of cosmology that was a rival to the Big Bang theory. When it was discovered that the universe was expanding, some physicists couldn't accept the idea that the universe was of a finite age and had a specific moment of creation, so they postulated that maybe new matter was constantly being created out of white holes in the centers of galaxies to replace the matter that moved away as the universe expanded, so that the universe was in a steady state. This was already a largely discredited idea when "Megas-tu" used it, except for a few theorists who clung to it, but it was finally disproven conclusively by satellite observations of the cosmic background radiation. So now the idea is as outmoded as canals on Mars or dinosaur-filled jungles on Venus.
To compound the problem, multiple later Trek productions have referenced the Big Bang (Voyager was even taken there by a Q once), so we know that theory is true in the Trek universe, which means "Megas-tu" couldn't have happened as shown.
I don't care for stories that posit that the victims of the Salem witch trials had actual magic powers or the equvialent, because it's ascribing legitimacy to a lie told in the name of persecuting and victimizing women. But at least "Megas-tu" uses it as an allegory for persecution and prejudice, which makes it somewhat excusable.
Alan Dean Foster's novelization described her simply as "the most beautiful girl in this or any other universe." He was just trying to conjure up a fantasy woman to make out with (at the very least).
I read Memory Alpha's description of the writing process based on writer Larry Brody's account. Apparently it was normal for Roddenberry to rewrite every script, just as it had been on TOS; that's a head writer's job, after all. Although I'm surprised, because my understanding had been that Roddenberry pretty much blew off responsibility for TAS and left it to D.C. Fontana to be the effective showrunner.
Yesh I had read the same that Roddenberry didnt do much for TAS but I read he rotooled this script. It was an ok episode but not my favorite from the ones I've seen so far. I liked bits and pieces of this one. Also Spock needed a pentagram to do the "magic" but Kirk and Sulu didn't? I would like to.think this power was just analogous to the planet and whomever stayed there and not a realized magic of the occult that sprang from earth and spock really didn't need the pentagram. Just a really strange scene.
But that's just it. According to Brody's account quoted on Memory Alpha, D.C. Fontana told him that Roddenberry rewriting the scripts was a routine practice throughout TAS -- as one would expect of any showrunner.
It was all just symbolism to focus the mind. The intent was that Megas-tu followed different physical laws and everything we saw was just a symbolic representation created by Lucien to interpret things that were incomprehensibly alien, much like when Q took Janeway into the Q Continuum and made it look like a roadside diner or a Civil War battlefield or whatever.
Also I didnt know this at first but The Magicks of Megas-tu episode was released on October 27th. So it was most likely meant to be a Halloween episode.
Good catch. One nitpick: TV shows weren't "released" in 1973, they were broadcast. You had to be in front of your TV set when NBC said, and if you missed it, it would be months before the first rerun.
Only the tiniest vanguard of affluent early-adopters had a videotape machine at home; even simple time-shifting was a thing of the future for almost all of us.
Yeah, but on the plus side, Saturday morning cartoons were rerun over and over for years, so wait long enough and you were sure to see any episode you missed. That's why TAS's second season had only 6 episodes -- as was typical of Saturday morning cartoons, they'd just add a handful of new episodes into the ongoing rotation of reruns from the previous season(s). Kids are (or at least were) more tolerant of rewatching reruns than adults tend to be, so there wasn't as much need for new episodes.
Ah yeah I meant broadcast. Lol.
My father was one of the one percent who had one around 1980. I'll never forget how surreal it first seemed to watch prime-time shows and movies in the afternoon. Now it might be surreal for most to watch a high-quality show minus a computer streamer.
I can vouch for that. When it came to TOS and TAS, I drank in every rerun no matter how well I had it memorized. Same for The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Bewitched, and more. Some shows just grabbed me and would not let go.
When Man from Atlantis was canceled, and there weren't enough episodes for reruns, I practically went through the five stages of grief.
I probably felt similarly when FANTASTIC JOURNEY and the LOGAN'S RUN television show wrapped up.
So many of these shows were run on Friday nights and none beat that curse at the time.
Yeah! But also, they all shot some terrible scripts as they went along. And Man from Atlantis was up against the smash sitcom Happy Days.
I totally understand. Some shows are just so well made they are highly rewatcable. The show bewitched you mentioned. The first few seasons of that show was so well scripted, acted and filmed thats it just held up all these years. It also had some pretty terrific practical effects.
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So they made a sequel to shore leave. Nice. Im watching that one next. I think it would be cool to continue the animated series. The style could easily be recreated and they can get voice actors that mimic the original cast. It wont ever happen but it would be pretty cool.
You may find Curt Danhauser's animated fan films to be of interest:
Animated STAR TREK - New Episodes!
Edit: I just realized I linked to a different part of his site much earlier in this thread, so you may have come across these already!
Kor
You may find Curt Danhauser's animated fan films to be of interest:
Animated STAR TREK - New Episodes!
www.danhausertrek.com
Edit: I just realized I linked to a different part of his site much earlier in this thread, so you may have come across these already!
Kor
Thanks Kor! I missed it last time.
So i finished Once Upon A Planet. I liked it. A nice little sequel to Shore Leave. Nice to hear James Doohan as the planets computer. Also kirk finally talked a computer down without destroying it. Lol
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