Comments on "A Private Little War" Remastered

[zopman]

OK, since there wasn't a rating thread started yet for "A Private Little War" (I hope T'Bonz is OK), I figured I'd start one:

An OK remaster of an OK episode. A not-so-subtle commentary of the Vietnam War that maybe resonates a bit more now. Nice new single FX shot of the Klingon ship in orbit, on the other side of where the Enterprise is. Yeah, not much else to do since there wasn't much FX in this episode, ...though any "enhancements" for Nancy Kovak would be fine with me. Boy, was she a babe or what!!?? I saw a TOS clipping reel ages ago that had one clip of her swinging & swaying her booty in the shower that had to be cut, it was SO hot!!! Hey, CBS, remaster THAT!!

OK, so I've brought this thread down into the gutter already...

 

[cooleddie74]

Yeah, aside from the nifty new D7 cruiser shown sweeping around the planet there's almost nothing new here. So much of the episode takes place on sets and in costume at shooting locations there were few f/x to change.

 

[AstroSmurf]

Sorry kids. I have been traveling recently and my internet access has been rather chaotic so I have been unable to post the regular thread. Hopefully, I can get back to out regularly scheduled Grading/Discussion threads soon.

 

[boobatuba]

Not a comment on the remastering, but...how can ships with sensors advanced enough for interstellar space travel NOT detect a ship on the other side of a planet? The Enterprise not only detects the Klingon ship, they can tell the Klingons use their transporters. And how do they approach the planet without the Klingons seeing them when they come back to pick up Kirk and McCoy?

The writers used this little trick for Wrath of Khan, as well...as if Reliant's sensors weren't as good as the Enterprise's.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Fun fact: TNG's "Too Short a Season" was originally going to be a sequel to this episode. Shatner wouldn't do it, so they changed the whole thing.

 

[Gorn66]

I sometimes wonder if Roddenberry was having a ball slipping things by the censors, who were too distracted by the serious aspects of the episode. That throbbing root thing Nona used on Kirk, not to mention her bedside manner! And don't get me started on Chapel slapping Spock around to help his recovery!

 

[Gorn66]

Fun fact: TNG's "Too Short a Season" was originally going to be a sequel to this episode. Shatner wouldn't do it, so they changed the whole thing.

Worf's reaction to what the Klingons had done would have been interesting...

 

[Timo]

Not a comment on the remastering, but...how can ships with sensors advanced enough for interstellar space travel NOT detect a ship on the other side of a planet?

I think this does make sense. I mean, how could they?

It's been pretty consistent that sensors, communications, transporters or even phasers can't pierce too deeply through ordinary rock (say, TOS "Return to Tomorrow), or through thick atmospheres (VOY "Extreme Risk"). A whole planetful of rock should be very good camouflage, provided you don't leak things like impulse exhausts onto your orbit, or radiate things like warp energies beyond the shadow of the planet.

It's treknologically consistent, and it's intuitively and dramatically plausible; win-win overall. What's less obvious is why the Klingons choose not to fight it out, nor to even make bolstering maneuvers. Originally it made perfect sense: the Klingon ship was much weaker than the hero one, being described as a mere "scout". But the new effects turn the Klingon vessel into a mighty battle cruiser - a dramatically unsatisfactory choice in every way.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[AlanC9]

Agreed. Don't they have a Bird of Prey model somewhere?

 

[Outpost4]

I sometimes wonder if Roddenberry was having a ball slipping things by the censors, who were too distracted by the serious aspects of the episode. That throbbing root thing Nona used on Kirk, not to mention her bedside manner! And don't get me started on Chapel slapping Spock around to help his recovery!

Not that I got ideas for new caption contest pics from those two scenes. Oh, no, not at all.

As for remastering, I liked the last shot, with the ship flying under the camera, with the shot continuing over the nacelle. I don't remember seeing that one before. Otherwise, as people have said, not much new.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

Agreed. Don't they have a Bird of Prey model somewhere?

Not for this project. They built the miserable D7 model and used it for "Friday's Child" instead of the scout ship called for in that script.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Agreed. Don't they have a Bird of Prey model somewhere?

Not for this project. They built the miserable D7 model and used it for "Friday's Child" instead of the scout ship called for in that script.

But since all effects are CGI now, models should be irrelevant.

 

[Steven Of Nine]

Agreed. Don't they have a Bird of Prey model somewhere?

Not for this project. They built the miserable D7 model and used it for "Friday's Child" instead of the scout ship called for in that script.

But since all effects are CGI now, models should be irrelevant.

Building a model can now include the 3-D models/frames used.

 

[cooleddie74]

Not a comment on the remastering, but...how can ships with sensors advanced enough for interstellar space travel NOT detect a ship on the other side of a planet? The Enterprise not only detects the Klingon ship, they can tell the Klingons use their transporters. And how do they approach the planet without the Klingons seeing them when they come back to pick up Kirk and McCoy?

The writers used this little trick for Wrath of Khan, as well...as if Reliant's sensors weren't as good as the Enterprise's.

Well, to be frank the Enterprise-E used the Moon's gravity to shield its presence from the Vulcan first contact ship in the eighth movie. You'd think the Vulcans would have sensors good enough to pick up a 700-meter-long futuristic starship within 250,000 miles of Earth, too...but you'd be wrong.

 

[steveman]

Saw this ep over the weekend. Not much to say about the new FX, but I had forgotten how good the ending was...

"100 serpents. 100 serpents for the Garden of Eden".

And then, instead of the camera trailing the Enterprise at the end... it lingers on the planet.

Great stuff.

 

[cooleddie74]

Some episodes are good enough that they don't need a ton of Remastering. This isn't a GREAT one. But definitely falls into the "good enough" category.

 

[RAMA]

Interesting juxtaposition with STNG’s “Too Short a Season”. STNG reflected a different point of view where Jameson repeated Kirk’s folly of equipping nations with arms on both side, and breaking the Prime Directive. I’ve seen speculation in fandom that the war there lasted decades, and the same thing happened on Mordan IV. Finally after 20 years, we see what might have happened…millions dead and a wrecked planet. At least we learned something from Vietnam and Roddenberry did too.

In terms of the remastering, there was a great shot of the Klingon cruiser and a nice vivid blue planet.

RAMA

 

[cooleddie74]

KLINGON COMMANDER:"Marvelous view!

Let's find ways to ruin it!!"

 

[pookha]

back to kirk arming the hill people.
there maybe a legit question about whether he needed to.
he had proof that the klingons were behind the weapons and had broken the treaty.
it is questionable since the klingons seems to be creating a lot of the materials if the villagers had the know how to do it themselves if the materials the klingons had provided along with the weapons were just removed.

and by arming the hlll people instead of just reporting the treaty violation did that make the federation also in default of the treaty as far as this planet was concerned.

i mean a big part of the plot was bones and kirk trying to gain evidence of the klingons involvement.

 

[Timo]

Well, in theory, if the village people didn't quite yet know how to manufacture the firearms by themselves, the hill people would have even less of a chance of kicking up an arms industry. Not only did they lack the villages and their kilns, necessary infrastructure for creating the gunbarrels and so forth, they lacked the slow introduction to firearms technology that the village people had gotten from the Klingons. Kirk could just as well have trusted the hill people with phasers...

After a few decades of fighting, the hill people would be out of firearms again, due to wear and tear and lack of knowledge on proper maintenance and repair. So probably would the village people, although their more thorough Klingon training might make a difference.

In that sense, Kirk's solution may have been sensible, as the firearms would only restore balance for a brief moment without truly allowing the two sides to start a development towards "modern" warfare. Possibly the firearms would be crucial in preventing a massacre of the hill people, but OTOH it is rather unlikely they would make such a difference that the hill people could overrun the villages. But the same results could have been achieved by hunting down all the firearms and tooling left behind by the Klingons and, if absolutely necessary, by abducting those village specialists who knew how to build more tooling.

Then again, perhaps this could be done by Federation agents a few months or years after Kirk's departure, when the UFP had the time and resources to properly tackle the issue?

Timo Saloniemi