Should There Be A Blu Ray Of The Animaited Series?

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by KirkSpockTOSFan, Sep 22, 2009.

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Should they release a blu ray collection of The Animaied Series

  1. Yes

    29 vote(s)
    46.8%
  2. No

    22 vote(s)
    35.5%
  3. Maybe

    8 vote(s)
    12.9%
  4. Not sure

    3 vote(s)
    4.8%
  1. Start Wreck

    Start Wreck Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    It would be improved. Lines would be cleaner and sharper at 1080p than they would at 480p. You'd get less pixelation and artifacting. You'd see more detail in any painted backgrounds.
    It probably wouldn't be worth it for most people, but there most certainly would be a difference. That's just a fact.
     
  2. Therin of Andor

    Therin of Andor Admiral Moderator

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    Re: TAS script length

    I have both "The Trouble With Tribbles" (TOS) and "More Tribbles, More Troubles" (TAS) scripts, both signed by David Gerrold, when I bought one of the last screen-used tribbles he'd found in his garage a few years ago.

    "The Trouble With Tribbles" is 56 pp and "More Tribbles, More Troubles" is 39 pp. You might expect TAS scripts to be only 28 pp long, not 40, but the descriptions of sets, guests and actions tend to be quite lengthy for animation.

    A quick skim and I can't see anything that wasn't on-screen.

    Not usually. Animation scripts tend to be written and directed very tightly. It's unlikely the voice actors will improvise, or do multiple, different takes - especially since the cast of TAS were rarely together to record their lines. Their lines were usually taped separately, and sometimes even mailed to Filmation on audio cassette!

    There really isn't much that wasn't in the episodes. Sometimes Alan Dean Foster expanded on little things in his "ST Log" adaptations, but he also added a lot of stuff that wasn't in the scripts. For example, expanding on Arex's musical abilities, Uhura's childhood, M'Ress serving on the USS Hood, etc.
     
  3. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    Re: TAS script length

    Wow it shows you how different things are for some animation project as
    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000245/bio
    and that is for a 90 minute film where he is on-screen for maybe 45 minutes in total.


    Do you have a source on this?
    The difference in quality would be a higher noise floor and loss of high end frequencies between 15kHz of audio cassettes to 20kHz of 1/4" tape which would not be audible for the range of the human voice delivering dialogue and even yell/screams and thus 'good enough' for a Saturday morning cartoon show.
     
  4. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

    The audio cassette bit was mentioned in interviews with the cast, most notably William Shatner (he'd record his dialogue while shooting a movie, in between takes).
     
  5. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

    Like I said, actual run time for a reanimated CGI version wouldn't even be a secondary concern, since I'm seeing this as a straight-to-DVD thing anyway.

    I think "More Tribbles, More Troubles" would be an excellent jumping off point, starting with bringing in William Campbell and Michael Pataki to record the dialogue for Koloth and Korax (sorry, George).
     
  6. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    No disrespect, but those men are both getting on in years, and their voices aren't likely to be anywhere near the same (Campbell is in his 80's, Pataki is 71).
     
  7. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    Here is a good example:
    The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: Special Edition

    DVD release May 31st, 2004
    http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/barriemaxwell/maxwell050704.html#goo

    http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/goodbadandugly.php

    You can totally hear how Eli Wallach's voice changed in those scenes. Yes it is ADR'd but so it ALL of the English dialogue!
     
  8. Captain Robert April

    Captain Robert April Vice Admiral Admiral

    Anyone who's seen the interview with Campbell that's in the extras of the TOS DVD's, or remembers his cameo on DS9, can tell that his voice hasn't changed all that much (besides, he only has to be recognizable; it's not like we're talking about adding dialogue to "The Trouble With Tribbles" like they added dialogue to "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", where you'd have a side-by-side comparison). Same with Pataki.
     
  9. Emperor-Tiberius

    Emperor-Tiberius Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I would love to see TAS re-animated. If the original show, which are far more sacred cow anyway, were upgraded in SFX, why not TAS? It'd sure help bring more validity to this little-seen Trek show.

    That said, it probably won't happen. Too much cost for something that is, as said, little-seen. Maybe try out one or two episodes (certainly Yesteryear and the Tribbles epi), but not more.

    But I would like to see though, is some touch ups on the animation and background. Significant enough that it'd look sufficient for a blu-ray release.

    Ideally, the blu-ray of TAS would include touched up - improved episodes on the existing run, and an addition of the scrapped Secrets of the Vulcan Fury retooled as a six-part arc (yeah, I also know that won't happen, but thats why I said ideally, too).

    Ah, well.
     
  10. milo bloom

    milo bloom Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    What story is that?
     
  11. Emperor-Tiberius

    Emperor-Tiberius Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It was a video game project that was to be released in the late 90's. All the TOS actors were back to voice their characters, even DeForest Kelley, in a story conducted by DC Fontana that was to be set during that first five-year mission.

    I would so love to see this released one day, and with TAS un-released in BD, it'd be a great dream come true if they took the VO material from the game, and the storyline too, and released both together, or seperately with The Search of Vulcan Fury being a mini-season and all that.

    Ah, well. Will never happen.
     
  12. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    IMO a BluRay of TAS would be a waste. "Reanimating" TAS would wrong. IMO the shitty animation is an integral part of it's charm (I was annoyed they "fixed" a few things in the DVD release - like why isn't the Delta Triangle red anymore? What's the point?)
    Reanimating would also be effort better spent on making new Star Trek cartoons (as long as they do better than Stargate Infinity!)
     
  13. Michael

    Michael Good Bad Influence Moderator

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    Wow, I didn't know they actually changed things for the DVD release! Are you aware of similar changes in The Animated Series?
     
  14. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ^Just a few little random colour botches were fixed, like Kirk momentarily wearing a red shirt for a few seconds in an episode (which, oddly, is shown in one of the menu pics). I think the Klingon outfits were changed from pink to purple as well.
    I may be wrong since I saw TAS long ago before getting the DVD, but I think they toned down the orange of Kirk's hair and gave him a natural skin tone as well. I think he was white as a sheet in the originals (but it was *years* ago so I may be misremembering)
    The Delta Triangle change annoyed me, because it was so pointless. What they should have done and didn't was change the Andorian's skin in "Yesteryear" blue.
     
  15. milo bloom

    milo bloom Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Was the voicework for that game actually done? It's hard to imagine TPTB sitting on so much unused material like that, they could at least make some sort of audio production like those Doctor Who "radio plays" that are apparently so popular.

    If the voicework was done, then I have to think it would be worth the trouble to do some animation. Even some [adult swim] style Flash stuff would do.
     
  16. milo bloom

    milo bloom Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I don't mind seeing aliens with multiple skin colors. Star trek is all the better for having aliens portrayed in live action by different kinds of people (like the various skin-toned Vulcans, Romulans and Klingons) we've seen over the years.
     
  17. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    Michael Pataki still does voice work AFAIK. After all, he's the voice of "George Liqour, American!"
     
  18. Ssosmcin

    Ssosmcin Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The animation of TAS gets a hard time here (and other places, I guess), but for the early 70's TV market, it was pretty standard. At the time, it didn't stand out as "bad". Actually, Filmation had some of the best character renderings and backgrounds in the industry. Agreed, they took a lot of obvious shortcuts, which is a Filmation trait, such as constantly reusing the same angles, and movements, focusing on an ear so a mouth wouldn't need to be synced up, etc. You can pretty much see every drawing of the main cast of the entire series in a single episode. But, as a kid, I barely noticed it. Actually, I did notice it enough to influence the way I drew homemade comics. The same angles and poses.

    But look at other Saturday morning shows of the time. They may have been more fully animated, but the images were inconsistent and the movements less fluid. IN later Filmation efforts, every so often - and it was rare - they would use rotoscoping. I don't think it was used on TAS, however. But pop in a DVD of The Superfriends from Hannah Barbera, and see some of the sloppiest animation ever aired. Or think back to what else was on Saturday morning in 1973 & 74: Yogi's Gang, Inch High Private Eye, Emergency Plus Four, Goober and the Ghost Chasers, and so on. None of these had images nearly as nice as Filmation.

    What I loved about this period, was that the schedule was filled full of live action TV shows adapted for animation, many with the original cast voices. Trek and Emergency Plus Four were two, as were The Brady Kids, The New Adventures of Gilligan (Gilligan, Brady Kids and Trek - all Filmation), The Partridge Family 2200 AD. Then there were those without original voices, but still based on earlier 60's shows, like Jeannie, My Favorite Martians, and The Addams Family. There was even a pilot for a Lost in Space cartoon, with only Jonathan Harris involved, but it stank on ice. Strangely, aside from that one attempt, the Irwin Allen shows were not mined for animation. Those had evolved (if that's an appropriate word) into live action cartoons and would have been perfect for Saturday morning.

    I loved it all, because when I was 6 or 7, the 60's shows were hugely popular in syndication. Trek was just one that lived beyond reruns, but at the time, nearly everything fantasy related from the 60's was a huge hit with kids, which spawned these spin-offs. Adults also got into them, if my family was any indication, which was funny considering prime-time television had started to become "relevant" at the turn of the decade. Looks like some of us weren't ready for the change. I'm still not. When I see a listing of the fall line up in 1966, I weep having missed it. No less than eleven prime time fantasy/sci-fi/adventure shows on the air. Some even conflicting with each other - that would have killed me.

    Anyway, sorry this fell off topic. Yes, TAS on Blu-Ray would be great, and put all of my original cast Trek in that format. TAS is the lone holdout.
     
  19. Michael

    Michael Good Bad Influence Moderator

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    ^ As far as I know, The Animated Series actually did use some rotoscoping. Some of the more lively movements of the NCC-1701 were done that way, for example.

    Personally, I might add, I'm rather fond of Filmation's style, too. :)

    Ah, thanks for the info. I'm just so used to how the episodes look on DVD by now. I do own some untouched episodes on VHS, but I haven't seen them in ages.
     
  20. jefferiestubes8

    jefferiestubes8 Commodore Commodore

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    about the TSOVF audio recordings made for it with the original cast:
    comment 6.
    http://trekmovie.com/2007/08/16/dorothy-fontana-on-new-comics-new-novel-canon-ds9-ent-new-movie/

    also see
    http://trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=2730104&postcount=29

    also regarding the “The Secret of Vulcan Fury” story itself see
    UPDATE: Secrets of Vulcan Fury Novel?

    at the Trekmovie link above.