I don't mind the tinkering as long as the originals are available in their unaltered form for those that want it that way.
That is an old--and false argument. Take the original Star Wars trilogy: Lucas deliberately removed the original version from home video to replace them with the 1997-forward Special Edition changes. In a marketplace, one cannot expect interest consumers to dig back into fading or dead technology (ex. VHS, Beta, laserdisc, etc.) to satisfy their entertainment needs--or concern for history. In fact, that is exactly what is being asked of innumerable fans who want the theatrical version preserved as best as possible...and wasting money on old technology is not doing that.
In 2006, Lucas/Fox released a DVD of the unaltered films (presumably to shut fans up), but the near-unanimous view was that it was not the same transfer as that for the SE, but was something reminiscent of the muddy laserdics.
The original films in a best preserved format do not exist, because Lucas--in his quest to keep the films up to the cartoony standards of today's fantasy movies--only pushes the ever-altered Special Editions.
By locking it down, you're essentially guaranteeing that eventually the property will fall out of the public consciousness.
Oh? The point is that the original work be respected and preserved on the best format available, which has nothing to do with so-called artistic changes the film never needed to entertain generations of fans.
For one example, if you ever see the the behind the scenes of
Universal's Classic Monsters - The Essential Collection Blu-Ray set, technicians recall how they worked to maintain the original artistic integrity of the various filmmakers' work, but cleaned up scratches, etc...but it was not replacing or adding entire scenes (for whatever reason).
The films are as close to 100% to what has been in circulation since Universal first packaged its horror films to TV in the 1950s...but generations still accept the work, while I ague anyone else saying that cannot watch it (for Lucas-ian reasons) were not too interested to experience the work in any case.
Essentially, CBS did it the right way with TOS (regardless of what I think of the results) and Lucas did it the wrong way with Star Wars.
Video-game level shots of the 1701 are a distraction, while the terrible modern transitions from CG back to the 35mm film are also glaring.
I'll give CBS this much: offering the Blu-Rays with both versions acknowledges that TOS-R was not the accepted "final word" representation of the series.
