TMP Re-Edit & Restoration Project - Ideas, Feedback, Advise

[Maurice]

Speaking of reacting and not acting, it's a problem I have with the script. Once Spock detects V'ger's message and they send linguacode at the same frequency and speed, no one ever discussed what V'ger's message was, and no one mentions any further attempts to communicate. It makes everyone very passive. All they had to do was say "The message was a hail of some sort" and then have Uhura continue trying to communicate with this thing and when they get no reply, go, "Okay, I guess now we either go in or wait."

 

[Jeyl]

Speaking of reacting and not acting, it's a problem I have with the script. Once Spock detects V'ger's message and they send linguacode at the same frequency and speed, no one ever discussed what V'ger's message was, and no one mentions any further attempts to communicate. It makes everyone very passive. All they had to do was say "The message was a hail of some sort" and then have Uhura continue trying to communicate with this thing and when they get no reply, go, "Okay, I guess now we either go in or wait."

I always felt that scene should have been Uhura's job. Start the scene with Spock giving us his mental detection that they have been contacted, and have Uhura do everything that Spock does afterwards. She's the freaking communications officer. Let her do the part that involves actual communicating! And to think that the only alternate footage of her actually doing something is attempting to contact Starfleet Command in a panic.

 

[2takesfrakes]

The crew's watching the viewscreen for half an hour is all that really ever needed to be fiddled with, as in shortened, significantly. And as most of the music during that was repeating the same rhythm over and over, this could probably even be done by a fan, with not a little talent.

 

[JamesRye]

Hi Synnöve,

I really like the colour corrected shot of the enterprise in spacedock. It looks terrible on blu-ray as do most of the films (except II) which are heavily DNR'ed.

Do what pleases you - it's your project. For me, it's a tricky balance - for sure the film drags badly in places. But - it does have an epic feel that wasn't recaptured in the Trek movie franchise until the 2009 movie (in my humble opinion).

I love the idea of re-editing the movie. Find audio snippets from other productions, redub, slice, chop and hack at the movie. So long as you like it, that's what matters.

Some people will criticise, some will 'get it', but I'd urge bold and creative choices. To paraphrase Kirk 'make a difference'.

 

[Campe]

The transporter room scene isn't just fluff and shouldn't be cut.

I skimmed some of this thread so I apologize if I missed some of this but I'll echo what Maurice said and add one point: It adds a character moment for Bones. In the original series, other than "Space Seed," where does McCoy mention he has a phobia of transporters? I don't believe he does. Yet, its an important aspect of his character.

Following the death of Sonak and... whoever, the good Doctor has a reason to be fearful of transporting to the Enterprise and to mention scrambling his molecules. Plus, the look of fear on Disco Bones' face is perfect following an incident where two people died on the device Starfleet is asking him to use.

A bit of advice: Leave the scene. It's a good moment of texture in the tapestry of the film and you won't receive as much criticism as is being leveled on you now.

 

[Ssosmcin]

In the original series, other than "Space Seed," where does McCoy mention he has a phobia of transporters? I don't believe he does. Yet, its an important aspect of his character.

He has mentioned his distrust and distaste for transporters a number of times, beginning with Mudd's Women.

See also Obsession: "Crazy way to travel, spreading a man's molecules all over the universe."

It's also mentioned in Is There in Truth No Beauty?

MIRANDA: Ambassador Kollos often finds the process of transport somewhat unsettling.
SPOCK: I understand. Our ship's surgeon often makes the same complaint.

I'm sure there are more.

 

[Campe]

Cool. I stand corrected.

Nonetheless he did it all the time. Still, important to the character and a nice moment for audiences. Adding a reason this time around vindicates him.

 

[Maurice]

I always felt that scene should have been Uhura's job. Start the scene with Spock giving us his mental detection that they have been contacted, and have Uhura do everything that Spock does afterwards. She's the freaking communications officer. Let her do the part that involves actual communicating! And to think that the only alternate footage of her actually doing something is attempting to contact Starfleet Command in a panic.

Certainly. It's only a few lines and it wouldn't have hurt Spock's part in the proceedings at all.

I'd have done it something like this.

SPOCK
I sense...puzzlement. We have been
contacted.

Uhura reacts. What?

SPOCK (cont'd)
Why have we not replied?

KIRK
Contacted? How...

(SHIP FALLS UNDER ATTACK, SURVIVES)

UHURA
Sir, I found it!
(plays slowed down sound)
It's at a frequency of over one million
megahertz. The entire message lasts
only a millisecond.

KIRK
What does it say?

UHURA
I have no idea. It's the most complex
code I've ever seen...

KIRK
We need to reply before they attack
again. Spock...

SPOCK
(already busy)
I am reprograming our computer to
transmit linguacode at their frequency
and rate of speed.​

And a correction. There's no panic in Uhura's voice when calling Starfleet in the dialog you're referring to.

 

[trevanian]

Oh, it might be considered a panicked reading. I always thought it was just a bad line reading, though. Compare it with when she is calling regula in TWOK, and it ain't the same, but it ain't cool pro Uhura neither.

 

[Synnöve]

My imagination is saying that what I need to do is find a really good impersonator to create these lines, cobble together some reaction shots for Kirk and Spock and find some Uhura footage to dub over.

Is that possibility or a sane idea, no. But it sure is a nice thought.

 

[Maurice]

Oh, it might be considered a panicked reading. I always thought it was just a bad line reading, though. Compare it with when she is calling regula in TWOK, and it ain't the same, but it ain't cool pro Uhura neither.

When I look at that bit in the hideous SLV what I see is someone took a single take where they asked her to run through those lines a bunch of times in different ways and instead of picking one or two, they dumped the whole set in without editing it.

 

[Synnöve]

Currently working on the pod ride/ drydock scene. The amount of color fixing I've done to the E shots has been staggering.

I have a rough cut right now that lasts 4:50 vs 6 min, but does anyone have an idea of what parts should be cut from that scene?

 

[trevanian]

The part where he is looking down at the top of the dish has always been a scale-blower for me, I'd happily see that gone. think there's also a cut where he is looking with great interest at one of those hex dock lights that just seemed wrong.

 

[Maurice]

Trim the heads and tails off most shots. Dump the shot of the hex light fixture. I also cut a lot of the flyaround on the outside of the dock by placing the images of the ship through the dock as reflections on the pod window.

 

[Synnöve]

trevanian: I don't know that I can cut the saucer flyover, or at least all of it, as with it out it seems really odd that they just ascend to the top of it, then appear right behind it. I'd rather get rid of the ascending shot over the shoulder as it looks like a terrible blue screen job (worse than the nacelle matte bleeding in the saucer flyover at least). Hex light is gone.

Maurice: Done and done, and that was the plan! Need to get them in order and color corrected before I put them in after effects for the reflections.

 

[FreddyE]

I´ve done something similar for fun. I managed to cut it down to about 60 minutes.

I basically removed most of the "staring at vger" stuff, I cut out pauses in dialog, I removed all scenes on Vulcan, expect the one where Spock senses Vger, I shortened the fly-around the Enterprise in dock, cut out the inital approach of Spocks shuttle, removed all but the really nessecary parts of Spock floating thru Vger. I left the transporter accident in but shorted it to just beeing "Begin beaming -> Scream - > "Kirk: "Wasn´t your fault".

And I also removed the whole subplot about Kirk "stealing" Deckers command. Never liked that anyway. In my version Kirk just assumes command and thats it.

What I also removed completly is the wormhole scene. I have the Enterprise going to warp without any incedent.

The rest of it was just shorting some dialog here and there. In the end I have them leaving the ship and arriving at vger right away...without the walking to it parts.

The finished cut-down actually flows pretty well.

 

[Maurice]

^^^It sounds gutted, frankly.

 

[Hober Mallow]

What I also removed completly is the wormhole scene. I have the Enterprise going to warp without any incedent.

Then how does Spock meet up with the ship? IIRC, in the film he comes on board and fixes the Enterprise's warp problem. Robert Wise's intent -- at least what he says was his intent during the commentary of the DE -- is that the ship isn't complete, and so doesn't work properly, without Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all on board. If the ship simply goes to warp, how does Spock catch up with them, and what's his stated reason for even being there?

 

[trevanian]

What I also removed completly is the wormhole scene. I have the Enterprise going to warp without any incedent.

Then how does Spock meet up with the ship? IIRC, in the film he comes on board and fixes the Enterprise's warp problem. Robert Wise's intent -- at least what he says was his intent during the commentary of the DE -- is that the ship isn't complete, and so doesn't work properly, without Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all on board. If the ship simply goes to warp, how does Spock catch up with them, and what's his stated reason for even being there?

All very valid points (except maybe about the shuttle, which if I recall correctly is capable of warp6 or 8, going by the bluelines or some other Probert-vetted source), but it made me think of something I hadn't really considered since 1979 -- the movie as-is makes Scotty out to be something less than a miracle worker, given that it takes Deus Ex Spockina to remedy the engine imbalance.

In fact, given that his engineering crew doesn't show a lot of smarts (the spec ed lame-o-gal asking why Kirk orders up a self destruct, and of course Cleary acting like he has never seen a console blow up before, how can he be serving on a starship?), Scotty actually comes off pretty lame altogether, only there to say what they CAN'T do rather than showing what they can do.

 

[Synnöve]

In fact, given that his engineering crew doesn't show a lot of smarts (the spec ed lame-o-gal asking why Kirk orders up a self destruct, and of course Cleary acting like he has never seen a console blow up before, how can he be serving on a starship?), Scotty actually comes off pretty lame altogether, only there to say what they CAN'T do rather than showing what they can do.

(This is why I don't like including the transporter sequence in the film!)

I think the film implied that Scott would have had the engine up and running if he'd had more time to work over the tuning and calculations required. Spock's super brain just expedited the process.