Animated Series Blu-Ray Plans

[BillJ]

But blu-ray? Yeah, that'll vastly improve my overall experience of the series and make me want to watch them over and over again. Not. You all must have lots of disposable income.

Part of the reason I was willing to pay again for TOS, and currently TNG, is because they were remastered. If they had just been straight transfers of the DVD's, I likely wouldn't have bothered. Even though Enterprise is coming to Blu-ray, I don't see much point in purchasing it because I own the DVD's and have already seen the show in HD.

Though I've watched the Blu-rays I've bought enough to justify the cost!

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Overall I was happy with the DVD release, but I was less than thrilled with the recoloring of the sky in The Time Trap from red to black.

 

[Lance]

I hope that they fix that film plate issue in that episode where the Klingon suddenly appears in front of the viewscreen on the bridge, instead of actually being on the viewscreen.

Apart from that, the rest of it can stay exactly as it is. I've got no problems with how TAS turned out whatsoever.

 

[JimZipCode]

...and a quarter-century ago, there was vehement and deep-rooted hostility toward TNG

That's alive and well on my part!

 

[Christopher]

Speaking of coloring issues in the DVD release of "The Time Trap" -- does anyone know if Devna's skin color was altered? The original Star Trek Concordance refers to Devna as "golden-skinned" (in its lexicon entry for "Orion colonies"), but in the DVD version she's pale green, as one would expect of an Orion.

 

[plynch]

I guess I could see the worth of this project if it were going to increase my happiness as I watched episodes of Star Trek animated. The dvd's of TOS certainly did, relative to the VHS. But I judged that blu-rays of TOS wouldn't make me happier, though the picture and sound of a 50-year-old tv show would be clearer. Judging by the comments of people who said seeing Shatner's toupé lines and boot lace inconsistencies takes them out of the flow of the drama, I think I chose right. Now if they come out in 3-D, or something dramatically different, I might bite.

Having been in my skin for 46 years, I think I am right that a sharper image on "Infinite Vulcan," "More Tribbles," or "The Practical Joker" would not make me any happier than I am. But if it floats your boat, feed the beast. I'm sure I spend money on things you would think are stupid.

 

[Christopher]

Who knows? Filmation's background paintings were always the best in the business, really lovely pieces of artwork. Getting to see them in Blu-Ray might bring out details that we've never seen before.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Speaking of coloring issues in the DVD release of "The Time Trap" -- does anyone know if Devna's skin color was altered? The original Star Trek Concordance refers to Devna as "golden-skinned" (in its lexicon entry for "Orion colonies"), but in the DVD version she's pale green, as one would expect of an Orion.

I don't have a definitive answer, but I honestly remember her being the same or a very similar pale green during the first run in the 70's. I remember that pale green as always being noticeably paler than either Vina's or Marta's green.

If one looks at the picture of Devna at http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Orion, it does look somewhat on the yellow side, so I can see how some might call that golden, though I'd call it pale green myself.

Incidentally, the Orions in The Pirates of Orion were--I think--always pale blue, although that was an episode I missed first run and had to pick up in the 80's on Nickelodeon.

 

[Redfern]

I'm with CorporalCaptain on this. I may be geeting a bit old to remember the 1973 broadcasts that clearly anymore, but the mid 80s reruns on Nick seem a tad fresher in my mind. I perceived Devna as green, a very pale green that threatens to slip into the "avacado valley" of controversy, but still, techically a green. I don't think she was something that was altered in the DVD release even though the "ships' graveyard" WAS changed in that same episode.

Of course, one can counter that the color balance on my TV was out of whack and I can't really refute with determination that possibility.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Christopher]

If one looks at the picture of Devna at http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Orion, it does look somewhat on the yellow side, so I can see how some might call that golden, though I'd call it pale green myself.

But I assume that picture is from the DVD, so it doesn't really prove anything about the color before then.

Oh, you know what? I'm getting forgetful. I just remembered that I still have some very old VHS copies of the original VHS home-video release of TAS. (In fact, I think they're VHS copies of Beta copies of the rented VHS tapes.) I could barely make out the picture, either because the tapes are eroding or the player's heads are covered in dust from disuse, but the space of the Delta Triangle was vivid red -- and Devna was unmistakably light green. So I guess that "golden-skinned" reference was just one of the Concordance's errors.

Which just goes to show something about perception, since for ages I believed that Devna had been gold-skinned, even after seeing the episode in color a number of times. I guess I just had that assumption drilled into my head by the Concordance in those early years when I only saw the show in black-and-white, and even the evidence of my eyes didn't cause me to consciously register the error.

 

[Redfern]

Same thing for me concerning M'Ress. After the series left Saturday mornings in Fall '75, the only visual reference I had of the character was the two illustrations printed in the Concordance. When the series was rerun on Nick in the mid 80s, I was shocked to see the majority of the shots depicting the Caitian differed quite a bit from that encyclopedic entry. (Though I later learned those drawings were based upon the official character model sheets and it were the "chipmunk cheeked" portraits of the felinoid were the ones that deviated from the official design.)

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[CorporalCaptain]

If one looks at the picture of Devna at http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Orion, it does look somewhat on the yellow side, so I can see how some might call that golden, though I'd call it pale green myself.

But I assume that picture is from the DVD, so it doesn't really prove anything about the color before then.

Oh, you know what? I'm getting forgetful. I just remembered that I still have some very old VHS copies of the original VHS home-video release of TAS. (In fact, I think they're VHS copies of Beta copies of the rented VHS tapes.) I could barely make out the picture, either because the tapes are eroding or the player's heads are covered in dust from disuse, but the space of the Delta Triangle was vivid red -- and Devna was unmistakably light green. So I guess that "golden-skinned" reference was just one of the Concordance's errors.

Which just goes to show something about perception, since for ages I believed that Devna had been gold-skinned, even after seeing the episode in color a number of times. I guess I just had that assumption drilled into my head by the Concordance in those early years when I only saw the show in black-and-white, and even the evidence of my eyes didn't cause me to consciously register the error.

Yeah, not knowing the origin of the Memory Alpha photo would be part of why I said I was offering no definitive answer, wouldn't it.

And I can't agree that the Concordance was necessarily in error, in the sense of misstating a fact. The point I was making was that if Devna's color was not altered for the DVD, and if the Memory Alpha picture is from the DVD, then we are seeing a picture of what Devna originally looked like, which is all plausible to me since it jibes with what I recall her looking like all along. And since that yellow-tinted green shown on Memory Alpha might be characterized as "golden", that's an argument in favor of the Concordance not being factually inaccurate. More below.

Color naming is sometimes a matter of opinion and often a question of perception. I think this was the point that Redfern was making when he referred to the "avacado valley" (which I took as a reference to Kirk's shirt).

If you ignore the lips and eyes, and isolate just the skin tone in the Memory Alpha picture of Devna, do you still see it as green? Indeed, using the GIMP color picker tool, I find that (at least at one pixel of her skin), her skin color has the hex code #e5fe86, which looks more than a little golden to me.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, maybe. And it could be that the color looked different depending on the settings of the individual viewers' color TV sets, which could be much more unreliable back in the '70s. But still, it stands to reason that since Devna was an Orion female, she was intended to be green, so I'd still say calling her "golden-skinned" is an error, even if it was an honest error of perception.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yeah, maybe. And it could be that the color looked different depending on the settings of the individual viewers' color TV sets, which could be much more unreliable back in the '70s. But still, it stands to reason that since Devna was an Orion female, she was intended to be green, so I'd still say calling her "golden-skinned" is an error, even if it was an honest error of perception.

Why? There were blue-skinned Orions in TAS, too. Must all Orions be green? Or green or blue?

Plus, the fact that Devna's lips and eyes were a different color from her skin (and themselves definitely green) show that there was a distinction intended between her skin and lips. Maybe she was wearing green lipstick. Calling her skin something other than green just doesn't seem like something as erroneous as, say, getting a starship registry number seen on screen or spoken aloud wrong.

 

[Christopher]

Why is this something worth arguing over? It seems pretty straightforward to me. What's the big deal anyway?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Why is this something worth arguing over? It seems pretty straightforward to me. What's the big deal anyway?

Well, I thought we were having a discussion about it. If you don't think Devna's skin color is worth discussing, then why did you bring it up in the first place?

 

[Christopher]

Discussion is one thing, but this has gotten preposterously nitpicky over one lousy adjective. I'm done wasting time on it.

 

[Redfern]

I thought I'd try coining a new phrase; and yes, it's a gentle jab at the controversy over the color of Kirk's shirt.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I thought I'd try coining a new phrase; and yes, it's a gentle jab at the controversy over the color of Kirk's shirt.

Sincerely,

Bill

Yeah, it's cute; I like it. It sounds like you're also playing at the uncanny valley.

 

[plynch]

Who knows? Filmation's background paintings were always the best in the business, really lovely pieces of artwork. Getting to see them in Blu-Ray might bring out details that we've never seen before.

It better.

And if it truly makes you (plural) happier, it might be worth the dough, to you.

I just perceive in the fandom a knee-jerk "Must buy it if it's offered." I sound arrogant, and for that I apologize. The past couple years my wife and I have been frugal and for once have some money in the bank, so I am always thinking about purchases more long-range. I'm the guy who keeps hemming and hawing about the LaLa land set. It would definitely make me happy for awhile. But it's a lot of money I could spend on "better" things.

Do I dare bring up whether personal happiness is what we should use as the basis for our purchasing decisions? Not on a board that presupposes we've all (self included, fo sho) spent many dollars on scifi frivolities.

Rambling, now, but thanks for the opportunity to discuss this.