Okay, nobody's going in depth with their reviews on the sets that came out last week, so I thought I'd start something.
Having these on disc, without any signal loss or just plain bad cable is gorgeous. You won't see the real difference between the picture quality of these and the original DVDs until you compare. The image is outstanding. Of course, now I notice things I shouldn't because the limitations of TV technology 40 years ago covered a multitude of sins. But this is happened with a lot of old shows from that time.
How do the new graphics hold up? Hit and miss, really. Some episodes are helped tremendously by the new FX. Tomorrow is Yesterday, for example. The scenes of the Enterprise in the atmosphere and the ship going into sling shot (my God it makes sense now!) were very exciting. Mudd's Women also fared much better with the new asteroid belt and Mudd's new ship. Other episodes made out quite well.
Some, however, didn't. Errand of Mercy is one of these. The new shots of the Klingon bolts hitting the Enterprise look horrible, like something out of Space Rangers. The quick cutting to the newly render D-7 Klingon cruiser feels very out of place, expecially since the timed the firing of their weapon to an explosion of one hitting the Enterprise hull. The sound effects are terrible here (a change from the original prints from VHS), but I'll cover the audio in a moment.
Also, a few times it really felt like the new FX just didn't match the film quality of the original prints. I mean, the new graphics are beautiful, crisp and very clear. Too clear at times. Especially when they go from a CGI crip, clear Enterprise shot into a darker, grainer interior. It's like watching two different shows (like Babylon 5 used to feel). I know there's only so much you can do with 40 year old film prints, but I wish they put a little "aging" into the FX shots. Grain them up a bit and give them film quality instead of video.
The audio. I tell you, I was pretty disappointed they kept the exact same sound mix as the DVDs. Especially since they said (in one of the extras) that they went back to the original masters and cleaned them up. But they used the same, inaccurate audio tracks with the music and sound errors intact. The Menagerie part 2 still has the wrong music on the fade ins (which makes no sense since those same replaced bits are used in other episodes just fine). In Errand of Mercy, the photons hitting the Enterprise used to be the old, high pitched "burp" we always heard. When the DVDs came out, someone decided having the "sliding door" sound mixed in would be great. It's not, it's out of place and distracting. Etc. I really hoped this would be a good opportunity to fix these issues (and others in years 2 and 3), but I guess not.
So, I have to give the season as a whole a 6 out of 10. It's great to see the films remastered into brilliance. However the sound tracks let me down and a number of episodes seem mismatched with the new effects.
Having these on disc, without any signal loss or just plain bad cable is gorgeous. You won't see the real difference between the picture quality of these and the original DVDs until you compare. The image is outstanding. Of course, now I notice things I shouldn't because the limitations of TV technology 40 years ago covered a multitude of sins. But this is happened with a lot of old shows from that time.
How do the new graphics hold up? Hit and miss, really. Some episodes are helped tremendously by the new FX. Tomorrow is Yesterday, for example. The scenes of the Enterprise in the atmosphere and the ship going into sling shot (my God it makes sense now!) were very exciting. Mudd's Women also fared much better with the new asteroid belt and Mudd's new ship. Other episodes made out quite well.
Some, however, didn't. Errand of Mercy is one of these. The new shots of the Klingon bolts hitting the Enterprise look horrible, like something out of Space Rangers. The quick cutting to the newly render D-7 Klingon cruiser feels very out of place, expecially since the timed the firing of their weapon to an explosion of one hitting the Enterprise hull. The sound effects are terrible here (a change from the original prints from VHS), but I'll cover the audio in a moment.
Also, a few times it really felt like the new FX just didn't match the film quality of the original prints. I mean, the new graphics are beautiful, crisp and very clear. Too clear at times. Especially when they go from a CGI crip, clear Enterprise shot into a darker, grainer interior. It's like watching two different shows (like Babylon 5 used to feel). I know there's only so much you can do with 40 year old film prints, but I wish they put a little "aging" into the FX shots. Grain them up a bit and give them film quality instead of video.
The audio. I tell you, I was pretty disappointed they kept the exact same sound mix as the DVDs. Especially since they said (in one of the extras) that they went back to the original masters and cleaned them up. But they used the same, inaccurate audio tracks with the music and sound errors intact. The Menagerie part 2 still has the wrong music on the fade ins (which makes no sense since those same replaced bits are used in other episodes just fine). In Errand of Mercy, the photons hitting the Enterprise used to be the old, high pitched "burp" we always heard. When the DVDs came out, someone decided having the "sliding door" sound mixed in would be great. It's not, it's out of place and distracting. Etc. I really hoped this would be a good opportunity to fix these issues (and others in years 2 and 3), but I guess not.
So, I have to give the season as a whole a 6 out of 10. It's great to see the films remastered into brilliance. However the sound tracks let me down and a number of episodes seem mismatched with the new effects.
Only had a chance to watch one full ep (WNMHGB) but I did click thru a few others just to see how they looked and the new fx.
It's Dolby TrueHD, which is now a brand name, audio because it can be advertised that way. I loved how when digital technology first came widespread in the '80s, everything became "digital" on the box.
