• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Heavy CGI enhancement anyone?

Raptor_Fawr

Lieutenant Commander
Red Shirt
TOS is old, and it's undeniable that some of it's predictions about technology development were wrong.
I've just rewatched "The corbomite maneveur" and at the beginning there is this guy who operates a big white light switch and it's painful to see compared to TNG where everything is touch screen.

So here is my question: am I the only one that would love a CGI replacement of every tech thing possible to make TOS look more modern and be more appealing to the new generations?
Something like this for instance, but with a more discovery-like bridge:
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

I agree that it's unnecessary and there are other bigger issues with TOS (a straight remake would be easier to do honestly) but some episodes still rocks to this day and it's sad that the other series (like TNG and VOY) can still hold with today standards but TOS don't anymore.

AI alone can already do wonder to image quality, as seen in
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
and nowadays computers are so powerful that even "homemade" solutions can be as acceptable as "big studios" ones
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.


What do you guys think?
 
Nope. We’ve seen examples of this already.

An I find the DSC bridge horrid.
Examples of what exactly? I'm quite new to the fandom and I am unaware of fanmade attempt of any kind except the links I provided.

I am sorry that you find the DSC bridge horrid, I like it a lot actually. It's way more bluish than the TOS one, but lights aside I find it a nice improvement over the 60s one.
Especially when you compare it to the NCC1701A bridge you can see a lot of similarities imho
 
I'd get a kick of maybe one episode heavily re-edited and updated as a curiosity. Rework "Balance of Terror" to have Disco-style effects. CG a bunch of colourful aliens into the background in the corridors, and put Arex and M'Ress onto bridge stations.

But FFS, don't do it series-wide. TOS is great as-is and to alter it is weird and wrong. Looks like they're probably doing a Pike series anyway so I'm sure we'll see a lot more re-imagined TOS soonish.
 
Adding Arex into the background imho would be awesome, but by looking at how they made Saru in discovery I honestly would love to see a real human in makeup
 
We might like hardware porn, but even that niche has to be subdivided into smaller groups, it turns out. We don't all want post-modern updates.

I spent the '70s poring over every detail of TOS production design, but especially the sets, props, and miniatures. The published technical drawings were important, their accuracy a matter for detailed study. I was taking still photos of the TV set (pre-VCR), making my own sketches, noting every feature and proportion I could see.

When TMP came along, the radical departure didn't look as good to me, just more expensive. I never fell in love with the movie bridge, especially when it was changing for every film. I thought TNG and subsequent spin-offs were better looking than the films but, again, I never felt a need to capture the fine details. TOS hardware was the great love of my hardware-porn life, and nothing after that was quite the same.

So the idea of wiping away Kirk's original bridge does nothing for me. Would you clothe Michelangelo's David in a NASA spacesuit? You'd be losing more than you gain.
 
TOS is timeless, to those who enjoy it.. You watch it and appreciated it for what it is, and for the achievement that it was at the time. I don't mind the remaster, and that was good enough to make it look good on modern TVs. I didn't mind them making planets that look like worlds and not indistinct circles. Beyond that, it did not need further updating, and I hope that does not happen.
 
Next you'll be wanting to give Kirk, spock, McCoy and crew the uniforms from DSC!!! :wtf: Ugly and silly!
JB
Connie crews don't get the blue DSC uniforms. They get the multicolor ones that Pike, Number One, and Connolly were seen wearing when they beamed over. Again, not TOS, but TOS and DSC and future Pike show that everyone knows is going to be made but no one can prove) are all different shows and should maintain their distinctive looks.
 
I find that I'm more bothered by the modern shows not adhering to the original aesthetic more than the other way round. I'd love to see an attempt to 'upgrade' an episode as a fan experiment but not sure I'd enjoy the series more if it was adjusted series wide.

That said, I'd love to see Yeoman Rand digitally edited into more episodes, maybe at the engineering station on the bridge, with the odd close up when Kirk is getting his shirt torn on the viewscreen. I think she could be edited into the Tholian Web fairly easily.

If you have any digital skills, I'd love some tips on how to upgrade the rough footage of the Memory Wall scene in TMP.
 
Personally, I prefer tangible controls with tactile feedback over tapping on a flat piece of glass.

Kor
When Worf taps glass when firing torpedoes, it has ZERO excitement. When Chekov uses two hands and actual effort to do the same thing in "Elaan of Troyius," it has weight and drama. Also the "piston" sound over a "beep" is so much better.

So no. Touch screens are dull.
 
When Worf taps glass when firing torpedoes, it has ZERO excitement. When Chekov uses two hands and actual effort to do the same thing in "Elaan of Troyius," it has weight and drama. Also the "piston" sound over a "beep" is so much better.

So no. Touch screens are dull.

I think TNG went to a tiny sound for their torpedo launch because they wanted to show that the Enterprise-D was so huge, the torpedo tubes were too far from the bridge to be heard. So all you got was an electronic indicator sound.
 
Meh, I think they wanted to suck the 60's drama out of it. It's not like the torpedo tubes were just under the bridge in the original series. The outside torpedo sound wasn't heard inside. Some sound effects on the original series were just muscular and sounded like actual machinery. Like that lonnnnnng whine primarily in the first season (the transporter in The Enemy Within or Sulu warping out of orbit in Arena). I love that one. TNG made it all electronic.
 
I liked the screen replacement - I'd go for it and offer it as an alternative version on the Blurays.

Sadly the AI upgrade of DS9 is only a very slight improvement. Maybe in a year or two...
 
The Navy has recently backed off touchscreens for a class of ships after an accident. There is something to be said for having direct, hard-wired physical controls that cannot be interrupted by a crash or interfered with by computer virus or software failure.

"Pictures under glass" is a very NOW thing, and they are inefficient because you cannot operate them by sense of touch, as you can a lowly computer keyboard. My guess is that as smart materials develop you'll have buttons and switches which physically rise up out of a control surface as needed.

I think for mission-critical stuff there will always be some physical hardware.

As for floaty touch-screens, if you've every worked with a vertical touch screen you realize how quickly exhausting they are unless you have a place to rest your elbows. They're an ergonomic horror.
 
Last edited:
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top