Well this is a nice way to wake up! I really should pick up the Roddenberry Vault while I still can.
Looking at the nacelle lighting in these 1st season shots got me thinking. (A dangerous pastime, I know.) I have always assumed that the FX teams simply got better at shooting the nacelle FX in season 2 than they were in season 1. But what if the case is actually that the nacelle lights were reworked / overhauled for season 2 to be more visible and consistent, giving us the more familiar spinning effect that people try so hard now to recreate?
For instance look at 2:25ish.
OTOH the lights in Space Seed at 3:50 look more like what we are used to.
The shot at 6:00 from the Where No Man Has Gone Before shoot is interesting. It's a bit like a shot that only shows up in Metamorphosis. Both of them think they can get away with nobody noticing the missing box on the port side of the sensor dish. And they did, because I never noticed it until someone pointed it out to me!
Interesting to see just how far they could actually get away from the 11 footer and then figure out where they had to start zooming out from the footage rather than the model, like in Where No Man.
3:45: "These shuttlecraft markings only appeared in 'The Menagererie, Part I,' Season 1". I am
astonished that they actually filmed a new FX shot for The Menagererie!
With the exception of the new matte paintings (now referred to as scene extensions), many of the TOS-R digital VFX were cringe-worthy. The artists who worked on Star Trek Continues could have taught CBS Digital a thing or two. They managed to maintain the "look" of the original with all their CGI work.
While I find the work on TOS-R disappointing I will always point out that it was made on a budget and a schedule that none of the fan films ever had to face. 78 episodes! (Or whatever it comes out to when you add in The Cage.) It's not like TOS-R was made by hacks who didn't love Star Trek. And none of it is "cringe-worthy". Could it be done better with 15 years of technical advances? Yup.
But that “debate” goes nowhere other than just repeating perspectives without one side or the other convincing the other of anything.
I will take this sage advice and abandon the topic.
We see more of the 11 footer in WNMHGB, but a couple of extra angles couldn’t have hurt.
It's impressive how many shots they took of the model for WNMHGB. To the point where unused shots keep turning up throughout the show. At a hasty count there are 18 shots of the 11 during the 1st season (including a bunch made just for Space Seed). With 8 being made (and used) in the second pilot alone. That's a hefty ratio for a single episode!
It is just that when the debate between CGI and traditional VFX techniques gets brought up, many will argue that it is the technology and not the artist.
