It's official: Thank God for Remastered!

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Watched "City..." on the Blu-ray last night. Wasn't much for the CGI guys to do but the ship in the opening, and a couple of planet shots.

But I have to comment on Nimoy's makeup. I guess the remastering process spikes the colors a bit. In a couple of early scenes Spock actually looked GREEN, and I could clearly see the makeup line around his neck. I guess this falls under the heading of "things they didn't think would show on 60s TV that hi-def doesn't do any favors for."

There are a number of subtle effects enhancements in the episode - they clean up the matte lines around the images on the tricorder, and during the end credits, where in the original the image of the Guardian (with its spilling vapor) "froze" during every title card they fixed it so that it remains moving.

You can see comparison images here: http://trekmovie.com/2006/10/12/review-city-on-the-edge-of-forever-remastered/ and a video of the new effects below:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6PrHmyDt14[/yt]

 

[Captain Rob]

As for the TOS Enterprise. Can anyone name another fictional spacecraft that's so important that it's in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC?

And in the gift-shop no less.

The gift-shop sure beats hanging from the ceiling where people could walk by and miss it. That's where I found it back in 78' all green and horrible looking. That ship deserves to be prominently displayed in a high-traffic area. I'd prefer the Dulles annex personally. And they need to have the ship not look like it just flew through the Great Green Goo Nebula. What's with all of the exaggerated panel lines and green weathering? It looks like it has green stripes.

 

[Ronald Held]

Is it still in a glass case in that gift shop?

 

[Warped9]

If I had the money to spare I'd give them the funds to properly restore the ship to its original pristine condition. And I mean thoroughly and accurately.

 

[Chrisisall]

If I had the money to spare I'd give them the funds to properly restore the ship to its original pristine condition. And I mean thoroughly and accurately.

Did the peeps restoring it imbue it with a greenish tinge not on it originally? Also, lots of dark lines on it I never saw before... and weathering. When I saw it at the Smithsonian in 1976, it appeared GRAY! Was it just a bad perception through a child's eyes? I have a photo I took of it then, but it was by an understandably unsteady hand...

 

[Chrisisall]

What's with all of the exaggerated panel lines and green weathering? It looks like it has green stripes.

Sorry, I duplicated you question here...

 

[Warped9]

Here are a couple of screencaps from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). This is what state-of the-art model work in the '60s era could look like. I did enhance the starfield a little to be more TOS like.

 

[Captain Crow]

You're expecting cutting edge crystal clear 2010 fancy dancy CGI SFX from a show made in the 1960's on a shoe string budget using old fashion model shots.

Just for you, Crow:

I guess that suppose to be funny? If you're going to poke fun at me for liking the original 1960's SFX with a condescending thing like that at least have the common courtesy to do it properly.

 

[Chrisisall]

I guess that suppose to be funny? If you're going to poke fun at me for liking the original 1960's SFX with a condescending thing like that at least have the common courtesy to do it properly.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Do I bill you for the new kee ee y board I ne d now 'causee i spittd my sodaa on it????

 

[Chrisisall]

I did enhance the starfield a little to be more TOS like.

[Charlie X voice]
No ENHANCING!!!
[/Charlie X voice]

 

[Chrisisall]

What's with all of the exaggerated panel lines and green weathering? It looks like it has green stripes.

I found this pic, after the first restoration, bad orange nacelle caps & gold fabricated deflector dish, but mostly original paint job, possibly...

http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/pictures/props/EnterpriseSI.jpg

 

[Warped9]

The ship was in rough shape. It really needs a strip down type restoration to be put right.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Yeah, problem is getting the Smithsonian to come up with the money for what they call an archival quality restoration - the model has never really had one.

It's also not constructed in such a way as to remain stable decade after decade - it's mostly all wood inside, which is heavy and given the design inevitably cracks and sags in various ways over time.

 

[ST-One]

Yeah, problem is getting the Smithsonian to come up with the money for what they call an archival quality restoration - the model has never really had one.

It's also not constructed in such a way as to remain stable decade after decade - it's mostly all wood inside, which is heavy and given the design inevitably cracks and sags in various ways over time.

Yeah, there are some pictures floating around that show that the miniature is already rotting awing from the inside.

 

[Captain Rob]

What's with all of the exaggerated panel lines and green weathering? It looks like it has green stripes.

I found this pic, after the first restoration, bad orange nacelle caps & gold fabricated deflector dish, but mostly original paint job, possibly...

http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/pictures/props/EnterpriseSI.jpg

Here's the NASM link showing the E's current condition:

http://blog.nasm.si.edu/tag/star-trek/

Someone needs to have that model digitally scanned like they did to the Refit/A and the E.
The first picture is how I remember seeing it back in the 70's. It wasn't very well lit though. The light in that pic is coming from the camera flash. Back then you could easily walk by and miss it. As for the model deteriorating; the xray pictures show how robust the nacelle mounts are (solid blocks). I'd like to see them replace the nacelle caps with something similar to the original lit caps. There's pictures of what the mechanism and lighting inside the caps look like. Also the deflector dish looks off to me. Don't get me started on the paint job.

 

[Shaw]

Well, it doesn't seem that the wood aspects are that much of an issue (at least not when it was given an x-ray 11 years ago).

The thing to keep in mind is that sag wasn't an issue for almost half the time the Smithsonian has had the model as it was hanging. But as it is displayed right now, a lot of stress is being transferred through the secondary hull. As a consequence the planks (staves) are pulling apart (at least enough to crack the paint on the surface).

As for the paint job, the Smithsonian repainted the whole model (other than the top of the saucer) when it was donated back in 1974. Sadly some of the original details (which the restoration didn't consider important) were painted over. At the time, it seems that good enough was good enough.

Many of the lost details were returned to the model in 1991/92, but other aspects of that restoration seem to have been questionable/controversial.

 

[Captain Rob]

Just saw this pic on the NASM page:

http://www.nasm.si.edu/imagedetail.cfm?imageID=1643

The nacelle caps don't look too bad with the lights turned on. Someone please tell me that the white balance on the camera was really off. Auto settings don't always work.
Shaw, just finished reading through your 77 page thread on studies of both the 33 inch and 11 foot Enterprise models. Absolutely incredible, incredible stuff. Keep up the great work.

 

[Shaw]

Wow... thanks!

That has got to be a marathon read by this point.

Yeah, the image is really off from the actual model. You can correct it in Photoshop by selecting the Blues/Cyans in the Hue/Saturation panel and taking their saturation down to almost full gray scale (none of the other colors should be effected). You can even lighten those areas at the same time if you want.

After the corrections it is quite a nice image of the model.

 

[plynch]

I stood there in the Holy of Holies (referred to as "GiffShap" by 20th century Terrans) and burned it into my retinas. It is gray, supposedly the same GM-hue originally used. Too many grid lines compared to what we saw on tv, but some say they were there in the 60s, but didn't photograph. Ok, maybe.

It was a holy experience. I bowed down and spilled some Tranya on the floor as an offering. Wanted to kill a Mugato and take a bite of the heart, but none were around.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Most all of the grid lines were on the model by the end of the show's run, but they were much lighter and thinner - you can pick them out more easily on old black-and-white photos of the model.

http://www.cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles/STEnterprise/ent38.jpg

There you can see the radial and concentric "grid" on the underside of the saucer.

Wood warps, twists, expands and contracts, etc over time. A model like this one should have a stable internal armature, which it doesn't.

When the model went on a national tour after the closing of the 1992 Smithsonian Star Trek exhibit, a local DC company manufactured an external acrylic support system for it - basically, transparent "slings" under the saucer, nacelles etc suspended by cables from overhead. This took a lot of the stress off of the parts, but hasn't been used since the model returned to NASM.