I love the old saying
" A camel, is a horse designed by committee"
This is my chief concern about the group currently deciding on how to approach restoring our beloved Enterprise, but that's another thread
I'd forgotten that the Okudas were involved in TOS-R which explains a lot. Other than not having a great deal of talent, CBS D's main problem was inconsistency.
To begin with, they gave us a
laughably cartoony Enterprise, which would have remained so, if it weren't for the fans vehemently (and rightly) complaining about how awful it looked!
The fact that CBS D thought it was good enough in the first place was a huge red flag for me
So they scramble for a
less cartoony model.
Do they go back and replace the initial
laughably cartoony model used in wonderful classics like
The Naked Time,
Balance of Terror and
City on the Edge of Forever?
Nope.
So now those fantastic episodes will remain forever with a
laughably cartoony starship Enterprise.
Nice.
It's funny now, but I remember Dave Rossi (head of CBS-D) saying before the release of TOS-R:
oh it'll be great now that the Enterprise will finally be consistent (referring to the pilot and production versions being used in the same episode)
LOL Dave. LOL.
So CBS D decided, at times, to slavishly follow the original effects matching them shot for shot. Fair enough, but then turn around and add entirely NEW sequences like the satellites being deployed in
Operation Annihilate!
Pick an approach guys! I'm good with either one but commit to it.
Star Trek is EXTREMELY analog, NOT digital.
Look at these two shots which come
one after the other in
The Immunity Syndrome.
Look at the color of the shuttlecraft, the color of the floor, the bulkheads, the lighting.
They even changed the circle around the shuttlecraft from grey to bright yellow and added a bright red square. Do you see a bright red square under Spock's feet?
Extremely jarring, not to mention
completely unnecessary. The main hangar deck shot(s) didn't go through an optical printer which left the film pristine, and the ones that did (launching and landing) could have been easily cleaned up digitally.
One would assume from CBS Digital's
many interviews that they very much honored the original material and only changed things because they HAD to. The default excuse being that
the original effects looked terrible in HD.
Okay, so then why would you add a new sound effect to the Planet Killer in
The Doomsday Machine, and sound effects the Klingon Ship in
Ellan of Troyus?
Why would you completely re-record the main theme(s), put Shatner's voice WAY in the background with so much reverb that I can barely hear him and yet leave all of the other music intact? (thank God)
Why would you mess with that in the first place?
What was the point?
Again, inconsistent.
There were also situations like
The Immunity Syndrome where an HD plate could have been easily captured from the original. The plate, which was far superior, would also have been more
practical as well (again saving time and money) and far more preferable to throwing together a crappy digital version.
Case in point below. CBS D's much poorer version could not look less alive and organic while the original effects team won an award for this effect which still holds up today.
Lousy explosions, blinking Gorns, good planets then horrible cartoony planets, I could go on and on.
It is almost as if CBS D went out of their way to do the opposite of what was required.
Do they even know who Jerry Finnerman was? Finnerman's beautiful, colorful, soft, shadowy, inventive, dramatic camera work and CBS D's flat, grey, boring, cinematic-ally infantile, uninspired style.
Good match.
I was so excited when the project was first announced. I though YES! FINALLY we have the technology to match Finnerman's style with the special effects shots! You could easily edit Finnerman's work with shots from 2001 (in 4 by 3 of course) and it would flow nicely.
The last image I'll leave you with is one of the many shots of one the
weeble people, seen aimlessly gazing from one the windows of our beloved (cartoon) big E.
Spockboy
I hope I don't have to hand in my geek card for that! (Truth be told, my DVD of it is still in its shrink wrap! I should probably deal with this issue somehow.)
)
