Remaster the Animated Series Anyone?

[ZapBrannigan]

I've found that I can usually suss out the meaning of acronyms on the Internet just from looking at the context. I want to say FFS stands for Final Frontier Society. Because otherwise it means .

 

[Lance]

As long as they didn't over use CGI, maybe keeping it to backgrounds and ship-to-ship scenes, while crucially retaining 2D style animation for the characters, then I'd have no objection. Especially if the new character models were based pretty directly on the Filmation originals.

With Cel-shading, it's even possible to get that authentic 2D look in three dimensions....

 

[Damian]

As long as they didn't over use CGI, maybe keeping it to backgrounds and ship-to-ship scenes, while crucially retaining 2D style animation for the characters, then I'd have no objection. Especially if the new character models were based pretty directly on the Filmation originals.

With Cel-shading, it's even possible to get that authentic 2D look in three dimensions....

That was sort of my thought. Something akin to the original series remasters. Correct mistakes certainly, redo the space based scenes to make them look better and more advanced, and touch up some of the backgrounds (I would retain the original intent but just touch them up) but retain many of the character and ship based visuals.

 

[Kor]

As long as they didn't over use CGI, maybe keeping it to backgrounds and ship-to-ship scenes, while crucially retaining 2D style animation for the characters, then I'd have no objection. Especially if the new character models were based pretty directly on the Filmation originals.

With Cel-shading, it's even possible to get that authentic 2D look in three dimensions....

Cel shading still looks like 3D animation to me. But I did enjoy this look used on the recent Short Trek "Ephraim and Dot."

Kor

 

[BillJ]

...just that it seems no one here knows for sure who had final say on the TOS-R changes.

Nameless bean counter at CBS.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

That was sort of my thought. Something akin to the original series remasters. Correct mistakes certainly, redo the space based scenes to make them look better and more advanced, and touch up some of the backgrounds (I would retain the original intent but just touch them up) but retain many of the character and ship based visuals.

TOS ‘06 was a fluke that wouldn’t have happened if not for the idea that perhaps the VFX shots couldn’t stand up to HD (it turns out TOS fans don’t care), and I’m sure the notion of rebroadcasting it for the 40th anniversary had something to do with the funding. That’s it, but otherwise SEs are not industry-standard practice and are widely recognized as doing more harm than good (it was mentioned earlier on top of what I’d said that you can’t even watch the original TOS on Netflix).

Are you saying you can’t look at Filmation’s efforts and applaud them for how faithfully they managed to continue and expand upon TOS despite the limited animation and whatever minor issues there are? Is the voice acting so important to you that you’d replace their classic animation style in favor of whatever studio is chosen to create something halfway-2020s as opposed to 1970s, so in the end we’d be stuck with two versions again? Even if you consider something related like Disney’s live-action/CGI remakes, there is always the classic original and the remake of the day, with little sense that the former is being surpassed.

Let’s stop and think about this in the wider context of tinkering with someone else’s work, the budgets and ethics involved rather than imagine that a controversial practice from the 90s and 00s is somehow still current.

 

[Damian]

Are you saying you can’t look at Filmation’s efforts and applaud them for how faithfully they managed to continue and expand upon TOS despite the limited animation and whatever minor issues there are? Is the voice acting so important to you that you’d replace their classic animation style in favor of whatever studio is chosen to create something halfway-2020s as opposed to 1970s, so in the end we’d be stuck with two versions again?

Of course I do. I'm rewatching the animated series now. It got me thinking about the question are there ways to touch it up in some areas? And I would never replace the originals in the sense of making them unavailable.

I personally liked the way the original series remasters were done. And I just watched the original series-remastered and I still feel they hold up fine. Maybe they're not top of the line by today's standards, but I was fine with them. I was just wondering could something similar be done with the animated series--or even a few highlight episodes.

But I don't agree with some that say the animated series wasn't all that good. Considering it in the context of a Saturday morning children's cartoon (and not really comparing it to the live action series) I found it to be pretty good. It even had some teachable moments for children, and it covered some serious subject matter too that at times rivaled the original series. But it was originally made for children, maybe older children, but still children and when I watch it I always keep that in mind and temper my expectations accordingly.

Now I honestly don't see CBS or Paramount ever taking that on. I doubt it would be all that expensive but it's a niche product that probably wouldn't make them enough money to make it worth it. Like I said, there's more chance they give Shatner his million dollars to update the special effects for Star Trek V.

 

[Damian]

And to be honest, even if this were to ever happen, I think I'd prefer it to be done using traditional animation techniques, NOT CGI. I'm not even sure I'd change anything about the ship interiors or main characters. Just maybe touch up some aliens (though maybe that's not even all that necessary in most cases except for any corrections) and the space based scenes. Watching the planetary based scenes I'd probably keep most of that as is (except instances like in "The Jihad" where they pass the same volcano about 6 times--maybe add a little more variety to the background). Which is why I sortof picked the middle road--a touch up but not an all out reanimation.

 

[Ronald Held]

Problem is, if the only goal was to fixed errors,other changes would creep in. Leave it be.

 

[Warped9]

Problem is, if the only goal was to fixed errors,other changes would creep in. Leave it be.

Errors can also be a matter of definition. There are a few TAS episodes I consider errors in being made in the first place.

 

[Lance]

Problem is, if the only goal was to fixed errors,other changes would creep in. Leave it be.

TAS has got a few glaring production errors, shirt colors changing for one shot etc, but even then the only one I'd really not be so sad if they fixed it is the brief moment in "More Tribbles, More Troubles" where Koloth is on the Enterprise viewing screen, but for a few frames is overlaid on top of the bridge screen layer instead of behind it. It's a very sloppy looking moment that I'd be glad if they excised.

 

[Damian]

TAS has got a few glaring production errors, shirt colors changing for one shot etc, but even then the only one I'd really not be so sad if they fixed it is the brief moment in "More Tribbles, More Troubles" where Koloth is on the Enterprise viewing screen, but for a few frames is overlaid on top of the bridge screen layer instead of behind it. It's a very sloppy looking moment that I'd be glad if they excised.

Yeah, I think there is a difference between fixing a mistake and doing an enhancement, for lack of a better word. Fixing Koloth, fixing a uniform shirt color. Those are obvious mistakes.

Adding detail to the Kzinti. That'd be an enhancement. I think that might be interesting to see and try--but that's not what I would call fixing a mistake. And some obviously disagree with doing that. I doubt too many people would take issue if all they did was fix Nurse Chapel's uniform color in the one scene where it appeared red, or if they put Koloth back on his ship

 

[Maurice]

So I bothered to look up the TOS-R credits and the answer to who was driving the bus:

Article: Trek Remastered Producers: Nothing Is Being Changed [update with pics & video, SEPTEMBER 6, 2006

Which includes... "CBS Paramount held a telephone press conference with Star Trek Remastered producers David Rossi, Mike Okuda and CBS Paramount Domestic Television President John Nogawski."

If this is accurate Mike was not some mere consultant. It's unbelievable that Nogawski was at all hands-on with the VFX choices.

 

[Lance]

Yeah, I think there is a difference between fixing a mistake and doing an enhancement, for lack of a better word. Fixing Koloth, fixing a uniform shirt color. Those are obvious mistakes.

Adding detail to the Kzinti. That'd be an enhancement. I think that might be interesting to see and try--but that's not what I would call fixing a mistake. And some obviously disagree with doing that. I doubt too many people would take issue if all they did was fix Nurse Chapel's uniform color in the one scene where it appeared red, or if they put Koloth back on his ship

I'm all for preserving a show as it was, but also feel that things like suddenly being so off-model that Sulu's shirt is red instead of gold for one random shot, or the thing with Koloth, or the bridge turbolift doors being stuck open in the middle of scenes, I feel like these would be worthy tinkering. I doubt the animators at the time would've prefered they went out that way.

Mind you, it's such a slipperly slope, isn't it? The producers of TOS expressed that they would've liked all those screens circling the upper level of the bridge to be constantly in animation, but affording an individual protectionist for the back projection of each individual screen (as was required by union rules) would have been cost prohibitive, so they stayed static. That kind of 'business' in the background didn't become affordable until The Motion Picture. Now, this could be easily altered on TOS using CGI today, restoring it to something close to what the producers of the show would have prefered, but it wouldn't be in keeping with the production of the time. Some TOS-Remastered additions do however jump right over that kind of cliff, eg adding a starfield window to Pike's quarters in "The Cage" or updating instrumentation close-ups in "The Naked Time"...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

TNG-R fixed obvious errors (such as the phaser beam coming from the torpedo launcher in "Darmok"), so I don't see why a hypothetical TAS-R shouldn't do the same.

 

[Warped9]

I understand what some are saying. Fixing things as if they had been done correctly back in the day with what they had at hand.

 

[EnriqueH]

I would love all new animation. It’s weird to see the normally animated Kirk even less animated than one of the paper mache boulders on TOS.

I’d keep the voices and overall look, but make those guys move with some urgency!