True. I got a little too wrapped up in what I was saying and unintentionally skewed your wording. You said: "they did a darned good job of adding some polish to the film and trying to bring it up to Rober Wise's original intent". I went off on a slight tangent about accuracy and fidelity to craftmanship, which isn't entirely what you meant, I guess. My apologies. Fair comment. No, I'm not kidding you. I wish I was! I've always felt that the shot looks rather artificial, and when I watched the DE with my dad, who has his standards, but doesn't watch films the way I do, he remarked that the wingwalk effects looked very unconvincing (although he was, primarily, talking about the animation of the blocks forming against the hull). For me, it's the combination of the blocks with the saucer. The original matte painting wasn't satisfactory, but I question how much of an improvement the CG for this scene was/is. The shot was quite poorly conceived, in my humble opinion. Technically, the execution is fine, unlike the wingwalk, which in my honest estimation, is the reverse circumstance. The DE is hardly a disaster, but I'm kind of relieved to see it left behind on DVD, truth be told. And this isn't just a beef with Foundation Imaging, either. I personally dislike Wise's edits (specifically, for the things he REMOVED), versus the original theatrical edition, as well as other annoying decisions like kowtowing to a contemporary audience, ignorant of an overture, with a star field instead of a blank screen. In my opinion, the DE smacks of compromise and after-the-fact rationalisations.
I prefer the DE over the theatrical version...I like the character moments that were added back in that were more in line with what we saw in TOS. The things that were cut were things like repeating "Viewer OFF!!" to Uhura and the clumsy "Oh my God..." after the transporter accident...and a couple of other stilted and clumsy bits of "acting". Everybody has their tastes, but I prefer the DE. It's a tighter film and just an improvement over the cinematic verison -- in my opinion of course... And I have to take Wise's word as the director that this version is more in line with what he wanted all along.
If they'd spent less time on silly pointless shit (shuttle at Starfleet, for example), they'd have had more time for serious shit. The only thing that the new shot did better was to correct the perspective. The colours of the new one are as flat and dead as a corpse, compared to the vibrant blue of the original. Shoulda realised McCall's painting of V'Ger casting a shadow over the planet.
That image is fantastic, isn't it? And Mead says he doodled something with vger cruising over the moon casting a shadow (maybe inspiring INDEPENDENCE DAY?), but that Paramount has it, not him.
Why were the shuttlecraft scene improvements "silly and pointless"? Other than expanding the landing terminal, I don't see much about the new version that is superfluous. At last check (and all previous checks), the Enterprise isn't vivid blue (even if the light coming off V'Ger was blue -- which, ok...it was -- it was not enough light to completely skew the color of the Enterprise in that matte painting) and the top curvature of the saucer isn't as deep as it was in Yuricich's painting -- ergo, that's why I never liked it. I don't see how the Foundation version of the shots could have been any better. They look fine to me. And again, Dochterman said the intent was to keep it looking like something that could have been shot in 1978-79. I think they succeeded in that. McCall's painting was great. That would have been a great shot in the film had they done it. Another great should would have been to show San Francisco but have the city go dark during the day (as V'ger blocks the sunlight) with people looking up. But again, it's a matter of what makes the Director happy and Wise has stated the DE is the vision he had for the film...
This McCall image is not coming readily to mind. Is it online someplace? Because it's indicative of how they chose to spend their money, wasting parts of their very small budget on changing things that didn't need changing. The could simply have fixed the matte errors on the shuttle and maybe fixed up the unused shot of the shuttle's approach, but instead they built this whole new SF skyline that was nothing like the intent of the original artists on the film. And what was the point of extending the landing bay except to do it? The interior as shown in the original film perfectly matches the exterior, so it wasn't like an unrealized effect.
I've been told by our webmaster that it is an issue with Internet Explorer and our "security" protocol. Specifically, we have some scripts embedded in the site coding that helps to minimize the capturing of images by not allowing them to go to the clipbooard. Internet Explorer detects this script and displays the clipboard message. So I've been told. Rest assured that we are not interested in looking at your clipboard!
Judging from what I was able to dissect from the website (which is very professional looking), the memory wall has not been uploaded yet?
Thanks for the compliment! The memory wall footage is on the queue along with some other goodies from TMP. Now that the majority of the site is up and working, updates should be fairly regular. Thanks again, everyone, for your patience.
I'm reserving my "hailing" until after the Memory Wall/Trench footage is presented for all to see... Kidding, Alchemist...you rule, dude.
I'd like to see if anything on the 11 foot Enterprise model shows up. Great stuff on the 3-footer. Will any other ships be represented in the model section?
On behalf of all of us at startrekhistory.com, thanks, everyone, for the compliments! And you ain't seen nothin yet...
Oh, great, another carrot is being dangled now? Either way, the new design is looking great thus far. Keep up the great work, alchemist!
Got any pictures of that Ion ship model from Spock's Brain or did they put some Estes model rocket engines in and shoot it off on the Westheimer lot after they were finished shooting it?
Where's the trench, dangnabbit??!! In the immortal words of Parmen from the Season Three TOS Episode Plato's Stepchildren: "I am losing patience, Cap-TAIN!!"