Star Trek Remastered 9/29/07: Grading/Discussion.

[AstroSmurf]

This is the grading & discussion thread for Star Trek Remastered episode for the weekend of 9/29/07.

The Man Trap

The crew of the Enterprise finds themselves at deadly risk from a metamorphic alien creature that feeds on the salt in the human body. So to protect his crew from this bewitching creature that can take on any form, Kirk must hunt it down before it kills again.

Official Website for Star Trek


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Last weekend I had a sobering thought. There I sat on my sofa completely enthralled by “The Conscience of the King” when I suddenly realized that this “season” of remastered episodes would probably be the last “new” Star Trek I would get to watch for a while. It made me rather sad to think that I wouldn’t have a little Trek candy to look forward to each week. I realize that these are just reruns and I have seen them a million times but I can’t help but be excited about them. I am also aware that they are not technically new either (well some of it is) but every week we burn this forum up talking about them anyway. I think it is safe to assume it is not just me who looks forward to it.

So that idea got me to thinking (especially with all the fresh new G&D threads I have added to my posting plate around here) why not do this last “season” of remastered episodes up right and have an actual “official” Grading and Discussion thread. It would make discussing the episode a little easier and keep from cluttering up the other threads. Every week I come in here trying to figure out which thread (“what’s new” or “what changes would you make” usually) everyone is using to discuss the episode and end up having to wade through two different topics piled up in the same thread. It is a little confusing. So with a little Photoshopping to make some banners, a quick visit to startrek.com for episode descriptions and a shiny new poll, “presto!” here we are. Now everyone has a place to air their opinions about the new Visual Effects, talk about the episode itself and vote in a poll… and I know how much you kids love those voting polls.

So from now until the end of the season be sure to look for a sparkling new thread every Friday afternoon for that weekend’s episode. And remember, above all else, to have fun.

(And I would like to thank everyone who started the other threads for the last year. I have really enjoyed reading about the changes, what alterations people would like to see and the episode preview so please keep posting them. I just want to be sure everyone knows this thread is to supplement what we already have not to replace any of it. Okay?)

Cheers!
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[Outpost4]

Very cool, Anti Drone. Do I have to wait to watch the episode until I vote?



Ohhhh........

 

[AstroSmurf]

^ You can do whatever you want. Most of us already know how we feel about the episode but if you want to skip the remastering vote be my guest... unless you have already seen that part too... oh bother. Now I have confused myself so I will just say again, do whatever you want.

 

[Outpost4]

I'll wait. I just checked. It is on at 11 AM tomorrow morning. I can hold off 21 hours.

 

[RAMA]

A new planetscape for the episode:

http://www.trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/Ep06_planetscape.jpg

 

[AstroSmurf]

^ Sweet. It is realistic but still invokes the set and the limited horizon.

 

[ancient]

RAMA said:
A new planetscape for the episode:

http://www.trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/Ep06_planetscape.jpg

Must be dangerous out there...on the edge of the planet.

 

[NCC621]

Just don't step over the edge! Beautiful painting, by the way.

 

[Outpost4]

I just watched the.

I was wrong in this post. The salt creature doesn't morph. The ever-wise Mallory was right in withholding judgement until he could watch the episode. The transitions in the promo are different from the ones in the episode. In the remastered episode, they keep them just like they were initially, careful dissolves. Thank you CBS Digital, thank you. They didn't touch them at all.

In fact, very little remastering. There is a new orbital shot, close to the planet and from about head-on to the Enterprise, where you can even see a line for the planet's atmosphere. Very nice. And there is a distant shot of the big E in orbit at the end of the episode I liked a lot.

Some things about The Man Trap that I'd forgotten:

- Sickbay isn't Sickbay. It's the Dispensary.

- Crater, when he's on the planet holding off Kirk and Spock, uses a laser pistol from The Cage.

- Nimoy and the crew are still working on making Spock unemotional and logical. Spock's yelling, "Shoot it, Doctor, quickly!" to McCoy in the final confrontation but Spock is also trying to use logic. As Spock gives the salt creature multiple double-fisted blows to the face, he says, "This is not Nancy. Could Nancy take this?"

A- episode. Excellent remastering.

 

[AstroSmurf]

I just finished watching. To be honest I have always had a few issues with this episode and have for years. It poses some interesting ideas about biological evolution but even as an eight year-old with my face glued to the television I thought a "salt vampire" was rather weird. I give it a C-. The banter between McCoy and Kirk off-sets the silliness of the creature.

As for the remastering... it was good. I actually prefer it when they don't mess with the episodes to much. But the ship shots were beautiful especially the one at about the thirty minute mark. The Enterprise looks fantastic even when you look up her skirt.

 

[Keith1701]

A-, Excellence

 

[Brutal Strudel]

B.

Nimoy made a big fuss out of how bad this episode was back in the 80s and I think too many of us fans took our lead from that. I find it to be a really cool monster movie with neat philosophical asides (Kirk's comment to Crater about about having everyone in the universe at his beck and call, the casual use of Darwinism, Kirk's musing on the buffalo at the end) and eye-popping color saturations and lighting (which, to their credit, the remastering team duplicate in their orbittal shots--I'm not grading that part, though). Planet M-113 has a nice, surreal western feel to it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Something always bothered me about this episode. I assume there's some reason why Kirk couldn't simply have stunned the salt vampire, then stranded it down on the planet with piles and piles of salt tablets to last it the rest of its life? (Or moved it to a different planet with naturally occurring salt in abundance)

 

[Plum]

^^^
Eh? Kirk was attacked by the being, not a lot of strategy time hm? McCoy shot it. End of a long lost race. It's all sorta sad really.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

Yeah, there wasn't a lot of time to get philosophical before the creature would kill Kirk at the end. But I was taken back by the salt creature as McCoy suggesting to Kirk that they offer it salt without any tricks by Kirk brushing the idea off. A far cry from the Kirk in "Devil in the dark" that spared the Horta that could have killed him. Spock was consistent however in both. "Shoot it! It's killing the Captain!" "Quickly, Captain, shoot it!"

I always saw a "Devil in the Dark" as Kirk learning from his experience and past mistakes of "Man Trap."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I forgot... Kirk was the one being attacked, and McCoy had the phaser. Sorry about that.

That being said, I still gotta wonder. Is that thing impervious to phaser STUN, and it's either kill it or do nothing? If that's true, then it was of course proper to kill it.

If not, then I repeat: They could have stunned it, then set it down on the planet with enough salt reserves to last it through its natural lifespan. Or there's gotta be dozens of planets with more salt per square inch than it could possibly use in that lifespan anyway.

 

[Outpost4]

You're being a Picard in the world of Kirk.

The creature had at that point killed four crewmembers and Dr. Crater. It was attacking and killing Kirk. Attacking back and killing it was the obvious decision.

It also showed no remorse. Remember, the turning point in treating the Horta compassionately was it spelling out "No Kill I". Outside of sparing a sleeping McCoy we never saw that from the salt vampire.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

I find it interesting the M113 creature could take forms from people's imagination (Uhura's).

Of course, it was all psychic, not shape-shifting. I mean, it had to be.

It's hard to feel sympathy for the creature. It knows humans are intelligent, it may have killed Nancy out of hunger. But after that? It almost seemed to prefer to feed on salts of the living.

I forgot about that plant Sulu had.

"Thank you, Thing!"

 

[Professor Moriarty]

I still think "Man Trap" is one of the scariest episodes of Star Trek. The M-113 creature's appearance freaked me out as a child and still gives me the willies today. I'll also say that the CBS-D Enterprise was looking particularly good in this episode, and that my earlier reservations about the panning shot of the new digital planet surface were unfounded... it looked terrific.

"A" for the episode, "Above Average" for the remastering.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

Outpost4 said:
It also showed no remorse. Remember, the turning point in treating the Horta compassionately was it spelling out "No Kill I". Outside of sparing a sleeping McCoy we never saw that from the salt vampire.

It only spared McCoy because the creature was an emotional vampire as well and, as she said, McCoy's emotions were stronger than Crater's. Once the creature had moved onto McCoy, it saw no reason to spare Crater's life.

I think this is where this episode gets into trouble: it tells a monster movie story while discussing the monster in naturalistic terms. In a monster movie, you kill the monster. Period. This episode should merit some note just for addressing the pathos of the "last of her kind" aspect.