Star Trek-RM: Assignment: Earth… Grade/Discuss

[AstroSmurf]

This is the grading & discussion thread for Star Trek Remastered airing the weekend of 05/03/08.

Assignment: Earth

In an effort to find historical information on how humanity survived its technological infancy, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise is sent back in time to 20th-century Earth. During the investigation, the ship inadvertently beams aboard Gary Seven, a man with a secret and possibly nefarious agenda. But before Kirk can determine the truth, Seven escapes back to the planet and the captain and Spock are forced to pursue.


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[doctorwho 03]

This episode, along with Doomsday Machine, has always been a favorite of mine. I only hope that the remastering team replaces the Saturn-V footage with some other rocket of the time period. In a sense, it's somewhat disrespectful to use the Saturn-V to represent a nuclear warhead because the Saturn-V was a machine of peace, not a weapon of war.

 

[AstroSmurf]

I am very curious myself to what the remastering might entail. Did they do very much or did they go all "Apollo 13" on it. I am hoping the latter. Some of the original stock footage of the rocket that was used is horribly degraded and scratched. It is also inconsistent if memory serves. And I have to agree about the Saturn V. Another rocket would be more appropriate for a weapons platform mission.

I don't know how it would fit into the episode but I think it would be nice to see the rocket exiting the atmosphere from the view of the Enterprise. Some of the images of actual rocket launches from an orbital viewpoint are surprisingly beautiful. In most, you can actually trace the cloud trail back to the launch point.


But at any rate, I am looking forward to it.

 

[Gorn66]

Mercury and Gemini astronauts rode modified ICBM's into space, so it's not much of a stretch to imagine a Saturn V being used to launch a weapons platform if history had taken a left turn or three. Using stock footage of a smaller rocket would have "dated" the episode right out of the gate. Nobody was out to disrespect the Apollo program.

 

[cooleddie74]

(*Spoilers ahead*)












The Saturn V / Apollo footage WASN'T changed. Not a frame. The Remastering team didn't change or tweak a thing in the episode aside from the opening credits and shots of the Enterprise orbiting 1968 Earth with the Moon in the distance(nice, by the way). The episode remained largely untouched from its original incarnation.

 

[AstroSmurf]

^ Figures. This episode was either a change everything or change nothing kind of thing. And with all the CBS Digital's talk about "time crunches" and "limited budgets", I expected this. Oh well.

(But looking at the remaining episodes on the schedule, I am beginning to think we are not really not going to see a lot of "bells and whistles" for the rest of the airings. The only exception I see would be "The Cloud Minders". It seems a bit anti-climatic but I wasn't the one making the viewing schedule.)

 

[WalkinMan]

Thx for the details on the RM version, cooleddie74.

 

[windwood]

Stock footage of the launch control room was EXTREMELY grainy. They could have replaced it with something cleaner from the archives. I did like how the Enterprise doors opened just wide enough to admit the cat.

 

[Swarles Barkley]

One of my favorite episodes. But I wasn't expecting much in terms of the remastering effort since this was not an fx-heavy episode to begin with. Some nice beauty shots of the Enterprise orbiting Earth (definitely nice to see the Moon added in). The usual dialogue butchering for syndication. (Does anyone know if the RM versions are going to be available on DVD using the original uncut episodes?)

What I really want to know is how on Earth did they do such an amazing job training that cat?

 

[AstroSmurf]

I like this episode. Despite having a distinctly different tone (since it was a pilot for another show), it still fits nicely into the Trek history. I just wish the writers had revisited this somehow in TNG or DS-9. After all of these years, I am still curious as to who these mysterious alien benefactors are. I give it a B-.

As for the remastering, I give it an Average. The orbital shots were nice with the moon and everything but I just felt that more could have been done to clean up some of the incidental things like Seven's vault beam ins and outs. That first one had some really horrible matting issues that could have been easily fixed. The footage they use for the inside of that vault (that disappears into black and then back again) was moving all over the place. It looked like the field agent's office was in the middle of an earthquake.

 

[NTRPRZ]

Just did a quick watch of this episode and noticed a few things.

For me, this establishes the fact that Star Trek does not at all take place in our own continuity. We all know that in 1968 the United States did not launch any orbiting nuclear platforms, so therefore ST doesn't take place in our universe.

And of course, there were no Eugenics Wars in the 1990s, so this also moves it out of our universe.

I also noticed Gary Seven's ID card -- the one he showed to Roberta -- the signatures of both Seven and his boss appear to have been written by the same person. Must have been the prop guy.

Jeff

 

[Wonderlust King]

I love that episode, its just like "We are on a routine assignment to the 1960's" like its no big deal. Oh we might alter the course of history but we have some damned important research to be conducting! Reminds me of this inspirational poster.

 

[Hambone]

I liked this episode when I was a kid (it was one of the first "first-run" episodes I remember watching). Now, I'm not so sure. It's a "Gary Seven, Super-Spy" show with the Enterprise time-travel subplot tacked on.

The remastering for this one was the biggest disappointment so far. So much more could (should) have been done. The Saturn V footage was a terrible choice from the start. Surely there was other stock footage available to the production staff in 1968. Any old missile would do. It doesn't look like any attempt was made to clean up the old footage at all...I believe the "panorama" scenes of NYC were taken from postcards, and the Saturn V footage was terrible.

 

[cooleddie74]

Just did a quick watch of this episode and noticed a few things.

For me, this establishes the fact that Star Trek does not at all take place in our own continuity. We all know that in 1968 the United States did not launch any orbiting nuclear platforms, so therefore ST doesn't take place in our universe.

And of course, there were no Eugenics Wars in the 1990s, so this also moves it out of our universe.

I also noticed Gary Seven's ID card -- the one he showed to Roberta -- the signatures of both Seven and his boss appear to have been written by the same person. Must have been the prop guy.

Jeff

Well...DUH. It's all fiction. It doesn't HAVE to make sense with the "real world" and events.

 

[Gorn66]

The remastering for this one was the biggest disappointment so far. So much more could (should) have been done. The Saturn V footage was a terrible choice from the start. Surely there was other stock footage available to the production staff in 1968. Any old missile would do. It doesn't look like any attempt was made to clean up the old footage at all...I believe the "panorama" scenes of NYC were taken from postcards, and the Saturn V footage was terrible.

Perhaps they should have used V-2 rocket footage like all those 50's movies?
The Saturn V was the biggest launch vehicle in existence at the time. Since it could put Skylab into orbit, I have no trouble believing it could loft a weapons platform. Any smaller rocket would have been stretching things a bit.

 

[22 Stars]

I've just starting watching the nuWho on Sci-Fi and I have to say, Assignment: Earth is VERY Dr. Who. Time/Space travelling dude, with sonic pen/screwdriver and hip chick friend saying 'wowza' to all his newfangled gadgets.

 

[c5maier]

The remastering for this one was the biggest disappointment so far. So much more could (should) have been done. The Saturn V footage was a terrible choice from the start. Surely there was other stock footage available to the production staff in 1968. Any old missile would do. It doesn't look like any attempt was made to clean up the old footage at all...I believe the "panorama" scenes of NYC were taken from postcards, and the Saturn V footage was terrible.

Perhaps they should have used V-2 rocket footage like all those 50's movies?
The Saturn V was the biggest launch vehicle in existence at the time. Since it could put Skylab into orbit, I have no trouble believing it could loft a weapons platform. Any smaller rocket would have been stretching things a bit.

So for the remastered project they should have used footage from the skylab-launch, that would have done nicely. But the iconic Apollo-Saturn combination with the red launch-escape rocket on top, indicating a manned launch, has always been terribly jarring. Leaving everything as it was is just cheap.
Well, actually I fear for most people it is less of an issue today than it was 40 years ago as many of the spectators today will not be able anymore to tell the Saturn V from any other rocket. So much for everlasting honour and glory... .

 

[Hambone]

The Saturn V was the biggest launch vehicle in existence at the time. Since it could put Skylab into orbit, I have no trouble believing it could loft a weapons platform. Any smaller rocket would have been stretching things a bit.

Skylab was sent up using a modified payload compartment. The Saturn V shown in "Assignment: Earth" was carrying the Apollo spacecraft. In fact, they made a point of zooming in on the Apollo capsule. It's a manned vehicle. Every elementary school kid at the time knew this (the good people at "The Weekly Reader" made certain of that!). It's like showing us a picture of a cement mixer and calling it a school bus. "Well...kids could ride in it..."

 

[cooleddie74]

I guess the Remastering team really doesn't care sometimes. God bless 'em...most of their work is awesome or at least serviceable...but not tweaking or cleaning the Saturn V rocket shots was just supremely disappointing. At least come up with a new CGI shot of the launch gantry with a booster that doesn't have an Apollo command capsule sitting on top.

 

[Swarles Barkley]

I guess the Remastering team really doesn't care sometimes. God bless 'em...most of their work is awesome or at least serviceable...but not tweaking or cleaning the Saturn V rocket shots was just supremely disappointing. At least come up with a new CGI shot of the launch gantry with a booster that doesn't have an Apollo command capsule sitting on top.

Agreed. At the very least they could have Photoshopped out the birds suspended in midair around the rocket that make it so obvious that what we are looking at is a still photo.