Star Trek-RM: The Ultimate Computer… Grading/Discussion

[AstroSmurf]

This is the grading & discussion thread for Star Trek Remastered airing the weekend of 02/09/08.

The Ultimate Computer

When the U.S.S. Enterprise is chosen to test a new computing system, the crew is impressed to meet the machine’s ingenious inventor, Dr. Richard Daystrom. His latest achievement, the M-5 multitronic computer, is designed to completely run a starship without any human intervention. But soon, the new system begins to malfunction and Kirk quickly learns that the obsessive and unstable Dr. Daystrom might be the key to disabling his own violent invention.

Official Website for Star Trek


Please note: Next week's episodes is a repeat of The Trouble With Tribbles. However, since we have not had a discussion thread about the episode, I will be posting one for us to play in.
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[Procutus]

Hey, AD!

As I mentioned last week, I'm really looking forward to seeing what the RM team has done with this particular ep. I've seen a couple of the still shots; they're not bad, but I'm hoping they look a wee bit more impressive on our widescreen.

I for one, shed no tears that the AMT models have been replaced!




I'll post my comments tomorrow after being able to watch the over-night tape.

 

[AstroSmurf]

I have to wait an endless seven hours before it airs here. I am so excited. I just can't wait!

And I never thought I would get this excited about episodes I have seen a million times. It's rather strange really.

 

[T'Bonz]

It's not on here until the wee hours of Monday. Hopefully I won't forget to watch it/burn it.

 

[cooleddie74]

Just saw it about an hour or so ago.


(*Spoilers ahead*)







The new starship wargame effects are very nice and interesting, but unfortunately the original opticals they replace were never on screen long enough to allow for any lengthy or intricate maneuvers and battle exchanges. Since the new f/x just slip into the exact same space and time duration of the old ones, we get great new digital ships that simply aren't allowed to spend much time on screen and have an impact. I like the Remastering job done on this one, but if I said I wasn't somewhat disappointed by the brevity of the new f/x sequences and anticlimactic feel of many of them I'd be lying.

 

[Procutus]

^


Bummer... I was hoping that we'd see a bit more fancy manuevers on the part of the four opposing ships.



That said, I'm still looking forward to seeing this.

 

[Stag]

I loved the space station. I have to say that I think this episode suffered a bit from syndication cuts too.

 

[Kelso]

What exactly is Sulu's definition of a 'standard orbit'?

 

[Malleus]

It's unfortunate that the copyright permission couldn't be obtained to make the Vanguard space station bigger than Mack's design, and more unfortunate that some Star Fleet Battles ship designs couldn't be used (the dreadnought design, in particular) but the remastering was good nevertheless.

[Of course, the story quality of the original episode was good enough, anyways.]

 

[MANT!]

Syndication cuts were brutal..but the Woden,Starbase and the fleet actions were well done...

 

[destructive]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToLrAz2TV9A

VFX Reel for the ultimate computer

 

[cbspock]

Here is the link at Trekmovie..

http://trekmovie.com/2008/02/09/the-ultimate-computer-remastered-video/


-Chris

 

[ancient]

The viewscreen on the other ship is a different shape & bigger. Wesley's goin' all out and pimpin' his Connie.

The Enterprise looks pretty menacing in that one shot!

The music really stands out. TOS had great music.

 

[Brannigan]

That looks good! Pretty much everything I expected. I agree with Ancient, the Enterprise does look menancing in some of those shots. The space battle actually looks pretty convincing IMO.

 

[AstroSmurf]

Hands down this has to be one of my favorite episodes of the series. The story is wonderful, discretely topical and even profound. It touches not only themes of obsession and destruction by our own creations but it also relates a nice social commentary about job stability in the age of unending technology. And the scene in which Kirk is discussing with McCoy the finer points of old fashioned sailing vessels is one of my favorites. Shatner really sells the remorse and hopelessness of a person who has realized he has outlived his usefulness. Of course those themes are then echoed again later by Daystrom. All in all this was a tightly written, beautifully directed, solidly edited and powerfully acted episode. I had to give it an A+. (And the syndication cuts made me want to throw my tv out the nearest window. So many good character moments were lost to the hatchet. Thank the gods that they left Spock’s quick reassurance to Kirk about his usefulness intact. I was terrified it would be hacked out.)

As for the remastering, I had to give it an excellent. It really was good considering what the team had to work with time wise. We had a lot of bang for a very small buck. Plus the new effects leant themselves well to the overall story and even pumped up the excitement in some of the action scenes better than the originals. It was a very nice balance. And I know people probably missed it but they even cleaned up the power tap effects and M-5’s shields.

And I am ashamed to say that I too felt almost let down by the new effects. But I know the team just isn’t able to add extra bits in so I am very happy with what we did get. I think since the original effects were so limited by budget the editors had to be as quick as possible with them so as not to show how bad some of them actually were. Unfortunately that didn’t leave much time for the new effects team to work with.

 

[Stag]

destructive said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToLrAz2TV9A

VFX Reel for the ultimate computer

I never realized it, but the music aat around 25-30 seconds in sounds just the Jaws theme.

 

[ancient]

The 'Jaws' theme was used in 'The Doomsday Machine' also, when Kirk is making the final run on the maw and the transporter breaks down. Damn Jaws, ripping off Trek's greatness.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

ancient said:
The viewscreen on the other ship is a different shape & bigger. Wesley's goin' all out and pimpin' his Connie.

You mean the main bridge viewscreen? I don't remember seeing that on the Lexington's bridge. The only shots of the inside of that ship were centered on Wesley in his command chair.

 

[Sci]

Malleus said:
It's unfortunate that the copyright permission couldn't be obtained to make the Vanguard space station bigger than Mack's design,

1) David Mack did not design the Watchtower-class starbases; Masao Okazaki did.

2) They have copyright permission because they own the copyright to Star Trek: Vanguard. All Star Trek novels, and all original content therein, is copyright to CBS Studios, Inc., excepting those that are based or that are also based upon the Star Trek films; for those novels, CBS Studios and Paramount Pictures share the copyright since CBS owns the Star Trek trademark and TV shows whilst Paramount owns the films. But, in any event, the station in "The Ultimate Computer" was not smaller because of copyright reasons -- CBS owns the copyright to it, so there was no need to obtain permission. It was simply smaller because that was the creative decision that the team made.

 

[cbspock]

Anyone else notice, Enterprise's windows are dark. Nice touch.


-Chris