Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussion

[AstroSmurf]

This is the grading & discussion thread for Star Trek Remastered episode for the weekend of 01/12/08.

Who Mourns for Adonais?

Near the planet Pollux IV, the U.S.S. Enterprise encounters a powerful energy field in the shape of a human hand, capturing the ship and holding it captive. But before Kirk can free his vessel, he and a landing party are transported to the planet's surface to meet a being claiming to be Apollo, the last of the Greek gods. Caught in this entity’s powerful grip, Kirk and his crew must find a way to free themselves and the Enterprise before Apollo makes them all slaves to worship him.

Official Website for Star Trek
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[cooleddie74]

Didn't expect too much aside from the Apollo hand being redone and grasping a new Enterprise, but was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the new Pollux IV, Enterprise and hand effects. And the phaser shots at the end that destroy Apollo's temple complex have been tweaked to look a little better, too.

 

[Outpost4]

My local station re-ran Day of the Dove this morning. What? I saw that last week. I've already checked. They have this episode scheduled now for next week. Those fuckers.

 

[ncc-1017-e]

cooleddie74 said:
Didn't expect too much aside from the Apollo hand being redone and grasping a new Enterprise, but was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the new Pollux IV, Enterprise and hand effects. And the phaser shots at the end that destroy Apollo's temple complex have been tweaked to look a little better, too.

I thought the hand effect could have been a little more polished,like the ships of the line shot! The phasers on the temple was good!The thing about the remastered episodes I do not understand is that in some shows like this one they modify the phasers but in a episode like Operation Annilation the hand phaser shots are not even touched and in that show they should have been modiftied, but I do love what they did at the end of that episode!

 

[Outpost4]

I just saw this episode. That's what you get for waking up at 2:30 in the morning. What it was doing on my local station at 3 AM, who knows, but there it was. I missed the teaser but saw the rest of the episode.

I liked the hand a lot. It's wavering effect worked well for me. Also agreed the phasers destroying the temple was very well done. In the other open thread on this episode, a poster questioned where the phasers originated on the Enterprise. I didn't see this problem. They came from the bottom of the saucer, like normal.

It's been a while since I've seen this episode, one I never cared about much. That may change. It was much better than I remember it. The story is simple but that's part of its charm. Speaking of charm, what about Leslie Parrish? You just want Apollo's wind to blow her dress a little harder...

 

[Forbin]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

I caught the second half and saw the quick establishing shot of the hand holding the ship - and broke out laughing.

These effects are supposed to be BETTER?!

 

[Rat Boy]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

Any bets on who the hand really belongs to?

 

[A beaker full of death]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

Rat Boy said:
Any bets on who the hand really belongs to?

Couldn't have been Berman or Braga. The middle finger wasn't facing the screen.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

Green Lantern?

I feel asleep during the later part. Only to vaguely reawaken as Apollo decides to die.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

A beaker full of death said:

Rat Boy said:
Any bets on who the hand really belongs to?

Couldn't have been Berman or Braga. The middle finger wasn't facing the screen.

Braga would have had shit on his fingers. It would have been too obvious.

 

[Arlo]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

This has nothing to do with anything, but when I was a kid I thought the episode was called "Who Mourns for Adonis?"

Oh, and it's really creepy, but Apollo has no nipples.

 

[EnsignHarper]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

I have always liked 'Adonis', in many ways it is prototypical Trek. Its nice how almost all the supporting people get a nice little scene or scrap of dialogue...even Kyle is used nicely. It is also nice how they try to establish that Scotty has more to do than just fix the engines, and operate the transporter! Gene Coon wrote Scotty very well - most of Scotty's best bits are from the Coon produced shows.

This remaster looked very nice, and thought all the FX were done nice - the phasers hitting Adonis' power house are as a good of integration of the new FX into the old film as has been done.

Whats next??

 

[gastrof]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

Did anyone else wonder why in the world they did as bad a job as they did with Apollo's face on the viewscreen at the start of the episode?

I know it was film of the actor's face and the original footage likely isn't around for them to use in doing a new viewscreen shot, but all those black marks like dust and hairs appearing and disappearing amidst the starfield?

It was terrible.

All the remastering guys would have had to do is just isolate Apollo's face and put in a new starfield around him, and the problem would have been solved.

I mean, they actually had Spock and Kirk walk in front of the viewscreen (now showing an improved display) in an earlier episode.

They couldn't have done something similar with Apollo's face in the starfield?

Those "old film" artifacts are really inexcuseable. We've seen them do much better than that. And it's not like there was a lot that needed to be redone in this one. I'd have expected that to have been one of the re-dos.

Apparently someone didn't think so.

 

[AstroSmurf]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

My nephew's birthday was on Saturday and I missed this one. Normally I would be willing to wait until next Sunday's reairing but Trekmovie.com hasn't posted their effects real and screen caps to hold me over. I really want to see the hand, dammit!

But I will go ahead and grade the episode since I have watched about two hundred times already, B-. It was good and had some really interesting moments in it. But how many more times is the Enterprise going to run into God-entities that act like children? After a while they all start to run together.

And I have to take a moment and give William Ware Theiss props for Lieutenant Palamas' pink Grecian dress. It happens to be one of my favorite costumes from the show and just a fantastic piece of work from a design standpoint.

 

[Outpost4]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

Arlo said:
Oh, and it's really creepy, but Apollo has no nipples.

What does God need with a nipple?

 

[Terra Pryme]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

Definitely loved the phaser FX. Blue is a much better color to use than the orange for the spinoff series. They should have used orange for the Cardassian ships and keep the Starfleet ship phasers blue. But it still looked a little lame that the structure just ripples into rubble instead of getting pulverized. It probably would have been too much work to completely change that.

Didn't much care for the green energy hand. The one that was originally used was much better. But at least they showed the planet from space this time. I forgot they had established orbit before the Enterprise was grabbed. It made sense to include the planet, which like the one from "Day of the Dove" looked very nice.

As for Apollo, he had the nipple, it's just not easily seen. Just shows that not all white guys have pink nipples.

 

[Cranston]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

Remastering effort was pretty so-so this time. I also thought the green hand came off as even more laughable in this version than in the original. Nice phasers, though.

Side note: It's funny how childhood forms our perceptions. I've been interested in ancient Greece for most of my life, I nearly majored in Classics in college, and have been reading ancient Greek for 20 years. The Iliad is my favorite work of literature, ever.

And still, when I think of Apollo, I always picture him as Michael Forest in a shiny gold chiton.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

EnsignHarper said:
I have always liked 'Adonis', in many ways it is prototypical Trek. Its nice how almost all the supporting people get a nice little scene or scrap of dialogue...even Kyle is used nicely. It is also nice how they try to establish that Scotty has more to do than just fix the engines, and operate the transporter! Gene Coon wrote Scotty very well - most of Scotty's best bits are from the Coon produced shows.

This remaster looked very nice, and thought all the FX were done nice - the phasers hitting Adonis' power house are as a good of integration of the new FX into the old film as has been done.

Whats next??

"Let that Be Your Last Battlefield"...a meh/so-so one at best with few effect. Even Commissioner Bele's ship was made invisible back in late 1968 so the effects budget of the time could save a little money. Don't expect much aside from actually showing the ruins of war-shattered Cheron when the two antagonists beam down.

 

[DWF]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

Outpost4 said:

Arlo said:
Oh, and it's really creepy, but Apollo has no nipples.

What does God need with a nipple?

What does God need with a starship?

 

[A beaker full of death]

Re: Star Trek-RM: Who Mourns for Adonais?… Grading/Discussio

Arlo said:
Oh, and it's really creepy, but Apollo has no nipples.

SO MUCH FOR REMASTERED!!!