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The 'mattes' of TOS Remastered.

Grant

Commodore
Commodore
I love the new/upgraded mattes from the Remastered TOS and I think they were the most consistant in quality of the series. I actually wish they had done a few more.

The Season One mattes:

Cage: the very slightly upgraded castle matte is so iconic I'm sure everybody agrees they were right inleaving it alove except for adding some ripples on the water etc.

The 'picnic' matte really needed an upgrade and I love that they kept the general look of 'Mojave'

WNMHGB:
Once again an iconic matte that was nearly perfect---glad they only added the lights for the evening shot.

Mudd's Women: Love the establishing shot of the 3 homes of the miners. But my biggest complaint of the whole Remastered TOS mattes was the chuckleheaded reuse of the same matte as the view from Childress' window. :confused:

Man Trap: Once again pleased with the panoramic matte used to show the planet---especially since so much action was done in running around the ruins looking for 'Nancy'

Naked Time: A great upgrade from a stock shot of some arctic landscape to an actual view of the outpost---especially since it's the only 'outdoor' shot of the whole episode.

Dagger of the Mind: The first replacement of a reused matte. I love the fact that they mostly did away with second uses of mattes, thus giving episodes a more unique & individual look. The idea of a platform with apparent force fields surrounded by a moat is perfect for a penal colony.

Court Martial: Love the little bits of business they added to the 'looking out the window shots' ant the slight upgrade of the also iconic starbase shot.

Menagarie: Loved how they corrected the error of the big 3 landing in bright daylight and minutes later all the window shots showing night. Prettier and correcting a continutiy error at the same time.

Taste of Armaggedon: Once again they had a great visual to improve on, and the city looks just a bit more lively with monorails and pedestrians. And monorails are so '1960s' that it really doesn't look like a 21st century sensibilty has been used.

Devil in the Dark: Yes, once again, a beatiful starting point with the 'machinery' matte. A lot of rotoscoping of Kirk in front the matte must have been time consuming.

I believe that's it for season one, but i thought I'd add my wish list for other mattes they might have employed.........

Enemy Within: Another landing zone establishing shot?

What Are Little...: Perhaps just a touch of depth added to the little shot outside the beam down point glass barrier would have been good.

Conscience...: I really dislike the reuse of the Cage matte for outside Leighton's home---especialluy since his wife references him 'going to town.' Gee he's trekking all the way to Mojave for Pina Colada mix I guess.

Galileo Seven: I wish there had been an establishing shot of the landing zone of the ship with rocks and fog etc. I always thought the set lacked size & scope and I think it would have helped.

Squire...: Perhaps a very brief shot during materialization of the beam down point from above, showing the 'island of tranquility' on the stormy planet of Gothos.

Errand of Mercy: I hate the stock footage of the citadel because of its far lower quality than the surrounding footage and the apparent difference between the sky in the new footage vs. the stock.

CotEoF: I wish they could have added a few for ruins in the distance since Spock refers to them.


That's it for season one---which clearly used the most mattes. I'll make a season 2 & 3 list if anybody finds this worth going into.
 
^


Hey, I do! I appreciate the list, I honestly didn't realize that many mattes had been touched up. I agree that the lithium-cracking station from WNMHGB was just about perfect the way it was - still one of my favorite original mattes from the series.

Hope to see Season 2 listed, at your convenience.


:techman:
 
CotEoF: I wish they could have added a few for ruins in the distance since Spock refers to them.

I read once where the script actually called for 'runes', but was misunderstood as indicating 'ruins'. Can't recall where I read it, and I could be wrong.

At any rate, thanks and yes, please continue. You've made me aware of some new things in TOS-R I hadn't picked up on.

Mark
 
Very nice post, Grant. And, yes, I'd like to read your list of seasons 2 and 3 when you have a chance.

Procutus: Is that a very young Teri Garr in your avatar?

Doug
 
Hello again. I'm glad some folks found the list interesting.

First, one addition to season 1.............

Arena: It had a 'partial matte' that removed a piece of metal that they originally used to hide '1966' California. The matte added some nice outer buildings and opened up the outpost.

Along those lines is the second episode of season 2, but first........

Catspaw: has two mattes of the castle that replace live-action shots of the castle door. The first is of the entire (huge) castle and makes it seem a much more imposing 'labyrithesque' structure. The second if a closer shot of the structure as they walk towards it. And, of course, they still have a shot of the original door left in to preserve that image.

Metamorphosis: As in Arena, a partial matte replaces a rock structure that was originaly used to hide the roof of the stage.
The new matte gives a great view of the exotic sky and color pallatte used for the planetoid.

Amok Time: Perhaps the most famous replacement of live action in the TOS-R series. The grand view of the temple/arena from above thats harkens to both the animated episode and to TSFS's Mt. Selaya. I love how shots that last just seconds can give a new perspective to what we saw for all those years while honoring both TOS, the animated series and the movie that most focused on Vulcan rites----TSFS.

By Any Other Name: Another great brief shot of the near paradise planet the Kelvans found so disconcerting. Nicely juxtaposes what humans might consider 'perfect' against what the Spaceship bound Kelvans thought of as chaotic.

Wow, is that it? It seems i must have forgotten something. Just four for season 2 seems wrong. Especially since season 2 had more 'soundstage' episodes that could have benefitted from new establishing mattes.

Well, time for more unslolicted suggestions for mattes that could have been..........

Who Mourns...: perhaps a replacement for the stock shot of the "it's beautiful" lake that Carolyn admires...

Wolf in the...: I would have liked an overhead shot of the winding streets and alleys of the Argulian city.

Apple: To me, any establishing shot of the planet would have great aided in the perception that it was another paradylic planet as opposed to the 'rented greens' look we got for the whole episode.

Mirror-Mirror: I would have liked a downward view of the council area during one of the lightning flashes.

Deadly Years: An opening establishing shot of the outpost would have been nice.

Gamesters...: A look at the complex as Kirk & Shanna jogged would have been cool to see a simple layout of the thralls trainging area/arena/ housing area.

Obsession: Perhaps a new view of the cloud creature moving through the rocks to replace the 'reverse film' shot of the creature backing off.

That's it for now. Any comments and/or corrections would be welcome. I'm also planning-----after the season 3 rundown----a similar list of so-called 'broken shots' from each season. Live action shots that were adjusted to correct errors they didn't see or couldn't help during production. (There are far more than most folks know off.)
 
Are you refering to the new version thats currently being shown on CBS action?

If so, i dont like the new ship graphics that much. Then again, i'm into the older stuff(being an old git:lol:), and i dont go for rehash's.
 
CotEoF: I wish they could have added a few for ruins in the distance since Spock refers to them.

I read once where the script actually called for 'runes', but was misunderstood as indicating 'ruins'. Can't recall where I read it, and I could be wrong.

At any rate, thanks and yes, please continue. You've made me aware of some new things in TOS-R I hadn't picked up on.

Mark

One source of the runes story is found in Harlan Ellison's COTEOF book.
 
I'm also planning-----after the season 3 rundown----a similar list of so-called 'broken shots' from each season. Live action shots that were adjusted to correct errors they didn't see or couldn't help during production. (There are far more than most folks know off.)
That sounds great! I love that sorta thing as I'm not particularly good at spotting them myself. I just never think to look I guess.

Mark
 
Finally season 3............

Spock's Brain: Pretty amazing they bothered to do one for an episode as ridiculed as this, but since they spend so little time on the surface the matte of the 'frozen tundra' is pretty effective in establishing the ice age conditions.

Wink...: Glad they replaced the reuse of the Eminiar matte. I think that Scalos' capital looks great and offers a sad glimpse of their glorious past.

Cloud Minders: Well, my least favorite new matte of the series. Clearly it's far better than the crude matte used in the original, but by the time this aired i was spoiled. Maybe they just didn't want to "Bespin' it up too much and do something grand. Why must it sit directly on top of a cloud formation? A 'city in the clouds' doesn't mean it must sit on one. Oh well.

Way to Eden: I was actually very impressed that they could do justice to a planet named 'eden', but the matte looks great. Imagine landing the shuttle in that setting before their rude awakening.

Requiem.....: Another great replacement of a reused matte. The 'abandoned fortress' hardly seemed grand enough for a man as impressive as Flint. I guess M-4 was busy building & mantaining that beautiful palace day & night!!

I won't bother listing the 'could haves' this time because mostly it would be the same establishing shots as they beam down etc----although a distance shot of the 'incomplete' western town might have been cool.


I'll do the 'broken shots' of TOS-R in a separate thread in the next few days. More comments would be welcome and YES, if anybody could post some pictures of these mattes--it would be great !!
 
The new matte for Flint's mansion in "Requiem" is breathtakingly gorgeous, the pinnacle of TOS-R's achievements. Its one problem is that it makes the interior sets seem far too limited by contrast. If they're in this huge, glorious complex, it makes it frustrating that we only get to see a few rooms.

I also agree that the new Stratos was a disappointment. It was too literal a translation of the original, basically the same structure, just with more detail added. And as such, it seemed way too small to constitute a whole city, let alone the entire civilization it was supposed to represent.

I don't think a wide establishing shot of "Tombstone" in "Spectre of the Gun" would've been a good idea. After all, the whole thing was an illusion in the characters' minds, so it wouldn't have been right to pull out to a "god's eye" view.
 
Maybe not, but I just have always loved the 'incomplete' town idea so much i wish I could see just a little more.

For once, I'm glad they didn't have the budget to shoot it on the backlot!!

It is kind of amazing how bland most of the planet sets were in season 3. I really can't think of any episodes that would have been interesting enough for an upgrade. i do kind of wish they could have perhaps shown a view of Sarpedon's ice age when Spock, McCoy & Zarabeth made their way through the snow.
 
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