TMP 4:3

[Falconer]

I am watching the fabled TMP Special Longer Version (the LaserDisc rip), and, I am finding that the 4:3 aspect ratio doesn’t detract from the appeal, but is in fact strangely endearing, to me. It makes the movie seem a more unpretentious, like it’s easier to imagine it’s just the failed two-parter (?) TV pilot it was once meant to be. And perhaps, with the characters zoomed in on and more tightly framed, they seem more intimate and less distant. And, of course, it better resembles TOS and TNG.

I’ve always been a bit of a stickler for watching things in their original aspect ratio (I like seeing the whole picture, and respecting the director’s vision), and I would love to see the film in a cinema some day. So, this is definitely a subversive idea in my own mind. I just wonder if anyone else can agree even a little bit!

 

[Grant]

No.


Actually sure there's some logic to that. And in fact probably a lot of people who first saw the movie on television certainly saw it in that ratio and became attached to that look. And obviously it does more resemble the shape of the TV series. And also in the SLV version some of the added scenes we're Incorporated with single actor takes rather than wide shots. Such as was done in the turbolift scene in Star Trek 2 TV version. But in the end the director was shooting widescreen and you're never going to see the shots the way they were intended to be seen with 43% of the picture missing

 

[Boris Skrbic]

It’s important to watch TMP as close to the original intent as possible in order to retain no illusions whatsoever that parts of it are in fact excellent (the Jerry Goldsmith score is unbeaten and the VFX have rarely been better), while others are anything but. The film should be seen for what it is, a framework for more successful installments: you don’t want to downgrade the VFX just to make the whole seem palatable in 4:3.

(Also, I’m pretty sure the Director’s Edition DVD includes all the extra content in the deleted scenes section, so the earlier home video releases wouldn’t be special in that regard.)

 

[Therin of Andor]

For me, the biggest failure of the SLV's pan and scan:

My favourite Kirk scene in TMP is just before the ship enters the wormhole. Kirk defies several suggestions for more warp simulation tests and is rather smug as they hit warp. In the theatrical (and the pan 'n' scan of the original VHS/Beta), Kirk turns away from the viewscreen and the wormhole opens up behind him! In the SLV, the pan 'n' scan manages to miss his reaction.

 

[Maurice]

I am watching the fabled TMP Special Longer Version[...]

Sorry for the nitpick, a “fable” is a story featuring anthropomorphized animals and plants and usually featuring a moral. A parable is the human version of that. TMP is neither fish or foul...literally.

 

[urbandefault]

Sorry for the nitpick, a “fable” is a story featuring anthropomorphized animals and plants and usually featuring a moral. A parable is the human version of that. TMP is neither fish or foul...literally.

You beat "another poster" to the punch.

 

[Jeyl]

I remember the copy my Dad recorded and it had very questionable choices in terms of where the movie had to be cut off. One of my favorites was early on inside Epsilon 9.

Epsilon 9 Crew: I have an exterior visual!

The actor saying that line was NOT in frame on my full screen version. So when the commander turns his head towards him and back, I thought that he was giving that line even though his mouth didn't move.

 

[J.T.B.]

Sorry for the nitpick, a “fable” is a story featuring anthropomorphized animals and plants and usually featuring a moral. A parable is the human version of that. TMP is neither fish or foul...literally.

The adjective "fabled" has diverged from the noun and now is used to mean something like "renowned" or "celebrated." In the same way that we might say someone is "legendary" even though there are not actual legends about them.

Whether TMP SLV is actually renowned or celebrated is a matter of opinion, of course...

 

[Lance]

As @Grant aludes to, it helps that a number of the scenes in the SLV are alternative takes that are better framed for 4:3. I do also understand what the OP means: in a great many ways, structurally in its story the movie still resembles a TV pilot, and the ratio being more closely cropped emphasizes, in some ways, what a path not taken may have looked/felt like. It's fascinating.

At the end of the day, though, the movie is a movie, and should be watched as such.

The 4:3 ratio also de-emphasizes all those split diopter shots, so it doesn't quite look as weird as the widescreen cuts do with their weird out of focus bits. But again, using that method of focus in scenes was Wise's directorial intent, and should be respected.

 

[Falconer]

Hey, so, I did watch the Special Longer Version LaserDisc, and, it was everything I’d hoped. I enjoyed this viewing of TMP far more than I’d enjoyed watching TMP ever before.

It helped that we had just done a rewatch of TOS and then took a break, so, it did feel like a welcome reunion. It also helped that I have been listening to the soundtrack a ton. It helped that I had seen the movie before and knew what to expect. It probably helped that it was basically the antithesis of “Rise of Skywalker.”

And I really do think just imagining it to be a TV pilot helped. But watching it in this format was very conducive to that, both the cut and the framing. There’s a lot of time spent just getting acquainted with the new ship (yes, the exterior shots, but also just wandering around the interior), as well as obviously putting the crew back together and seeing how they get along. (How great is that scene when McCoy bursts onto the film??)

Just a brief visual comparison between the blu-ray and the LD:

I find the latter warmer, less sterile, more forgiving, more intimate, familiar (more TV-like). Not saying it’s the “one true way” to enjoy the film, but definitely one that works for me!

 

[Lance]

Hey, so, I did watch the Special Longer Version LaserDisc, and, it was everything I’d hoped. I enjoyed this viewing of TMP far more than I’d enjoyed watching TMP ever before.

It helped that we had just done a rewatch of TOS and then took a break, so, it did feel like a welcome reunion. It also helped that I have been listening to the soundtrack a ton. It helped that I had seen the movie before and knew what to expect. It probably helped that it was basically the antithesis of “Rise of Skywalker.”

And I really do think just imagining it to be a TV pilot helped. But watching it in this format was very conducive to that, both the cut and the framing. There’s a lot of time spent just getting acquainted with the new ship (yes, the exterior shots, but also just wandering around the interior), as well as obviously putting the crew back together and seeing how they get along. (How great is that scene when McCoy bursts onto the film??)

Just a brief visual comparison between the blu-ray and the LD:

I find the latter warmer, less sterile, more forgiving, more intimate, familiar (more TV-like). Not saying it’s the “one true way” to enjoy the film, but definitely one that works for me!

Noice!

I too am not going to advocate the full screen over widescreen, but I know that I've found my own individual results have varied from movie to movie also. There are some movies where I actually think the intimacy of the 4:3 frame works. For example in Star Trek alone, to this day I keep a full-frame copy of Star Trek: Generations handy because I find that it fits the bill for that movie for me. There are times when I just want to watch the movie in that format. I don't know if it's because of it being the Enterprise-D or what, seeing those sets in wide frame just doesn't feel right to me lol, but where I'd always preference widescreen for the other TNG movies, for some reason I just feel like full-frame... works for that one.

 

[Pauln6]

I've invested in a new laptop and Adobe Premier Pro editing software. I've converted the SLV scenes from the Dvd extras to mp4 and upscaled to HD using After Effects (I have yet to check what the quality looks like next to the original footage admittedly - it's early days.

I have edited two scenes so far:

The first scene involved giving Janice Rand a line when McCoy comes on board (I took a line from World Enough and Time, used the existing footage to fake some lipsync, and then used Deepfake to even out the lipsync).

The second scene was re-adding Sulu's line about the screens holding when V'Ger attacked.

I don't think I will be able to insert them all as there might be issues with the music tracks clashing but I'm going to damn well try!

 

[Firebird]

I've invested in a new laptop and Adobe Premier Pro editing software. I've converted the SLV scenes from the Dvd extras to mp4 and upscaled to HD using After Effects (I have yet to check what the quality looks like next to the original footage admittedly - it's early days.

I have edited two scenes so far:

The first scene involved giving Janice Rand a line when McCoy comes on board (I took a line from World Enough and Time, used the existing footage to fake some lipsync, and then used Deepfake to even out the lipsync).

The second scene was re-adding Sulu's line about the screens holding when V'Ger attacked.

I don't think I will be able to insert them all as there might be issues with the music tracks clashing but I'm going to damn well try!

I think you posted this in the wrong thread. This isn't about fan-edits to TMP.

 

[Pauln6]

I think you posted this in the wrong thread. This isn't about fan-edits to TMP.

I did also post in the fan edit section but it was more to say it looks possible to upgrade the SLV screen size if you so choose.

 

[Qonundrum]

Hey, so, I did watch the Special Longer Version LaserDisc, and, it was everything I’d hoped. I enjoyed this viewing of TMP far more than I’d enjoyed watching TMP ever before.

It helped that we had just done a rewatch of TOS and then took a break, so, it did feel like a welcome reunion. It also helped that I have been listening to the soundtrack a ton. It helped that I had seen the movie before and knew what to expect. It probably helped that it was basically the antithesis of “Rise of Skywalker.”

And I really do think just imagining it to be a TV pilot helped. But watching it in this format was very conducive to that, both the cut and the framing. There’s a lot of time spent just getting acquainted with the new ship (yes, the exterior shots, but also just wandering around the interior), as well as obviously putting the crew back together and seeing how they get along. (How great is that scene when McCoy bursts onto the film??)

Just a brief visual comparison between the blu-ray and the LD:

I find the latter warmer, less sterile, more forgiving, more intimate, familiar (more TV-like). Not saying it’s the “one true way” to enjoy the film, but definitely one that works for me!

The former conveys a contextually deeper scene. What was just said, by Spock to make McCoy look like that? Or by Kirk, prompting McCoy to look at Spock from an angle? Assuming my guess is correct, McCoy looks suspicious with shifty eyes? Or disapproving? And are Spock wearing McCoy's division-lined coat and vice-versa since Spock otherwise has a blue collar and McCoy has orange?

The layout also shows framing by the director and cameraman, which is perfectly angled... well, it'd be fun if McCoy was in the middle then there'd be a more perfect angle but it's already a perfect framing and how can perfection be made more perfect when adding in dialogue also can have an impact on where a character (either real or a green stick to be superimposed by CGI) stands.

The latter pic also has icky hues and fuzzy detail. Everyone looks a distinctive jaundice-yellow hue. And McCoy really look that way if he were absent.

I remember when LD was the pinnacle of visual quality. Dang... well, maybe the contrast ratio has a bit of crush where image detail ought to be (note Spock's bowl cut and Kirk's squirrel in both and notice there's a bit more shadow detail in the LD, but that's likely due to remastering going overboard with setting the levels and causing crush. There's nothing to cause anything on the opposite end, that of over-saturated light bloom. Partly because almost half the picture was chopped off.)

 

[Kor]

Yeah, Laserdisc looks like rubbish today. Part of it is probably that it was an analog format designed to look good on CRT, not on modern HD TVs or computer monitors.

Kor

 

[Therin of Andor]

And are Spock wearing McCoy's division-lined coat and vice-versa since Spock otherwise has a blue collar and McCoy has orange?

Nimoy wears the same Vulcan collar in both shots. It's the armbands that switch over: Spock suddenly has medical green, while McCoy has science orange. The additional lines were reshot days/weeks later and supposedly Nimoy and Kelley switched jackets for a bit of "no one will notice" fun. The waist hems are obviously wrong, too.