What Changes Would You Like To See In Metamorphosis?

[cooleddie74]

Cool, I'll check it out.

Yeah, I didn't want them to change anything BIG about the Companion. Just tweak it a little so it looks marginally less "1967," if you know what I mean.

 

[Forbin]

But it WAS 1967. That's the point.

Remember when CBS said they were only going to recreate the effects in hi res, and not make anything that looked like it couldn't be done in 1967?

 

[Ronald Held]

Unfortunately that philosophy has often been ignored in favor of what looks "cool".

 

[Forbin]

And what they think looks cool, occasionally looks ridiculous.

 

[Doug Otte]

I guess I'm really getting old. I think the Companion looks great the way she was originally created. In fact, I just watched this episode again a few weeks ago and loved it more than I ever did. When I was younger, it seemed too "soft" to me, but now it strikes me that the pacing and the bittersweet mood were perfectly constructed. This is one of those Trek episodes (of which there are some in nearly all the series) in which I wouldn't change a thing. There's not a single wasted line, nor a scene that is a moment too long.

Doug

 

[cooleddie74]

I'm all for leaving the colors and electrostatic "sparkle" of the original Companion intact. I just prefer to see the cloud/entity look a little more three dimensional and dynamic and less like a flat blob.

 

[Ronald Held]

I will be not too unkind, Forbin, and say that those "cool" effects often clash with the original ones.

 

[cooleddie74]

Occasionally. But most of the time they work well with the rest of a given episode and don't stand out TOO badly against the rest of the late-60s vintage effects and sets.

 

[windwood]

No feedback on what was changed?

 

[cooleddie74]

Here's what I noticed.

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-Opening shots of the shuttlecraft and it being enveloped by the Companion. The new CGI Companion as seen in space looks a lot like the original 1967 opticals, but for some reason the new cloud has a "semicolon" or "apostrophe" shape with defined edges that's quite cheesy looking and startling. It looks really phony and not as textured or three-dimensional as the original optical, which is rare for a Remastered change. Chalk this one up as one of the rare instances when the original opticals from the late '60s were MUCH better. There was no excuse for the new Companion to look this hurried, rushed and bad. It was like something out of a cartoon.

-Now when the shuttle is on Gamma Canaris and the camera pans across the landscape, you can see more of the purplish sky with faint clouds moving and drifting. It looks more expansive and wide. Also, when Cochrane first spots the Enterprise officers, shouts and runs in their direction there's a new sky superimposed over him as he jogs in the direction of the shuttle instead of the old piece of fake-rock set and soundstage-looking backdrop.

-The new Gamma Canaris looks really nice, and the rim of the planetoid has the same purplish tinge that the sky as seen on the surface does.

 

[Ronald Held]

I agree about the CG space appearance of the Companion. Was the pre Remastered sky that purple?

 

[windwood]

>the new cloud has a "semicolon" or "apostrophe" shape with
>defined edges that's quite cheesy looking and startling. It
>looks really phony and not as textured or three-dimensional
>as the original optical

It looked kind of "wormy" to me. Maybe they were trying to render how a real living cloud might form and move in space. There's another space cloud in "Obesession". Wonder what the difference will be.

And in the original, did the cloud turn red as it choked Kirk and Spock? I don't remember that. It's an effective way to convey anger.

They cut out lots of dialog though. The commissioner utters maybe two sentences in the first half of the syndicated episode.

 

[AC84]

I forgot how wonderful the original sparkle effect was. It always reminds me of Decker and Ilia's embrace in TMP.

 

[Nebusj]

windwood said:
They cut out lots of dialog though. The commissioner utters maybe two sentences in the first half of the syndicated episode.

That's probably for the best. Hedford actually breaks the record for ``character who should be sympathetic being so obnoxious you root for her death'' set by the protagonist of Sorry, Wrong Number. The less she says the more she's nearly likable.

 

[Mallory]

^ I'm of the same opinion. Hedford was obnoxious.

 

[RevDMV]

I forgot how much I like his episode. The Scotty/ Uhura dialog is clasic.

Agree about the Hedford dialog, her role was much improved after sedation.

 

[Ronald Held]

Too full of herself.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Hedford wasn't that bad--she just needed a good lay.

 

[cooleddie74]

And it didn't help matters one of her 20th century ancestors was a stiff, prim-and-proper candy/malt shop owner in a North Carolina town called Mayberry.

 

[Ronald Held]

That was one of her ancestors?