Knights & Knaves Alehouse

So UPN has switched over to CW now. Last Saturday night, I was flipping through the channels about 11pm and I happened across an episode of Star Trek. The original Star Trek, mind you, and I thought "cool...they're playing these late at night. That's good."

So I watched about 15 minutes or so, and something caught my eye: a realistic looking Enterprise orbiting a realistic looking planet...and the music was...different. I thought I was hallucinating and didn't think any more of it.

So, just to show what kind of Trekkie I am, I discovered just today that Paramount has remastered TOS...and they've done a damn good job of it too.

You can get the DVDs and about 100 stations are playing the remastered episodes.

Here's a Youtube clip as an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otTzyyw_Z7s

Basically, they've brightened the colors, recut the sound for fuller effect, and totally redone any ship scenes with CGI.

Now I asked myself: why was I one of about 10 million fans that raised hell when Lucas remastered the original Star Wars trilogy back in the 90s, but I'm stoked about this? I thought for a few hours, and the answer is: Lucas redid his movies and basically said: "this is the way it is...take it or leave it." Paramount is presenting something that's a cultural icon and saying "here it is redone and sharpened up. Hope you like it, but also enjoy TOS in its original glory too."

Lastly, this is probably a build up to Star Trek XI which should come out in 2008.

How do you feel about this?

I saw an episode in high definition on a 42" plasma, and was blown away. It was very, very cool.

I don't have anything against remastering and even "improving" some parts of the originals as long as the sense of each scene is preserved. I think more SW fans had a problem with "Greedo shooting first" than they did with other changes, like greatly increasing the number of buildings and people around Mos Eisley though CGI. That's the way I felt about it, anyway.

I even think it would make sense for TPTB to make movies (TV, video, or theatrical -- doesn't matter) out of some of the original ST material. How about a Khan movie, for example, showing the origins of the supermen and detailing Khan's first encounter with the Enterprise?

SemajTheSilent wrote:...and the music was...different.

That part disturbs me, because the original had the best music of any of the other incarnations, including the films.

TheRedPriest wrote:

SemajTheSilent wrote:...and the music was...different.

That part disturbs me, because the original had the best music of any of the other incarnations, including the films.

I never much cared for the funky jungle beat version of the theme. But I agree that the original music (the tune, at least) is superior to the later music. It is instantly recognizable and cannot be mistaken for anything else.

The problem with Star Wars was that the changes sucked, they distracted from the movie (I just had a huge arguement about this on the IMDb) and really didn't add anything, and Lucas topped it off by saying this was his "original vision" and refusing to release or even acknowledge the originals.

With this new Star Trek, apparently all that's happening is Paramount is simply touching up the original series.

Personally I'm against it, but Paramount has already released the original version on DVD and it's not like they're trying to "replace" TOS with the remastered version, unlike Lucas and his Star Wars SEs.

dcs wrote:

TheRedPriest wrote:

SemajTheSilent wrote:...and the music was...different.

That part disturbs me, because the original had the best music of any of the other incarnations, including the films.

I never much cared for the funky jungle beat version of the theme. But I agree that the original music (the tune, at least) is superior to the later music. It is instantly recognizable and cannot be mistaken for anything else.

Sorry for not being more clear, but I wasn't referring to the theme music, but was referring to the incidental music during the show. I especially think the bits during the action sequences were the most awesom.

TheRedPriest wrote:

SemajTheSilent wrote:...and the music was...different.

That part disturbs me, because the original had the best music of any of the other incarnations, including the films.

To elaborate, what I meant was that Paramount rescored all the music based on the original scores. So, you hear the theme music and it's the same note for note but you can tell it's new.

Personally, I always preferred the theme used in The Motion Picture and later butchered for TNG.

I haven't seen any of these remastered episodes (or even heard that such a thing existed before reading this thread) but my knee-jerk reaction is to say that I want my Trek unadulterated, just like its always been, cheesy/dated fx and all. The cheesiness and datedness is, indeed, a big part of the charm to me.

So, are those complete season boxed sets that they released a year or so ago (in the red, yellow, and blue cases) these remastered editions you're talking about or are those the originals. Because I'd like to get these someday (the first 2 seasons at least -- season 3 is I daresay actually kinda lame) but want to make sure when/if I do that I get the correct versions.

T. Foster wrote:So, are those complete season boxed sets that they released a year or so ago (in the red, yellow, and blue cases) these remastered editions you're talking about or are those the originals.

ALL current Star Trek DVDs are the original, unaltered show. The CGI version is not available on DVD yet and probably won't be for a few months.

I've caught these episodes on The CW, I hadn't noticed changes, but something deep in the back of my mind was screaming.
Has the actual music changed, or was the sound just "beefed up"? I'll try to check out an episode again to see if I can tell...

Here's an example of the remastering...in this case, the Enterprise orbiting the Earth.

http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/ ... stered.jpg

The Romulan Bird of Prey from "Balance of Terror."

http://www.tunequest.org/star-trek-refi ... shing.html

SemajTheSilent wrote:The Romulan Bird of Prey from "Balance of Terror."

http://www.tunequest.org/star-trek-refi ... shing.html

I checked all the comparisons on that page, and is it just me, or is there less detail on the Enterprise in the re-mastered version? Maybe it's just cause I'm looking at stills? Well, I, Mudd comes on tonight, so I'll watch it and see for myself.

I think the old one just looks dirtier. It's not really more detailed AFAICT.