Trek Remastered (Specially for Prim!)

Post by **Alatar** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:31 pm

I wasn't sure how I felt about this when I first heard about it. Would the remastering take away all the charm of the original? Should this ever be done, or should the series stand as a testament to the time they were made, warts and all?

I downloaded a copy of the first DVD to see what I thought before buying. I really think they've nailed it. Its still the old Trek in all the ways that count. The image transfer is wonderful, and if I hadn't been told I wouldn't even have known the music had been re-recorded. But of course, for me, the acid test is what would the kids think. They've never watched the Original Trek, or any of the more recent ones either. They love Star Wars, which was only 10 years newer. Well, we watched "Where no Man has Gone Before" and they loved it. I don't think I'll buy the HD Set just yet, but when it drops in price a bit I'll certainly consider it.

Note: Its HD-DVD Combo, which means HD on one side of the Disc and STandard DVD on the other, so you don't need HD to view it.

Promo Video Here

07.26.2007
Star Trek Remastered on HD DVD

UPDATED 9/21/07: New video preview of the remastered episodes and interactive features. DVD is now available to order in the Star Trek Store. Also, check out the new Toshiba phaser remote promotion!

It's been hinted at before but now it's for real! Coming November 20, 2007, the dazzling Star Trek Remastered series is being released in a 10-disc HD DVD/DVD combo-disc set, marking the first release of Trek product in the high definition format.

Released by CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment, the Star Trek Remastered episodes are, quite literally, the ultimate way to view the classic series. With the original camera negative as the source, combined with new 21st-century computer generated images and remastered sound, Star Trek looks better than it ever has. Viewers across America have been thrilling to these episodes in syndication over the past year, but the real benefit here is the ability to see these episodes uncut, and in crystal-clear definition.

Besides the beautiful picture, HD DVD contains interactive features available only on this format. Also, as detailed on the Page 2 press release (see below), this set has numerous new special features. Of particular interest to fans will be "Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories." Blackburn was mainly a background player on Star Trek, but he was also named as Lieutenant Hadley in "A Piece of the Action" and seen in numerous episodes and in various disguises.

For the episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday," the remastered image of the Enterprise reveals the landscape of the American midwest below the cloud cover. CBS Digital artists used actual photos of Nebraska and the surrounding areas taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station as part of the landscape below the ship.

The original (bottom) was a basic composite shot with visible matte lines around the Enterprise.

In the opening shot of "Charlie X," Captain Kirk's log states that the Enterprise is "now maneuvering to come alongside cargo vessel Antares." The original shot only shows us the Enterprise, but the remastered version adds the Antares NCC-501 to be consistent with the narration.

As you can see, the Antares is similar in size and configuration to another cargo ship, the Woden, but with warp nacelles and a deeper mid-dorsal compartment.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:51 pm

Thanks, Alatar!

They've been showing these remastered episodes in syndication over here for a while now. I was dubious, too, but found that it doesn't at all affect the "experience" of classic Trek. None of the enhancements I've seen have been jarring or interfered with the story. A few things just look better.

The ones they show on TV, though, have been heavily and stupidly cut to make room for more commercials, so I've been looking longingly at the DVDs.

But . . . as usual for Star Trek . . . they are priced so high that 90% of their potential audience, including me, can't or won't buy them. $133 (that's Amazon—list is $195!) for a single season of a television show? With two more seasons to go? I can't justify that. So I'm passing until the price comes down, if it ever does.

(This is just so stupid—sheer greed shooting itself in the foot. At a price point of $40 or even $60 I'd be willing to bet they would sell at least five times as many units. Maybe a lot more. I mean, I've loved this show since I was seven years old, I buy DVDs all the time, own most of my favorite shows already—and I'm not even buying it?)

Post by **Holbytla** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 6:01 pm

Things do eventually drop in price. I've been trying to buy Animal Crackers for years now. For whatever reason, that particular movie is far more expensive than any other Marx Brothers movie.
I've recently checked Amazon, and it is all the way down to $45.
It was nearly double that at one time. Still too much for one movie, but it is dropping.
I may be retired before I actually buy it.

Post by **Maria** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:13 pm

Wow! I want one!

I'm worried if I wait too long for the price to come down, they will become unavailable.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 12:08 am

No fear of that, I think, Maria, unless there suddenly stopped being a demand—which I don't think will happen any decade soon.

Post by **Maria** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:58 pm

We bought it. It's awesome!

I had no idea the lighting was so... so... psychedelic! Many of those episodes I've only seen in black and white- or a bad, grainy color transmission.

We haven't even got an HD player, so I don't know what the HD aspect is like. The remastering is really, really good, though, even on the plain DVD.

Post by **Maria** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 9:19 pm

We got an HD player, and everyone's faces look much better on HD. Their makeup looked weird, when playing a plain DVD onto an HD capable TV. Playing the HD DVD on an HD player made everyone look OK. Before they looked like the make up was far too thick.

I don't know why.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 10:57 pm

OK I was avoiding this thread since for some reason I thought this thread was about the new reinvention of Star trek with that movie coming out. But it is not yay!!!

Remastered and HD. oooh it sounds good. If I could ever afford it I would buy it. Classic trek was great. (Also I could finally see the end of Spocks's Brain, I have seen the first half like 8 zillion times).

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:00 pm

You've seen half of "Spock's Brain" and you still want to see the other half?

You're a very strong person, Wilma.

Post by **Sassafras** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:10 am

Oh, come now, Prim! Spock's Brain is a classic.

A few more facts:

* Though produced after "The Enterprise Incident," "Spock's Brain" aired first, thus opening the third season.
* McCoy (DeForest Kelley) utters another famous quote alongside his famous, "He's dead Jim...", or "I'm a doctor, not a ...". Here McCoy utters "His brain is gone!"
* At conventions, Leonard Nimoy has stated that he did not want to do this episode, saying "I did not wanna be there!" when referring to filming of this episode.
* In his memoir Star Trek: Memories, William Shatner called this one of the series' worst episodes. Leonard Nimoy, in his 1995 book I am Spock, writes that "frankly during the entire shooting of that [ie. Spock's Brain] episode, I was embarrassed--a feeling that overcame me many times during the final season of Star Trek." (p.115)
* Star Trek co-producer Robert H. Justman ruefully states that he was the person who suggested that Spock's Brain, after being rescued by the Enterprise crew, actually "takes over during surgery and instructs Dr. McCoy exactly how to go back reinserting it back where it came from--inside Spock's skull." (Herbert Solow & Robert Justman, Inside Star trek: The Real Story, Pocket Books, 1996, p.402)
* In the TV show The Wonder Years, one episode features Kevin Arnold, his current girlfriend, Paul, and Paul's current girlfriend all in Kevin's basement watching this episode. Later on, when Kevin is knocked unconscious, he fantasizes that his girlfriend, Winnie Cooper, and Paul's girlfriend are all the women who have taken Spock's brain. Further, Kevin fantasized himself as Kirk, Paul as Spock, and Winnie's current boyfriend as McCoy. When Kevin implies "We're Men!", the girls activate their wristbands, causing the boys to double over in pain, just like in the episode.
* After identifying the planet as Sigma Draconis VI, Kirk and Sulu refer to it as Sigma Draconis VII.
* Kirk and Scotty's hairstyles are markedly different in this episode and resemble more closely the hairstyles of the time.
* When Pavel Chekov uses a phaser to heat a rock, there is a patch of snow next to the rock. The rock remains heated for some time while the snow remains frozen.
* This episode is watched by cadets in the movie Taps.
* Rock band Phish wrote and performed a song called 'Spock's Brain.' The title was chosen by fan consensus from a number of suggestions by the band, during a concert and has no bearing on the song's lyrics.
* Alternative rock band Semisonic included a reference to this episode in the song Never You Mind, off the album Feeling Strangely Fine. The verse is as such:

Switch on the box, Mr. Spock is on the table,
Dr. McCoy is unable to connect his brain,
Sweating and straining,
Well, it seemed so simple at the time.

* The story is believed to be an imitation of the horror novel and film Donovan's Brain.

Post by **Hachimitsu** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:28 am

Well I just hate that I have never seen the end. Something always happens that I don't get to see the end. Like I fall asleep or I have to go out, or something.

Sassy, how do you know so much about Spock's Brain?

Post by **Sassafras** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:55 am

<cue theme from Twilight Zone>

I have strange powers from the far away land of Wikepedia.

<cackles>

Come, my pretty! and I'll take you there.

Hi Wilma!!!!

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 7:33 am

Sass, you bad, bad lady, trying to take our Wilma to Wikipedia!

And that is more than I ever, ever wanted to know about "Spock's Brain."

But it is not the worst episode of the old Star Trek. That honor is battled between "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," "The Turnabout Intruder," and the one whose name I have burned from my brain but that ends with the American flag being brought in by the alien barbarians who are (shock!) the Americans in a parallel history!!!!!!

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:23 pm

Just posting to say that I at last bought the first season of classic Star Trek, on Blu-Ray. The reproduction is gorgeous (crystal clear), they're completely uncut, and you can choose between the remastered and original versions. You can even toggle between them as the episode plays.

I'll probably get the other two seasons as they come out. The pricing is high, but less than they were charging for the DVD version the last I checked.

(We bought a Blu-Ray player with some of the payment for my third book. We bought the 1080p plasma TV with some from the first. I wanted the family to have something substantial from my writing that we would not otherwise have bought. The prices of the players have come down a lot, too.)

Blu-Ray is amazing, but I'm glad I had my middle son the film student there while I was shopping. A lot of Blu-Ray discs for TV shows out there are apparently based on masters that were shot at 720p, which is regular HD. So the extra money for Blu-Ray is wasted; you don't see anything more than you would on DVD.

Anything shot on film, though, like the old Star Trek, is going to be sharper on Blu-Ray, because (my son tells me) even 35-mm film can produce eight times the resolution of Blu-Ray.

Post by **Maria** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:52 pm

I'm still stuck with the HD player, so I won't be trying out the subsequent seasons.

I refuse to buy a blue ray for the forseeable future. Maybe by the time I stop being bitter about fall of HD, the prices for things blue ray will come down.