Star Trek: The Digital Generation

[Anakin Flair 0]

Just read this on TVGuide.com:

 

Exclusive! "New" Star Trek Is Set on Stunning

by Michael Logan

 

Behold Star Trek's "new" Enterprise.

 

Star Trek purists, take a deep breath! On Sept. 16, the iconic ‘60s series will return to syndication for the first time since 1990, but with a startling difference: All 79 episodes are being digitally remastered with computer-generated effects not possible when Gene Roddenberry created the show 40 years ago. The news could cause Roddenberry loyalists to have a collective cow, but the longtime Trek staffers in charge of the makeover say they're honoring the late maestro's vision, not changing it.

"We're taking great pains to respect the integrity and style of the original," says Michael Okuda, who spent 18 years as a scenic-art supervisor on Star Trek films and spin-offs. "Our goal is to always ask ourselves: What would Roddenberry have done with today's technology?" Okuda's teammates on the two-year project are his wife, Denise Okuda, with whom he's authored several Trek reference books, and 14-year Trek production vet David Rossi.

 

The upgraded episodes — to be shown out of order and one per week — will kick off with "Balance of Terror," a big fan favorite "that gives us a chance to really show off the ‘new' Enterprise," says Okuda. "The exterior of the ship now has depth and detail, and it will fly more dynamically." (Click here for a larger version of the image at left.) Painted backdrops will also be brought to life: Once-empty star bases will have CGI people milling about, while static alien landscapes have been given slow-moving clouds and shimmering water. Okuda notes that a view of Earth in the 1966 episode "Miri" has been "replaced with a more accurate image, now that we've gone into deep space and looked back at ourselves."

 

 

Trek's opening theme is also getting an overhaul: The music has been re-recorded in stereo, and a new singer has been hired to wail those famous but wordless vocals. And goofs will be corrected: In "The Naked Time," there was no beam coming out of Scotty's phaser when he tried to cut through the bulkhead outside Engineering. Now there is.

 

The "new" Trek debuts Sept. 16. Check the TVGuide.com listings when the date nears for times and channels.

 

 

I don't know ab out you, but I'm kind of hoping they'll go back and re-do some effects on TNG. I'd love to see 'Best of Both Worlds' redone with the same kind of battles they did regularly on DS(.

[Mole 0]

Oh God, the Trekkies are freakin out.

[Masked Man of Mystery 0]

I'll be interested to see it, but I wonder if this will have the backlash levels of the Star Wars Special Editions. I've never seen a ton of the original series though. Most of the Next Gen effects were perfectly fine, the Borg would be the only thing I could see needing some touch ups

[Art Sandusky 0]

Oh man, I'm required to despise Trekkies, but I feel for 'em on this. At least it initially appears that it'll be CGI retro-futurism and not the marked dissonance that Lucas created when he fiddled with the Star Wars films.

[dubq 0]

Ghey.

[Rendclaw 0]

Okuda has always been fairly consistent when it comes to that stuff.... personally I say why the hell not, considering the shoestring budget Roddenberry had to deal with (even back in those days when a dollar was worth a lot more). That's the main reason why Klingons looked like black people rather than how they looked in the movies and later TV series.

 

I saw the two-part Enterprise episode called "Into The Mirror, Darkly" and the job they did with the old USS Defiant was amazing.

 

Give it a chance, I say. As was said before, this is true enhancement, not what George Lucas did with Episodes IV-VI.

[Darthtiki 0]

While less of a trekkie than a SW geek, I'm thinking could be interesting. Hopefully, it can give the franchise a quick shot of adrenaline to bring it from life support and generate buzz for the Abrams film. At least the Trek franchise had the foresight to release the original versions first and hopefully kept the masters of those for a next gen format release.

 

Are we going to get the I-VI rainbow warp effect now too?

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

This is esentially necessary for the conversion to HD though..which is in the works for every single thing Star Trek (TV shows AND movies)

[The Metal Maniac 0]

I'll be interested to see it, but I wonder if this will have the backlash levels of the Star Wars Special Editions.

 

Only if the people in charge try to make it impossible to get the originals.

 

As long as the originals are around in some form, I can't see any reason to complain.

[FroGG_NeaL 0]

Ghey.

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

One purist is already pissed.

 

By Jason P. Vargo

 

It should be fairly clear to all of you by now that, at heart, I am a fan of the popular media, specifically of movies and television programs. You should also know that I hold a few franchises close to my heart, “Star Trek” being the most obvious example. I am a purist, someone who doesn’t look kindly on someone other than the original creator changing the completed work. This includes modifying a movie from widescreen to fullscreen (or vice versa), colorizing a black and white film or adding new and/or improved effects, music, characters, dialogue…whatever.

 

I railed against George Lucas many years ago for not releasing the “Star Wars” trilogy on DVD in its unaltered form. I complained, quite loudly, that I wanted the original original trilogy on disc right alongside the animated…wait, I mean the Special Edition’s from 1997. Why? Because the originals are what I grew up with and what made me a fan of that universe. Plus, and perhaps more importantly, they are a part of our collective history. They give us an idea of what science fiction was like back in 1977. Why shouldn’t they be preserved with just as much care as works of art like the Mona Lisa?

 

I will always defend an artists right to modify their work whenever they see fit. After all, it is their work. However, when something as beloved as “Star Wars” is tinkered with, sending fans into a tizzy, I think there’s some responsibility on the part of the filmmaker to also release the original versions as well. I am happy to report that the original trilogy in its original form are on the way in a couple weeks. Not anamorphic, but it’ll do for the time being.

 

Now, another one of my favorites is going to be on the editing block. You might have heard that Paramount, in some super secret operation, is working on remastering the original “Star Trek” series into high definition. Because of the medium on which the show was originally edited and post-produced, this remastering means that the special effects, conveniently, can’t make the transition.

 

I’m not a genius when it comes to mastering, remastering or the technical aspects to the discussion, but I do know this much: what CBS/Paramount is effectively doing is rewriting a show that has survived for forty years. The argument is that in order for this show to be shown in any high def format, this needs to be done. So you’re telling me that any movie or television program containing special effects edited on film is going to be modified in the same way. “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”, “Lost in Space”, “The Adventures of Superman”…I don’t need to list off every single property this is going to be an issue for, do I?

 

It’s not the idea of butchering the episodes with CGI that I’m really peeved about. To tell you the honest truth, I’m more than a little curious. But my fear-and I think quite rightly-is that once these redone versions hit DVD and syndication in HD, the originals will be forgotten. If they can’t be mastered in HD now, then the chance of them ever getting to that point is nil. If the episodes were going to be side by side with the originals, this wouldn’t even be a problem for me. With the increased capacity on HD discs, you easily fit both versions of every episode onto the set and still be smaller than the current collections.

 

You might wonder why I have no faith in the CBS/Paramount folks to do this right by the fans. Well, for starters, the news is that an outside effects house has not been contracted to do the work. Rather, it will all be done by the folks inside the studio. Are you starting to see the problem? Paramount, who has had “Trek” in their hands since it all began, has never done this franchise right. It was the bastard child in the family when it was originally on television. The first film was only commissioned after “Star Wars” became an incredible hit. They let a man who was destroying the franchise stay on board entirely too long. They have insanely high prices on all “Trek” products. And, perhaps most damning in this situation, is the fact they did not release the original version of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” on DVD along with the Director’s Cut.

 

Seeing my problem?

 

I’ve heard the argument in various places that the new effects will bring new fans to the franchise. I had to respond, laughingly, to that because, quite frankly, it’s a pile of rubbish. No matter how much advertising money Paramount puts behind this “new” version, people who never gave “Trek” a first look in the last 40 years certainly aren’t going to give it a chance now just because it’s been updated with computer ships. And its not just the flybys and beauty passes of the vessels that are going to be redone. CGI crowds, rippling water, new planets, new backgrounds...and even a re-recording of the classic theme song.

 

See, “Trek” has always been about the story. Gene Roddenberry created it because he couldn’t tell the kinds of stories he wanted to tell about the human condition within a contemporary setting. So he made it the future where the ideas he presented could get past the censors. The special effects, the transporter, phasers, shields…whatever else…they were all secondary. Everyone (including the people in charge of the franchise recently) forgot that. “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” is a reality check about the stupidity of treating people differently based on skin color. “Balance of Terror” has the subplot of suspicion based on supposed ancestry. Neither of these plots relies on the Enterprise zooming around the universe.

 

I alluded to this next point earlier: “Trek” is a form of art. It is a moving, living history of where we were as a country and civilization in the late 1960s-technologically, socially, culturally and ideologically. Every part of the show was put into the finished episode for a reason, whether it be budget, the film conventions at the time or the prevailing social attitude. Why do you think it was such a big deal for Roddenberry to have a black actress on the bridge? An Asian helmsman? Why do you think he fought for Spock when the network wanted him to get rid of the “Satan” character?

 

Even the supposedly dated effects of the Enterprise flybys or the lack of certain vessels (the Gorn ship in “Arena”, for one) all speak to the significance of the show. In its time, “Star Trek” was ground breaking for everything it did. It was a space show, it had a loyal fan following that got it renewed for a third year, it portrayed the first black actress in a starring role on television, it got ideas across to the audience that were previously unheard of, it showed that quality effects (at least for the time) could be created on a television budget and schedule.

 

And it inspired millions of people around the world. To get into the sciences, to dream of a tomorrow when our petty differences don’t matter and to use our imaginations. This show, just like everything on film of any kind, is history. You don’t see someone wanting to add synthesizers to Elvis Presley music, do you, to appeal to a younger fanbase? You haven’t heard an idea floated about that would put clothes on naked people in various works of art, have you? Would anyone dare suggest we add some CGI characters to “Citizen Kane”? What if we colorize “Frankenstein”?

 

Guys, this is the SAME EXACT THING. The show can’t, as it currently exists, be put on HD? That is perfectly fine by me. I have an excellent copy of all the episodes sitting on my shelf right now. Leave the redone stuff to the fans to do for shits and giggles in their spare time.

 

I doubt anyone with any real power is going to suddenly have a change of heart. “Trek” has always been a license to print money for Paramount. Ungodly priced single episode tapes, laserdiscs, the original forty volumes of episodes and then the season sets. Hasn’t Paramount run this franchise into the ground through shoddy management and over saturation enough in the last couple of years? If the ill-fated “Enterprise” and “Star Trek: Nemesis” couldn’t kill the brand name, you’d better believe that this project and the upcoming “reimagination” (or whatever it’s being called this week) will.

 

Paramount, you are turning two generations of fans off to the entire franchise. I’ve got to believe that this project is going to cost you more than just a wad of change. It will cost goodwill and the benefit of the doubt when the new movie comes out. Stop this now. It doesn’t matter, really, if they can’t be put onto a high def format right now. With the way technology advances, who can say what we’ll be able to do next year or the year after with our HD mastering.

 

I guess we'll see what the end result is on September 16, when "Balance of Terror" will debut in syndication.

 

And don’t even get me started on the rumor that the high def versions are going to be modified into 1.77:1 widescreen images. Everything I just said about the effects remains true for the aspect ratio. The short version: originally created in 1.33:1; keep it 1.33:1. Got it?

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

The Aspect Ratio thing at the end isn't that big of a deal. A lot of early tv shows were shot in a wider screen format to start with and then cropped to fit TVs (as opposed to the 80's/90s where they were shot in 4:3 to start), which is why shows like Hogan's Heros and Charlies Angels (amongst others) can be shown in HD in widescreen. There might be a tad bit of cropping on the top/bottom to expand the picture to the sides but for the most part its not that bad.

 

As for the problem of having to do this to every show/movie that was edited on film to create an HD version..the thing is Star Trek is a cash cow for Paramount so they can afford to go through the effort to re-do the show to make a HD version of Star Trek, but for other shows/movies the cost/benefit probably wont be so high and they just wont bother doing it.

[starvenger 0]

One purist is already pissed.

 

I'm not sure what to say, other than the "purists" opinion doesn't make sense. They're adding in digital effects, right? They're not re-editing things so that Kirk saves the day, then bangs the alien chick, right? So if the story is paramount and the FX are secondary, and they're just redoing the fx, where the frick is his problem?

[MrRant 0]

From what I've seen, it's more or less a touch up. Not entire scenes added like SW.

[Dr. Zaius 0]

This is esentially necessary for the conversion to HD though..which is in the works for every single thing Star Trek (TV shows AND movies)

I don't see how that's possible. TNG, DS9, and Voyager were all filmed using standard video.

[starvenger 0]

This is esentially necessary for the conversion to HD though..which is in the works for every single thing Star Trek (TV shows AND movies)

I don't see how that's possible. TNG, DS9, and Voyager were all filmed using standard video.

Not entirely true. The last two seasons of Voyager were filmed in widescreen.

[Anakin Flair 0]

Well caught the first 'new' episode last night- and I must say, they did a real good job. The episode was 'Balance of Terror', and everything looked just like it did, with the ships being more detailed and cleaner looking, and the phaser effects were done much better. Also, everything still 'looked' the same- blue phaser bursts that exploded in space, funny-looking flyby's for the ships.

[randomguy 0]

Yeah, it looked fine. Basically the same with the outside views of the ships looking better.