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"Star Trek" release question

post #1 of 7
3/4/11 at 3:05pm
Thread Starter 

Of all the versions of "Star Trek" that have come out over the long run of the franchise (the 60's NBC series, the 70's animated series, "TNG, "DS9," "Voyager," and "Enterprise"), why is it that the first series (the 60's NBC "Trek") has been released more ways than one could shake a stick at, despite only lasting 3 seasons from 1966-69? 

 

 

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post #2 of 7
3/4/11 at 4:53pm

Because it was a good show?

 

Because it only lasted 3 seasons, and once people found it, they loved it?

 

Because the year after it went off the air the Neilson people changed the way they did the ratings. Star Trek was a hit with males 18 to 49, even though it never broke the top 20, or 40 shows...the old way they did the ratings.

 

No Star Trek beats the original, if for no other reason than it was the FIRST Star Trek! It did it with less money, and with the limitations forced upon it by 60s Network TV, and it still holds up today. But you have to understand those limitations before you can really appreciate what they did.

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post #3 of 7
3/4/11 at 5:43pm

It was shot on film, which makes conversion to HD and different cleanups possible.  All of the others were shot on Video, so the special effects were done on Video, which makes it more difficult to upgrade them from what they are.


 

Because of how they were done, TNG, VOY, DS9 will all be 480P at their best.   Enterprise was shot in a widescreen 720 format, but I don't see an open revolt for an HD release, though I guess it's possible.   That having been said, I would love to see them re-master TNG, VOY, DS9 even if 480P was all we got, because the DVDs, especially for DS9 are TERRIBLE.   They look pixelated like crazy, suffer artifacts and other issues, hell in DS9, some episodes show the black of space with big MPEG blocks.  If I hadn't picked up the box set for Christmas a few years ago, I'd be pissed.   The versions as they run on TV look immediately better.

 

But the drive for a higher quality DVD/BD release at a 480P top just doesn't seem to be in the cards.   But if tomorrow someone told me they were going to release and re-encode: Buffy, Angel, TNG, DS9 I would snap them up in a heartbeat.   Some shows have turned out well on DVD.  Angel isn't bad; Alias actually looks decent on DVD.   But DS9 looks like total crap

 

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post #4 of 7
3/4/11 at 5:52pm

No, TNG through Voyager were all shot on film, but the editing, post production, and effects were done on video.

 

That still means that what you were saying about the shows never looking better than they do now is currently true, but Paramount could go back to the original film, re-edit everything, and put in new effects to make the upgrade to bluray possible.

 

But that would probably cost more than they would ever get out of it, so it isn't likely.

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post #5 of 7
3/5/11 at 3:36am
Thread Starter 

Thanks for the responses. Based on those, I'm surprised that "Hawaii Five-O" (the original late-'60s series) hasn't gotten a Blu yet (based on that it was shot on film, like the NBC "Trek" was, I'm thinking that it could be remastered to Blu). The only "Trek" that I actually own some of on DVD is "Voyager," 5 seasons' worth of that (and that because Janeway has always been my favorite captain). I have never touched the original NBC "Trek" on DVD, for the simple reason that I saw one or two reruns, and I didn't think it was very interesting; to tell the truth, Kirk has never been my favorite captain of the franchise (IOW, I never thought he was that interesting).

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post #6 of 7
3/5/11 at 7:48am

Don't give up on ST:TOS after only "one or two reruns".  There are *many* quality episodes in each season.  There's a thread here in which people list their favorite eps. from that series.  It would be a good place to start and help avoid the stinkers when making a evaluation.  Unfortunately, I was unable to locate it to post a link for you. :(  Instead I shamlessly lift this from Wikipedia:

 

Notable episodes

According to Entertainment Weekly, the following are the ten best episodes of Star Trek:[38]

  1. "The City on the Edge of Forever"
  2. "Space Seed"
  3. "Mirror, Mirror"
  4. "The Doomsday Machine"
  5. "Amok Time"
  6. "The Devil in the Dark"
  7. "The Trouble With Tribbles"
  8. "This Side of Paradise"
  9. "The Enterprise Incident"
  10. "Journey to Babel"

 

IGN.com listed its top ten:[39]

  1. "The City on the Edge of Forever"
  2. "Balance of Terror"
  3. "Mirror, Mirror"
  4. "Space Seed"
  5. "The Trouble With Tribbles"
  6. "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
  7. "The Enemy Within"
  8. "The Naked Time"
  9. "This Side of Paradise"
  10. "Arena"

 

SpaceCast.com viewers voted on their top ten episodes in 2009:[40]

  1. "Mirror, Mirror"
  2. "The City on the Edge of Forever"
  3. "Space Seed"
  4. "The Trouble With Tribbles"
  5. "The Doomsday Machine"
  6. "Amok Time"
  7. "Balance of Terror"
  8. "The Enterprise Incident"
  9. "A Piece of the Action"
  10. "The Tholian Web"

 

As of 2009, the ten highest rated episodes on IMDB (note some episodes share the same rank) are:

  1. "The City on the Edge of Forever"[41]
  2. "Mirror, Mirror" [42]
  3. "Balance of Terror",[43]"Space Seed"[44]
  4. "The Trouble With Tribbles",[45] "The Doomsday Machine"[46]
  5. "Amok Time"[47]
  6. "The Menagerie",[48][49] "The Devil in the Dark"[50]
  7. "Journey to Babel",[51] "The Enterprise Incident"[52]
  8. "Errand of Mercy"[53]
  9. "Arena",[54]"Day of the Dove",[55] "All Our Yesterdays"[56]
  10. "The Corbomite Maneuver"
    [57]

 

You'll notice lots of overlap.  I'm a bit suprised "The Tholian Web" is not on more of these as it's considered to be one of the best.  Of course when you limit it to 10 in a series that had many more quality episodes than that you're bound to leave out a couple...

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post #7 of 7
3/5/11 at 8:00am

As someone born in 1968 and not around when star trek was original aired, but, did start watching it in syndication in the 1970s. The 1970s also seen introduction of star trek action figures, which i had captain kirk, Mr spock and doctor mccoy.

 

I have Star Trek (TOS) and the Animated Series along with Star Trek Enterprise. I bought the digitally re-mastered Star Trek when the price came down and it was like watching star trek all over again, especially with many of the images being re-done. I would recommend the doomsday machine as one of the best re-mastered episode along with the cloud miners. Any episodes with lots of outside images along with ships and buildings have been re-mastered very well.

 

I think TOS has a huge following, so they are always looking at ways to increase says and/or promote the old series. There was talked about re-starting the cartoon again, especially with trying to close out the five year mission. There has been much debate whether or not the cartoon was extension of the series or not. The cartoons does have tie in to episodes, like Amok, Trimbles, city on the edge forever, i am mudd/harry mudd, etc.

 

 

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