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HTF HD-DVD Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Season One (1 Viewer)

Walter Kittel

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Picked up a copy at the local Fry's today and gave it the rattle test. Opened up the box this evening and all of the discs look to be in pristine shape; with only a couple of minor scrapes on the bottom tray (not the bottom disc.)

Watched Where No Man Has Gone Before and The Man Trap and had a great time watching both episodes. HD has certainly re-invigorated my viewing experiences and that is certainly the case with this title. Hard to believe that I was watching these episodes approximately 40 years ago, and now I'm re-experiencing them in the best presentation they've ever seen in Home Video.

I noticed a brief, strange video anomaly (which I am assuming is source related) on The Man Trap (didn't check the timestamp - but it is on the right side of the screen during the conference aboard the Enterprise) but otherwise everything has simply looked stunning.

Everyone is entitled to their impressions, but the set (so far) looks great and I honestly don't see anything to complain about. Having a wonderful time with this set.

- Walter.
 

Lou Sytsma

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Hey Nelson - you went above call and duty with that review. And that's only after two episodes! Only 27 to go!;)

Not to disparage the early review efforts but it is certainly comforting to read appreciative remarks from experienced viewers.

Scott, sorry to hear about your disc woes. Hope mine arrive in good shape.
 

Jim_K

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Well mine arrived yesterday. No damage to the packaging and no loose discs thankfully. If the weather wasn't so cold I wouldn't have noticed this but.....when I was inspecting the discs they naturally fogged up when I brought them into my house and my god the number of fingerprints on these things was disturbing. Note to HD DVD manufacturers, supply your workers with friggin gloves.

As for the packaging design, I honestly wouldn't have a problem with the jewel case if these weren't Combo's. Also I usually could care less about disc art but with a 10 disc set this is going to be a pain in the ass for me trying to find a specific episode (I'm a classic Trek fan but not a Trekkie who has the episode sequence memorized).

Watched Where No Man Has Gone Before and Man Trap and had a good time. This is the first I've watched any of these episodes with the new CGI and it wasn't as jarring as I thought it would be. Looking forward to what they did to some of my other favorite episodes. I fell asleep watching Charlie X but so far no playback problems with disc 1, which is my main worry and complaint with HD DVD Combos. Keeping my fingers crossed.
 

Paul_Scott

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Just in case anyone misses it, I don't want to call their attention to it needlessly.
I have no memeory of seeing these specific eps before. Man Trap was far and away my favorite of the three. I was always wondering which episode that creature was from in the closing credits. Great creepy design.
 

Nelson Au

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Thanks Lou, you're welcome. My pleasure!

I also saw Where No Man Has Gone before. I didn't notice that glitch Paul. So I must now review it and see if I can see it!

One thing I noticed about Where No Man, as it's the pilot, the color of Nimoy's skin is a tad greener. Shatner's hair is a different toupee, I was looking for it.

Other things I never noticed before was the little holes on the contact lenses that Gary Lockwood wears. And you can really see the skin tone variations on Shatner and Lockwood and Keller on close-ups. There's more, but I think you guys will find it too!
 

Lou Sytsma

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Well my set arrived today with some minor damage.:frowning: First time too I have received something damaged from Amazon. Also the first time they shipped the set in a bubble wrap envelope instead of the usual box?!? Have asked for a replacement so we'll see how that goes.

Anyhow on to the set. First off no doubt this is the best presentation I have seen of the original series. Overall video quality is very, very good but there are still sections with dirt and grain level fluctuates several times. The worse video I have seen is in - What Are Little Girls Made Of - when Kirk and Chapel beam down to the planet. This scene is noticeably poorer.

Outside of that everything else is quite revealing, from the join lines on Nimoy's ears, labels on equipment, the carpet on the bridge that Nelson mentioned. The CGI shots have been excellent for the most part - the only one really off for me was in- Where No Man Has Gone Before - with the shot showing the Enterprise on impulse power after coming out of the barrier.

As to the remarks about the colour not being as vibrant - they must be judging it soley on WNMHGB because once you get into the more familiar uniforms the colour levels really jump up with the inclusion of the red Engineering and Ship Services shirts. Also quite revealing is the gel lighting used to liven up the generally drab ship interiors.

I feel like I'm watching the show for the first time again. That alone makes this purchase quite worthy to me.:emoji_thumbsup:
 

Nelson Au

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Congrates Lou! Sorry to hear your set wasn't perfect. Was it damaged from shipping or the way it was assembled at the factory? Now the fun begins!

Dave, my guess is he had a hairpiece way before Trek. Just from looking at his appearances on Twilight Zone and Outer Limits.
 

Lou Sytsma

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Nelson - looks like shipping damage. Why they shipped from boxing to envelopes surprised me - I bet they are going to end up reshipping a lot of replacement sets because of it.

As to the Shat's hair - I thought that the piece didn't start being put in use until the third season.
 

Douglas Monce

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Where No Man Has Gone Before was photographed by Ernest Haller who has another little credit you might have heard of, Gone With The Wind. He was in semi-retirement and Star Trek was hard up for a DP to shoot their second pilot.

The rest of the show was photographed by Gerald Perry Finnermanwho introduced the washes of colored light on the walls. He was also doing a much more classic style of lighting than was typically being done on television at the time. His lighting style was really much more like B&W lighting done in color with much deeper shadows normal.

In fact before they went on the air the network kept telling them that they couldn't light like that because it wouldn't look good on TV. The complaints stopped after the first show aired.

Doug
 

Douglas Monce

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According to Inside Star Trek: The Real Story by Herbert F. Solow and Robert Justman, a new, very expensive Toupee was bought for Shatner at the start of Season 1. It mysteriously vanished at the end of the season. So another one was bought at the start of Season 2, it too vanished at the end of the season. And so on.....

Doug
 

Nelson Au

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Lou, that's a shame about the shipping. What a pain.

Thanks for the background info Douglas. These new HD transfer really do show case the lighting work of Finnerman. Never before has it been showcased in what I would say as accurately. The deeper shadow and light looks great on these discs.

Regarding the ear seams on Nimoy. The backs stand out to me now! I was surprised to notice in Corbomite Maneuver and The Naked Time, when Nimoy turns his back to the camera, I caught a glimpse of the back of the ears and they don't blend at all and I could just see a small amount of Nimoy's natural skin tone behind his ears. I guess they had variances in the early shows for the ears as they fine tuned them. Some shots the back is blended better.
 

Douglas Monce

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It probably depended on the time of day the shot was made. Toward the end of the day the ears were probably a bit more ragged than in the morning. Also they had to use spirit gum to paste Nimoy's ears to the side of his head, other wise the spock ears would stick out like dumbo ears. They would have to repaste his ears to the side of his head all day long, causing more problems with the makeup.

Doug
 

Lou Sytsma

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Totally useless and geek side point about the ears, I never liked the redesigned ears used in the movies - as they were wider and flatter. The TV ears were slimmer and came to a thinner point. They just seemed more elegant.

I have Inside Star - have not read it in years and don't remember any of it. The Making of Star Trek OTOH - that book was and is an excellent behind the scenes book.
 

Douglas Monce

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I have read both books. The Making of Star Trek was written durring the second season of the show and in my opinion tends to be mostly fluff. It often gets details wrong on the technical parts of making a tv show. Stephen Whitfield is mostly a cheer leader for the god like (in Whitfield's eyes) Gene Roddenberry.

Inside Star Trek was written by two guys who actually worked on the show in a producer/production head capacity. They seem to have more in site in to what was actually going on. While they have great affection for the show, they don't try to put the best spin onto everything.

Doug
 

Jim_K

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You know I sat down to watch that episode again on Thanksgiving night and I dozed off again. Must have been the tryptophan this time. ;)

But last night I finally plowed through Charlie X then got on a roll with 3 much better episodes: The Naked Time, The Enemy Within and Mudd's Women. I'm enjoying what they've done with the new CGI.

2 discs down and no playback problems (whew), still keeping my fingers crossed.

On a side note: I don't usually go looking for flaws but the more episodes I see, the more certain oddities with the transfers stand out. I'm inclined that I'm occasionally seeing video noise on some of the live action scenes rather than grain because it appears and disappears from shot to shot. It's a bit jarring at times.
 

Douglas Monce

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Anytime there is a dissolve or some effect like hand phasers that is still from the original and not part of the new CG effects, you'll notice a major change in the grain. Suddenly the image isn't as sharp and the grain is much more pronounced. This is because the film is suddenly several generations away from the original negative. Of course you couldn't see this on TV in the 60s and you could just kinda sorta see it on the DVDs. Now on HD DVD its pretty obvious.

In Conscience of the King there is the shot where Kirk calls the captain of the other ship and asks them not to pick up the actors. The entire length of that shot is at least 2 generations away from the negative because there is a dissolve at the end of it.

This MAY be what you are seeing.

Doug
 

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