Star Trek season 2 (remastered) (1 Viewer)

[Lou Sytsma]

Watched The Deadly Years. The 'battle' between the Romulans and the Enterprise mixed in some nice views and the curving arcs of the Romulan energy bolts was an interesting touch. Though why they had to curve when the Enterprise was running in a straight line is a mystery to me.

But man the makeup work looks really bad the older the actors got. Kirk looked like he stuck his face in a flour bag in his last aged sequence in sickbay!

 

[Carabimero]

The better the definition, the worse the makeups.

 

[Michael Rogers]

Considering the time and budget that Fred Phillips had I think he worked magic. Also, as already noted the high definition works against it (which the makeups were never designed to be seen in). Still in DVD resolution you can see some fun stuff like a prominent flesh color makeup stain on McCoy's black collar.

When you consider how this show was made with a final destination of a 25 inch or less lower definition TV screen. It's amazing how much stuff actually does still hold up.

One thing that I never noticed until the earlier DVD releases of the show was the face plates in The Tholian Web actually being mesh instead of glass or plastic.

That was an ingenious solution in 1969. It didn't reflect lights and the camera, the actors could be heard through it and on TV it would look like there was something translucent in front of the actors face.

But the trick is all to apparent in DVD resolution and probably even more apparent on HD.

Whenever I see stuff like this, I just love how ingenious the whole thing was and how our imaginations were captured enough to really believe in all the plywood sets and cramped planet sets.

 

[Carabimero]

Can someone tell me if the screens on The Enterprise bridge were digitally enhanced? I know the main viewscreen was; I'm talking about the screens encircling the bridge. They look like they were, but it may just be the higher resolution.

Edit: I can't believe I just bought season 1 SD DVD 2004 set to get the proper mix of THE MENAGERIE. I have decided I am going to rip the remastered episode, mix the proper sound in from the 2004 version, and re-burn it.

This is the fourth time I have bought season one (VHS, DVD-5, DVD-9, HD-DVD). Bitch slap me already.

 

[Ockeghem]

Well said. One thing I've loved about the environmental suits worn in The Tholian Web is that they gave us the communicators on the 'uniform,' so to speak. I wonder if this was a catalyst for these being used in the manner they were for TNG? I'm not aware of any episodes of TAS that do this, but I could easily have missed this while watching episodes of that series.

 

[Nelson Au]

David-

There is one instance that I know for sure a screen was digitally enhanced. In Friday's Child, Chekov is tracking a ship on a screen above Spock's station. There's a shot where he and Scotty are looking at it.

And in locations other then the screens surrounding the bridge; Sulu's chronometer on the console besides him is enhanced, and in Amok Time, the screen in Spock's quarters has an enhanced image of T'Pring.

There might be others, but the Friday's Child scene stands out.

Don't feel bad about buying another S1 set, you're not the only one.

 

[Nelson Au]

re: The Tholian Web environmental suits;

At the risk of over exposure from all my posts here, agreed they were quite creative with the design. Not only was the screen mesh a really smart idea, but the actors could breath too! What I liked about the design of the suits is that they were not what others were doing at the time.

 

[Ockeghem]

Nelson,

You would mention one of my favorite season two episodes, D. C. Fontana's Friday's Child. I'm weakening.

 

[Michael Rogers]

I think you have to go back to a VHS tape for the proper sound mix as I think the 5.1 mix on the 2004 and single disc release are pretty much the same mix.

 

[David Lambert]

When TNG was first airing, I was a regular on the CompuServe Sci-Fi forum ("go hom-9"), especially the Star Trek section of course!

Some of the people who hung around there were Michael Okuda, Ron Moore (I forget which one, but I think it was Ronald B., rather than Ronald D.), Peter David, David Gerrold, and if anyone hangs out at GallifreyOne.com then you'll possibly know that site's editor Shaun Lyon; he was there, too (in fact, Jim Shaun - the name he went by at the time - was the section leader of that message board).

My recollection - and take it with a grain of salt; my memory could be faulty! - was that the discussion at the time was about how the Environmental Suits were replaced in TAS with the life support belts (glowing yellow outlines signifying force fields, which basically meant the Filmation animators didn't have to draw any funky environmental suits). For the "Star Trek Phase II" series that never came to be, they were gonna go back to TOS uniforms, but that changed when the series became a film, and the uniforms were redesigned for the big screen. So, when that happened and the first motion picture came along, the idea of those life support belts had led to the idea of a belt buckle that the crew wore as part of their uniform (even tho they had no belts), which identified their current geographic position and their vital signs (idea was "if they get knocked out, sickbay would get an alert)...but the communicator was not part of that buckle thing; it was instead worn on the wrist (looked a bit like a wristwatch).

That wrist communicator continued with Wrath of Khan, but in both films there started to be an idea of having metal breast insignia on the "shirt" instead of (or in addition to, on alternate uniforms) the sewn "patch-like" breast insignia. By the time TNG came along, they had combined all those ideas into one "combadge": a breast insignia that was also a communicator, and additionally would help locate the geographic position of the crew member. The idea of it also being used for vital signs was dropped, mainly for dramatic purposes (less storyline tension could be built if somebody got an alert every time a bad guy knocked out a good guy to sneak into somewhere they shouldn't be! ).

Nevertheless, the environmental suits never went away! We saw a version of them first in the TOS episode The Naked Time, saw the legendary version of them in Tholian Web, got a new version of them worn by Chekov and Terrell in Wrath of Khan, then saw Picard, Worf and Hawk use a streamlined version of them in the First Contact film during their walk on the hull to stop the Borg from assembling their contraption.

I think a version of the latter also were in DS9 and STV, but I don't recall right now...I didn't enjoy those series as much and haven't rewatched them at all, except for select enjoyable episodes ("Year of Hell", for example). Of course, ENT had environmental suits that were supposed to be precursors to what we saw in Naked Time and Tholian Web; but like many ENT props, the equipment was not successful (IMHO, anyway) in looking like they used technology that was more primitive than what we saw in TOS.

That's the history of it as far as I can recall this late on a Tuesday evening. I'm sure someone will come to my rescue and actually research this, rather than go from an ages-old memory!

 

[Carabimero]

Someone earlier in this thread said the DVD-9 mix was corrected--and I bought the season based on that.

If I have too I suppose I can use the French soundtrack from the TOS-R mix, since there is no dialogue at that section.

 

[Michael Rogers]

Well, I would love to have the result of what you come up with. Especially in the first season I notice the differences between the original soundtrack and the remixes. The biggest thing I notice is adding ship engine noise to the flyby shots where it wasn't done in the actual show.

Charlie X is an example, after Charlie leaves the bridge after demonstrating his power and he gets off the turbolift and freezes people in his way in the corrider they cut to a shot of the Enterprise. You couldn't hear any ship noise, only music and although it wasn't planned that really added to the creepy isolation for me of the Enterprise in facing off with this Superbeing. On the DVD remixes they add the ship sound to the shot and it takes away from that isolation (maybe because the ship sound indicates the ship is still chugging along).

Then there is Balance of Terror, where they originally had no sound to the firing of the phasers/torpedos. It was added for the DVD. I think in the early shows they tried to deemphasize the sounds in space and later decided that even though it was not realistic that they needed to have the ship make sound.

 

[Ockeghem]

David,

Many thanks for your insights and the information. That's a fascinating recollection/history of the suits. I had completely forgotten about the other iteration used in The Naked Time.

I have more to think about and write, but I think I'll digest what you've written a bit first and return to this thread tomorrow.

 

[Nelson Au]

David-

Cool post! One thing I'd like to add. In Wrath of Khan, you're right, Terrell did have a wrist communicator, but Admiral Kirk had a flip open communicator reminescent of TOS, though big and clunky looking.

My impression of the environmental suits in Wrath of Khan are the same from TMP, if I am not mistaken as a cost saver. The one Nimoy wore that is. The helmets at least appear the same, they probably had to make another one for Keonig that fit him!

 

[RickER]

I always looked at that as one of Kirks antiques. ST III had something closer to TOS for both communicators and phasers.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Nelson that TWOK communicator looked like one from The Cage! Its the only moment that takes me out of the movie.

 

[Nelson Au]

Lou, I agree, I thought that TWOK communicator was so much like some parts of the movie that was weak, those awful blinkity lights on those Regula computer panels and the insert shots of the phaser panels on the Enterprise. They looked like they were rented from a prop house from the 1960's.

Since this thread is about the second season DVD set, I thought I'd throw in some thoughts upon re-viewing The Deadly Years. During the later portion of the episode, there is a sequence when Kirk is relieved and goes to Sickbay and McCoy and Spock are there and they talk about why Chekov didn't get the disease. This sequence had them aged the most.

In response to an earlier comment that the make-up is more clearly seen to be less then high quality, well, I agree it was good enough for TV at the time and it was pretty darn good! I had noticed from the older DVD's that you can see they used pencil to enhance the age lines on the faces! Pretty neat. But what I forgot about, and went back to look for was a fly in the shot where Kirk is talking to Spock and McCoy. I need to recheck the old DVD, but I am pretty sure there is a fly in the shot and the new remastered DVD appears to have removed the fly! Anyone noticed the fly before?

 

[Ockeghem]

Nelson,

I noticed a fly before, but in another episode. I haven't seen The Deadly Years for months, and I recall seeing a fly in an episode fairly recently. I'll have to think about which episode it was. I can't recall at the moment. (This is NOT a trivia question! )

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Don't get me wrong about the makeup for The Deadly Years. It still works quite well. My comment was intended more to marvel at the clarity of the remastering job.

Off now to look for flies....

 

[Nelson Au]

Gotcha Lou, and you're right. It's very clear now and my eye is often drawn to Nimoy's ears and the join line!

By the way, I did see the fly in the 2004 DVD set of The Deadly Years. I would not be surprised if there are flies in other episodes, especially those shot on location.

I read an interesting review of the remastering program and I think the author is very correct. Over the years, he has, ( and I have too) seen Trek hundreds of times and it gets to the point that you don't actually watch it as closely as you used to. Now that we are seeing these great remastered episodes, he says it makes him (and us) want to watch it much more closely then ever. So I am seeing more then I ever saw before! It's fun to rediscover it all over again!