Star Trek films on Blu-Ray... what we know so far (1 Viewer)

[Kevin EK]

I completely agree about the blue shift on the Star Trek II Blu-ray. (Someone must have thought Blu-ray meant BLUE...)

The other movies are nowhere near as bad as people have made them out to be, but it's clear that very little time was taken on preparing them for high definition. To my mind, the tossing of TMP onto Blu-ray without taking the time to present the then-recent Wise cut was a sign that what we were getting was pretty cheap.

I'd love to see Paramount revisit the transfers and re-issue the movies, and they may well do so for 4K preservation. But I've heard nothing about such a project happening anytime soon. As I've said before, I'd love to see the Wise cut of TMP in high definition, and it wouldn't be THAT much of an issue to do it - but Paramount's reluctance to spend even that small amount for this project should tell us a lot about whether you'll ever see much attention given to these movies.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I completely agree about the blue shift on the Star Trek II Blu-ray. (Someone must have thought Blu-ray meant BLUE...)

The other movies are nowhere near as bad as people have made them out to be, but it's clear that very little time was taken on preparing them for high definition.

Depends how susceptible you are to the problems, i think they are very bad particularly the sixth film.

Pretty sure the 6th film came from a 1080i master and not only does it have very bad DNR and edge enhancement but lots of aliasing, truly one of the worst blu ray releases currently in the marketplace.

 

[Camper]

Yes, I remember a guy who was pretty expert made a great case for movie 6 being taken from a 1080i source.

You take the bad color for Trek 2 and the screwed up opening credits for Trek 3, really heavy DNR for Trek 4, the "god" face being obscured in some shots in Trek 5 and you pretty much have every movie ruined to some extent.

That is why I've been saying if the really want to do it right for a future release they need to start very soon.

This is not just making some quick corrections and adding the deleted portions for 2-6-----it's about real restorations of 1, 3-6, finding the original film footage for the added "DC" scenes of Trek 1, 2, and 6, re-rendering the FX footage for Trek 1, finding deleted footage for a deleted scenes bonus feature for movies 2, 3, 4 and 6 and getting the color right on all the movies and also figuring out the apparently enormous solution to the opening credits for Trek 3 where they felt they needed to "pillarbox' the opening credits to prevent the loss of some the credits near the left and right edges.

That is not something they can ramp up in early 2016 as a tie-in for the presumed next movie---it's a long project that needs some folks who actually care about Star Trek and it's legacy on physical media.

CBS Digital which doesn't own the movies (Paramount itself does)---could be hired by Paramount to restore the movies----they have shown a lot of respect in their releases of TOS and TNG.

Make it so.


Sorry

 

[Jason_V]

also figuring out the apparently enormous solution to the opening credits for Trek 3 where they felt they needed to "pillarbox' the opening credits to prevent the loss of some the credits near the left and right edges.

IIRC, this was also present on the DVD's (both single and double disc). I don't know if I've ever seen the movie without the pillarboxing, as far as I remember.

 

[Camper]

It's amazing---the only name that would even come close to not fitting on some screens is "Dame Judith Anderson"----so the solution is to "pillar-box" 3 full minutes of video to make sure that a name that appears for 3 seconds doesn't get cut off?

That was the best solution they could come up with in 2009?

 

[Worth]

IIRC, this was also present on the DVD's (both single and double disc). I don't know if I've ever seen the movie without the pillarboxing, as far as I remember.

Nope, no window-boxing on the DVD of ST3. None on the initial DVDs of the Bond films, either.

 

[sonomatom1]

I wonder why this thread hasn't been retired since the last post was over six years ago!

 

[FoxyMulder]

I wonder why this thread hasn't been retired since the last post was over six years ago!

Are you getting your threads confused. ?

 

[Camper]

Non-sequitur his facts are un coordinated.

 

[Nelson Au]

Also in need of correction, the odd green color on the red side markings of the Enterprise during the Shuttle fly over in Star Trek TMP. "She needs more work!"

 

[Joel Fontenot]

Nope, no window-boxing on the DVD of ST3. None on the initial DVDs of the Bond films, either.

Or on the widescreen laserdisc of ST3. Granted, Dame Anderson's name did get clipped a bit on my old Mitsubishi 27" tube TV back when I first got that LD.

 

[Kevin EK]

Again, the fact that Paramount was not inclined to even do the minimal work to prepare the 2001 Wise cut of TMP for Blu-ray should tell you a lot about whether anyone will see major restoration work done for any of these movies.

 

[Jason_V]

Nope, no window-boxing on the DVD of ST3. None on the initial DVDs of the Bond films, either.

I wish I still had it so I could pop it into the player when I get home.

Thanks for setting me straight...I swear this was an issue with other DVD releases.

 

[Camper]

Again, the fact that Paramount was not inclined to even do the minimal work to prepare the 2001 Wise cut of TMP for Blu-ray should tell you a lot about whether anyone will see major restoration work done for any of these movies.

They told Bill Hunt from the Digitalbits that they were "unaware" that the Director's Cuts were not "ready to go" until it was too late to address the issue.

It would have been more honest to say, "Yeah, we're incompetent."

And how would that explain the fact that they didn't prepare any deleted scenes for the releases in 2009?

"Oh, we weren't aware there were any deleted scenes from those movies."

It really was a case of slapdash "tie-in" marketing with a touch of later "double-dip" on the side.

Except that they may end up figuring that any further dip dollars aren't worth the work that would have to go into it.

 

[Paul_Warren]

Also lets not forget the ST4 european prologue. That's just over 3 mins long includes beautiful new music by Leonard Rosenman, aggressive directional surround sound FX, pumped up bass & new Shatner narration recapping ST2+3 key events. IMO it adds a lot to the atmosphere & it also has a different main title card which is a sparkly transporter dissolve.

This needs restoring I cannot believe it would be hard to do since it was specifically created to sell ST4 outside US so it exists as a filmed element. Paramount just speak to Nimoy/Bennett/Winter they must know where the master prints were/are!

Someone put it up on youtube if your curious about this. It NEEDS to be included in future ST4 BD's since it would cost virtually nothing to include as the master exists somewhere in Paramount also while on the subject of ST4 what on earth did Lowry Digital Images actually do the PQ is horrible in places!

 

[Kevin EK]

The short answer is that they did this the cheapest, simplest way possible. They were not, and are not, about to spend anything more than the minimum to prepare yet another home video release. The one movie they took a little more time with was Star Trek II, which is universally the most popular one of the bunch - and even with that they didn't get the color timing quite right.

The different cuts of TMP, Trek II and Trek VI were prepared for DVD only with no effort being made to prepare them for HD. Had that effort been made at the time, Paramount would have had no problem putting out Blu-rays of those cuts. Since they didn't, it's unlikely now that they'll go back into them to try to recreate Blu-rays that they've already sold numerous times in their current incarnations.

The additional deleted scenes have never been included because they don't intend to include them. It's really as simple as that.

I continue to hope that for archival purposes, they'll do the minimal work needed to get Robert Wise's cut of TMP onto Blu-ray. Of the different cuts, that was the only one where you had the filmmaker saying that the film was unfinished before then. The bonus cuts of II & VI were bones thrown to Nicholas Meyer, but they weren't anything that he or Paramount were thinking would be the definitive cuts of his movies. Wise DID think that the DVD of TMP was his definitive cut, and he said so at the time.

 

[RJ992]

Wise DID think that the DVD of TMP was his definitive cut, and he said so at the time.

Certainly the only version I'd buy.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

If you'll allow me a moment of wishful thinking - I'd love a widescreen transfer of the "Special Longer Version" of TMP that was done for tv and video. (Yes, I know the shot of Kirk leaving the ship after Spock's spacewalk hadn't been finished, and while you don't notice the sets on a 4x3 crop for TV, you'd notice it on a widescreen version, but I don't mind.)

The cut I like the least of the film is the theatrical version, but I also have some quibbles with the Director's Edition. I understand Wise's intention to make it a bit warmer by removing a lot of the computerized voices overheard on the bridge and other areas, but I liked the sense of strangeness and unfamiliarity it brought to the Enterprise, which seemed appropriate because it was an unfamiliar Enterprise. There are moments trimmed which I miss, which Wise cut intentionally from his newer version, but seemed appropriate to me as they were. For instance, he cut Shatner saying "Viewer off!" a second time after the crew witnesses the destruction of the Epsilon station during the pre-launch gathering. Wise and/or his editor said it was (and I'm paraphrasing) because the crew of the Enterprise is the best crew out there and they wouldn't need an instruction twice, and that they wouldn't freeze where it was necessary to repeat an order. But I'd argue that what they witnessed on that screen was so disturbing and so unprecedented at that point that it was actually stunning, and scary, and that the extra moment was needed to snap people out of shock. Many of the moments cut out of the director's edition are little moments like this that play up just how tense the situation is, just how dangerous the enemy is, and/or just how unfamiliar Kirk is with the newly redesigned ship. By removing those elements, some of the conflict has been removed, and there's less tension in some moments.

I'd put the deleted shots of V'ger back in, it's absolutely gorgeous effects work and really helps convey just how vast the entity is. And I really hate some of the CGI footage, which just looks so out of place compared to the rest of the film. I know they did the best they could, but they're not to my liking for the most part. I don't like the newly created wide shots that show the entire V'Ger vessel -- I liked that we never saw all of V'Ger in the original version, I thought the point was that V'Ger was so damn big you just couldn't show it onscreen. Seeing the entire thing just diminished the entire threat for me. I also don't like how they added at the end when the crew leaves the Enterprise, the CGI bridge forming for them. It just looks totally fake and animated to me, and not like it's part of the film.

Basically, the version that's closest to my idea of a perfect version is the Special Longer Version. I want the extra scene with Spock crying, for instance. The Director's Edition is close in many ways, but also has some things that I find very jarring and that take me out of the movie. I was really, really happy to have the theatrical version come out on Blu-ray. I wouldn't want that to be the only version available, but at least it preserves the lengths of the effects shots (except for the ones extended in the longer version), and has all of the original sound effects and visual effects.

Just my take on that. Again, to be clear, I'm not saying that I don't want the Director's Edition to come out. I'd like a Close Encounters-style release that had all three versions. But I am grateful that the Theatrical Version is out on disc, because I wouldn't want the Director's Edition to be the only one available.

 

[Camper]

We have 3 of the movies with 3 versions.....

TMP------theatrical, SLV-(ABC 1983), and Director's (2001)
TWOK---theatrical, ABC (1985), and Director's (2001)
TUC------theatrical, "longer video version" (1992)and "Collector's Edition 2 disc DVD" (2002) with minor tweaks by Meyer

I really think there are too many differences between the TMP Director's Edition and the other two versions to use branching. I think the widescreen SLV should be branched with the theatrical and the Director's would need a disc of it's own.

For TWOK it is an easy branch between the 3 as the only difference between the ABC and the Director's is the 50 seconds alternate turbo-lift scene between Kirk and Saavik and the other 3 min 30 seconds between the DC and the theatrical.

For TUC same thing about 20 seconds difference between the Longer video version and the "tweaked" 2002 version and 3 min 26 seconds between that and the theatrical.

I see a lot of folks saying that they think TMP may get a director's cut but not the others because the others don't have enough changes to make a difference, but the other 2 would be easier to do by far and if they were going to the effort of doing the harder to do but less liked TMP--I don't see them skipping TWOK and TUC.

I wish Paramount would say.......

No plans for anything so far"

Looking into the possibility of director's cuts"

Unlikely to be revisited in the near future."

They are currently blowing out all the sets at bargin prices. If this is because they are going to announce something soon that's good except for the folks buying the current sets.

If they were to say "no plans" then they'd get a boost in sales of the current sets.
If they were to new versions were possible---they could gauge the buzz and it would quite a buzz and tons of speculation which I think would be good for them.
If they were to say "Unlikely" they'd also get a boost in sales of the current versions.

So saying nothing---which is what they are doing----is the worst thing they could be doing. It simply leads some folks like myself to hold out forever and a few people to slowly break down and buy the current sets (and be annoyed if new sets are announced for 2016)

Amazon has blowing out the 6 movie set for under $30 for weeks.

and oddly Amazon is taking pre-orders for another different version of TWOK coming out July 1 of this year---which doesn't even still have cover art and is selling for $9.99 (which is 99.999% likely to be the same version already out.)

Why resell 3 of the movies in new packaging at this point? To further clear their inventory for a future deluxe release?

The lack of info is maddening.

Why in 2014 release 3 of the movies again as singles in new packaging (or same packaging with new SKU ) ??

My tirade/rant/speculation post #46 on the subject is over.

 

[Kevin EK]

The problem with the "Special Longer Version" of TMP is that it wasn't focused by a director. It was literally a case of just throwing all that extra footage back into the movie without any regard to rhyme, reason or pacing. Some of the material is brilliant, and almost all of that wound up in Wise's actual Director's Cut. Some of the material, like the endless bunch of call-outs before Vejur's first plasma bolt hits the Enterprise, is just toe-tapping. The shot of Kirk leaving the airlock doesn't even work in the 4x3 version, as you can see the stage around what little set had been built - and that shot was meant to set up the Memory Wall sequence that was never completed. I agree that you couldn't seamlessly branch to it, and I wouldn't recommend doing so. Frankly, I'm fine to just have Robert Wise's cut of the movie. I wish he would have left in the one bit about "we all create God in our own image" as it motivates Kirk's outburst to Ilia, but it was his call to leave it out.

The TV version of Star Trek II not only had the "flirting" version of the elevator scene but also had some really terrible music edits to cover the inclusion of extra moments. I'd agree that you could seamlessly branch in the alternate elevator scene, but it looks to me that Meyer himself decided not to do that for the DVD. My thinking was that he was trying to use the closer shots for the 1985 TV version for that scene in 4x3, but he clearly didn't stay with that thought when he had a chance to do it again in 2002. I'd be fine to just see Meyer's longer DVD cut, if he wanted to make it available. If not, I'm actually fine with the theatrical cut. My problem is that they blue-shifted the color timing so that the Enterprise is a pale blue and white seats on the bridge have a blue tinge to them.

Star Trek VI simply works best for me in the theatrical cut. I had wondered about those extra scenes until I saw them and said something like "Ick." The whole Colonel West idea just didn't do it for me.

A major reason to do TMP for Blu is that it was known to be Wise's cut, and because Paramount prepared a fair amount of VAM for it that was not a part of the 2009 Blu-ray. For a very modest amount, Paramount could upgrade the Wise cut from SD to HD and have themselves a new Blu-ray with Wise's stamp on it. Of course, the longer Paramount takes about even considering whether to do it, the less likely such a project becomes.