Star Trek: TOS Remastered in HD! But...

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by John C. Chu

From the heroic opening musical theme by Jerry Goldsmith

Goldsmith talks about this in one of the DVD features. They have an excerpt from his first recording of part of the score, and it sounded pretty good. He said he was pleased with it, but the first time Robert Wise heard it he said, "it sounds like a naval battle". Goldsmith was disappointed so he asked the producer what he thought. "It sounds like a wagon train rolling across the desert."

Later Wise spoke with Goldsmith and told him the thing the movie really needed was some kind of a theme. That led to the birth of the familiar music we now know.

[Chris Hurd]

And I think this has been covered here before, but worth pointing out that Roddenberry wrote lyrics for the original Alexander Courage theme (even though they were never used), in order to justify taking a share in the music credits and thus a share in the residuals. Courage never forgave him for that, and soon left the series in protest. This is why there's so much recycled music in the second and third seasons. As a big fan of both Roddenberry and Alexander Courage, I wish they could have amicably resolved this matter so we could have enjoyed more of AC's talent. This has always been one of my favorite "what if.." ponderings about TOS.

Note: edited to fix my blunder of confusing Courage with Goldsmith. Thank you, Jubal 28!

[David Jimerson]

EDIT: No longer necessary!

[Chris Hurd]

Of course! Alexander Courage! *slapping forehead*

That's what I get for not having that second cup of coffee. I'm so embarrassed, I'm going back to edit that dang post. Thanks for the correction, David!

[Marcus Marchesseault]

No fair! Moderators get to look smarter by editing their old posts! :)

[Barry Gribble]

Well you can too.

Either way, it's better than them looking smarter by editing your old posts :).

[Craig Chartier]

I watched an eposide on G4 network that had the ship going back in time. they replaced the spinning dials on the clock with new CG LCD numbers.

[David Jimerson]

Originally Posted by Craig Chartier

I watched an eposide on G4 network that had the ship going back in time. they replaced the spinning dials on the clock with new CG LCD numbers.

See . . . that's just wrong.

[Noah Hayes]

See, with stuff like that, I don't have a problem with, although its pretty unneccessary. I was watching Blade Runner the other day, movie like that definately need a technology update on computer monitors and such. The thing that makes these movies/ shows classic is the dialog, acting, and story. These three pieces are not being modified, the things they are changing keeps Star Trek TOS from becoming just another one of those "cheesy science-fiction shows/movies" that even our generation to some extent and most definately future generations who didnt grow up with them will just watch to laugh at, not taking it seriously or as the classic it is.

I think TONS of movies and old tv shows could benefit from the slight overhaul they've given TOS. Its almost like a directors cut of a movie (not as modified as Star Wars, which was a little much in my opinion) so whats everyone so upset about?

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Noah Hayes

I was watching Blade Runner the other day, movie like that definately need a technology update on computer monitors and such.

I really have to disagree with you there. I think the way the future is portrayed always tells us a lot about the period in which the film was made. If you want more modern technology in Blade Runner, then remake the whole thing.

Terry Gilliam has done some brilliant things with retro-future technology in Brazil and Twelve Monkeys for example. And the interesting thing is that this grew out of their budget reality, because they realized they couldn't afford to build new futuristic props for the movie so they went the junk sculpture route instead and I think it works very well.

I love watching those sci fi movies, like Alien for example, where they have to go into a special room and hunt and peck on a big clunky keyboard and read the computer's response on a low resolution ASCII screen. I also think it's fun that you can never portray a computer without having it make all kinds of clicks and clacks and beeps as it "thinks" about what you're typing into it.

And I'm very impressed by CGI, but have to agree that a big model of a spaceship does look more "real." The last Star Wars movie looked like a cartoon to me...

[David Jimerson]

There was a lot of hooting and hollering when Lucas changed “Star Wars.”

There was a great hue and cry when Spielberg changed “E.T.”.

But at least Lucas and Spielberg could say they were changing their own movies.

With this “Star Trek” project, others are presuming to change someone else’s art.

Remember when Ted Turner arrogated unto himself the task of colorizing old black and white movies? That didn’t go over well.

And this is an example of the same thing. There’s no need to update “Star Trek.” It’s an artifact of its time – and of its budget.

We wouldn’t presume to repaint a Degas, would we?

[Paul R Johnson]

I'm a fan, but watching re-runs here in the UK of the origina series, I could do some work in my studio here - most of the opticals, especially the star fields and matt shots afre pretty crude. some of the enterprise moving in space shots shudder and jerk. most effects shots have a quality difference very apparent when the optical starts and finishes, these shots could easily be put right and I don't think this destroys anything - after all, if the technology had been available they would have used it then. The current quality makes the use of doubles very obvious, something I didn't notice back when I was a kid!

[Frank Granovski]

What I really hate is watching the re-runs on TV Saturdays because all the good parts have been removed. No more Captain Kirk re-runs for me on Saturdays. It stinks.

[David Jimerson]

OK, now that I've watched one . . .

I'm still against it in principle. But the worse sin is that the new CGI footage clashes with the original footage. It's mismatched. It draws attention to itself. It's clearly from a different era.

[Charles Papert]

The interesting thing about all of these re-do's is that we are bringing them up to our current level of technology, but what will happen in 20 years when we may have a whole new set of interfaces? Will the LCD numbers that replaced the spinning clock be replaced again with a heads-up 3D display (or whatever)? The parallel I draw is from my own house--when I bought it, it was a '30's bungalow that had been expanded in the 70's; I'm sure at the time the add-on seemed very contemporary but by the time I bought it, both halves seemed really out-of-date and mismatched. Will we view these episodes (and Episodes 4-6 of the Star Wars trilogy) in the same way?