Star Trek: Enhanced

# 1 14-09-2006 , 08:40 PM

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I can't believe this has not been a topic of discussion here!!

This past weekend Star trek The origional Series has been put back into TV syndication! For those who have not heard. CBS has made the effort to remaster the Star trek the original series with new visual effects. They have gone back and replaced all ship, exterior, and other misc shots with CGI replacements, giving a more up to date look to the shows; however, all has not gone exactly to plan. The brain child behind this momentus movement was to be excluded from the production. Click on the link for the complete story. BEAM ME UP SCOTTY!

Here is a CG shot of the original series enterprize orbiting earth by EdenFX. Sorry folks, you wont be seeing this in the series. More shots can be seen here.Linkage user added image

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# 2 14-09-2006 , 10:49 PM

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I don't know - to be honest - why bother? I mean I might be interested in seeing the original series completely redone... (actually, no i wouldn't), but just adding some new cgi effects... ack...

It's like George Lucas with Star Wars - I mean why can't he leave it well enough alone? At the end of the day, it's not like he added anything worthwhile - (I mean jabba the hutt looked crap - Han Solo stepping over his tail?!) and after a couple of years the new effects look dated making it just look even worse. But then, of course, they redo it again...

Just leave it alone. It's star trek for **** sake!! Make something new!!

( sorry ) :blush:

arran3D

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Last edited by arran; 14-09-2006 at 11:10 PM.

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# 3 14-09-2006 , 11:43 PM

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Why bother? Because the effects are so out of date compared to the later series. I agree with the argument against the Starwars special edition. The origional effects still hold up for the most part. I don't know why lucas wanted to change it, but we are talking about Star trek here. The whole point to this is that they do not want to the same thing lucas did with starwars. Instead they are matching everything that was done for the originals, down to the starfiels and lighting. It's just that they will look a bit more detailed and dynamic, which is a good thing. The only thing that was worked on were the external shots for the most part. Read the artical if you haven't allready.

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# 4 15-09-2006 , 12:10 AM

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But the effects in each star trek series differ - look at TNG compared to Enterprise. I'm not against it like it's the end of the world, but at what point do you just leave it alone? Are we going to keep remaking the special effects for each series for every generation as the technology improves over and over and over? agh, that just seems so dead. It's like repainting the sistine chapel - at some point it's no longer michaelangelo. It just seems redundant. And even if it is just exterior shots, I would think that that would make the contrast with the original acting even stronger. Granted, I haven't seen it, and I am curious...and yeah, maybe it's fantastic and improves on the original.....but I like all of those old crappy special effects!!

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# 5 15-09-2006 , 04:14 AM

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There is nothing wrong with liking the original effects. Most purist don't like origional work altered. I completely understand. The new FX may or may not appeal to alot of people, but for me atleast, it's being taken to a level that makes it more appealing without having to reinvent it. These new shots have not been re invented. The shots look the same as the old ones do but with more dynamics. You should check it out when you have free time.

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# 6 15-09-2006 , 05:10 AM

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Look at it as an excersie in experimentation. The 60's &70's were all cardboard walls and some guy making swish noises behind the doors, while 2 stage hands pull the doors apart.

Now with the technological advances in CGI, and technology in general, why not give it a go. Star Trek has been given a make over, if they have the capital spare to do it. Go for it... At least its a good training excercise for the VFX post teams.

I think George Lucas was given a hard time about the re touch of Ep 4, 5 & 6. IMHO he was more than justified, the original cells and score were of exceptioanlly poor quality and going digital and retouching those effects helped the films phsyical survival, but I must agree the Han Solo over Jabbas Tail was quite tachy but was the only way to make it work, as in that edit he was a humaniod. It was only in Pre-Production of Ep 6 that it was decided Jabba would be a giant slug.

I say leave Lucas alone, why don't his critics make up a 6 part movie, spawn a cartoon series and multiple books for a single story.

Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
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# 7 15-09-2006 , 06:01 AM

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The problem with starwars 4, 5, 6, is that Lucas will not restore the unaltered versions. Shure there are things that would warrent a FX change ( light sabres for example ), but for the most part what Lucas should have done with the special edition was match the look the new shots with the old shots. The new effects stand out apart from the original FX work. The origional trilogy now days suffers from a rush job and hasn't recieved the attention to detail that it deserves. Now that Lowry Digital has technologically brought the prints up to a new level. Effects matching should not be a problem. If Lucas wants to really sell the SE editions, He needs to rebuild all the new FX shots and match them with the classic shots. Alot of the new CG shots look a bit too cartoonish aswell, so it would make sence to redo those shots for better realism, and keep the origional song for Jabbas band. I could not stand the Jabba rocks song.

The idea behind Startrek: enhanced was to preserve the same shot ( lighting and everything ) but make it a little bit more dynamic. And the controversy behind that is wether or not to make it photoreal. CBS didn't want "photreal" effects. they wanted to keep the shots looking like the original ones, and not so much like the theactrical counter parts.

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# 8 15-09-2006 , 11:33 AM

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Man I'm still hoping for a new season Star Trek in some form. Enterprise only did the 4 seasons user added image

and as far as I know, season four hasn't aired on Free to Air here.

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# 9 16-09-2006 , 09:10 AM

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Ah this 'old' subject rears its head again.

I see it from both sides.

Firstly be it Star Trek or Star Wars thats being re run as the original, great! Its nostalgia at its best and it takes you back. Period

secondly, I would say since George (Im am on first name terms here LOL) has tinkered with the originals, its made every one else follow suit, including directors cuts or aded scenes here and there, which for the die hard fan is absolutely great. Myself being a real big SW fan, (Empire is still the best movie to date). Also again it pushes the boundaries with technology being of the utmost importance. George always wanted to add the extras to SW because at first budget wouldnt allow it and nodbody was interested in it at first. Then bang, big time!! George made everyone look up and rethink the whole movie tv thing, all matter of possibilites lay ahead. I think he mentions on an SW doc that a film director never finishes a movie completely, he abandons them. So if face with the possible choice of having another go, I think we'd all do it. Its cheaper than it ever was as well and can ,when done properly, fool the arse off you.

George Lucas does it, because he can, again setting an example for all to take advantage of whats being given to them. Unfortunately not everybody sees it this way.

It pisses me off, when these dudes with film cameras start banging on too about film over digital. Those arty farty types who have nothing better to do than dream of Film grain and scratched negs and think they are so 'in', how many of us want a scratched set of holiday negs from a once in a lifetime break over a digital version?

Hats off to the guys doing the remastered ST, used to love that after school...

Anyway enough ranting, I need to wind the TV up again! LOL

Jay

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