I expected a lot worse.
Paramount got around to releasing some promotional material for the new enhanced Star Trek. Based on those clips, it looks like it could have been a lot worse. While I am still against this in principle, the enhancements don’t seem too intrusive to me. I’ll have to watch a few episodes to be sure. In the meanwhile, here are some video previews.
The first video is a 3 minute promotional film that explores the digital cleanup of the film and the transfer to HD. Some of the split screen comparisons looked exaggerated to me but it does look nice. The new FX look pretty good but the fact is that it’s just not the same, but I was fearing worse. One particularly annoying thing is the announcer, who seems to think the series is named ‘Star TRACK.’ Oh well, you can’t win them all!
Next is a short video on the re-recording of the music. It does seem fairly authentic, but I have to admit it kind-of creeps me out to see the female vocalist there. I always new the original theme had a female vocalist but it was better left to the imagination.
Last is a short piece on the digital cleanup of the original films.
It’s worth the 6 minutes to take a peek at these videos. I was very curious about the ‘enhancements’. This sneak preview hit the spot!
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Judging from the clips, I think this undertaking was tastefully done. I don’t find it offensive at all. I do agree with you that seeing the female vocalist is kind of creepy. I don’t want to see her. It should be an angellic or spiritual voice, not body needed.
And you are right, the announcer clearly says Track, not Trek. WTF? I hope that when “the ship hits the fans” it will captivate younger audiences who were not exposed to the original or reruns because the graphics were antiquated. Though, I have to say, a classic is always a classic. My daughter sat through the original War of the Worlds a couple of years ago and loved it.
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OK, I just watched them, and I can see how someone might think this was a good idea, but to my mind it is still a derogation of the original’s integrity. It’d be like taking an original Enrico Caruso recording and dubbing his original vocal over a modern recording of the music. Sounds great, but something, to me at least, feels very wrong about doing that.
The final result might be “better,” but wouldn’t we have sacrificed the performance’s honesty and integrity? The work would lose its sense of wholeness and uniqueness, and be forever reduced in our minds to an assemblage of parts, arbitrarily pasted together, to be ripped apart and reassembled whenever someone thought they could “improve” it.
I can see polishing what’s already there with new technology, but to scrap the original elements implies there’s something wrong with them when the plain fact is, nothing’s wrong with them! I mean, was there really a need to re-record the theme, JUST so it’d be digital, and audio geeks could smile at the improved treble response?
Colorization is another example of what I’m talking about. The suits just don’t get it. Actually, they just don’t care. To them, and to too many others in this consumer culture, “new” automatically equals better. I don’t think I need to say how wrong-headed that attitude can be.
And VV, you may have expected worse, but remember: they’re just getting started!
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ThelmaSFL, you are right. A classic is always a classic and based on the clips, the ‘enhancements’ are not too intrusive (yet). You’re also right that this tweaking of the original series is partly to turn a new generation of fans onto Trek, since I am sure that the accountants and actuaries ran the numbers through their computers and figured out that, as the francise turns 40, their most dedicated fan base will start dying off soon. They need new Trekkies and Trekkers - and this is part of their blan to breed a ‘Next Generation’ of fans!
The original War of the Worlds is a great film! The world is in safe hands with Dr. Clayton Forrester!!!
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jaytee, you are 100% right and I remain against this endeavor as a matter of principle, for the reasons you articulated. Once they start down this road, it’s all up for grabs. Why not digitally improve a performance? Make the Gorn into a CGI monster? Tweak the costumes or sets a bit.
There clearly comes a point where the integrity of the original is compromised. That point, it seems to me, is when they make their first substantive change to the production. Cleaning up the film and remastering the sound is usually a good thing. Re-recording the soundtrack is another matter entirely. The new FX is even worse. In principle, the integrity of the original has been compromised.
As you wrote, they just don’t get it and they just don’t care. I may tune in now and then to see how they pulled it off, but I’d never replace my original Star Trek TOS series DVDs with this stuff.
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