Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Trek: TOS box sets

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Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 11-02-2003, 12:41 PM:

Finally......

(from "The Digital Bits" page)

10/16/03

Okay, folks... this was going around the Net yesterday as something in the works for Region 2, so I thought we'd get the skinny for you about Region 1. I've officially confirmed with Paramount that complete season box sets of Star Trek: The Original Series are in the planning stages for DVD release here in the States. However, you probably shouldn't expect them until after most of the work on the Star Trek: Voyager complete season DVDs is finished. Voyager is expected to be released, a season at a time, throughout 2004. I'm told that late 2004 is a possibility for TOS, but they might not be released until 2005. This is definitely going to happen, but it's early in the planning and plenty is still up in the air. So don't start warming up those phasers just yet.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwocentsa79.html#tosevent

[Smile]

Posted by Daniel Wright (Member # 1983) on 11-02-2003, 02:32 PM:

Are the Dvds of the original series going to be uncut? A few years ago the Sci-Fi channel was showing the eppsodes with footage that had been removed for syndication.
Is this going to be on the new Dvds?

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 11-02-2003, 05:30 PM:

I have no idea. I can't imagine them selling an edited version unless they tell you. I'm sure they'd have lots of returns. Who'd buy it anyway?
ScFi channel edits (as do others) so they can get more commercials in the hour. It's extremely annoying to me. I know all of them by heart having watched them from day one (over and over and over) so when I see an unscheduled commercial and when you come back there's a chunk missing I get real upset.
Let's hope they offer some extras, like the blooper reel, and I don't mean that horrible 16mm dupe that you see here and there, which doesn't have all the bloopers anyway.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 11-04-2003, 06:27 PM:

Star Trek Original series is already out on DVD, though they are only 2 episodes per disc (low compression and great picture quality) and they are unedited. They also include the "coming soon trailers" for the episodes in question. They really should just release box sets of these discs, as they are great. If they compressed them more to make more episodes fit on a disc, then they'd be ruined. The current DVDs are all 24p and look fantastic. They also have a psuedo 5.1 mix, though it is very minimal.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 11-06-2003, 09:16 AM:

Joe
Talking about squeezing stuff onto discs...
I was a little worried about the Farscape box sets I got that are region 4. They put 4 episodes on one disc. I don't know if it's because it's in PAL or what but the 4 on 1 discs look better than the 2 on 1 discs that I got that are region 1. Maybe the squishing technology has gotten better?
But the real bonus in getting the box sets is price. Even at the cheapest place I could find on the net, the entire Trek: TOS collection would have cost over $600. The box sets will bring this way down and I (and a lot of people who have been waiting) will buy them all

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 11-06-2003, 12:07 PM:

I think I've mentioned this before, but the picture quality of most episodes of STOS is excellent. Even the old laserdiscs looked great. Whether it's by luck or by plan, these look sharp and crisp, with bright saturated primary colors. Very nice considering the age of the source material. I guess we can at least partly thank 35mm film origination for that?

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-06-2003, 12:33 PM:

Yep. The original Star Trek series was shot on 35mm Kodak FILM. [Smile]

Great image quality for something shot over 35 years ago. Advances in telecine technology have made recent transfers from older film series better than ever, even available in HD.
[Cool]

http://www.sunsetpost.com/dvdprod.html

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 11-06-2003, 07:16 PM:

At Trek conventions in the 70s in Seattle, they used to show the episodes in 35mm. In between they'd run the 35mm blooper reel which was refered to as the "inter-mission". It was at one of these conventions that the blooper reel was stolen [Frown]

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 11-07-2003, 07:32 AM:

Desilu Studios was quality-oriented. The beautiful negatives of ST:TOS is probably due to careful negative storage.

I saw an I LOVE LUCY 35mm print many years ago. Beautiful, sharp, and almost 3D-looking.

Back in the day, (1970's) I ran ST in 16mm in an independent station uncut. They ran around 50-51 minutes. The prints were all labeled as syndication prints. I never really noticed if there was any footage missing compared to the network versions.
All of our prints were missing the 'next voyage' trailers, and all 'bridges' ("This is William Shatner. Tonights episode of STAR TREK will continue in a moment.") BUT, we asked for, and got, a set of the trailers. We ran them now and then with the shows.

Ahh, the memories of indie TV before FOX...

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-07-2003, 08:19 AM:

On August 18, 2002, John D. Lowry of Lowry Digital Images, Inc., posted
the following on the Cinematography Mailing List (cml-hdtv):

quote:
"I have had the privilege of 2K scanning and processing images from the "I Love Lucy" series in recent weeks. The film we worked with, shot in 1953, has a quality level which can only be exceeded today by the use of the newer color films. (In fact we recommended that these programs should be scanned at 4K to capture, for the long term future, everything on these aging 50 year old films.)

The very best television image capture systems in 1953 used black and white 525 lines or 625 lines and kinescope recordings. Video tape did not come along for another three years. Had these wonderful programs been shot with the latest electronic equipment at that time the results would have been effectively lost forever. How do you feel "The Honeymooners" kinescopes look today?

Film created via HD 24P 1920 X 1080 capture, presents reasonable images on the theatre screen (Eg: Spy Kids 2). The audience probably does not notice the difference between film and HD capture since the pre-emphasis of the low frequency information appears to carry the resolution at an acceptable level. Lots of close-ups work very well. (Close-ups look good almost regardless of resolution since we already have too much information about the face. The details of the pores in the skin are just not necessary.) The subtle details in long shots are a tougher issue for HD and are often lost due to the bandwidth constraints of the present system.

In my opinion both HD and film have a place in the capture of motion pictures today from an economics perspective. But, if you are interested in the long term value of a special motion picture property to be shot today, history suggests that film has significant advantages.

John D. Lowry
Lowry Digital Images, Inc.
Burbank, CA"

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 01-30-2005, 09:25 PM:

It has been 450 days since the last post.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-30-2005, 09:25 PM:

Well, I just cracked open my Christmas present of Star Trek TOS (complete all three seasons).

They have 4 episodes per disc plus trailers and on the last disc of each season there are the extras. The last disc of Season 3 has The Cage for completeness.

The quality of the pictures are EXCELLENT. I owned most of TOS on Laser and yes they too are excellent. I've only watched one episode thus far...City on the Edge of Forever. I was surprised at the amount of film damage on the transfer...dirt, scratches and such. All of the "stock footage" was very dirty and it probably was. The scratches I thought odd. The color was good and the overall look was stunning...very film like. I view it on a front-projection system with an image height of about 5-feet or so (much bigger than they could have ever intended for it to be seen in the '60s).

They look much better than the bulk of the Hollywood Feature films. Speaking of which, why doesn't Walt Disney Pictures transfer their DVDs in an anamorphic format to retain as much detail as possible (for 16:9 systems)?

Steve

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 01-30-2005, 09:35 PM:

I was amazed at how good the laserdiscs looked. I'm gonna have to check out the DVDs now. [Cool]

Someone at Paramount has treated those TOS episodes with a lot of TLC. They look better than the Star Trek feature films.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 01-31-2005, 01:20 AM:

Were the original episodes in mono? & has the sound been re engineered?

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-31-2005, 12:41 PM:

Yes, the original episodes were mono...that is all there was in TV land back then. They have been re-engineered for a stereo like effect. I've only viewed one episode thus far but they didn't get too fancy...dialog out of center...add some effects into surrounds, if appropriate. It actually reminds me of a Perspecta like mix...there isn't anything there that wasn't in the original, just placed in more places if it worked....when in doubt though...fold it all down into Center.

Steve

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 01-31-2005, 02:44 PM:

Yah they barely had color TV back then. I remember the peacock coming on at the beginning of the show and the announcer announcing that it was in living color. I was in my teens then and didn't get a chance to see it in color until syndication

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-06-2005, 03:04 PM:

Well I've made a pretty good dent into seeing the 1st season on DVD....

After much consideration, I prefer the way the Laserdiscs handled the layout. The DVDs followed "airdates" rather than episode order. However, as far as seeing the evolution of the episodes, the shot order or episode order makes much more sense. Also, the "Next Week's Voyage" on the Laserdics were for the next week's voyage...on the DVD, the preview is grouped with the associated episode.

I do like the "pop-up video" option offered on a couple of episodes. Little message ballons pop up to describe little artifacts that might otherwise be overlooked. They are defeatable, of course (they are programmed as Subtitle 2).

I'm amazed at the amount of print damage on the episodes. All of the "stock footage" has some sort of dirt or damage and some of the main part of some episodes have scratches, some rather prominant, for several seconds. Since the scratches come and go with edits, I can only presume they were on the negatives or early stages of the prints.

The big dislike I have is having to wait through the whole Paramount startup menu on each disc...and that to play any episodes you have to first select the title...which brings you through a graphic to get to the screen that eventually lets you play the episode...takes too long and too many button pushes.

However, image clarity remains high on all episodes.

The new 5.1 mix seems to be done with much restraint and does add a bit to the show. Off screen calls do happend off screen...even the opening "swishes" of the ship flying out of the screen fly into the appropriate surround. Again...most everything is from center but when they can, they do use the other channels to give a sense of space. In "Miri" the kids chanting come from all channels to give a sense they are all around you.

Steve

[ 02-06-2005, 06:30 PM: Message edited by: Steve Guttag ]

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 02-06-2005, 07:09 PM:

Miri, Great episode, any favourite episodes that stand out, and why?

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 02-06-2005, 08:57 PM:

City on The Edge of Forever (I love time travel)
Requiem For Methuselah (The last scene where Spock says "Forget")
The Paradise Syndrome (The tragedy)

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-06-2005, 10:03 PM:

I just really liked the Corbomite Maneuver. Heck it even starred a very young Clint Howard (Ron Howard's younger brother seen in every Ron Howard film...somewhere).

The Cage...a true masterpiece of work.

Tomorrow is Yesterday...another great time-travel story.

The Deadly Years...a great aging episode.

I always liked "A Piece of the Action"

"Spock's Brain" only for its comedic value...it was Star Trek's equivalent to the Brady Bunch's "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia...with "Brain and Brain, what is brain?"

"I, Mudd"...this just a hoot, plain and simple.

"Mirror, Mirror" was a great story that they reprised in one of the spin offs (DS 9, I believe) and also showed up in Shatner's books that continue the Star Trek story.

Steve

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 02-09-2005, 01:31 AM:

Can't believe Trouble with Tribbles hasn't been mentioned.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 02-09-2005, 09:09 AM:

..."I always liked "A Piece of the Action"......

After the cancellation of the series there were a number of Trek conventions around Seattle. At one of them they had 35mm Trek episodes that were chosen by ticket buyers popularity vote. One of them was "A Piece of the Action". When it got to the part where Spock finally tries his hand at "the vernacular" and says "I'd advise yas ta keep dialin da phone" It brought the house down. Never seen an audience spontaneously erupt like that, before or since

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 02-09-2005, 12:30 PM:

quote: Greg Mueller
After the cancellation of the series there were a number of Trek conventions around Seattle. At one of them they had 35mm Trek episodes that were chosen by ticket buyers popularity vote.

Were those 35mm prints just for showing at conventions, or were they available for theatrical screenings? Did Paramount distribute them?

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 02-09-2005, 12:47 PM:

Back in the early-mid 80s there was some old guy traveling around the country cashing in on Star Trek by showing the infamous ST Blooper Reel at colleges and universities. I think it was 16mm but I wouldn't bet the house on that. He'd do one or two shows, then move on to the next city. This was before the blooper reel became readily available on bootleg video, and way before the Internet. I'm sure he wasn't affiliated with Paramount either.

I distinctly remember 2 things about his presentation: The film was TRASHED, and through the entire show he referred to William Shatner as "William Shackter". [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 02-09-2005, 06:11 PM:

quote: David Favel
any favourite episodes that stand out

My favorites...

1st Season:
Arena
Balance Of Terror
The City On The Edge Of Forever

2nd Season:
Assignment: Earth
A Piece Of The Action
The Trouble With Tribbles

3rd Season:
The Enterprise Incident
The Tholian Web

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 02-09-2005, 06:15 PM:

Apparently the show was shot on 35mm as I know of a collector that had a couple of episodes and the staff people always referred to them as "The Original 35mm prints". Don't know if they were available to theaters. The staff of the convention had to go through Paramount to get them as I recall. They had that blooper reel (on 35) at the convention and it was stolen there. Later bootleg 16mm prints (that were awful as well as incomplete) started showing up and that's what you see on those tapes etc.
I got a chance to see Gene Roddenberry at his own traveling show where he talked and ran a print of "The Cage" although it was only in B&W. It's been over 30 years since all this went down so I'm a little hazy on some of the memories.
I saw "Scotty" once and he ran a print of Tribbles but I don't know if it was 16 or 35. Saw "Bones" at an "Apple Blossom Festival Parade" in Wenatchee, Wa once. Never seen Kirk or Spock in person. Saw Sulu numerous times at conventions (party animal) Saw Uhuru once too. Never saw Chekov

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 02-09-2005, 06:29 PM:

I saw James Doohan at a ST convention here in Eugene. The audience was full of the usual assortment of Star Trek fans, old and young. Doohan was introduced to great applause. He started reminiscing about his Star Trek experience, and I was pretty sure right from the get-go that Scotty had been imbibing a little Romulan Ale before he took the stage. His talk kind of drifted around, and he was making an effort to be personable and upbeat, but then he started in on Shatner. Now as far as I know, Doohan and Shatner still don't talk to each other to this day. Anyway Scotty, with obvious bitterness, said something like "That egotistical bastard Shatner ruined it for all of us!". He quickly caught himself and tried to change the subject and make happy again, but you could tell the audience was slightly in shock. [Big Grin]

Another time I saw Worf, what's his name, Michael Dorn. He was in civilian clothes, which obviously disappointed a lot of the fans. During the Q&A session, and I swear I'm not making this up, an ADULT in the audience, dressed in a Starfleet uniform, asked Dorn "What does it feel like being beamed up?" This person was serious too. [Eek!]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-09-2005, 07:09 PM:

Shatner and Doohan still do not talk to this day, however that may be because Doohan is DEAD. Last I checked, the majority of his skin has rotted away but many internal organs are visable and even identifiable. Doohan has a web camera in his coffin so that web viewers can check on the state of his decomposure at any time. I can post the link if you want.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 02-09-2005, 07:16 PM:

Say what???!!! James Doohan is still among the living, although he has early-stage Alzheimer's. DeForest Kelley died in 1999. Does he (De) have a CasketCam? I heard Paramount sold Bones' bones on eBay.