Comments | science_officer: Star Trek Memories

science_officer

Star Trek Memories

Jul 11, 2008 19:02

Star Trek Memories

I bought the DVD sets of ST: TOS last year and finished watching all of them a few months ago. Paramount has since re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-released at least some of the TOS episodes on home video, this time on HD-DVD (just in time for HD to lose the format wars to Blu-Ray). Because I have only an ordinary DVD player ( Read more... )

st, sf, trek, startrek

Comments 19

bear_helms September 11 2008, 18:28:45 UTC

(I found you via the Startrek community posting you made calling attention to this very blog entry ( ... )

science_officer September 12 2008, 02:24:36 UTC

(I found you via the Startrek community posting you made calling attention to this very blog entry.)

Welcome! :-)

I have purchased the HD version and actually found the digital touch-ups and "set improvements" to be a distraction, ... [SNIP]Too pristine and plastic.

My information on the HD version comes from two sources: one, from viewing several of the HD episodes on local TV; two, from attending a screening of "The Menagerie" in a movie theater in (probably) late 2007. I'm fairly enthusiastic about the digital retouching, but it really does make the show look pristine and plastic, as you wrote. Even though they've de-noised the original 16MM images, the "grain" in the new CGI exteriors still isn't severe enough. That's right: I essentially wish for lower-resolution CGI, just to keep things consistent--to make the transitions between new and old material less jarring. And I wish something could be done about some of the more primitive 1960s "spark" or "zap!" visuals that were mingled with the live action.

I actually ( ... )

Sorry about the snippage... science_officer September 12 2008, 02:26:18 UTC

Sorry about the snippage, but this system allows for 4300 characters only. I'm convinced I've seen LJ postings longer than that... do you know if I can get around the 4300-character limit... ?

Science_Officer

Re: Sorry about the snippage... bear_helms September 12 2008, 21:57:18 UTC

I find good editing like that professional and courteous both, no problem (and as well no solution for getting past the limit AFAIK).

Thread 9

My 2 Quatloos bear_helms September 14 2008, 01:43:24 UTC

I seem to recall one of the cast saying of the ending days of TOS, the new director saying "Star Trek isn't FUNNY." (Obviously forgetting the Tribbles episode, which is well liked to this day, A Piece of the Action, another favorite, et al.) It's when you take yourself too seriously that you tend to go over the deep end with heavy-handed, melodramatic, vacuous scientific basis, schlocky productions. Maybe this can explain why we got what we did in the 3rd season; maybe the 3rd season simply ended with one of the crappiest episodes of all because it couldn't carry forward from the hull breach such a bomb created in the main decks.

The Gamestsers of Triskelion is another of these take-a-break-from-science shows where the impossible happens and we have gladiatorial games between species taken from all over the galaxy for the gambling entertainment of some luminous Play-doh brains with gas problems. In Star Trek Voyager, this scenario is called "The Caretaker" and he takes species from around the galaxy for procreating with. Sex or ( ... )

Re: My 2 Quatloos science_officer September 14 2008, 02:25:05 UTC

Heh--"Gamesters" has maintained a surprising amount of recognition for a supposedly obscure episode (obscure because it never makes any top-ten or even top-twenty lists). Simpsons and South Park have both spoofed it, or at least referenced it.

As the Nitpicker's Guide points out, Kirk regularly goes out-of-bounds during the games, putting his feet on the wrong tiles. Didn't people notice that in the 1960s?

Speaking of Latinum: I remember a DS9 episode ("Who Mourns For Morn?") where they pointed out that gold is acutually useless in the future. Now, that episode was good science fiction.

Science_Officer

Re: My 2 Quatloos bear_helms September 14 2008, 23:37:25 UTC

I believe Morn regurgitates up a small amount of pure Latinum in that episode - looks like a few, perhaps 4 milliliters of a metallic liquid resembling Mercury ( ... )

What you don't see can't hurt you, just ask Al Gore! bear_helms September 14 2008, 02:02:31 UTC

As someone who quickly became fond of David Gerrold for his Tribbles episode, and especially for his book "The World of Star Trek" (1974), I had a positive prejudice for The Cloud Minders and in my youth, I could see it as a class allegory - words like "proletariat" and "bourgeoisie" were still being bandied about despite the 60s being well behind us, and I could see how this was an example of the physical separation of the haves from the have-nots. People who labor (those in China) not enjoying the fruits of their efforts (as we in the US do). Well, China has McDonald's, automobiles, computers, and currency. They may lack free speech, but with the kind of anti-terrorism Patriot Act measures I see taken day after day, I wonder just how long before the US and China are even more similar.

I actually like Trek having morals to its stories. Just as with Aesop's Fables, I don't have to agree with every moral, and of course don't take it as scripture (although I still do see that year of 3000 religion coming around ( ... )

Cloud Minders science_officer September 14 2008, 02:32:41 UTC

Well, great--now my previously obscure blog will be archived by all sorts of three-letter agencies! :-) (Kidding.) In case I'm right about this: he said it, I didn't.

I think it was in the audio commentary of the Animated Series episode "BEM" where Gerrold sounded dismissive of "Cloud Minders," saying something like, "'Cloud Minders'... or 'Mind Clouders'... or whatever it was called..."

I think of "Cloud Minders" as a midlist Trek episode. Could have been better, but it's not crummy.

Gotta log off soon... stuff to do. It's been fun... I'll probably be back tomorrow.

Science_Officer

A Mind Forever Yoyageraging bear_helms September 14 2008, 23:50:24 UTC

I must get my obligatory paranoid rant in every so often. You took it better than most people I've unintentionally trolled. I really do not know that I'm taking a tone like that when I'm writing - it takes the distance of a day or two for me to perform the facepalm maneuver.

You may not get opportunity to meet alien life, but by continuing communications with me, you will meet a very alien brain. Here's the best quick guide I could google up on Bipolar II Disorder.

Re: A Mind Forever Yoyageraging science_officer September 15 2008, 04:09:06 UTC

First of all, I appreciate the apology. I didn't think you were trolling, but instead I concluded that you just got a little excited. For many Trekkies, everything seems to remind them of a Star Trek episode, and Star Trek episodes remind them of numerous things. This isn't exactly unexpected, since Star Trek refers to almost every conceivable subject in one way or another.

No harm done... at least as far as I'm aware. (And if anyone is looking in on this blog, allow me to reiterate: he said it!Thanks for being honest about your condition (Bipolar II). A good ground rule for interactions--regardless of whether or not someone has Bipolar II--is basically this: please avoid saying anything that could be construed as threatening, or that could get someone else in trouble. Sure, sometimes these things are visible only in hindsight, as you acknowledge above ( ... )

Thread 7