Comments on: Boo…It’s The Catspaw Preview

By: jonny

jonny — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 08:11:55 +0000

jonny

By: John N

John N — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 23:28:00 +0000

Hey Skippy…. thanks for the tip! I’ll be sure to keep an eye out on that thread… :)

By: Skippy 2k

Skippy 2k — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 20:02:45 +0000

Hey John N, over on the trekbbs there actually is someone working on this very idea. Re-animating TAS using the audio from the episodes themeselves. While its not actually the studio I have been watching it, looking forward to how it turns out. Allways thought it would be a neat idea, while I’ve only seen an episode of TAS (Yesteryear) it was pretty good. Even if the animation wasn’t that great… Its under the Fan-Films section there.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:14:34 +0000

I think the flat voice work could really be minimized by some good acting work from the animators.

By: John N

John N — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 16:01:54 +0000

Thanks for the feedback gang… perhaps Lao3D is right… if the box set sells well and Trek gets some new life from the new movie, then who knows?

And you’re right, by then, the 3D work would have improved all the more… :)

By: Lao3D

Lao3D — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:45:38 +0000

A lot of people said CGI enhanced Trek would never happen and lo and behold…

Its a great idea, but as stated, the voice work is a little flat. Plus I don’t think they’re quite at the point of being able to do convincing humans in CGI. And I don’t think I could sit still for “performances” from rubbery Kirk, Spock and McCoys. Give it two or three years and they’ll probably have it nailed tho.

Probably a pretty small market for it at this point, but if ST:R does well and the new box sets of the animated series sells, they just might consider it.

By: Diabolik

Diabolik — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 13:19:38 +0000

John N…

I have thought that very same thing… how great it would be to see completely new animation using the soundtrack. I didn’t consider making it all CGI, but that would be cool too.

I think it would be neat to see selected episodes done and release that way, as specials. No need to do them all, just a few and release them to DVD for us fans.

But like you, I think it will probably never happen.

By: EBAR

EBAR — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 03:42:43 +0000

This has always been one of the all time favorite episodes. I doubt they will have made many changes to it. There are few effects. Perhaps showing a forcefield enveloping the Enterprise would be nice if done properly, but that is probably too much to hope.

I really never mined the alien pupputs used at the the end. They just need to get rid of the strings that can be seen clearly on the DVD version. I loved this idea of completely non-human aliens. sort of tiny, plant-like, and fragile. It is wicked cool.

By: Granger

Granger — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:10:56 +0000

Regarding the animated series (TAS), the voice work suffers greatly since many of the main actors simply recorded lines into a tape recorder at their leisure – they did not record lines interactively. I do, however, like a number of the innovations of TAS, such as the force field belts and the inclusion of alien species that only recently could be achieved in live action through the use of CGI. And it did have the first appearance of a holodeck. Roddenberry later disclaimed that series as non-canon, but I feel that was a disservice to the loyal fans who watched it and also belittled the effort of some very fine contributors to TAS such as D.C. Fontana, Larry Niven, etc.

Regarding Catspaw, I would be interested in an exterior ship insert displaying what afflicts the Enterprise when the model ship is put into the flame and later encased in Lucite. But that might be detrimental to the plot device of unexplained phenomena. This episode is interesting in that Kirk and company immediate dismiss any supernatural causes to what they observe – they are instead constantly looking for a scientific explanation, which is a nice modeling of rational thinking. Sometimes I think it is a shame the series wasn’t more rational in its take on ESP, mind-reading, etc. But several episodes utilizing such scientifically implausible ideas were quite entertaining.

By: John N

John N — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:02:02 +0000

BTW, thanks for the feedback Roger. I think that if done by a talented group, it could be very interesting. The original show reused a lot of stock footage, and simplified set design. I think that 3D animation could really open up some possibilities.

Having said that, I haven’t seen these shows in ages… I recall the voice work being a little wooden…