Comments on: Review of The Menagerie Part 1 Remastered

By: Leo Star Dragon 1

Leo Star Dragon 1 — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 04:30:52 +0000

Hi! #00: The court martial may have been “dramatic” enough for some to wish it were real. But it served its purpose as a distraction to keep Kirk and the other crew members distracted long enough for Spock to do what he felt he had to do at the time. It gave them “plausible deniability”. #01: The turbolift alignment factor always annoyed the hell out of me, just on a visual basis alone, without ever doing any math. #02: As for these two episodes’ problems with the bridge zoom in, any problems with that can be attributed to the illusion factor and how the Human mind interpreted them. But as for the actual episode “The Cage”, that’s artistic license! Akin to how Hawaii and Alaska are inserted into maps of the Lower 48, but way off scale, for weather broadcasts. Unless the viewer is a “Jay Walker”, he or she is going to know that they aren’t shown to scale and will make allowances for it. #03: Oddly enough, at the time of this posting, I’ve only seen the TV versions of the Remastered episodes shown here, but I’ve only seen five of them on my DVD sets. #04: I want to see the fan-made stuff too, but on DVD, not via “YouTube” or what-have-you. Happy Summer!

By: RonS

RonS — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:31:57 +0000

I just got done readning a great book called “Burning Dreams” that deals with Pike life. It also goes into great detail about the events in Menagerie.

I love the remastered shows so far. I am really loking forward to part 2!

By: Buckaroohawk

Buckaroohawk — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 20:24:14 +0000

Re: #68 by Captain Pike

I agree. Mendez being a hallucination always bothered me. When exactly was he replaced? Was he ever at Starbase 11 at all, or was it after Kirk procured a shuttlecraft to chase after the Enterprise?

It would have been better if he had been really there the whole time and gave the order to drop the charges against Spock after receiving the OK from Starfleet. That way, the drama of the trial wouldn’t have been negated.

By: Orbitalic

Orbitalic — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 04:20:04 +0000

OMG! The nacelle thingys spin too fast the wrong way.
OMG! The ships too Graygreenbluewhite.
OMG! The bridge faces east
OMG! TheTurboshaft is misaligned
OMG! How does this poor girl get up to Warp One with all these problems?

There’s a lot of people I respect in here for what they know or how they react to other people’s opinions. But, you know what? There’s far too much ranting about a few mistakes. Mistakes from 40 years ago or a few weeks ago. I like the show too, but dam…you need a new hobby if you are at home on a week night calculating the exact alignment and size of the bridge an imaginary starship.
Comment, but please don’t make a career of it.

By: Surak

Surak — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:04:59 +0000

If keeping it simple results in “superior” quality, as is evidenced in this episode, I’m all for it. Even Daren Doc gave a good review to this effort.

http://betafive.com/wordpress/?p=54

I don’t know CGI, but if there were a way to “smudge” the painted backdrop, that would be great.

I hope in the future CBS Digital will try more elaborate camera motion over their Enterprise, but this was so much better than their early work I am pleased!

By: seangh

seangh — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 22:26:44 +0000

#68 – Hey Pike – I have to agree with you. I think this two parter is only memorable because, like DB said above, it gives TOS a real history – a sense of being around.

But as a story, kinda lame. Were the Talosians able to actually control peoples minds with ESP projection all the way from Talos? That’s a stretch.

By: Dr. Image

Dr. Image — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 21:57:41 +0000

# 68: But- in the words of M. Night– what a twist!

Well, I just had the thrill of finally seeing that latest ep. by the Exeter guys.
The editing, production, acting, script, FX, all top-notch stuff! They “get it!”
And the ship- they nailed the look. Wow.
I daresay, even down to the proper size……”engine balls.” (cringe)

By: Captain Pike

Captain Pike — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 21:03:33 +0000

I love The Cage (obvious from my hand I guess) but I always thought the “modern” wrap around was pretty lame. From Spock committing mutiny to Pike having to blink his lights to Mendez inexplicably being a Talosian projection, I have always found it contrived and nonsensical. For me Mendez turning out to be “fake” negates all drama and tension from the whole court martial. And it doesn’t make any sense and it’s completely irrelevant to the plot!

By: seangh

seangh — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:21:21 +0000

I think the fact the turbo door is off axis is probably has to do more with shooting of the set than anything else. A turbo door directly behind Kirk’s chair would impact the way the set is shot, with many more head on shots of kirk in his chair (which would require moving the helm / nav station out of the way with every medium and close up shot.)

The way kirk is shot, from his right side, with the turbo lift visible in the BG is crucial to the dynamic of the characters – Kirk often interacting with Spock at his station and often reacting to whom has come in or gone out of the turbo doors. This might be more difficult to achieve with the doors directly behind Kirk – though not impossible.

I’m not sure if that helps you with your issues, but at least it’s a practical rationale of why the set was contructed the way it was.

By: DB

DB — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 18:50:43 +0000

Let me correct my previous statement:

The diameter of the bridge set from wall to wall was around twenty-eight feet. *However,* if you include the turbolift set it might work out to thirty-seven feet along that one axis.