Comments on: Trek Remastered Returns This Week – See Preview For ‘Friday’s Child’

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 19:21:28 +0000

The only issue I see is that the episode scenes don’t match up now. If we cut from a wonderful new shot of the Enterprise firing nice new phasers to a shot of Kirk firing a phaser that is obviously just a hand drawn effect that doesn’t even have any perspective (it’s a straight line for God’s sake) these don’t match up and draw you out of the story. The same goes for going from a real outside shot to an obvious sound-stage.

Whenever I watch TOS episodes w/ non-Star Trek fans, they seem to enjoy the stories, but when the effects would come up, they’d roll they’re eyes or try to suppress a little giggle. I’d always have to explain that it was the sixties (not to mention NBC’s inability to pony up any cash) and that you have suspend some disbelief to enjoy them. I had always hoped that w/ these new remastered episodes I wouldn’t have to do that. So far that’s not been the case… luckily Friday’s Child is not an episode I’d show to a TOS virgin to try and get them into it.

By: badboy1230

badboy1230 — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 16:19:05 +0000

Hey! We agree! (see #19).

(Maybe we can campaign for a “Batman Remastered.” ;) )

By: Lord David

Lord David — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 07:39:19 +0000

Is Batman Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney or Bale?

It’s Adam West!

By: jonboc

jonboc — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:32:10 +0000

#23 If those cycloramas ruin the experience for you then I suggest you stick to modern programing and steer clear of all movie and television programming prior to 1985 and don’t attend any plays as you won’t be entertained.
Fiction usually takes a certain amount of suspension of belief anyway…especially futuristic shows which deal with warp drive and beaming atoms back and forth.
it shouldn’t be so hard to take that suspension one more step and apply it to the sky in the background.
Granted, if they could do something with the cycloramas it would be great, but if their inability to do it actually ruins the show for you, then, seems to me, you were watching for all the wrong reasons.

By: Ebar

Ebar — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 04:21:50 +0000

If they are not going to update the worst effects, which in my opinion are the soundstage cycloramas, what is the point? This episode is almost as bad as Mirror, Mirror in that respect. It totally ruins the experience.

If they want me to shell out the big bucks to purchase these again on DVD they are going to have to replace the fake soundstage backgrounds with something considerably more believable.

By: Scott Gammans

Scott Gammans — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 00:33:58 +0000

Excellent point, Lao3D, regarding the fact that this is one of the few episodes where “soundstage outdoors” were mixed with *real* outdoor location shots. The transition from the encampment scenes to the foot chase through the mountains was quite jarring. If ever there were any “cyclorama episodes” in need of updating, one of them surely was “Friday’s Child”.

Josh T., the ship has already long since sailed on the notion of this project being nothing but “touch-ups” on the original effects. Whole matte paintings have been replaced in such episodes as “The Menagerie” and “Devil in the Dark”, and we’ve seen all sorts of new angles on our beloved spaceships that were never seen back in the 60’s. Unfortunately, I think the line has already been drawn on doing something about cycloramas–look at the similar lack of changes to outdoor soundstage sets in episodes such as “Mirror, Mirror” and “City on the Edge of Forever”.

It’s a pity, but I imagine it’s also a function of the impossible time constraints CBS Digital is forced to work under. Rotoscoping out the fakey soundstage skies in an episode like “Friday’s Child” is NOT a trivial undertaking.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 23:13:17 +0000

Here’s something totally off the wall:
I’ve seen the previews for all the remastered episodes, and I’ve listened again and again to the closing narration. Are my ears deceiving me, or is the narrator saying Star TRACK instead of Star TREK? During the original broadcasts, I had to hear my parents referring to it as Star Track. The mispronunciation was nauseating then, and I like it even less today. Anyone else “hearing” TRACK in these previews?

By: TomBot2007

TomBot2007 — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:56:08 +0000

LOL @ #19…
Gee, if we replace everything but the peformers… and at some instances, enhance them, how much of O.G. Trek will be left? ;-)
Yeah, Trek REMASTERED is back, now… my sundays are complete! :-D

By: badboy1230

badboy1230 — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:36:59 +0000

“Is Batman Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney or Bale?”

None of the above. He’s West! :)

(I know that had nothing to do with Trek but I just had to say it!)

By: Lao3D

Lao3D — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 18:13:15 +0000

I’m on record as a big advocate of cyclorama/BG enhancements — within reason of course — so I was disappointed to see nothing done here. This one was always more jarring since it mixed soundstage exteriors with location exteriors. Maybe we’re only going to see BG enhancements on the “flagship” episodes i.e. The Menagerie, Tribbles, etc. Too bad. Even just a subtle gradient added to the sky would have been nice and might have suggested a twilight scene in contrast to the bright daytime exteriors.

This one wasn’t one of the greats, but I always thought it was one of De Kelly’s best performances. But hey, I’m just glad to see TOS: Remastered is back with “new” shows!