Hey, whinners, can you do better?

Put your being where your mouth is and DO something…although americans are the kings of procrastinations…no wonder stuff gets done by legal immigrants (NOT born in the US) and illegal aliens (got through the customs unionized idiots)

Good work Daren!

Well, they’ve got the Okudas managing the effects work on the remastered series over at CBS Digital. While I think they did a fantastic job on the Next Gen and its spawn, designing two-dimensional elements and such, I don’t think they really get how to compose three-dimensional shots and elements. It’s a different skillset from their 2-D background, it requires the eye of a cinematographer, and not many people have that. They don’t seem to have an instinctive understanding of lenses and lighting the way they probably need to, which is a problem since they seem to be under amazing time pressures. If they had the time I’m sure they could just fiddle around with shots ’till they found the angles that looked “right” – given their design background I’m sure they must realize something is “wrong” with a lot of their shots, compositionally – but they don’t have that luxury.

When the lighting is right, it’s easy for one’s brain to miss it and just take it for granted. I think this has happened to some of the brains that have criticized Dochterman’s work on this forum.

It sometimes seems like CBS Digital either doesn’t care or is ignorant of lighting issues. It feels like they need someone like Dochterman (not necessarily Dochterman himself) on staff to veto the occasional shot and make a few pointed suggestions.

#113: “he could’ve waited a month, a week, or even a few days to let CBS-D display their work”

I’m not sure why Dochterman’s timing bothered you, but if he had done as you suggest he would have left himself open to criticism that he had cribbed from CBS Digital’s work. With the near-concurrent release we know that the work is his own. (Though I guess one could argue he could have cribbed from some of the stuff CBS Digital pre-released.)

1) Daren’s Enterprise and Constellation models are vastly superior to the ones CBS Digital uses. I don’t know if it’s the proportions, or the textures or the lighting (I suspect it’s the lighting), but Daren’s models look almost identical to the original filming models from the ’60s. CBS Digital’s work looks like a videogame, very flat, CGI and fake. Their asteroids looked awful, too (although the shot of one bouncing off the hull of the Constellation looked good, and was a clever touch). I did like the hull damage on the CBS Digital Constellation model, where you could see inside the decks, but I thought Daren’s burning nacelles were even cooler, especially the way they lit the saucer (and went out as the episode progressed).

At least the deflector dish on the CBS Digital version is finally copper-colored . . .

2) Daren’s planet killer rules over the CBS Digital version. I love how he captured the blue, luminous quality of the original, and the sparkly quality of its internal fires. Neither of them carried quite the suggestion of mass though that the original model had. Some of the moves they made – especially the spins on their axis – were perhaps best left unshown.

3) The explosion that destroyed the planet killer was much cooler in Daren’s version. I loved how the color drained from the machine when it “died”. The CBS Digital version was pretty corny in comparison, I thought. What’s with the blue pixie dust? Very videogame. Daren kept in the transparency of the original, which made it seem to be carved from a solid hunk of some kind of exotic crystal or mica. Alien and somewhat eerie.

4) CBS Digital took more liberties with the geometry of the battle, as others have noted, repositioning the ships and radically adjusting the apparent trajectories and approaches used by the various combatants. Daren stayed true to the original blocking. I think CBS Digital made the right call here – their version makes much more sense than the original, and is more exciting to watch. I just wish their ships carried some suggestion of mass as they moved.

5) Blue phasers RULE. CBS Digital made the right call here, too.

6) Daren’s shuttlebay exit copied and enhanced the original. CBS Digital reworked the shot, but their shuttle just looks way too big and the shot was – yet again – kind of videogame.

7) Both versions showed the impulse engines blazing away. How cool is that?

8) Both versions kept the TV tuner effect on the Constellation’s viewscreen. Faithful, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense. You’d think CBS Digital would have updated it.

9) For once, CBS left dark some of the interior scenes that were supposed to be dark. I wish the guy they had day-glow brightening every live action shot in earlier episodes had spent his time brightening up their new effects shots, instead.

In all, I’d say Daren’s version had better models, better lit. But I loved the way CBS Digital restaged the battles. In an ideal world, we’d see the CBS Digital version re-done with Daren’s models and more realistic physics for the massive starships and planet killer.

First, I thought the stars were not done very well. Their motion is similar to the original opening of “The Cage”. I am glad they’re not streaked like in TNG but I think they need more depth. The other major gripe was the doomsday machine itself. I think Daren stuck too close to the original FX. I didn’t like the stars moving with the machine and the maw looked as cartooish as the original. It was also too transparent. I think the machine need to be even larger. The one thing I liked about the CBS digital version is that it looks much more ominous just by its size alone.

Now, comparing the two techniques, I say that CBS Digital did a super job with the external effects. I like their machine better and I like how CBS portrayed a denser asteroid field, where the plantets one stood. I do give Daren a nod for his work on the Enterprise itself. She is definitely a beauty. I give CBS digital a nod for their work on the Constellation. I thought the damage was slightly overdone but it was awsome nonetheless.

So, in general, if we took DarenDoc’s Enterprise and CBS’s Doomsday machine effects I think the result would have been awsome, IMHO. Daren deserves much credit for his work and I hope he gets to work on future Trek projects.

Good work done by both camps. Lots of eye candy!!