CBS have provided a couple of higher res images from Amok Time Remastered
Original Versions:
it is noteworthy that CBS are (for the first time) replacing live action shots with CGI shots. CBS do point out that the walk to the arena and the arena establishing shot do not have any dialog.
Inspiration:
CBS’s bit of ‘retro continuity’ takes inspiration from the TAS episode "Yesteryear" as well as the film Star Trek III: The Search For Spock.
From the CBS Press Release:
The digitally-remastered "Amok Time" features two new visual effects matte paintings. Each shows Spock’s homeworld of Vulcan with greater scope and grandeur than was possible when the episode was first produced in 1967. These paintings depict a forbidding desertscape of spectacular beauty, capturing the ancient mysticism of Spock’s Vulcan ancestors. Sharp-eyed fans might glimpse the desert city of Shi’Khar in the background of one of the paintings. Shi’Khar, where Spock grew up, was first seen in the 1973 animated Star Trek episode, "Yesteryear." These new shots were produced at CBS Digital, and were painted by matte artist Max Gabl under the direction of visual effects supervisor Niel Wray.
More: VIDEO PREVIEW
New images courtesy CBS, others courtesy TrekCore.com
The nacelle caps are totally wrong on these shots. . .
I hope they at least keep the beaming down scene from the live footage, and then it can cut to the new CGI. I wonder, If the beam down goes, does that mean they will be altering the sound track by taking out the transporter noise?
I wonder if the scene could have started with the original live-action and then somehow slowly panned out to show the wider CGI shot; so you could still have both elements in most of the shot. Just a thought, though.
BTW, is anyone else remided of that Medieval Times scene from the movie Cable Guy, when they see this episode?
@BlackBirdCD
how you know that it is wrong when this is the first time we all see these shots???
@Holo J
maybe we can see them beam at this distance while hearing the original sound. also don’t want to have cut too much but these shots kick ass!!!
awesome work!!!
DJT post 3…. lol yes
I was watching Amok Time on DVD last night with the notes by Mike Okuda and it mentions other times the music has been reused.
It has also been used in an excellent episode of Futurama when Zoidberg returns home for his mating ritual and ends up fighting Fry.
Nice to see some elements of TAS being dropped in!
Love the CGI shots: very reminiscent of the movies!
optimus…
yeah I had the same thought about that too, i reckon that could work. As long as we still get to see them beam down!
The city in the background is a nice touch
It’s nice. But they didn’t change the “all too red” atmosphere. Some clouds would’ve been nice!
I love the new live shots. Adds a really great sense of grandeur most TOS exteriors lack. Hey, if you’re updating it you might as well go all the way and add CGI to some of the live shots as well.
All the purists will always have the originals if they don’t agree.
@norbert:
look at the first pic. isn’t that red enough?
clouds on vulcan? are you kidding?
The Vulcan cityscape does look the one from TAS – very nice touch.
Great idea and I’m sure it will be well-executed. Including the Vulcan city makes it even better. These matte painting look super.
I love the areana being perched high atop some mountaintop. It just adds to the ancient “tradition” that Vulcans seem to love . And a great move by CBS to explain away why there is no horizon visible. Creativve thinking for sure….glad to see this show is in safe hands.
While I agree that the new shots are excellent, I cannot in any way agree with removing established shots. I would have liked to have seen this new stuff IN ADDITION TO existing live-action scenes, rather than wholesale “replacement”…
Thing is, Amok Time’s production was always criticised for it’s peculiar portrayal of the Vulcan landscape. Allan Asherman’s Star Trek Compendium even remarks on what a letdown it was.
CBS-D have thus been able to bury one of the oldest complaints about the episode. The whole point of these revamps, IMO, is that they can address flaws from the original productions!!
Which gets me wondering: Allan Asherman’s book hasn’t been around for a few years. In light of Trek Remastered and the Abrams film, there could be heck of a fun update written for it!
OMG, they killed canon! I’m sorry but including the city from TAS has to be the most rediculous thing they’ve done. I’ve been 100% behind this until now.
I just don’t see TAS as canon, never did
The nacelle caps do have a rather high degree of saturation in this episode.
C’mon guys, is this some kinda of TAS preview in disguise?
I’m not at all against them redoing the horrible animation of that show, but let’s not blur the lines between a lousey Filmation “cartoon” and The Trek.
Please make the Enterprise look a little more like Darren Dochtermans version. That has to be the best “Fan Boy” Enterprise I’ve seen.
Mysterious Stranger, I’d like to tell you that there’s nothing saying that city isn’t on the ‘real’ Vulcan – just that one can’t see it in the original episode.
18.
That’s the thing about canon, it was never mentioned in the original script and it was never mentioned until the abomination that is TAS was written.
To incorporate items from a poorly done 70’s Filmation episode is a bit of a reach.
I realize that “Yesteryear” was penned by our beloved D.C. Fontana, but I don’t consider it canon to the original Trek.
Let’s face it, back then, some people were really reaching, to have any incarnation of Trek. I remember those days and I remember how bad the cartoon was. I have since went back and tried to watch it and the show makes me giggle. It was just so poorly done and such a joke.
I just hope they do not continue this trend.
I remember the threads against this at trekbbs and I can see where to much alteration can be a bad thing.
Let’s no muddy the original with references to a cartoon.
Let’s have Mike Okuda direct ST XI! Seriously, this is great work.
re: 17 and 19
The Animated Series was good. I like it.
It has more to do with Star Trek than any spin-off. Same characters. Same setting. Same actors. “Canon” or not, what does it hurt to show a cool Vulcan city in the background?
And again, someone is over-criticizing a remastered episode based on a preview and a few stills.
To quote a great thespian, “Get a Life.”
Canon….shmanon. Why not inch closer to “legitimizing” some, if not all, of TAS? Beautiful job CBS Digital! I love that you care enough to blend the various eras of Trek. In a handful of new work, you’ve found a balance between the visual styles of TOS, TAS and the movies. Brilliant! (And on top of that, the positioning of the ritual site on top of a mountain helps, at least partially, give the look of the soundstage set some credibility.)
BTW, what’s a nacelle cap?
(That’s a joke, son.)
Mysterious Stranger, I suggest you stick to your DVDs of the original versions of TOS, as TOS-R is clearly not aimed at you.
The animated series has been referenced countless times in later Treks and in the movies, so is clearly regarded by many people as ‘canon’ (a subjective term at best!)
Gene Roddenberry chose not to keep most of TAS as canon when he started TNG, but twenty years later, it has clearly been slipped back into continuity.
Indeed your own remarks about canon seem to be more a kneejerk reaction related to your personal dislike of TAS than anything else.
I wonder what you’d make of a revamped TAS with modern animation, a new score and a few new guest voices . . .
Re: Canon & Yesteryear
I am one that has made an exception (or addition) to the Canon ‘rules’ for the TAS episode “Yesteryear”. It is easily the best episode of TAS.
Adding this matte artwork to the ep was an excellent idea. The photos above look great. Unfortunately, I don’t expect to enjoy it as much on TV. Chopping up the episode for airplay and more commercials is annoying and unacceptable. Seriously, it really has helped ruin my enjoyment of the remastered eps.
Canon this, canon that… it’s not the issue. Nobody is saying that TAS is canon by incorparating elements from it into other incarnations of ST, even TOS. They are merely acknowledging that certain elements IN the animated series are worth keeping and using for a little more continuity.
Just becuase we see a city called ShiKhar that looks like the one in the animated series doesn’t automatically assume that everything shown in the series actually happened. It’s not meant to infer that. Just, here’s something cool that we saw, let’s use THAT ELEMENT and make it canon NOW.
I’m all for it.
I don’t believe in canon. Star Trek is still in production, so its elements are still subject to revision. People should chill out a bit and get a life!
I love the idea of elevating the ancient family ceremonial grounds like the temples in ST3. It makes it seem more special and “sacred.” I also understand doing it to make sense of the lack of background in the arena. But, the spotty lighting on the red background always jerks me out of the reality and forces me to say “look at that red backdrop” instead of seeing it as a red sky. I know they can’t rotoscope each scene to make it right… I just wish they could make it a little more real at the top edges where nothing obscures it.
Oh well, we gotm ore out of this than we ever dreamed we would, so I’m happy!
Star Trek’s continuity is one of its greatest strengths. In fact, I’m hard pressed to think of a successful science fiction series that didn’t respect its own Canon. Farscape, X-Files, Babylon 5, etc. Canon shouldn’t be disregarded wholesale.
But just as “The Menagerie” made “The Cage” Canon, adding the matte artwork to “Amok Time” makes it Canon now, even if it was not before. I happen to have always considered “Yesteryear” Canon.
Can we just agree its Canon now and not turn the entire thread into a Canon vs. “Canon Sucks” pissing contest…just for this one thread?
i cant wait to see what they can do for “the alternate factor”…although they say you cant polish a turd
i love adding the vulcan city from TAS in the background….awesome touch
I’d be willing to bet that the beam-down sequence, because of the embedded sound effects, will be shown from the arial perspective… thus keeping the accuracy of the action as originally created.
I’m really liking the “two men enter, one man leaves” look to the mountain-top arena… CBS-D is really starting to get their game-face on with these episodes.
It’s a matter of trust. Of Team Okuta feels they have enough proprietory rights to tweak a visual to include something mentioned in TAS, we should give them the right to do that. If they totally blow it:
A) Grab your lirpa!
B) We still and always will have the originals.
It’s wrong to tie the hands of any creative person just because someone has an ever-changing idea of what’s canon.
Trek lives. Change is the essential of life.
When DC Fontana wrote Yesteryear, it bacame canon to me.
TTM
Post 32
I just wish they would be bold enough to do this with some of the view screen shots when we see an Alien ship from far off. Maybe replace some of the looking out the main view screens with a better close up of the ship. For example “Fridays Child” would have been cool if they dropped one of the far off shots through the main view screen to an Over the shoulder shot of the Klingon ship with the Enterprise far off in the distance.
They could have also done something like that with the Gorn ship as well. That way the Ship isn’t ever revealed to the crew close up just to the audience.
Also as well balance of power when the Romulan Bird of Prey attacks the Enterprise, they could replace some of the Main view screen shots with some more external action
Elements of TAS have made it into ther Star Trek productions. There’s a featurette on the new TAS DVD release that specifically addresses the crossovers (including Enterprise).
In TAS that city was where Amanda and Sarek lived. I like the cross-reference
“I love the areana being perched high atop some mountaintop. It just adds to the ancient “tradition” that Vulcans seem to love . And a great move by CBS to explain away why there is no horizon visible. Creativve thinking for sure….glad to see this show is in safe hands. ”
Amen to that!!! A very good solution to the “problem” of the horizon. Great work CBS!!!
TTM
Regards Canon and TAS……etc…..
The creator of a certain Sci Fi series that becaome a full length motion picture once said…. “You can’t change elements of your original theme and history, or you are really going to piss of your core audiance.” That’s a relative paraphrase from the creator of “Serenity.” I think he has the right idea.
When you go back and start playing with an established history, you confuse and piss off your target audiance.
This is one of the primary reasons “Enterprise” was such a failure, especially amongst hard core fans, not so much the “Buffy” crowd.
Sure, I’m for redoing TAS, but TAS and TOS are two different animals, let’s keep it that way. Let’s not start confusing the history and muddying the waters with cross overs and “Fanboy” references to other Treks and episodes.
It gets tedious after awhile.
As I’ve stated, I’ve been for this endeavor for some time, but don’t start changing the original.
A more worthy use of the talents involved would be to add some depth to the scenery of Vulcan, but a quickie, throw away shot and silent nod to TAS, is a waste of time and effort.
You can like TAS all you want, but it’s crap. A re-imagined version might be worthy of some thought and consideration, but as it stands, it’s crap.
There are only four eps worth mentioning and I’m not sure “Yesteryear” is among them. IMNHO, BTFS is the best of the bunch. At least it wasn’t some lame return to a previous episode.
If anything is worth finishing, or doing right it would have to be “The Secret of Vulcan Fury.” Now THAT had some potential.
#36 Tom-
Yes! So there.
#28 Canonista-
I agree.
#1 BBird-
Not to mention they’re spinning the wrong way.
34
Good idea! I just don’t see the point of having ships in scenes if you can’t see them. Your suggestion is a good one.
TTM
All the remastered episodes to date look great to me, and “Amok Time” is no exception. I’m still amazed how just a few seconds of newly created effects and background mattes can really improve on the original story.
Because the CBS CGI team is confined and limited to creating new effects that will fit the original time parameters of each episode, they are forced to choose only the best possible ways to improve on each episode. So far I’ve been impressed with both their restraint from not going overboard with these new effects, as well as the good choices they are making to improve each episode.
My only gripe is that I wish the newly remastered Enterprise had the same blueish tint and shiny hull that the original had. I think someone there at CBS really likes the color- battleship gray! The Enterprise wasn’t made out of steel ya know!!
Long live Spock and Quark!
Mike :o
I have to chime in here. Awesome screen shots and I love the city in the background. As for the whole debate on cannon with TAS that was starting to make my blood boil. TAS was intended to be cannon initially and for a long time Gene Roddenberry even said so. It wasn’t until Next Gen game out that he started to consider changing his toon. I watch TAS and I look at it in one way and one way only. IT’S A CARTOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How good do you think it is going to be? Argh you make my chest hurt. Cartoons are written for children, yes children. Heaven forbid they might have less quality that live action shows intended for adults. God my stomach is turning. It is a cartoon people cut it a break. City looks great in the background and Robert April was on the Enterprise before Pike. Enough Said
33. THEETrekMaster – February 16, 2007
“When DC Fontana wrote Yesteryear, it bacame canon to me.”
So if DC Fontana writes a letter to her Aunt Bertha, then does that become canon? *Just Kidding* really :) I know it isn’t funny. Sorry…. I think.
38. Mysterious Stranger
Just pretend the city is some other city then, disregarding whether or not it appeared in Yesteryear. I’m sure the city will not be mentioned by name in Amok Time Remastered, so if you want to pretend it is Detroit, then go ahead.
42
Precisely. TAS is a CARTOON and in no way should it be considered in the same realm as that of Star Trek. It was and is a cartoon and will never be anything else.
To compare TAS and TOS is like comparing Steven Hawking with Forest Gump.
Thank you for making my point for me.
43.
I can see it being anything and I can see it being a plausible city and is indeed a beautiful addition. Sorry, I just cringe at the thought that it is related to TAS.
I’m a big D.C. Fontana fan and absolutely believe that she is a major reason that trek worked, the way it did.
D.C.’s rewrite of COTEOF is a tribute to her writing skills and developement of the TOS characters. The fact that Roddenberry took credit for that episode and that Ellison makes to end of ranting about the rewrite and D.C. has pretty much let the whole thing go is a testimony to her depth of character.
I just don’t want to see the two separate entities merged. Let TOS be TOS and let TAS be TAS.
I happen to like TAS and TOS and find they fit well together. I think it was great incorporating it here and tying the two together. I am sure that if they had the means in the 60’s, Gene would have loved to do something like CBSD is doing now. It’s great to see Trek being remastered… I can’t wait for the DVDs to come out so I can actually see an episode. Until then, I will have to be content seeing the pics, previews and effects reel here. Thanks Trekmovie.com and thanks CBD D from a diehard, long time Trek fan…
#44
Great analogy ;( Kind of like these.
To compare TAS and TOS is like comparing Pinnochio and Stalin
To compare TAS and TOS is like comparing eggs and cashews
To compare TAS and TOS is like comparing fish and calcium
To compare TAS and TOS is like comparing Spacely Sprockets and Cogswell Cogs.
I love the city myself and thoroughly applaud the effects team. I, too, was hoping for this kind of re-working to enhance Star Trek when I first heard of the remastering.
Here’s a question for you all re: canon. For me, there are episodes I love and some that I wish had never been filmed. Most of the third season. Gamesters of Triskellion. The Apple. I could go on. Some of them are weak, and some are flat out ludicrous compared to the others — characters speak and act in ways that are out of character with the way they behave in the majority of other episodes. I know that I avoid these episodes and rather wish that they’d never been filmed, even if there are some nice character side-scenes in some.
Instead of worrying about canon, I just hope that this remastering and any future reboot or prequel movie reuses the good ideas and the highest standards of quality and distances itself from the bad. (My point being, nice job lifting a good idea from Yesteryear.)
Ye Gods, but the first season of STNG was such a crashing disappointment to me I never really watched it again–it felt like the standard of quality for it was based on Spock’s Brain… And I really, really, really wanted to like it.
Focus, people.
Max Gabl, excellent job sir.
Mr Gabl has somehow captured the cheesy-ness of the paper mache rocks, and made it all look very grand in scope.
Well done.
-and yes the nacelle caps DO look kinda funny, kinda like a rainbow of fruit flavors… : )
So they added a city visible from a height, overlooking the arena area. That’s not a canon violation by any sane definition.
This all looks pretty good.
“Doctor Who” is a brilliant skiffy property that, by BBC fiat, has no official “canon.” Paul Cornell recently wrote the most wonderful, sensible article about the general subject of canonicity ever:
http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/2007/02/canonicity-in-doctor-who.html