“Who Mourns for Adonais?” Screenshots and Video

Who mourns for a better episode?
"Who Mourns For Adonais" is another one of those episodes where the Enterprise crew finds a little piece of Earth out in deep space, this time Pollux IV stands in for ancient Greece. And again we have a super powerful being toying with the Enterprise, a storyline already becoming Trek cliche by early in the 2nd season. Chekov gets to show that he has a brain in this episode, while Scotty seems driven by another part of his body in a love interest subplot with the one-dimensional Lt. Palamas. The notion that the gods of Olympus were actually powerful aliens is an interesting premise, but the episode doesn’t deliver much beyond that.

The highlight for the effects in this episode is the giant glowy spacehand and CBS-D do an adequate job of making this cheesy effect seem menacing. However (like the original) they end up repeating the same establishing shot of the ship being held in orbit over and over instead of mixing it up with different angles. The ship firing phaser shots have been changed from red to blue to make all seasons consistent and the attack on the temple has been enhanced with some flashy effects.

SFX Video

Screenshots

Remastered & Original

Assorted


Scotty chats up Lt. Palamas


Apollo sits in waiting for his people


Same old bluescreen effect


Carolyn gets that skimpy dress


Conversing in the garden


Shatner does what he does best…overact


Surely you know I’ve only been studying you


Apollo is confused by Lt. Palamas’ spurning


Zeus, Hera, take me!

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Kirk vs. greeks Not sure about this one

1st?

Yeah, I missed this… it was kind of a stinker of an episode anyway. Did they do anything to improve that bad growing effect? The picture looks like they might have at least removed the matte lines.

Never had a problem with this episode. Contains a very good Kirk speech

Fun ep. This is the first one I’ve seen go out “live,” since I’ve just figure out when this station airs the eps. I’ll catch them in future that way, much more fun to see the effects in situ.

Kirk and Apollo are both great in this one.

oh PS:

Nice touches a) making a planet appear (instead of the Enterprise in deep space), and b) making landmasses which look rather a lot like the eastern Mediterranean. Makes sense that Apollo would settle somewhere with lots of mountains and sea.

Ah, yes, I remember this episode mainly for the delicious Leslie Parrish in that skimpy dress……………..memories, light the corners of my mind….

Harumph..(cough, cough)…well, enough of that nonsense! Right, carry on!! :)

Nice try on this one. The hand was a really goofy effect in the first place. So it was a tough one to try to improve on. In someways, the original hand is better, had more definition. But I can see why it’s more blurry here, it’s a force field.

I appreciate how they placed everything in properly, the hand rising from the planet and then seeing the planet in the same shot when it’s holding the Enterprise.

I think they enhanced Carolyn’s transformation to the Greek dress too, I’ll have to check on that one.

I was at least happy that the cheese hand effect was replaced by a less cheese effect. At least the hand looked better.

I was sorely disappointed in the new FX for this episode. This was a perfect chance to have some fun with the outrageous concept of a giant hand reaching out and grabbing the Enterprise. Instead we see a green blob with fingers. Ugh! The shots of the Enterprise being held look like still photos. No camera movement whatsoever. So we get a new CGI starship, but they use shots of a real hand for the FX, which automatically limits how they can compose the FX scenes. What a letdown!

On the plus-side, they did add the planet Pollux IV to the scenes, which was always missing in the original FX. And they spruced up the phaser FX when Apollo’s temple is attacked.

One effect that can never be replaced or duplicated: the lovely Leslie Parrish as Lt. Carolyn Palamas! It’s easy to see why both Scotty and Apollo were attracted to her.

I’m glad they didn’t get rid of the glowing temple after it was destroyed–the slow fade out always looked good and added the dramatic flare to the scene.

The glowing hand was silly in the 60’s and still is 4 decades later.

Oh–and they fixed the missing hand when they fired the phasers by showing it fade out when Apollo loses his power–nice touch.

This episode has a great theme about the maturation of humanity. Straight out of The Enlightenment, and consistent with Roddenberry’s vision. Love it.
“We’ve outgrown you; you ask for something we can no longer give.”

Kirk’s outrageous sexism regarding Lt. Palamas permanently marred the episode, unfortunately. No amount of 21st century CGI wizardry can fix an outdated 1960’s sensibility towards women in uniform.

Go Scotty, Go!

This is a nice episode, which I did not watch in so much long. During one moment i thought the old hand effect the new was!!!!! however I would like to watch this. the TOS is dear to my heart. And shows tolerance Roddenberrys of the appearance of racial and history.

–Manrum (Manöverrum)

#13, 14

I actually cringed when I heard the dialog. We sometimes forget that in many instances, Trek really was a creature of its times, regardless of whatever series you’re playing in.

Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista |:-|

Apollo is a Q.

#18

Or perhaps a subset of Q called q. Qs don’t have to recharge the ol’ batteries every 20 min. or so. :)

Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|

With all that can be poked fun of in this episode, I still like it. Leslie Parrish was a honey, and Mike Forrest did a great job with his role.

I wish they had originally been able to film the planet scenes on a more imposing leftover set from a 50s Roman epic. This studio set just looks too unimpressive for a Greek god…a tiny temple and a picnic table. Sad.

As for the remastered effects, I like most of what they’ve done — the temple destruction at the end is quite good, and I bet trickier than it looks to pull off. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the angle of the Enterprise when it’s firing phasers on the planet. I like the rakish angle of the original — it’s more demonstrative.

Scott B. out.

“Mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate.” – Kirk. Always liked that line. >;>}

Am I missing something? Title shot… with the enterprise grasped by the hand, and the show titled superimposed over the top… Enterprise, hand and planet are NOT moving. So why are the stars moving? Just looks odd to me.

well..Did they fix the giant apollo scenes? the black matt lines and such, can you see his feet when he say’s “Take Me”? it would have been cool to come back after the commercial break to see Giant apollo kicking everyone around…oh, and why didnt they shake the screen a little when apollo is fighting back, you can see sulu and spock lurch to (not much)…oh well..can’t wait to see what they do with Nomad!

(My first attempt to post this apparently didn’t go through, so I apologize for any possible double-post)

Not the best episode, no.

But I have to say — after a lifetime of interest in Greek history and archaeology, after nearly majoring in Classics in college, and after 20 years of reading ancient Greek, I still picture Apollo as this guy in his shiny gold chiton.

The hand is holding the E all wrong. And how are those phasers meant to be heading for the surface of the planet?

“It’s a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkeeeeeeeee!”

I liked the episode to a fair degree. What Mr. Scott wont do for love!! Kirk ordered him to back down and what happened Apollo sends him across the park rolling several feet!! So much for that order! I hope Carolyn fell for him..HA HA!

The new shots are not motivating at all. This entire episode was done a bit lazy! Nothing but stills! Like others said, Those phasers are’nt even hitting the planet.. C’mon guys dont we watch the finished piece before it airs?? Please I hope they give Ultimate Computer a real good touch, They are starting to waver a little..

In the shots of the hand holding the ship the stars are going backwards aren’t they? In the opening shot the planet is seen rotating, if in the later shot the camera is fixed along with the Enterprise shouldn’t the stars actually be moving the other direction?

The stars are moving b/c the planet is actually rotating and revolving. The Enterprise doesn’t appear to move b/c it’s pretty much stuck in a geosynchronous orbit. It stays above one spot on the planet but is still moving with the planet.

True, but aren’t the stars still moving the wrong way?

This episode contains one of Star Trek’s most humorous and (probably) unintentional uses of understatement.

Apollo’s Temple is disintegrated and Kirk and company have forced a 5-story-tall, 3,000-year-old, heart-broken, last “god” of kind to commit himself to oblivion in one of show’s saddest and most emotional moments (thanks largely to Michael Forrest’s performance and Fred Steiner’s music).

McCoy’s response?

“I wish we hadn’t had to do this.”

Golly, I don’t know why you guys are so harsh on TOS…this episode isn’t so bad if you just take the time (and brain power) to analyze the episode in an intellegent manner. The acting is superb and the writing fantastic; Apollo’s “death scene” is one of the most moving scenes in all of TOS.

If I were in charge of those CBS-D guys, I would have made the temple look more like it was collapsing as if it was made of ash; I’ve always felt that TOS things glow when they’re shot at because the molecules in the object are basically getting superheated, to the point that they lose their cohesion totally and just collapse or basically evaporate.

I’m at a loss on how to grade these effects.

The new had is a better effect, but the old hand is a better hand. I don’t know if that makes sense, so I’ll say it this way. The old hand was obviously a real hand superimposed, or whatever the correct technical word is. I don’t work in effects, so I haven’t a clue. The new CGI hand lacks the detail the other hand showed (such as palm prints). Then again, one could claim that showing palm prints is cheesier in that a God’s hand wouldn’t have identifiable prints.

I’m not sure about this one, perhaps someone here more knowledgeable could find out… but I’m going to guess that the temple destruction scene was a complete CGI matte remake. I have to disagree about the fade being a great effect. I’m just not into fades. I think the phaser impacts on the temple just dind’t seem to fit. I just don’t see how a phaser impact is going to grow like a Christmas star.

As for the ship firing phasers: Come on, the ship can fire phasers multidirectionally. The phasers may be coming out of the port side of the bank, which would angle it down towards the planet. The hand does kind of obscure the phaser fire point of origen.

It would’ve been nice to have a little bit improved lightning bolts, and to have seen them hit the ship.

Looks like they did a good job with this episode. The new stuff looked good and they didnt seem to miss anything.

I just watched “Enemy Within” on my new HD-DVD set, and they never fixed the blank viewscreen at the end! There are a few shots of Kirk standing in front of a blank WHITE viewscreen when there should be stars on it….Pretty damned lame that they’d ignore that big and easily fixed flaw….

You guys complain too much.

I remember reading somewhere that “the hand” used in the original version of this episode was, in fact, Gene Roddenberry’s hand. Is it possible that they re-mastered out…the hand of the master?

Michael Forest was great on “As the World Turns” as Nick Andropolous in the 1980s… his love interest was Kathryn Hays (Gem)…
Had a professor at the University of Oregon who knew Michael Forest, whose real name is Jerry Zagourney. I kid you not.

I liked the hand effect in this better…rising from the planet. Actually, if you look close, the hand moves as it’s grasping thev enterprise. and does look more like a fielkd of energy than the original.

Remind’s me of the hand that used to eminate from Green Lantern’s ring.

Would have loved to see Apollo’s lightning bolts hit the ship when he fought back.

Overall, I liked it.

I’ve got to say, I am not very impressed. CBS work seems to be getting worse of late. There have been lots of missed opportunities to make this project truly great, I accepted that they weren’t going the whole way with this project a long time ago but it seems that they aren’t even going half way now.

It would have been nice to of seen a new matt painting of the temple and the surrounding area. And at the least there could have been some different angles and some camera movement whilst the ship was being held.

It would have been good to have seen the destruction of the temple changed like 32. TOS Purist suggested maybe showing “it was collapsing as if it was made of ash”

I wasn’t really sure about the hand either but I guess that was always going to be difficult to do.

It’s a real shame that this project hasn’t been given all the time and money it deserves. Some of the work has been of great improvement but lots of it has been way off, sloppy, lazy and there has been some bad decision making. I really hope this isn’t the last we see of TOS getting a makeover. I would like to think this is just stage one of the process.

Perhaps if Blue-Ray does win out in the DVD war they will go back and do more updates for the next release of TOS. I sure hope they do because this project had so much potential and it’s been a real shame to see it get wasted like it has.

I like the ghostly glow-effect of the hand and its rising from Pollux IV.
Good work CBS.
But the angle of the ship is the same in the entire episode, why???
CBS! Good luck for “The Ultimate Computer”.
It’s the ‘ultimate’ challenge for you to proof the possibilities of the Remastered-Project!!!!

The best hand effect can be seen in one of the “Ships of the Line” images. It’a rather blue hand that consistis of thousands of lightning bolts. It should be in one of the calendars, I found it in the book on page 51. Maybe someone can post this picture?

Holo J (& et al. who think Star Trek Remastered has missed the mark)

I couldn’t agree more! This re-mastering project has shown it’s true colors too often of late. This is CBS/Paramount’ most bold and blatant attempt to milk Trek fans out of more money.

The concept of this project was terrific… Take a forty-tear old show, transfer and re-master the original elements to Hi-Def… clean ’em up and make ’em vibrant! Then the true gravy…. Replace all the effects shots using state of the art technology to re-introduce this amazing piece of television history to a whole new generation.

The execution of this project has been, at best, uneven… At worst, it has been uninspired and insulting.

I understand the difficulties in introducing new CGI or reinvented matte work to any existing “live action” footage. It can be tedious, time consuming and costly, much like rotoscoping in days of yore. However, there is no reason not to make every space shot or exterior shot of the Enterprise… well, absolutely breathtaking.

The space shots, including the new hand of Apollo, were boring. Same angle on the Enterprise with a really crappy 2D feel to it… Yeah, yeah… there’s that old mantra from CBS-D, “We want to remain true to the spirit and feel of the original effects work.” For god’s sakes… Why?

We’ve all seen the original… we love the original… Do what the artists and producers would have done had they had this technology available to them in the late sixties… Blow our f**king socks off!!!

Time constraints and budget notwithstanding, CBS/Paramount should have stepped up to redress this classic with much more than it did. For those of you that think they will “go back” and fix these problems or take another pass to make it better. Good Luck! CBS/Paramount has cut the cloth and made the clothes… And, to paraphrase, TOS Remastered is less than attractive naked.

There’s nothing quite like a giant hand holding the Enterprise perfectly still. I laughed every time the shot came up.

That rudimentary blur on the new hand doesn’t cut it.
Nice phasers, though.

Why, though, do these shots still look like they were done with cgi methods from the ’90’s? Or even earlier??

HOW did Forrest do this with a straight face?

#21:”“Mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate.” – Kirk. Always liked that line. ”

Network Standards and Practices insisted that the producers add the second sentence.

#42 What will probably happen within 10 years, is now that digital versions of TOS-R are everywhere… that a group of fans themselves will re-remaster the episodes, and we’ll “share” them in the same manner we share fan-produced continuation/sequel/same-quels…

Certain people with the correct toasters already re-edit movies and things and do a decent job. Another 10 years of tech availability, and I’m sure a fan-based CGI edit will be commonplace.

No one will make any money off this, of course. But that’s art.

#42
I seriously doubt fans would bother to re-master episodes. It’s not really worth the time or the effort.

Bwaaa-Haaaa-haaaa… :)

Yeah, you’re probably right.

Who’s handling the FX for The Movie? Anyone know?

Hey, Daren! BTW, any info about an HD-TMP release?

not being a patron of poetry, i’ve always wondered about the obscure reference in the title of this episode, here’s some background:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adonais

Have to agree that fx-wise, this was another missed opportunity to give us (and any potential new audience…) some various more exciting views/angles of the ‘Enterprise being held at bay by the giant hand’…
And I think it looked far MORE menacing just appearing initially out of the ‘starscape’ in front of them, rather than from the planet below. And the new phaser ‘flashes’ on the ‘temple’ are VERY disappointing…
Ho hum, NEXT!