“The Changeling” Remastered Screenshots + Video + Mini Review

did they hide the wires?

re: 2 Keith

Maybe they should have gone at it with stone knives and bearskins :)

ohhhhh NOMAD. you silly robot. I heard from a reliable source last night that NOMAD will NOT, repeat NOT be featured in the new movie. Just wanted you all to know that before the rumors got out of hand.

Not a winner episode by any means. Some of the rare times that robots were used as part of the story, or reused in this case. I believe this little robot was used again in a stronger episode with a certain immortal. Oh those low budget STAR TREK days.;) Still I can’t help but love them as they have more heart and soul them some Scifi shows with bigger budgets. I do recall growing up wondering why the Enterprise would not have a few robots here and there for hazardous missions. Maybe all those redshirts really were advanced androids all this time.;)

I always found it odd that the Enterprise withstands several “bolts” from Nomad, each said to equal the energy of 90 of their photon torpedoes, and yet Kirk is beside himself with disbelief when Nomad manages to withstands just one photon torpedo in return.

Exactly right, #9. That always bothered me a lot too. It really is obviously inconsistent and it is annoying the writers couldn’t put a few neurons together. Very careless and stupid.
But a good episode.

I thought I also noticed a different and more fancy picture on one of the monitors above Spock’s station.

This was always one of my favorites. I wouldn’t dare argue the point, though, because I have special reason to love it that seriously clouds my judgement: this was one of the three TOS episodes I owned on video when I was a wee lad. Every year or so, I would save up ten full dollars (which was a lot of money back then, you young’uns) and go down to Best Buy to purchase an Original Series VHS. This was a time of brutal and difficult decision making, as I always wanted to pick one I had never seen before, and there were quite a few of those, and just how is a boy of that age to judge what a good episode might be from just the cover?

Anyhow, I’d probably seen “The Changeling” two or three dozen times before we lost the tapes, and so it holds a place very close to my heart.

“Non sequitor! Error! Error! Error! Error! Tan Ru! Tan Ru!”

Oh, and the point of that whole post: well done, CBS Digital. It is a remastering worthy of one of my much-loved episodes.

Re: 7. Rick

“Still I can’t help but love them as they have more heart and soul them some Scifi shows with bigger budgets.”

Right on, Rick, right on! There are so many that do not appreciate that. All the flashy whiz-bang is no substitute for old fashioned “heart and soul”.

“To boldly go where Nomad has gone before …”
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22where+nomad+has+gone+before

I alone must bear responsibility for the unimaginable losses caused by the Nomad autonomous space exploration prototype. As I now realize, albeit far too late to save billions of souls, Nomad was equipped with an insufficiently developed and tested auto-destruct mechanism. Had the system worked as intended, Nomad would have annihilated itself on determining that it had been irreparably damaged or that its integrity had been compromised in any way that would have presented the slightest hazard to the ecosystems it was designed to study.

Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise have again proven, in a spectacular episode of courage and intelligence, that there is no mere technological substitute for Star Fleet’s manned space exploration program. It is only through the combined efforts of the boldest and brightest minds of the Federation that we may learn more about our infinite universe, and more importantly, about ourselves.

– Jackson Roykirk –

I believe this ep was an inspiration for TMP. Similar storyline.

Did anyone notice(after Nomad blew up) that Kirk looked right at the camera before the extremely awkward fade to the Enterprise?

priceless.

even remastered that enterprise looks ridiculously small.

The green weapon that Nomad fired was actually pretty good. The expolsion of Nomad was not. The original was actually better. The new explosion was just basically nothing too much more than a flash. The photon torpedo was ok.

But this is another one of those episodes where the things that were not fixed outweigh what was fixed. The reason for that is because of the minimal amount of space effects. You had a lot of opportunities to fine tune and fix: the had phaser shots – come on, having them stop suddenly at the edge of door frames?? You can touch up the beams, and add a shield around Nomad. The phaser shots that Nomad fires – you mean to tell me that a robot fires out a series of diamonds? The shots at the Ensign Ricky’s and the shot at Scotty needed fixing. The vaporization of the officers needed to be fixed too.

The scan of Uhura was actually not too bad of an original effect. It could have been made just a little bit more wavy, and added pulses to the beam. However, that’s just pickiness talking. Its still ok as is.

CBS-D here’s somethign for you to chew on: if you did more with this remastering going full on hardcore – fixing ALL those effects (like the phasers & vaporizations – and yes, I saw “Wink of an Eye,” so don’t tell me it can’t be done) digitally re-recording the music (as originally composed) and sound effects (an exact duplicate) I would be willing to pay what you are charging and probably even more. I’m sure there are a number of folks on this site who post on this forum that gree with me.

I think I speak for many people when I say that I really dislike that I was misled with how far this project would go when I saw the phaser effects on “Wink of an Eye.” The big episodes like “The Doomsday Machine” we expected something mind-blowing and we thank you for that. But even these minimal effects episodes need some love too, and fixing hand phasers is a nice touch. You fixed a vaporization (although I don’t think it was all that great) in “Wolf in the Fold” (I think) so that can be done too. To me, you have to fix all of them, or fix none of them.

In other issues: If there was ever a debate on what caused the doors to open: this episode proves it’s not weight on the floor, but motion activation.

Also, what is more impressive: the anti-grav hover units (which can be assumed exist, seeing as we see them in TMP, which in Trek canon, takes place only a few years after this) or the anti-grav carrying units seen in this episode, which presumably create a loaclized pocket which significantly reduces the effect of the ships artifical gravity?

I was worried that they werent gonna hide the wires.

They did NOT hide the strings in “Where no man has gone before” when Gary makes the cup of water come to him (they’re glaringly obvious on the standard def version of the DVD)

I really hate that CBS digital isnt even bothering with some stuff that really needs fixing like the visible strings in “Where no man…”, blank viewscreen in “Enemy Within” and untouched matte in “Gamesters of Triskelion” What else are they gonna carelessly ignore?

31. OR Coast Trekkie

“But even these minimal effects episodes need some love too, and fixing hand phasers is a nice touch.”

I totally agree with you OR Coast Trekkie. I know that we are told the effects were an after thought to this remastering and that’s why the budget has not been there to give these guys the time to do more, but you have to ask why where the effects just an afterthought? Its been talked about by fans for years and It seemed obvious to me.

I would love to see this done again. Maybe if Blue – Ray wins out CBS will go back and look at more improvements? Maybe that’s just wishful thinking. but I would love to see some more time and love given to the effects for each episode. I say it all the time …”fix all those phasers” , ” I love to see the Static Display screens on the bridge do something” and “why have they left that matt painting alone” etc etc..

The truth is there is so much more that could be done IF they were given the time and money. It seems to be this project has been rushed and done on the cheap, just to turn about a quick profit, which is a great shame.

I don’t mean that I have found all the efforts by CBS Digital bad, far from it. I have enjoyed some of the work, like “Doomsday” Journey to Babel” and Amok Time” but even when watching those episodes I have thought I wish they could have done more to the little things.

I love TOS and enjoy it in its original form on DVD over and over so I don’t need the new effects to make me watch it, the stories do that for themselves but I would still love to see it and own a version of it where it’s been updated, effects wise, to the highest standard possible today.

Give this remastering a big budget and some decent art direction, make the most of the space shots and remaster all the dated effects, add little touches, like making those chucky pads they right on a touch screen and displaying data, lots of little touches like that would be worth it for HD DVD. I guarantee more younger people who can’t look past the effects of this show would start watching. Plus it would be so much fun to see.

I know this isn’t going to happen any time soon and to some extend I still enjoy seeing what CBS D has done each week. I just wish this whole project could have been more than what we have ended up with..

#27 – spockboy – “Did anyone notice(after Nomad blew up) that Kirk looked right at the camera before the extremely awkward fade to the Enterprise?”

Because of the New SFX being added the fade is much quicker than the original.
In the original, Shatner looks to the camera and fades out even though he appears to be speaking. What did he say? – – – “Listen about that Bacon … no really!” – – – referring to the bad bacon served on set earlier that morning. “That bacon is really bad it just stays with you the whole day.” – found earlier in the ST Blooper Reel. Review and put the two scenes within the Blooper Reel together.

The ball is..Bluu…..Bl.Bluu…Blu-E Ray?

Blue Ray=Betamax same destiny.

The effects on Doomsday Machine were excellent–but they chopped out one of the best lines of the episode–where Spock says, “Vulcans never bluff.” How could they chop that out?

“I am not Nomad, I am a similiar device known as Monad. I should destroy you for that, but I’ll give you a Mulligan this time.”

Anyone?

One thing I always disliked in this episode is how lightly Uhura’s memory wipe is taken. Her whole life up to this episode is gone… but in the space of that hour, she relearns everything and is back doing her job. Silly. What about her identity? She consists only of what she does for a living, and when she relearns YEARS of knowledge in a few hours, she’s fine? WHAT THE…?

I just pretend that they said “she has a short-term memory loss” and let it go. But it was sloppy writing and short-changed the character. All she is, is “Hailing frequencies open.”

During “Turnabout Intruder” just before Scotty & McCoy discuss the procedings in the briefing room, there is a shot of the Enterprise from below/front with very dramatic music. The ship is slightly nose-up and is ‘sliding’ forward. It’s a great shot, one of the clearer opticals.

That’s a shot I think looks great and should be reproduced EXACTLY. But I’m not seeing a lot of that, sure some shots are close, but viewing angles are changed. I didn’t see this episode, but in the article, Anthony says the ext. opticals are “shot for shot”. Which, I think they should do with some of the better visually composed shots.

I’m glad for the upgrades, but sometimes the original shots are fine as they are. Anyone at CBS-D reading….?

So does anyone else think the Enterprise could really take the pounding described in the opening of this episode? We’re told each one of Nomad’s blasts is equal to *ninety* photon torpedoes…and Enterprise takes *three* of these! That’s like getting hit with 270 photon torpedoes!!