Review “The Ultimate Computer” Remastered + Thoughts On TOS-R To Date

To quote one of my favorite bad Kirk lines: “Out of the nowhere; into the here!” It’s a pleasure to take a crack at another Trek Remastered review, and a very special one at that…Other than “The Doomsday Machine,” no classic Trek episode has been more anticipated in Remastered form than the late second season’s “The Ultimate Computer.” The spectacle of starship-on-starship action, achieved almost entirely through duped stock footage in the original episode, has had fans of the Remastered project slavering since the project was originally announced.

Now the episode is here, with little fanfare in a way—so does it deliver?
No question the original episode does. I’ve made this point before but one of the hallmarks of the original series, and one rarely matched by any of its offshoots, was its stunning parade of unforgettable guest star turns. In “The Ultimate Computer” we have William Marshall in a performance that’s literally towering—he’s probably the tallest guest star on the series other than Ted Cassidy. Marshall plays Dr. Richard Daystrom, a legendary scientist and the developer of Starfleet’s computer systems. His newest project is the M-5 Multironic Unit and, well, you know the rest.

It’s odd that “The Ultimate Computer” directly follows “The Changeling” in this syndication package since the two stories are so similar: two tricked-out thinking machines run amuck, both defeated by Kirk’s time-honored technique of driving computers crazy with logic. Both are also classic Trek “bottle shows” of the type beloved by producer Bob Justman because they employed only the standing Enterprise sets. But while Nomad (as built by special effects artist Jim Rugg and voiced by the inimitable Vic Perrin) has its charm, “Ultimate Computer” has the one-two punch of the impressive Richard Daystrom and the throbbing, supercilious M-5. Marshall is magnificent: you easily believe that this is a human legend boarding the Enterprise with his regal bearing and profound bass voice, the finest this side of James Earl Jones. But Marshall also adds the perfect grace notes to let you know that this hero has feet of clay: he’s arrogant, dismissive of Spock, Kirk, the Enterprise—just about everything not built by his own hands.

The M-5 is interesting in its own right, although almost comically bulky by today’s standards. The combination of Matt Jeffries’ typically clean design work, Rugg’s interesting lighting effects and vaguely intimidating sound effects (a powerful hum of energy that seems to change in intensity along with the M-5’s mood) along with James Doohan’s clipped vocal characterization (Doohan did amazing unheralded work in this area on the series) makes for a memorable mechanical heavy.


Daystrom (Marshall) with his M-5 (background) and McCoy

As an examination of Kirk’s ego, “The Ultimate Computer” is effective if a touch heavy-handed. The captain is reduced to the status of humiliated victim rather handily—even given the demonstration of the M-5 as a system that might very easily replace him and his job, it seems a bit whiny and out of character for Kirk to walk off the bridge after Commodore Wesley refers to him as “Captain Dunsel”—didn’t Kirk go through any hazing at the Academy worse than that? The episode also shares with “Changeling” a Trek hallmark which, while highly enjoyable, illustrates the differences between TV drama of the day and what would pass muster now: both episodes feature wholesale death and destruction loaded with human casualties…and after all that both wrap up with an easygoing joke and a smile, the dead seemingly forgotten.

But the good more or less outweighs the bad: Kirk’s “all I ask is a tall ship” moment with McCoy in his quarters hearkens back to some of their great private meetings in early episodes like “Balance of Terror.” McCoy’s position as a technophobe has probably never been put to better use as he grows increasingly infuriated at Daystrom’s arrogance and M-5’s “imperfect” slip-ups (and only McCoy could pull off this line: “Did you see the love-light in Spock’s eyes? The right computer finally came along.”) Spock goes nicely through his own mini character arc as he’s first quite logically impressed with Daystrom and the M-5, then gradually moves from suspicion to an outright declaration of loyalty and friendship to Kirk, noting that he far prefers to serve under a human commander as opposed to a mechanical one.

The plotline ingeniously mixes the battle of wits between the Enterprise officers and Daystrom with the wargame scenario that pits the Enterprise against three Constitution-class starships, with the Enterprise under M-5’s control ultimately destroying one of the vessels and killing its 400-person crew. Shatner’s anguish as Kirk’s beloved starship is used as a weapon of mass murder is perfectly played in a climactic 15 minutes that really has it all—a grand space battle reduced to a perfectly human equation of responsibility, arrogance and madness, with Kirk desperately searching for the key to stop the M-5 while his Starfleet comrades are being devastated on his bridge’s viewscreen. Even given the limited visual effects it’s a fantastic mix of daring scope and intimate, high-stakes drama that’s confined to one small room—a great example of the character-based drama that Trek at its best excelled at.


Shatner delivers in "The Ultimate Computer"

That said…what fan watching this episode post-Star Wars didn’t dream of seeing a REAL space battle play out between four powerful starships? There’s a lot of fun stuff here, from the new space station clearly intended to represent a Vanguard station from the Pocket Books Trek series, to the replacement of the old Botany Bay stock footage for the freighter drone Woden with the freighter drone design from the Animated Series (when I appeared on G4’s Attack of the Show with Dave Rossi I remember talking with him before the show about what kind of stuff they would be doing—this was before I’d seen more than a frame or two of Trek Remastered—the topic of “Ultimate Computer” came up and I immediately said “You’ve got to use the Animated Series robot freighter for the Woden!” So I take full credit for this idea, Dave—although you’d probably already thought of it and just couldn’t admit it to me).

 
New station and freighter are nice touches

It’s difficult to fully appraise the use of new effects in this episode due to the typically brutal syndication edit—just as “Tomorrow is Yesterday” had lengthy, effects-heavy action sequences edited down, so it appears does “Ultimate Computer” and it seems at least a couple of shots from the two war games engagement are missing. That said CBS-D does come up with a variety of interesting shots, although even here, in an episode where they’re pulling out all the stops, there are two or three uses (some flopped) of very similar shots of the Enterprise hitting another Constitution class ship far in front of it with phaser fire. There’s no doubt however that the new work trumps the original in terms of laying out the tactics and action of the space battle—now the attacking ship formations are seen with a satisfying mix of foreground and background angles and perspective, and lightning fast bits of action. “Ultimate Computer” always showed off Trek’s superb editing, music and sound effects in these battle sequences (and indeed in the “death” of M-5) and the new effects add even more excitement to one of the most enjoyable and gripping installments of the original series. I can’t wait to see the uncut version of this episode on DVD.

 
New angles a good touch, but why not even more variety?

Looking at the whole Remastered Project

At the risk of making this the longest Trek Remastered review in recorded history, since we haven’t done regular reviews of the series here for a while it’s worthwhile to give a bit of an overview of the project over the past few months. We’ve seen season one released on DVD (and presumably, given recent developments in the DVD hi-def format wars, we’ll see Trek Remastered released on Blu-Ray at some point soon). While I did my appearance on Attack of the Show arguing against the very idea of the Trek Remastered concept, I’ve always been able to see both sides of this argument and in fact I’ve watched every Remastered episode with great anticipation and a mix of excitement and, occasionally, disappointment. For the incredible (for the most part) restoration of the original 35mm imagery on the show to the razor-sharp, almost hallucinatory color values we get to see now, this project has been well worth the effort. There have been a lot of absolutely beautiful things done—in particular the matte paintings have been eye-popping, flawless and have beautifully captured the spirit of the original Al Whitlock work while increasing its depth and detail—take a look at the cityscapes in “A Taste of Armageddon” and even the brief pan across the surface of M113 in “The Man Trap”—for me these shots recreate the childhood wonder I had looking at the great sci fi films of the Fifties and Sixties as well as Trek.

 
"Armageddon" and "Man Trap" and other matte shots show consistent quality

It’s true the space shots have been a mixed bag. There’s been some beautifully textured work, there’s been convincingly photographic work—and there have also been a lot of shots that just read as too obviously CG to me. It’s a trade of one type of unconvincing approach (heavy matte lines and film grain being the chief vice of TOS) for another in some cases. I still manage to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the advantages of camera movement and motion afforded by the CG approach—sometimes it’s like watching a sophisticated version of the Animated Series, but the Animated Series was fun to watch too. There’s definitely been a sense that after a year of work, schedules and budgets have cut down on a lot of the little “extra” fixes we were spoiled by early on. After the smooth work on the finished first season episodes, it was disappointing to see the work on “Who Mourns for Adonais?” and “Day of the Dove,” where I could honestly say that the original effects work with all its flaws and limitations was more effective. But then a week later, on arguably one of the worst episodes (“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”), the CBS-D team will go above and beyond the call of duty.

 
CBS-D not bringing their A game to "Adonais" and "Dove" space shots

I still look forward to seeing what this team will do with episodes like “Elaan of Troyius” and “The Cloud Minders” and I’m going to be sad when this is all over because it’s given me yet another excuse to watch my favorite TV series all over again. The fact is, though, I don’t think Trek Remastered will be the final word on TOS where this kind of approach is concerned. Without the pressures of budgets and schedules, fans are already showing they can do work like this at home and make Trek’s effects look exactly the way they think they should. I doubt you’d see anyone capable of redoing the entire series but there are enough fans around with the talent to take on individual episodes, pool their resources and eventually do it all. But we have to credit Mike and Denise Okuda, Dave Rossi and the people at CBS-D for pointing the way and tackling a truly momentous task with obvious love and dedication to this series.

 

More “Ultimate Computer” Remastered coverage from TrekMovie.com:
Screenshots and Video
Exclusive Interview with TOS-R Producers

VOTE: Rate The Ultimate Computer
What did you think of the remastered effort this week…vote in the latest poll (right column)

 

For more from Jeff Bond, check out his fine magazine Geek Monthly (of which he is editor-in-chief).

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Hello.

Sorry about that, I wanted to rob somebody of the joy of declaring “First!”

As far as the new FX in TOS, I have mostly positive feelings about them. They have been inconsistent, however, and sometimes just too fake looking. I know they claimed once that they didn’t want the FX to overshadow the older live footage, but I just wish they would have spiced things up a bit more. Not enough “Doomsday Machine” type of effects. I know that wouldn’t always serve the story, but when they had the chance to pull out the stops, they usually didn’t. Mostly we have remastered episodes with a CG fly by and a dull looking planet sometimes.

OK. I’m gone now.

A well written review of not only Ultimate Computer but also good thoughts about the remastered series as a whole…

Please forgive me, but I’m going to re-write my comment from the previous article on this episode here because it is relevant to how I feel about the remastered effort.

I would love to see some glorious model shots for this remastered effort, but I do understand that the time and cost would be prohibitive to CBS-D. Still, I think nothing has surpassed the sense of scale and beauty of TMP’s love shots of the Enterprise in spacedock. And with all respect in the world to the great CGI artists who contribute here, there is just something about knowing that a real, physical model exists and was photographed. I think for me, it’s maybe a sub-conscious thing, but in the back of my head it’s satisfying to know that if I really wanted to touch the image I was looking at, I could. Sort of an unrequited tactile response.

I own the first season remastered DVD’s and will purchase the whole series regardless of HD or Blu-Ray formats. I enjoy immensly the new FX shots and my children are seeing TOS in a whole new light. In that respect, it has been a success. I just wish that this had been the 100% over the top, absolute ultimate effort that it deserved to be. Spare no expense. Take your time. Air the episodes when you are ready. CBS-D should have treated this like there was never going to be another chance to do this.

In the future it is my belief that it will be the fans that will do the definitive remastering of FX for TOS. I look forward to sampling their efforts.

I liked the episode and the review pretty much covers everything. I am curious about one thing. the original pilot the cage has that one been remastered yet.? I know that parts of it were used reused in the remastered episode of the Menagerie, but I have seen nothing pertaining to The Cage? If it has not been remastered I was wondering what would be the reason

I am waiting for the HD-DVD set and not watching these on broadcast TV any more. The more that sub-standard stuff is crammed down our throats, the more I hear Obi-Wan from The Empire Strikes Back. “Patients!” I am comfortable waiting.

Daren Doc – Me thinky someone ought to do a kick ass Ultimate Computer FX reel with aome real teeth. Me thinky one man we know of could pull it off.
Hmmmmm

“The Cage” will be remastered. It is the second to last episode on the schedule. Last is the Series’ last: “Turnabout Intruder.”

I always enjoy Ultimate Computer, and I was pleased with the new Starbase and the effect shots. I was a bit dissapointed that we did not get to see different ships (i.e. the Miranda-type mentioned in the interview, even if they did not want to mess up continuity, they could have made it another ship at the starbase.)

Oh well, this was a good episode and I look forward to more.

I just want to say that I am pleased to have the triumphant return of Jeff Bond and his review pen (keyboard). I also happen to agree with Mr. Bond point by point. I love the Remastered project in principal. Max Gabl can do no wrong it seems with the matte shots. I also love the new variety in the space shots. But yet I feel that lately the project has been pulling back. Getting more conservative and also getting less polished (or actually too shiny plastic). We have seen the team do great things, but it is just inconsistent. There are a few more episodes to go and so lets hope they shine through and knock a few more out of the park

I agree with he above. The Cloud Minders needing Stratos remastered and Elaan needing that klingon battle touched up this project is on its last limb. I still think the cage needs a special touch. We dont see any enterprise shots.

I’ve seen all but two of the TOS-Rs. Got the first season from iTunes. It’s all very lovely, but I really wish the live-action shots had been cleaned up as well. It was particularly obvious on the broadcast that I watched, and I’m nowhere near HDTV yet.

AFA the fx themselves, there’ve been some really high highs, such as the scene in “Amok Time,” where we get a shot of the Big Three walking from the beam-down point to the site of the marriage ceremony (and I know there were purists screaming bloody murder over *that* one) to some “why bother” episodes like “Paradise Syndrome.” THX #4 said, “I just wish that this had been the 100% over the top, absolute ultimate effort that it deserved to be. Spare no expense. Take your time. Air the episodes when you are ready. CBS-D should have treated this like there was never going to be another chance to do this.” That pretty much sums it up for me.

I also would have asked for a better syndie package in which to showcase them.

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

Well written review.
I hadn’t seen this one in ages…William Marshall’s performance is really overpowering, like his stature, a real challenge for Kirk and Co.
The FX were good but I would have liked to see more details of the shipwide destruction created by M-5; similar to Wrath of Khan, it would have been more compelling.
All in all a great episode, only made less so by those annoying syndication cuts that always drive me up the wall..especially with fine episodes like this; it’s really hard to take. I await the DVD!

I’m just glad that the registries on the ships, which match the Star Trek Encyclopedia, are finally “canon”.

#12-Vulcanista -“I also would have asked for a better syndie package in which to showcase them.”

Amen to that. Finding episodes on the air was like going on a snipe hunt. Except that you had a better chance bagging a snipe than finding the episode of Trek remastered airing at the actual un-Godly hour it was supposed to.

They didn’t do themselves any favors there.

What was wrong with the Adonais “hand”?

It looks pretty good to me, but I suppose they could have done more with the camera?

THX1138 – I completely agree with you about E’s beauty shot in TMP. That’s just about my favorite scene in the movie.

What directors and CG artists sometimes forget is that the Enterprise is as much a character as any of the actors. It should be treated as the star it is, and it definitely isn’t getting much of that treatment in the remastered episodes.

Woot! Review!

Did anyone manage to figure out what the subtle differences on the Connie models were?

Anthony Pascale: “Max Gabl can do no wrong it seems with the matte shots.””

THAT’S HIS NAME! I was banging my head against the wall looking for his name. I love his matte shots and they are probably the highest on my list of favorites of TOS-R. That and the film scanning crew.

Thinking back, those ARE my only two on the list.

I can’t believe I didn’t realize until today that Dr. Daystrom was the King of Cartoons…

Paramount should be ashamed of themselves…..don’t issue “remastered” episodes on DVD until it’s damn near perfect!

What’s the friggin’ rush???

“Profit……this is all about profit!”

I agree the new FX have been inconsistent (it especially bugs me how the Enterprise hull constantly switches from the original flat greenish-gray to a shiny metallic color), but I’ve never considered TOS-R the “definitive” TOS anyway.

This has always been just an interesting experiment, and overall I think it’s been a lot of fun to see.

#21 Shame is not cost effective Paramount wants to rush out this mastered addition so that in a few years they can charge us even more money for the ulta delux remastered perfected set of dvds in a gold and diamond encrusted one of a kind collectors case at the delux price. Its a money game with them all the way.

Superb review! It is great to have this insightful analysis of the episode by Mr. Bond plus his well-reasoned critique of the overall remastered effort. I couldn’t agree more.

#14 – I’m biased, but I really wish they’d gone with FJ’s registries. I didn’t expect it, but I wish… :)

#15, Agreed about trying to find TOS-R on your local TV dial, but I was actually referring to the package of episodes they had available to remaster.

Remember a couple of months back, G4 was airing uncut TOS episodes on Mondays. Why couldn’t they have gotten that particular package, or one with less cuts for commercials, instead of the pre-butchered-beyond-belief syndie package they got? I mean, CBS/Paramount owns the damn series, for pete’s sake. I know that they’re saving the uncut versions for the DVD sales, but it seems like it would have been a great marketing tool to have had at least a couple of full-length eppies available for broadcast.

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

YAY! The reviews are back!

I am so happy!

:)

I always liked this one, though I thought it was interesting that Kirk makes the statement about death being the penalty for murder. I suppose one could excuse it by saying he was merely using a value judgement he knew Daystrom agreed with, given that the M-5 was essentially a copy of Daystrom, but it always sat a bit uncomfortably with me. Even in TOS, it seemed that criminals were sent to rehabilitation colonies or imprisoned, not executed. That plus the reference to ‘God’s laws’ always seemed out of place somehow. Kind of like the end of ‘Bread and Circuses’. Not that I’m anti-God or religion, just that the references always seemed off somehow.

Okay – here’s my review:

First of all this is just for the people in the Dallas Area – good job KDFI of screwing me out of best ten minutes of the show and the destruction of the Lexington. Ten minutes of black screen?! What was that malfunction about?

It may be known to some that I’m not in favor of re-mastering. I fought with Dave Rossi on stage at the 40th anniversary con in Chicago almost two yrs ago. I was pretty much the only one there who felt that way. My thought is just because it can be done doesn’t mean it should be. I quite frankly would rather it be left alone. I will say this. . . I’ve never spoken to him about it but I believe Daren Dochterman’s vision of re-mastering is different in basic idealogy from what these guys are doing.

Having said all that, if any one episode could change my mind. This might be the one to do it if ever there was one. Even after the scenes I missed . .it was the most enjoyable episode I’ve seen of the re-mastered lot. This is the first one I really saw the effect. I didn’t enjoy their Doomsday Machine. I much preferred the original. However, I enjoyed watching this. It reminded me of how I felt when I was a kid being enthralled by the show itself. Sat here in my recliner with my one and half yr old in my lap (introducing a new generation to it) and feeling like a kid myself again. Really enjoyed it tonight.

I will say this. . . .Hey, I understand editing this show is difficult to fit in today’s commercial schedule but what a poor job of editing in the final moments with key dialogue being taken out. We didn’t know Kirk had ordered the screens be left down. That’s a huge part of this episode! CBS should do a limited commercial run of these things if they really want to introduce them to a whole new audience. Make each one a special thing the first time they air. “Tonight with limited commercials!” Something like that.. I mean. . . .let’s go.

I do miss little touches like the control panel in the torso of Mudd’s androids. I haven’t felt a little touch like that in a long time.

* On a side note. . .I’ve known for years that Doohan was the voice of M5 but just noticed tonight that he was also the voice of Admiral Enright too. Anyone else notice that? Although we all appreciate him on here. . .what a much under appreciated talent James Doohan was.

And on another note. . . watching Nomad right now which airs right after “Ultimate Computer” tonight. . . .Vic Perin was a super voice actor.

I was enjoying this episode throughly until about the 45 minute mark, they inform the captain that the 4 ship fleet is on an intercept course , dramatic music , break for ads, during the ad break, the station carrying it here in Dallas/Fort Worth, Channel 52 went to static on every set in the house , thanks to them I missed the climax of the episode . Thanks channel 52! You’ve ruined my week!

Overall, I am pleased with the project, too. What drives me nuts is not knowing what’s up when I see one scene and think it’s awesome (when the ship was changing course and starting to bear down on the other ship)…the next looks lousy (the long distance phaser shots). Weird.

Response to James Heaney. The subtle difference on the Lexington was the view screen which was slightly larger with rounded corners and two additional side panels.

#29, 30 – Good job, 52! At least they managed to get those annoying technical school commercials played during the hour! >;>}
Yes, the new effects have been a mixed bag from stunning to stunned (stunted?) It makes me wonder what Mojo, Rob Bonchune, and that group could have done with this.

A long read, but a groovy read. And: amen on Daystrom. Just an awesome presence and a real guest-star highlight.

I guess what really confuses me is the idea that mind-blowing special effects would “overwhelm” the show, or wouldn’t match.

TNG has some pretty awesome effects, and I don’t hear anybody saying “Geesh, they were just too much for me.” So why would people say this about TOS?

I’m one who has been, for the most part, underwhelmed. Granted, there have been some gems (many of the mattes, Doomsday Machine) but then there have been some misses. And I have to say, I’m disatisfied with the misses.

I agree with THX and Vulcanista… this is something that should have been given all the time and money it deserved. I saw the EdenFX shots posted and thought they were eye-popping. I hope that one day, we get to see something of that caliber out of another Remastered project from TOS. But until then, I’m satisfied to see the the network airings, and still have the old ones on DVD.

#10 Anthony

Agree,

We were treated to a lot more fixes and tweaks early on in this project. Now, it appears that the TOS-R team has been scaled way back and are only doing the bare minimum. Unfortunate.

Great review. I will enjoy the last few weeks of TOS-R regardless. Hopefully the Okuda’s and Rossi still have some surprises for us!!

Just have to add my voice to this. I was dissapointed with the uninspired angles the action was presented through. Why not any shots of the damage being done TO the other ships?

I agree with the author’s points, especially when noting that Kirk seemed a little overly-pouty about being called “Captain Dunsel” I never noticed it before. Maybe it had something to do with the timing being off due to the syndication cuts? Hard to tell. But this seemed especially odder because at the end Kirk is praising Comm. Wesley for his passion and his humanity!

William Marshall is great in his performance! While initially appearing arrogant and cocky, you could still feel an undercurrent that something was just a little off kilter! Brilliant! And the rest of the crew was excellent too!

The opening shot seemed a little stiff and awkward. It appears that the Enterprise is heading straight in for a docking approach, and then suddenly they are in orbit around the station. Huh?

Indeed, we may have become spoiled by some of the great moments, such as in “Doomsday Machine” when we can see boulders bouncing off the hull of the starship, so it’s easy to see why we expected more from “Ultimate Computer” Those long distrance shots left us wanting to see more up close detail. A bit of a let down, to say the least.

Even such superb episodes such as Doomsday have had some minor glitchy things. To me, it would seem that when the Enterprise’s phaser’s were bouncing of the hull of the Machine, it should have apperared more like an arc welder raking across the surface, instead of the splashy look that they gave it. That was almost too reminiscent of the original effects.

Overall, I’m sure with the budget and time constraints, the work that CBS-D has done has been an honest effort, and I salute them for doing the best that they have done. But there have been times that they have missed the target somewhat. I feel that they are kind of like a fledgling animation group, just starting to learn to spread their wings, and maybe Paramount is hoping that they can start doing more in-house work, and not have to parse the work out to outside sources, such as ILM or Eden. I wish them the best in their continueing efforts. Who knows, maybe if and when they decide to put the series out on Blu-Ray, they’ll get another budget to go back and make some tweaks?

Oh well, one can hope, anyway! It is hard to keep a good fan happy!

An excellent episode that, like “The Doomsday Machine,” deserved extra special treatment. It got that, for the most part. The only thing I found troubling was the lack of close-ups on the other Starfleet ships, especially during the battle. They were always far in the distance, with the Enterprise dominating the shot. Why didn’t CBS-D give us some closer shots of the ships so we could see some of the damage inflicted during the battle? Some nice shots like the wonderful close-up of the Constellation in “The Doomsday Machine” would have added a lot to the carnage and destruction described in the dialog.

I, too, have noticed the apparent scaling back of the “fixes” CBS-D have been doing, and I am disappointed. Some of their work may be inconsistent, but it was wonderful to catch a few real “gee whiz” moments every now and then. It will be a pity if we won’t see any more of those.

And finally, a note to James…errr…Jeff Bond. It’s great to see these reviews again, and I enjoyed this one very much. I share many of the same opinions and it was great to see them so deftly put to words. Excellent work!

4, 17.. The scenes of the Enterprise in spacedock. My favorite as well. And the music for that scene is perfect. *sigh*

Back to The Ultimate Computer: I’m not sure if its a morbid sense of humor or what, but surely I’m not the only one that gets a chuckle out of Daystrom’s reaction to the Vulcan nerve pinch. Could his genious be the cause of him being able to remain upright, towed off the bridge by Spock?

#40

I thought that was a great reaction shot as well!

Maybe it’s his intractability regarding his baby, the M5, that keeps him upright.

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

#19: “I love his matte shots and they are probably the highest on my list of favorites of TOS-R. That and the film scanning crew.”

YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD!!!

Is it me or did they tweak the power beam m5 uses to connect to the warp drive. It looks the same, but a little more ‘wavey’ to me when the power is cut off to the unit. And I noticed and it’s not me to notice these things, but the power beam seems to be reflected in the floor of engineering. was this there before?

#40

OVER acting to the nerve pinch I think may #1 be a reflection of the acting style of the time and #2 would probably be necessary in a time and date where you didn’t have a way of recording programs to see over and over, so you could memorize details. Therefore, the audience needs to be reminded of the Vulcan nerve pinch. Plus, a more realistic reaction, which would mor likely be expressionless crumpling, would look kind of lame on camera, and may, in fact, make the audience wonder “what the heck…”

However, I do understand what you are saying… :-D

#40

Perhaps this is Spock’s special “I can keep him upright until I hand him over to the gaurds” neck pinch?

Just guessing… ;)

45

That was always my thought.

The stills shown here and elsewhere seem cloudy with a lack of sharp detailed focus. Also….the overall pics appear to take on the oveall tone
or color of the primary picture.
Now I’ve just noticed that here in the pictures but is that also evident in the stations that broadcast the episodes in HD? We have the vibrant colors but it seems to be at the cost of the overall quality of the picture itself.
Does anyone else notice this or is it just me?

i think the remastered process was altimately successful for its original intent and purpose- to restore the original film negative to HD quality and to replace the technologicaly inferior and jarring dirty effects film with new- more expansive effects shots.

what it failed to be was a “special Edition” of the series or even just the five or ten heavyest effects episodes.

i just hope now that the episodes exist in high Quality HD with FX shots re done the powers that be eventualy get Eden FX to re-remaster the standout FX episodes for a special edition box set of the biggest 15 FX episodes.
both going all out in replacing exististing FX and re-editing the episodes to acomadate extensively revised TMP style indulgent FX sequences- maybe for the 45th or 50th anniversary- or the three seasons with uncut standout episide as extras along with the original remastered episodes.
one can hope.

Just a quick note , for every one affected by the Dallas area climax blackout here are the E-mail addresses to the station’s Captain Dunsels . I have already given them my 2 cents , every one affected should do the same .

sebrooks@wfaa.com
dozymy@wfaa.com
ndavis@wfaa.com
ashank@wfaa.com
kmoeller@wfaa.com
jdodson@wfaa.com

Just please remember , get your point across with out cussing , just be respectful and courteous.

The main problems with the remastered episodes are an unconvincing virtual Enterprise and moves by the ship which are awkward – looking. A prime example of this problem is seen as the Enterprise approaches the space station in the Ultimate Computer. It’s so bad that it’s almost laughable. The team should be ashamed that a 40 year old TV show with a low budget did better effects than they are capable of producing!