Remastered Menagerie Part II Airs Today

Spock tries to talk his way out of the death penalty with a AV presentation of Captain Pike’s strange adventure on Talos IV
(sorry no video preview this week…maybe the preview guy got fired)
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More at Memory Alpha

Trek’s only two parter comes to a close. Part I had most of the new effects but you can expect a few things:

  • new Rigel VII matte
  • new Mojave City backdrop matte for Pike’s picnic
  • more shots of Talos IV and Enterprise
  • maybe some new effects around the (Dr Evil voice) Giant Laser
  • …and an Orion Slave girl looking greener than ever  
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OK…FIRST!

I am loving the colour in the screenshots for this.

The first part anyway…

yeah the Colour looks great, from part one. I am sure its going to be just as good for part 2. What I’d like to see for part two is the image of Hell, put in Pikes mind remastered, that would be cool if they, added some lava and demon looking creatures, maybe they could just be hinted at in the background. I doubt they’ll do that though as its not a shot I image they’d have the time or money to do. But looking forward to seeing the screen shots later.

Curious and excited about all the effects and maybe a new laser, actually it looked pretty good back then,

Really missing your excellent video preview this time around Anthony…bring on the Orion slave girl!

By the way, the Talosian Being pictured above looks uncannily like a bald version of my Aunt…and she’s creepy too…this has ALWAYS freaked me out whenever these episodes are shown…

KWGN aired the episode this morning (ET) at 6:00am by mistake. Normally this slot is reserved for the previous weekend’s episode repeat.

So I have seen it already. Too early to speak of what was seen — Just a tip before you begin watching, listen for some brand new music cues in a few spots within the show.
More Phaser and transporter (Kirk era) sound effects overlaid with those in Captain Pike’s ordeal.

HAHAHAHAHA!!! “Maybe the preview guy got fired”.

LMAO!!! Thanks Anthony! Good morning laugh!

TTM

#7 BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Guys…guys..stop…you are big time cracking me up this morning!

Your aunt must be scary looking if she looks anything like The Keeper! LMAO!!!!

TTM

# 8 : Greg as the keeper is so inclined to say….Excellent!
Or as he tends to say too….We wouldn’t have thought this possible….
Speaking of which….weren’t all the aliens (or buttheads) as I called
them when I was younger actually women?

#11 Yes they are women. (I too called them the “buthead aliens” as a kid) The Keeper is played by actress Meg Wyllie. She’s been on a ton of TV shows throughout the years:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0943816/

This episode has-had such tremendous potential that I feel it could easily be redone – revisited (Talos 4) with a updated storyline. Perhaps with a real odd twist to it – say the Talosians being visited by a equally superior race of aliens from a nearby star system? Or by one of the more common and favorite ones seen in TNG? Emphasize the story on Star Trek XI and then like a Ice Cold Beer on a hot summer night…..add the needed special effects IF they’re and when their called for.

holy smack I cant wait to see the Rigel matte painting, i’ve been looking forward to this

Hope they don’t mess with the Giant Laser FX.
They were so intense and bizzare even for back then.
I think I read somewhere that the animators that contributed to that sequence had done some of the FX animations for Forbidden Planet.

Yeah, some of this stuff should not be messed with–I would not want to see any CG demons added to Hell–as much as I love looking at the new effects, I don’t want to see classic Trek turned into a Jerry Bruckheimer production where we have to throw everything but the kitchen sink into every potential effects shot–the simplicity of the Sixties look is one of the things I love about the original series; it doesn’t need 21st Century VFX overkill…

Don’t change the Rigel Fortress OR the phaser cannon!!

I don’t think the CBS crew will mess with things that much, I doubt they even had the time to get to anything as elaborate as the laser cannon and the burning “hell” sequence.

#17
If there ever was a shot that they could leave alone, it would be the fortress on Rigel 7, it was always a great shot. The CBS team MUST do a phenominal job if they are going to replace it. Looking forward to seeing this one. I am hoping they do somethihg that surprises me, the rear shot on the viewscreen showing the E’s nacelles in part one was a great surprise along with the window in Pike’s quarters.

I wouldn’t mind a more intense core for the center of the existing laser beam… make it look more powerful. But I doubt it since the hand laser effects were last as is in Pt. 2. They’re all good anyway.

One little thing always bugged me about the hand laser barrage… with all that firepower, and the rocks being blasted away there are several pieces of moss or something hanging there, right in the middle of the beams! Should have been burned away.

Also, please mods, do something about the last poster’s name being automatically filled in the blank! That’s going to cause trouble someday…

Just saw it… not very impressive. A lot of the effects that should have been touched up were left as is. This includes the awkward Pike transitions from “reality” to Cage and the goofy pull-backs from the Talosian viewscreens (which could easily have been smoothed over). I could be wrong, but the Rigel VII matte didn’t seem to be enhanced in any way. It’s a good matte, so I tend to agree with this decision. What did they do to the laser cannon scene? Lots of flashes and additional sparks added — NOT NEEDED. I was actually shocked that they refined the Talosian/gorilla monster transition. Wow, someone on the Remastered Crew actually woke up for that one. A missed opportunity, though, was keeping the wrecked elevator for the final shot with Pike — wouldn’t the the Talosians have revisualized it by now?

I think the “butt head” Talosian aliens are still the creeepiest looking of all the ST aliens. Maybe it’s because they look so real to me, and not an obvious mask or fancy make up job. Those pulsing veins, or whatever you would call them, really freaked me out when I saw this episode as a kid!

Honorably mention also goes to the fantastic sound effects and soundtrack in the “Menagerie” and “The Cage.” I’m not one to debate what ST series was the best, but I do think that the sound effects, soundtrack and score of the orginal pilot, as well as the rest of the TOS, is far superior to any of the spinoffs. The music adds so much to each episode, and it’s really an integral part of each story.

The spin offs all have music of course, but it doesn’t seem to play the same prominent role, or is as memorable as in TOS.

After they finish remastering TOS, I hope the remaster the orginal score and soundtrack and re-release it on CD.

Mike :o

PS: I own a “playmates” Captain Pike phaser pistol…does that mean I’m a Star Trek “Geek” in need of therapy??

It’s not your imagination. Most episodes of TNG, DS9, VOY have fewer music cues. After the GR pasted away one of the many things that changed was the amount of incidental music.

BTW – I have a Pike era laser pistol too! ZAP! ZAP!

Poor GR pasted away. He was pasting wallpaper first, then stamps…and finally he just stopped pasting altogether and became pasta.

Yes, TOS music rocked. TNG music…was as Berman said, “Sonic Wallpaper.”

Maybe he used some of Roddenberry’s paste for it?

yep, try to hum one melody from any of the later Trek series apart from the main themes… impossible. TOS had GREAT music that was very memorable.

dmack, i have to disagree with you… in TNG there is a very memorable theme… The episode is called “The Inner Light”

I think the opening theme of TNG is also excellent, but if I’m not mistaken, it’s also the theme from the TOS movies too.

Mike :o

#25

That’s not true of TNG seasons 1-3; what I call the Ron Jones years. Jones created some distinctive themeatic material but Berman fired him.

Hmmpf…too good I guess.

TTM

Right… sounding too much like real dramatic music and not background elevator Muzak. Too much like the original series. Berman sucked.

I think I need to go to Amazon.com and buy one of those Star Trek compilation CDs that includes music from all five TV series, as well as the ST movies.

I have all the TOS soundtrack CD’s, but I’m curious to see if there’s some good music from the other series as well…

Mike :o

Why don’t some of you want them to change the Giant Laser effect? It looks incredibly cheesy and dated. Whenever I watch The Cage or The Menagerie, that’s one of the few things that really irks me.

I really liked the laser canon and those “mod” wrap around safety glasses! hahaha I guess some of us old timers like a little “cheese” with our Star Trek TOS!

The thing I never liked about the original pilot were all those “gooseneck viewscreens!” The looked silly to me and reminded me of a metal desk lamp we had in our house growing up. Not very cool or futuristic looking!

I think the way Nimoy portrays Spock in the Cage and the second pilot, is unintentionally hilarious! At this point in trek he hasn’t nailed down his role yet, and the results are quite amusing. I can’t help but laugh when he delivers his lines! Gosh I hope I didn’t just commit “trek blasphemy” by saying that! It’s all in good fun boys and girls! (By the way, is musical plant scene where spock smiles, in the remastered Menagerie?)

There’s alot of charm and a great story in “The Cage”-it’s one of my favorite episodes…

Mike :o

wow, well im both touched and shocked that they left the Rigel fortress alone…im not sure which. I’d love to see what they “almost” did to it. Perhaps when they reuse it in “Requiem”

Hi Guys,was just trying to see if i could find something about the new film when I found this site.The new remastered sttos looks excellent…My only gripe with them is why..I love to watch the originals and marvel at how good they look even now.The ammount of creative work that went into all the fx shots and scenery really shows in every scene.My kids watch the show now and are enthralled by the whole package,so why bother updating.I think all the money involved in remastering these episodes would have been better spent on maybe a new series of hour long cgi star trek originals ..like the animated series but cgi.
I think perhaps this remastering is just uncreative people making more money out of old rope