CBS have released some new images from this weekend’s remastered Tholian Web
[UPDATE: added new higher res versions]
Original
Original
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TrekMovie.com expects to get higher res versions of these from CBS, so keep an eye out for an update of this article.
VIDEO: PREVIEW
Original Image captures by TrekCore.com
Third one is for cheese-factor?
I always thought this one was one of my favorite episodes in the series.
I always loved this episode! Great mystery combined with a real intellectual sense of wonder that only the best science fiction can convey. That being said I have always wondered how they approved those atrocious space outfits! Oh well it will always remind us that even the hardest of science fiction had its roots in the pulps! Live long and prosper-fellow fans!
#3 Oscar,
Agreed. Love the ep, Hate the space suits…except that mount or armature that stuck up above the neckline. Artistically I liked that for some dumb reason.
Looking better than I expected it to. I wasn’t sure from the preview but it looks good to me now. I think the big E has some good detail for the most part. Why does everyone think the phasers hitting the force field of the tholian ship looks cheesy. Although it could have been a little bit better, it looks okay to me. It’s also pretty close to the original effect. From what I see, good job overall on CBS’s part.
P.S. If you think that phaser effect looks cheesy than you ought to look at the original effect!
I have to say that the E looks fantastic in the top image. The metal plating on the primary hull looks flawless. They are making it look less and less like a CG model with every episode. There are a lot of opportunities with this ep to make the E look good. I’m looking forward to it!!
In the “Immunity Syndrome” I am wondering how dark the E will look in the black void. Since there is no light source in there I would think that the E would be barely visible, kind of “self iluminated” similar to ST:TMP. I am curious to see what CBS does with it.
Looks like CBS decided to go with an ENT look for the Tholian ships.
Well I guess it’s just me, then… but the shadow detail on that first image looks completely wrong to my eyes.
I’ll give you a very specific example of what I’m talking about: look at the starboard side of the B/C deck teardrop-shaped superstructure atop the primary hull. The main light source illuminating the Enterprise is behind, above and to port of the ship, and indeed we see a shadow being cast by the superstructure to starboard. But there is also _clearly_ some light leakage from the primary light source **IN** the shadow where there should not be such a bright illumination of the hull.
I’m beginning to wonder whether CBS Digital is shaving some corners on rendering times by not using raytraced shadows, because the shadows in that particular scene just don’t look right. Not right at all.
#8 Scott,
I see what you are referrring to, and I agree it’s not a perfect image, but you also have the ports casting light there and the overall “web” structure glowing. We already know they are using a “lower-res” render on E… a lesson learned from earlier shows. Correct?
I can see its a no news on the movie front this week…..
CBS, I think it would be cool if you would show the Enterprise in the standard “ship at warp” sequence that is seen in all the orther series where the ship is approaching the camera slowly but the stars in the background are moving by quickly.
Oh Lord, have they added that Aztec-Mosaic hull plating to the original 1701 now, or do my eyes deceive me?
GD845c3
Yeah that would be cool to see, honestly starting with TNG i was simply fascinated by the trek warp effect that you are talking about. If you might have missed it, you can see a very nice rendition of your request in the Enterprise episode “In a Mirror, Darkly” the rebuilt TOS sets and the crazy moves the Defiant does is simply one of the coolest things ive seen in video trek. And besides, the plot of that episode (2 parter) directly relates to “the tholian web”
cheers!
I really don’t like what they’ve done with the tholian ships, the extra detail and Enterprise style textureing is fine, but I cant stand the nose cone thing.
Josh likey the crisp details, Enterprise hull diffusion/scattering, and Tholian effects,
I’ve died and gone to Kirk Nirvana.
#8: I think there’s a difference between “I’ve found a flaw” and “completely wrong.” I don’t know enough about CGI effects to know if they’re shaving corners. Even if they are, I don’t think that it makes it “completely wrong,” even if it means it’s not perfect.
Myself, I think it looks pretty cool.
This was horrible. Not the episode, the SFX. I’ve been a big supporter of the CG thing, but this looked like a cartoon, or some kinda 60’s flashback thing.
I couldn’t watch it. Talk about taking things to far.
Scott (#8) I think the “flaw” is actually shine from the surface of the main saucer impeding slightly through the shadow of the teardrop structure. The shine is likely caused by a secondary, low-level key light shining on the model from the front. Either that or the shininess level of the material map is set a bit too high.
Either way, even though I don’t think it’s really a flaw, you are correct that it “doesn’t look right.” it tends to make the teardrop shape look like its floating above the saucer instead of a part of it. The shadows themselves do indeed look ray-traced to me, though. They conform perfectly to the shapes casting shadows and they don’t look pixelated at all. Until I see the actual scene in motion, I’m going to call this a trick of the light.
Otter (#12): The hull looks just awesome on the Enterprise, and it seems to have an aztec plate design to me as well. I think that’s a good thing, since it brings the TOS Enterprise a little closer to her motion picture counterpart.
8of5 (#14): I must disagree about the Tholians. In my opinion, this new more detailed design is miles above the original one. A much needed improvement that gives the Tholian ships a more functional appearance.
And just to be contrary, I’ve always liked the specesuits from TOS. Shiny silver suits have always been the bane of sci-fi TV, but I think it works here since the spacesuits obviously aren’t everyday outfits. Anyway, they’re a heap better than the orange “bee keeper” outfits seen in the episode “The Naked Time.”
Looking forward to watching this weekend! Warp speed ahead!
The Enterpise saucer sure has that Aztec-Mosaic look going on in that top picture.
Mmmmm….. This is a season 3 episode… perhaps they are showing us now that the ‘refit’ began earlier than TMP(???) Do you think???
(.. nah, me neither… lol…)
The plating style looks like they were inspired by the aztec on the TMP ship, but the actual pattern is quite a bit different.
I think I see Kulkukan on the Aztec plating,
Color me unimpressed. I think the original is far superior, especially the Tholian ships. Their featureless design is that much more mysterious and interesting. I wish the remastered version had kept that design.
The Defiant is also more interesting in the original. First we had pink space fog in “Where No Man…” and now we have green space fog. Ugh.
I’m a *huge* supporter of the remastered episodes, but I think they missed the mark on this one.
The “aztec” pattern derived from TMP style is much more repetitive and mirrored than the IMO much nicer more random plating used here, although care should be taken to not have it any more prominent than it is, and it would be cool to (only just) see that this plating pattern goes finer in detail on close-up. Looks to me that the lighting just has a nice fill/key ratio – maybe not natural for deep space, but looks “right” to the eye and is right from a cinematography pov. That rear key gives a nice kick, and lifts the model well. Just watch that internal nacelle cap lighting though…???
It looks great! I just saw the ENT “In a Mirror, Darkly” episodes last week.. was a great tie in to this episode… you got to see what happened to the Defiant. It was a great take on it. I love the 1701 in the pics.. CBSD keeps getting better. Nice work guys.
I have updated with bigger images…thanks to the boys at CBS
Looks Great. Any idea when seasons 2 and 3 will be on I-tunes? I live in New York, and as big a trekker as I am, I’m not going to get up at 3 AM on a Monday.
25 Anthony The higher res still make even more of an impression – just shows we can’t make proper judgements until we see the full HD version….although wouldn’t it be interesting to see some full 1080 HD stills…???
i’m more curious about what the Tholians will look like on the viewscreen when Spock talks to them on the bridge. Will CBS-D follow their look in ENT-In A Mirror, Darkly??
i agree that the third pix is a little cheesy.. :P
greetings from manila, philippines!
I think I’m liking the original effects better. These images are not as “realistic” as I was expecting, and the original effects look more “in tune” with the rest of the episode. The viewscreen shot and the “web” shot make the Tholian ships “too cartoonish” in my opinion.
While I’ve loved a ton of what’s been done with remastering, I’ll stick with the original on this one.
Sometime, somewhere, someone reneder a TOS version of the Enterprise with the aztec haul plating (originally saw it on trekweb.com). It was really well done with the Franz Joseph Star Fleet station and dreadnought in the background.
So the aztecing can be done, and subtle enough to give Trek a consistent look to later incarnations
Was just curious about the higher resolution shots. The space scenes are rendered in the hi-def aspect ration (1.78), although they don’t have sufficient pixels to be actual HD images. The bridge scene is the typical SDTV ratio (1.33) and resolution.
So where actually seeing “more” here of the space shots than we will in this weekend’s broadcast.
30
You are correct, CBS-D renders all of the completely new shots in 16:9, but keeps the original aspect ratio in the composited shots. No one knows how this will translate into the dvd release, either keeping the original aspect ratio all of the time (like iTunes does), or switch back and forth between the standard and widescreen formats (as Xbox Live does). Some think that they will crop the original image to 16:9, but I can see the lynch mobs forming now, so I doubt that.
These shots look fine. I think a big reason why some fans don’t like these new shot is that they are just too used to seeing the old ones — and I understand that because the new shots sometimes do take some time to get used to.
I do agree the original shot of the phasers hitting the Tholian ship was better. Not sure what I don’t like about the new one…can’t put a finger on it. I guess it does look cartoonish to a degree.
Quickly produced CGI is often times lacking. Having worked in CGI, I find that it takes a lot more time and effort to get those shots lit right and the models realistically textured than it does to photograph miniatures. Quickly produced CGI comes off looking very video-gamish.
That’s just a fact of life.
Now, you go and look at Daren’s work and you can see he put the time in to make his (for the most part, not always though) shots look like traditional miniature effects.
#18: “And just to be contrary, I’ve always liked the specesuits from TOS. Shiny silver suits have always been the bane of sci-fi TV, but I think it works here since the spacesuits obviously aren’t everyday outfits. Anyway, they’re a heap better than the orange “bee keeper” outfits seen in the episode “The Naked Time.””
The “beekeeper suits” weren’t spacesuits…they were decontamination suits…
TTM
I think this work is looking excellent much better than the original. The top shot looks fantastic.
The only thing I have to agree with is the shot of the Tholian ship getting fired on could have been done better.
A bit more of a dynamic view used may have made the shot work better.
They could have had the Tholian ship viewed from an over the shoulder perspective with the Enterprise in the distance firing on it.
That would have been a more interesting new view instead of recreated a shot which I didn’t think worked very well the first time round.
Otherwise it’s a big improvement for me.
At StarTrek.com there is an explanation to tghe lighting issue you have all been talking about regarding the Enterprise and her hull: “Also, notice how the light source on the saucer section of the Enterprise indicates a possible nearby star. “
I like the shot of the defiant in the original than the one they used in the above shot in the remastered.
As always, the reduced size may look ‘cheesy’, but I’m going to reserve final judgement until I see it on the TV set tomorrow night.
The #1 photo gets my vote to be in the “Top 10” iconic images from TOS. Always loved that one.
People always like the old better than new in just about anything. They’re just used to it. Any objective observer can tell the new is better.
I think it looks great!
re:37. FlyingTigress – March 30, 2007
“…I’m going to reserve final judgement until I see it on the TV set tomorrow night.”
Good idea. That is usually the way to go.
I have very few criticisms of the Remastered effort, but just in principle, to use a Tholian ship design from “Enterprise” is a poor choice.
I meant “unobjective” in the above.
The new Tholian ship doesn’t look EXACTLY like the ENT version. It’s not even the same color.
The new Tholian ship looks fantastic! It is definitley an improvement on the original design.
sad. truly sad.
Hey! Why no more original FX big jpegs? I want my SFTV (wallpaper), please.
#44. Hey Kev, maybe not as high res as some of them but I just made one with the border from the “official” wallpapers. Used that top image with the enterprise, great shot.
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/3696/tholianwebkx6.jpg
the ” Tholian” has a more Berman era Trek spin-off look to it,with those large flat lighted areas at the stern.
^ Saved that one before I had tried “sharpening”, didn’t do it much so while not much difference I figure I would upload it as well….
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/7663/tholianweb2qo7.jpg
Lord Garth loves Skippy’s bigger Higher Res image. The new effects (post -new Modeling process) are designed to really shine in HD/ High res. Unfortunately analog signal/low res imaging just doesn’t do it justice. CBS is putting in tremendous amounts of ornate surface detail which we really don’t see each week because of the non-HD low res broadcasts. Many still complain the the colors are flat, detail looks flat, ect ect. But that is because an HD image is being downgraded to an analog signal. When I first saw the HD 60″ widescreen broadcast of Space Seed via xbox 360 I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Major motion picture quality effects for TOS!! Anyway I can’t wait to see this effects ladden episode.
Now Marta will dance for Skippy!!
TOS era ships weren’t known for lighted exhaust/thruster type design.To my recollection starfleet,Klingon,Romulan didn’t have it.This is a break from TOS era special fx visual look.