SFX Video
(WMV)
New and Old
On a routine mission
The ion ship approaches
The ion ship in full view
The Enterprise lists
Same graphic, but with newly restored film master
Assuming orbit
Expanded view of the beam down
In orbit waiting for the landing party
Leaving
Assorted
The ion ship enroute to the Enterprise
Remote controlled Spock
Grizzly Adams err… scruffy Morg
Spock’s new home
Kara, now with smug intelligence
McCoy uses the teacher
Sweaty McCoy surgery montage
Regretting reconnecting Spock’s speech center
UPDATE: Side By Side (w/ Kelvington Gag Reel)
As bad as this is, it would have been worse if Spock had falled “flat on his face.”
Hey… it’s a guilty pleasure!
Interesting… looks like they’ve done a lot of tweaks..
Hmmm…. it will be interesting to see how successful they are with the extensive rotoscoping in this episode. I still say, though, that putting lipstick on this pig won’t change the fact that this episode is porcine.
Looks incredible!
Listing E is cool. Why would the running lights be off? The nacelle caps show the engines are still on, and there’s one up-all-nighter, despite Kara’s circus seal horn stun weapon.
well done Matt!
just looking at the above….you know the episode looks pretty good
and looking at remote control Spock makes me suddenly think George Lucas borrowed that for Lando’s pal Lobot
Wow, they really got the effects back on track!!! Awesome new shots of E. Really new new landing party shot and the print looked gorgeous!!!!
I always thought this was a fun episode, dumb but fun.
I didn’t watch this whole episode as I find it mostly unwatchable. That being said, on the FX done by CBSD that I did see, fantastic. The planet from orbit was almost breathtaking (I say almost b/c it was so fast that we don’t get to see it much) and the beamdown was great… I don’t even know how they did that b/c the angle of the actors originally shown was different than the ones we see in the remastered. The only other thing about this episode that I actually enjoyed was the set of the controller room.
It is quite obvioius that CBS-D put a lot of effort into this one. All the new shots of the E looked gorgeous and its movement absolutely perfect. I especially liked the new matte painting and the ion ship certainly looked like something that would impress Scotty! Nice job CBS-D!!!!
Kirk fires his phaser twice in this episode. He uses “stun” both times. The first shot has the usual phaser sound, however the second time he fires it, his phaser makes the whirring “stun” sound. Why couldn’t this little continuity error be corrected?? Nitpicking I know, but just wondering why. Otherwise great job CBS-D.
Great job CBS-D!!!
Not your fault, but I noticed several dialog cuts and little cuts throughout. Including the shot of Sulu’s pop-up viewer as the ion ship approaches.
I’ll be glad when these are available on DVD and uncut.
TTM
yea i agree , i hate the cuts they make for t.v. , dvd and hd dvd will be great , and they kept the orignal diagram of that solar system , i kinda wanted them to change it , but it is alot clearer now , and i am glad they did not , but great work all around
Not too surprised they didn’t change the solar system diagram….but yeah, not washed out like it was anyway.
Hey that old spaceship didn’t look too bad.
LOVED the last shot of the Big E leaving orbit!!! Reminded me of the Refit from STTMP!! Awesome stuff CBS-D!!!
you think that is enough exclamations?
Such a silly episode–from the whole concept that Spock could communicate with his voice while disembodied to Chekov’s very ( overly) carefully aimed phaser blast to a rock.
I always liked that the view screen was an actual projection and not a matte shot.
Brain and Brain, what is BRAIN?!?
Just to let you know, I tried playing the video, and it said that its no longer available.
I know this is a bit off topic but I know that it will be seen if I post it here.
The episode, “Obsession” seems to be missing from the list of remastered episodes. Does anyone know if this is on purpose and if any other ones are missing?
It was on TV recently and I was hoping the they would add an effect that showed “half the atmosphere being ripped from the planet” when the antimatter explosion happens at the end.
You know, this episode makes me nostalgic for another 60’s staple…
Lost In Space.
What if Dr. Smith served on the Enterprise? Oh, the pain…
Brain and brain… what is brain?
The canceled 4th Season was going to have sort of a sequel, “Scotty’s Liver”…
A planet of alcoholics desperately need the most efficient filter in the galaxy. The legend of Scotty’s liver leads them to the Enterprise.
We pick up the story in sickbay…
==================
MCCOY
I found him.
KIRK
Like this?
MCCOY
No, not like this.
KIRK
What happened?
MCCOY
I don’t know.
KIRK
You’ve got him on complete liver support. Was he dead?
MCCOY
He was worse than dead.
KIRK
What do you mean?
MCCOY
Jim —
KIRK
Bones, what’s the mystery?
MCCOY
His liver is gone. It’s been removed surgically.
KIRK
How could he survive?
MCCOY
It’s the greatest technical job I’ve ever seen. Every vessel ending in the liver must’ve been neatly sealed. Nothing ripped, nothing torn, no bleeding. It’s a medical miracle.
KIRK
If his liver is missing … then Scotty is dying.
MCCOY
No. That incredible Scottish physique hung on until the liver-support cycle took over. His body lives, the autonomic functions continue … but there is no liver.
KIRK
That girl.
MCCOY
Marlo Thomas ?
KIRK
From that ship. She took it. I don’t know why … or where … but she must’ve taken it. Bones, how long can you keep him functioning?
MCCOY
I can’t give you any guarantee.
KIRK
That’s not good enough.
MCCOY
If it happened to us, I’d say indefinitely. But Scottish physiology limits what I can do. Scotty’s body is more dependent on that tremendous liver for life support.
KIRK
Then we’ll take him with us.
MCCOY
Take him where?
KIRK
In search of his liver, Doctor. The moment we find it, we’ll restore it to his body, or we lose him.
MCCOY
Jim, where are you going to look in this whole galaxy? Where are you going to look for Scotty’s liver? How are you going to find it?
KIRK
I’ll find it. If we have to crawl through every bar in the Alpha Quandrant…
MCCOY
Even if you do, I can’t restore it. I don’t have the medical technique.
KIRK
It was taken out. It can be put back in.
MCCOY
But I don’t know how.
KIRK
The thief that took it has the knowledge. I’ll force it out of her.
MCCOY
If you don’t find it in 24 hours, you better forget the whole thing, Jim.
KIRK
You and Spock … have Scotty ready.
==========
Hmmm… maybe they should have pitched more Hodgin’s parallel planet stuff…”Cowboys and Rodeos” (a western planet)….
“Scotty’s Liver!!!” OK, I’m laughin’ out loud here. Great stuff, FredCFO!!! This is something Lee Cronin” might’ve put his real name on!
#16 Said – Such a silly episode–from the whole concept that Spock could communicate with his voice while disembodied to Chekov’s very ( overly) carefully aimed phaser blast to a rock.
My wife had never seen this episode and was watching it with me last night. When Chekov aimed his Phaser she looked at me and said “What the f*ck is this?” and mimmicked Chekov aiming his phaser. I miessed the next five minutes from laughing. LOL
It looked good. The scene where the landing party beamed down to the planet was exteremly well done. This episode is not bad at all.
#24:
What’s funny about that? I don’t get it.
Has annyone else noticed that when we look at a scene on the main viewer… at the top right corner where the ceiling touches the wall, it looks like the ceiling is warped? It doesn’t sit flat as it should, and causes alot of shadow and makes the set look very fake. Why couldn’t that be fixed?
Something just occurred to me after watching this episode for the millionth time. When Spock and McCoy were going though their ridiculous “left fore finger routine” I heard part of the unique sound track to the great old MGM film Forbidden Planet! Who says you can find something new watching classic Star Trek over for almost 40 years.
Over all great effort by CBS-D. but I did find the Enterprise looking a bit too CGI during the opening after the Teaser behind the “Spock’s Brain” title. Some of the fly-by shots looked a tad weak CGI. I mean the plating and reflective qualtiy looked a tad flat.
I guess they must have made a CGI landing party in order to get that beam down angle to work… looked pretty cool :-)
I also like the E listing in space as well as the shot where they haul ass into orbit… nice touch of continuity from CBS-D
I have almost given up watching these on TV as I find the commercial cuts intolerable – just as I have for the last 30 years. I noticed dialog cuts within the 1st minute of the show and whole sections of the sickbay scene dialog are gone. I’d rather they just cut a whole scene rather than the “death by a 1000 cuts” method they’re using. Let’s face it, there is no way to make a 51 minute episode into a 43 minute episode without losing the spirit of the original. Sort of like listening to a favorite song that has had verses removed or instrumental sections cut. Same argument for not trying to make 4×3 into 16×9.
Dialog cuts and SFX changes aren’t the only thing changing. This is the 2nd episode in a row that I noticed a change in the musical cues at scene transitions – both where they inserted a commercial break where it was not meant to be. Last week on B&C they changed the music when they entered the cave for the 1st time. Another change was the scene transition from the bridge to sickbay – they added a new wipe effect that looked more like it belonged on Batman then Star Trek. I really hope these don’t make onto the DVDs.
I know these episodes so well I’m happy just to come here and see the stuff I care about – the new SFX. The new prints look great but are ruined by the station logo watermarks and ad overlays. I’ll only enjoy them once they get put out on DVD (blue ray or HD – whichever they end up on). iTunes is no better as they are in a proprietary format that sucks and in 480i resolution. Anthony, until the DVD release, it’s up to you to keep this going bud – at least for me.
Anyone care to do a side-by-side script comparison? Who’s up for the challenge?
They already did a sequal called “Neelix’s Lungs” and it was just as stupid. That’s when I just stopped watching voyager all together. Even that borg lady with her bionic implants and horsey face couldn’t bring me back.
7 of 9 didn’t do it for you? Better check your pulse man – you must be dead!
I mainly watched Voyager for the Doctor (the EMH). Robert Picardo is great.
My wife is a convert to Trek. She used to be your average girl who was like “oh star trek this that is so gay” but now I will be ready to call it a day as we’ve watched 5 eppisodes and shes like “oh come on sweaty just a couple more” its freakish really. Yes I know I am a lucky son of a B**** but what are you gonna do. Anyways my wife put it best after we watched this gem last night on TIVO… “That was just plain stupid”
No matter how much you spice up shit it still is shit.
Aaron R.
I think they just rearranged the figure placements of the original beam down shot to match the new perspective, but it worked great. If they could do this for more episodes, I’d be in Star Trek heaven!
I think the style of the new ion ship is a little too contemporary-looking for TOS, but granted, it is an improvement over the old.
P.S. Going back to kirk and spock for trek XI is great but remember not all kirk/spock tos was awesome. If trek XI is anything like this or a plethora of other epps trek is doomed. And, you know it.
Aaron R.
#37 Sisko never had any of his crews brains get stolen???
Uh, not quite. Just bodies. Dax, Kira, Jake, Kako, Sisko, Julian – they all got taken over by gamma quadrant aliens, bad Trills, criminals, worm hole aliens etc. at one point or another. Nevermind all the folks replaced by the Founders.
CBS-D did an excellent job with the special effects. Loved to see the Big E listing, the cleaned up planets map on the viewscreen , and new beam down scene.
Just wish they could do something about the PLOT or the SCRIPT…to see McCoy doing brain surgery without Nurse Chapel’s assistance or for that matter, a fully equipped sickbay is beyond belief.
Watching KXVO in Omaha for Spock’s Brain, I cringed as I counted down the clock to the top of the hour and saw NO CLOSING CREDITS at the end of the show whatsoever..just quick legal ID and into the repeat of Bread and Circuses(a much more superior episode, in so many ways…)
Tired of all of these inane edits to air the same 5 commercials over and over again…
#35–Aaron R-
It seems you do, but just to make sure:
I hope you realize the magnitude of your good fortune.
Actually if Star Trek XI is as good as Spock’s Brain I will breathe a sigh of relief considering how utterly unwatchable Insurrection and Nemesis are!
TTM
#39, I think the thinking behind only having McCoy do the surgery is that with the knowledge of The Teacher, it is a one person job. Kara was able to do it on the Enterprise without any assistance, so it makes sense that McCoy would not need any assistance using the same surgical methods.
TTM
#41 THEE
Is it the same people putting out this movie?
No.
Let’s wait for the movie to actually start filming…
I like the new transport scene with the snowy mountains in the background, but when they switch viewpoints of the landing party looking around those mountains should have been added behind them instead of the generic blue sky.
Looking ahead I see we have yet another clunker from the 3rd season – Plato’s Stepchildren. Not as bad as Spock’s Brain but not great either. Not even bad in a “Spock’s Brain” fun kind of way. Just historic for that darn forced kiss! What will CBS-D do to this one? It’s been so long since I’ve seen it I can’t remember any SFX except for the standard establishing shots and big chess pieces flying around.
And right after Plato’s Stepchildren is the missing episode Miri. 2nd one aired last fall but missed by many. Hopefully this time we’ll have screen captures and effects reels for it as there are none now. Will it feature the new model or is it just a repeat? Place your bets with Quark now!
BTW: The episode listing needs to be updated to reflect the last few shows and reviews. I can’t wait for the review on Spock’s Brain!!!
Hey Aaron R – Can I borrow your mind-control machine?
I know a lot of gorgeous women I’d like to turn into Trekkies.
Course, I’d then need to find a way to make them want *me* as well, but I think the Trek thing would be an excellent start.
#22: You’re a riot. Someone should create that as a parody.
cant they cg in a bald spock head at the end, just to satisfy that little nit of mine
Some how getting Kara to say ” Liver and liver! What is liver !? ” just doesn’t sound right ….
However, I will get the writing staff cracking on “Scotty’s Liver” right away.
The space stuff was well done; I especially enjoyed the pulsating orange lights on the ion ship — very TOS, to my mind.
It’s a shame they didn’t have time/resources to fix that first stun shot when Kirk hit the Morg. It was poorly animated and that “blanket” green flash should only be used for wide-angle stuns, which this obviously was not (since only one guy was hit).