CBS just sent over this new matte painting for the opening scene of the remastered "The Man Trap" (click to super size)
CBS Digital worked carefully to match the soundstage lighting in the episode in an effort to maintain the style of the original (below), while at the same time giving a whole new sense of scale to beam in shot on planet M-113
The remastered "The Man Trap" airs this weekend.
OK, that’s pretty cool. But I have to wonder–what are they going to do about all the other outdoor scenes? What about that scene where Professor Crater is having the Shootout at the M-113 Corral with Kirk and Spock?
I have a strong feeling this will be the only enhanced shot. Glad to see this. It is a great idea and I think the image is very cool.
I bet it will be like what they did for Spock’s Brain. Just the one establishing shot.
Meh, if true (and you’re probably right). To me, making that one scene look so gorgeous only makes the othe un-enhanced outdoor scenes stick out like a sore thumb.
Nice establishing shot.
Good work.
I wonder if they will do some enhancement of any of the plant life in TMT. I would like to see a more convincing Beauregard, and we never really see the Borgia plant.
That’s what I like to see Mr. Grimsdale. That’s a phat matte.
If I’m remembering the episode correctly, the entrance to that large structure on the left looks like the entrance the actors actually walked through, as of course it should. Are they going to have little CGI people walking around there a la “Amok Time”?
I like this one too. Gives a nice sense of scale for the ruins (a visual reinforcement of the fact that the Craters are there to do archaeology).
I’m kind of loving it, actually. Subtle but cool.
I agree. This is the kind of thing I really like to see in these remastered shows – opening up the scale and thereby embiggening and increaserizing the scope of the show. I don’t think it makes the other shots stand out like sore thumbs. Quite the opposite, I think they establish the sets in a context and a geography and you therefore buy the sets more as places. It worked for me big time in “Amok Time”, “Spock’s Brain”, “The Menagerie” and “Wink of an Eye”, and I hope they can work equal wonders with the caverns of Exo III in “What Are Little Girls Made Up?” which are crying out for digital mattes and set extensions, and anything they can do to “The Alternative Factor” would be an improvement. The “for time” edits might even improve the story, since its fairly incomprehensible in its full length version.
“Shoot! It’s killing the Captain!” exclaimed Spock with somewhat unusual emotion.
“Same old Nancy,” says McCoy.
To bad the morph effect looks like it was done on a $15 piece of shareware.
CBS-D could bust our balls and throw in a relic statue… of a salt vampire. Ya gotta figure Crater should have found something that depicts their appearance.
Pretty cool!
“CBS-D could bust our balls and throw in a relic statue… of a salt vampire. Ya gotta figure Crater should have found something that depicts their appearance.”
Maybe the salt vampires were dropped off on M-113 by the Preservers and they ate all the regular people (who were like Happy Meals with legs).
#13 – That would be a great idea. I think the link between the ancient civilization being studied by the Craters and the Salt Vampires is pretty vague in the episode, more implied than stated.
#15 – Kudos with the Buffy reference!
Followup thought, though — I’m kind of assuming that the Salt Vampires *were* the builders of that civilization.
The preview for “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” just appeared in my iTunes and it’s one of the best-edited previews of the remastered series. It creates great tension and for once the modern synth music works.
Thank you, Cranston. I loves my Buff.
I hope they devote some serious digital lovin’ (that sounds dirty) to “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” which I think is a terrific, sort of unsung, episode. It has that not-quite-definably-creepy first season vibe in spades. Ted Cassidy is absolutely aces as Ruk – a very striking, iconic image. Prety much everybody is good in that show. Its probably Majel’s best episode and she looks like a million dollars in it. “Brownie” is convincingly androidal, Dr. Korby is great and the twist at the end, even if its not too surprising, is still played very effectively. And Andrea tha Android – my GOD. The actress’s name is escaping me at the moment (Sherry Jackson, maybe?) but for me, she was by far the single sexiest woman in the entire series – maybe in the entire franchise. The only thing that let’s the show down are the limitations of the production: the cavernous sets are not that cavernous. The duplication control panel is so sad, all knobs and weird little plug-in things, that big man-shaped blob that turns into Shatner’s double (fill in your own joke, please), and of course, that phallic stalagtite that Kirk brandishes about 2/3rds of the way in. Hopefully they can at least make that cavernous drop look a little bigger and more cavernous.
That’s so true about Majel Barrett–it’s the only episode where she looks pretty…and then she has to share the screen with Sherry Jackson!
What I’m not looking forward to is the morphing in “Man Trap”–of course it was probably just what they would have loved to do and would have been a staggering effect in 1966, and WAS staggering 10 or 15 years ago–now it looks as dated as the original fade effect…
Sherry Jackson was hot on the Space Croppers episode of Lost in Space, too. Mark Goddard was lucky to do those scenes.
If I’m not mistaken, was the salt vampire briefly seen in “The Squire of Gothos” as one of Trelane’s cosmic findings? I believe it was tucked against the left wall, and it would make sense considering how frugal the studios were with the usage of props.
looking forward to this…
I hope that someone took the time to get rid of the lame “ricochet” sound effect in the Crater shootout! Between that and the sped up video it made the whole scene look like a farce!
Concerning the origin of the salt vampires it is possible that they were not indigenous to that planet. Maybe they depleted the planets own salt deposits and that caused the extinction. As someone else had mentioned they don’t look like they could have built those ruins. And the ruins don’t look like they were made for creatures of their configuration!
The only thing that has always bothered me is what caused the salt vampire to go on a killing spree when she was about to get a fresh supply of salt from the Enterprise.
# 19…Not only is the duplication control panel sad, but the overhead shot of the Barbie & Ken duplication-turntable is as well.
I love that desolate shot above of the ruins. It gives me a sense of direction for those scenes and truely allows the mind to expand upon what we see in the close ups.
And contrary to #24, I hope they keep the ricochet sound effect and the sped up phaser impact on Crater. I always liked that, it gave the phaser some punch. But what I really liked is how they slowed down the voice of the actor to underscore the “stunned” effect, then slowly brought the dialog back up to speed as the stun effect wore off. It’s those little extra touches, that went above and beyond the call of duty that make TOS, most notably the first season, so damn good.
This episode is so eerie, if it were black and white it could easily be dropped into The Twilight Zone or Outer Limits. Looking forward to it.
26: While I agree that the phaser hits look better with some “punch” the ricochet sound effect is out of place. I never liked the stun effect of lighting up the guy and then resuming filming while the actor just drops to the ground. The person should be effected when being hit to make it more dramatic. I assume that because of his age they felt that it was better to have Crater lean back and just speed up the film to keep him from getting hurt. But it turned out cartoony.
But you are right about the slowed down speech being a very effective illustration of getting stunned. They really thought out that whole process but it was the only time we ever saw it used. Pity!
#24 — I don’t see why the ruins in the episode couldn’t have been built for “creatures of their configuration”. Why not? They’re bipeds with 5-fingered hands, about the size of humans. They’re also, obviously, of at least the same level (and kind) of intelligence as humans. In fact, except for what they eat and their illusion abilities, they are — for most intents and purposes — indistinguishable from humans. What makes it so odd that they’d build the kinds of buildings we see in the episode?
I’ll be watching for that shot to see what is lost in 4/3 display. On the XBOX version of Arena, There’s a great 16/9 remastered shot of Kirk/Spock/McCoy/redshirts just after beaming down onto Sestus 3 – shows the widespread destruction. I wish those would be retained in the HD Dvd release. I really don’t want to double dip for the HD widescreen versions.
Interesting. Just saw it, minus the teaser that was cut due to golf. But I did see the shot above is panned from right to left, ending at the entrance to Crater’s place. So I guess that’s the solution for 4:3. I must say it looked damed good. But here’s the interesting part…the trailer boys are taking liberties again. Absolutely no morphing at all, just the same fades as always. Not that I care, I rather like the simplistic cross dissolve, but it just goes to show ya… take a cue from the vampire in tonight’s episode and take these previews with a rather large grain of salt.
GAAH!! No morph!!! Ya gotta have a morph. I’m sorry jonboc, but I have to disagree with you. A morph is more realistic looking. A fade like that would NEVER pass today.
Hmm, either the trialer people should be playing with the effects less… or they should be the ones doing the remastering project.
I will say, I did like the establishing shots. The orbital shot from right after beaming up from the planet the first time/after leaving the briefing room where they showed a more equitorial orbit was great. It gave the planet a more realistic scale. The establishing shot from right after McCoy kills the creature was a good one too.
I’m starting to wonder again if there is a true rhyme or reason for the effects that are changed and the effects that are left. Certainly a morph is not that hard or expensive.
I think it’s better that there isn’t a morphing effect, since it’s not really a “physical” change, but more of a mental illusion.
I missed it today, but I’m VERY glad to hear that there’s no morphing effect. The fade fits much better with what the creature is actually doing (clouding people’s perception, not changing shape).
I had forgotten how painfully obvious the pink gloved hand was for the moving portion of the “Beauregard” plant. Cleaning up the stock made it even more obvious.
But, the orbital departure shot was a nice one — as was the wide-field view of M-113 that has been added.
A panning establishing shot of the planet surface….so great, it fit right in with everything else.
That last shot of the Enterprise from above, orbiting around the planet as we usually see from in-front of the ship, was brilliant. I love seeing new beauty shots of the Enterprise. And…it fits, as if that shot was just a part of the show from the beginning.
And loved the planet, right color, right deal in the right place.
Thanks guys.
I’m SO glad they didn’t use that awful low-grade morphing we saw in the preview. Most morphs look so dated to me – an effect that made a big splash in the Michael Jackson video back in the day, was promptly overused in a variety of shows, and now just looks cheesy with homemade morphs on computers and websites. I’ll take the spooky cross-fades from the original episode over new morphs any day, since it is all a mental illusion anyway.
I must agree that there were several nice orbital shots. I liked seeing the Big E in a lower orbital shot (looked more equatorial and scaled up the planet) and I also liked the high view of the Big E in orbit later in the show. I also liked seeing the rear-view of the planet dwindling into the distance at the end of the show. They only showed that sort of departure view a few times in the old show, and I like how it plays onscreen. But they aren’t very consistent on whether or not to burn the impulse engines bright on departures.
“Absolutely no morphing at all, just the same fades as always.”
Wow! I can’t believe they did that cheesy morph just for the promo! Given a choice between the cheesy morph and the original fade, I’ll take the fade. Anybody think they might have tried something a little more elaborate on the transformations if they hadn’t been forced to cram all the remaining first season shows into their schedule? I thought that a modern version of the “wavering” effect used over the Balok puppet viewscreen images from “The Corbomite Maneuver” might have been nice on the transformations, especially to hide the mismatched backgrounds that hurt the originals? Or maybe not?
Granger and Steve, yeah no morphs, but as I tell the story to myself, this creature was projecting an illusion, so it wouldn’t be a physical transformation, but some kind of mental projection. We are in accord.
Well, after the disappointment with Conscience of the King, CBS-D hit a home run here. The shots of the Enterprise in orbit were absolutely perfect. The view of the E from above at the end was very cool. That angle was used quite frequently in TNG. I always thought the TOS Big E would look great using that same arrangement. The pan of M-113 really enhanced the opening sequence on the planet. Great job!!
I have to say this was definitely one of CSB best efforts to date. They did this CLASSIC episode proudly.
The new matte painting was a still, with a pan, no beam in effects are meshing with existing footage.
All the Enterprise shots are good, the planet looks arid and dry from space, with some nice orbit angles – one from head on and one from above the Enterprise.
Beyond that, not much has changed on first glance. The horrible phaser shot at the end of the show when McCoy kills the creature “God forgive me” – the beam comes out of the phaser at an angle – that was not corrected – still looks bad.
If the first few shows of this new re-mastered season are any indication, it look slike all we get from here on out are replaced space shots.
I’m particularly disappointed in this one because it was the first show to air – so it is a special episode – and you would think CBSD would give it a little extra attention – but that is not the case.
A new matte painting IS extra attention. I thought this job was perfect–all the new shots looked good, much less cartoony than usual, I really like the new orbital shots, and thank god they didn’t go with new morphing effects. In fact this had more in common with Daren Dochterman’s philosophy–nothing was done here that couldn’t have been done with a bit more time and money in 1966, and greater care was taken with the planet and the lighting and rendering of the Enterprise so the effects fit in much better with the original live action. I would rather see this approach than adding tons of extra, flashier effects that CBSD ultimately doesn’t have time to render effectively.
I agree – what they took the time to do, they did well. It would be nice if they could go a little further and fix things like phaser beams they shoot off at an angle or view screens with wrinkled paper backgrounds etc.
So the effects crew is so burdened even the trailer boys think the episode could be improved?
44 seangh
I would like to see that as well
#38 Thomas Jensen
Agreed, the M-113 Creature (Salt Vampire) is an “Illusion Projector” not a “Shape Shifter”. A Multiple “Image Projector” at that, as it is capable of allowing groups of individuals to see different things at the same time.
Both the original effect and the “Trailer Boys” efforts would probably be supported by this Species’ talent. Possibly a direct influence on the optical receptors in the human brain.
This begs the question “How would tricorder data or computer gathered images appear to a human who views them in the absence of the life-form?” SV-Nancy Crater was never examined for later study.
Also, No ‘Blinking’ Salt Vampire in this, unlike the Gorn.
#34 – FlyingTigress – “I had forgotten how painfully obvious the pink gloved hand was for the moving portion of the “Beauregard” plant. Cleaning up the stock made it even more obvious.”
Agreed.
CBS wants to “remaster” TOS, and this is the final product? Aside from a somewhat nice alternate orbit shot, the 1701 still appears like something from the X-Box. Of all things to screw with, they leave the Salt Vampire’s transformations alone? Whether a true, physical transformation or projected illusion of a sort, surely SOMETHING in the general neighborhood of a morph (and like the dated crud in Willow) could have enhanced Nancy’s tricks….but once again……
Boo, here in Atlanta this was “joined already in progress” … exactly 57 minutes already in progress, 3 minutes before the end, right where McCoy zapped Salty with a phaser for the first time.
What’s the point?!
This is a prime example of how to write great Star Trek. The dialog in this episode is so full of “moments” and is so natural, every new scene is a joy to watch. From Kirk’s belly ache reaction to mysteries to his advising McCoy to take his own medicice …”You’ll sleep.”
This was a finely crafted episode and really underscores the Kirk/McCoy relationship, which is every bit as entertaining as the Kirk/Spock dynamic. Speaking of Spock, he was barely utilized at all in this episode and, interestingly enough, it didn’t hurt the episode a bit.
It also is a great example of why Shatner was so good at playing Kirk. In one episode we get the charming Kirk, the good natured, joking Kirk, the apologetic Kirk and the “we mean business” Kirk. Whoever gets cast as Kirk can do themselves a big favor and watch this episode to understand how that character ticks.
The lack of morps was fine by me, but I would have loved to have seen them incoporates the “shimmer” effect used for the illusion transitions in The Cage. It just looks cooler. The new exteriors on the planet are awesome as are the new shots of the ship in orbit. I thoroughly enjoyed the spit and polish on this first season classic. Well done CBS-D!
I haven’t seen the ep yet, but I gather from the above posts that CBS-D didn’t follow through with the morphing shots shown in the preview (and explicitly highlighted by ST.com). That would seem to be the clearest indicator yet that these guys are too pressed for time to crank these versions out and that the whole project is suffering as a consequence.
It does seem that the effects team is so overwhelmed with this project, that the promos editors have to spice things up to sell it – by adding effects on the timeline – what a joke.
SO is this how episodes are going to be re-done from here on out – or are they going to invest a little more time and effort into fan faves such as “The Ultimate Computer”?