“By Any Other Name” Remastered: Review + Screenshots

REVIEW

An odd but entertaining late-second season entry, “By Any Other Name” suffers from an extreme clash of styles. It begins as a grim hostage drama, and with its static planet set and stiff face-offs between Kirk and alien leader Rojan (Warren Stevens of the sci fi classic Forbidden Planet), the episode plays out like one of those morose third season episodes with Kirk suffering more anguish from losing crewmembers and waxing poetic about the loss of personal freedom.

Jerome Bixby’s and D.C. Fontana’s script posits the Kelvans as multi-limbed, monstrous beings from the Andromeda Galaxy disguised in human form. That leads to a typically humanistic gambit for the Enterprise crew (goading the aliens into experiencing human emotions and sensations that will overwhelm their alien logic), and that in turn causes the story to take a rather welcome left turn into comedy. Between an epic Scotty drunk scene and Kirk and Spock’s continual baiting of Rojan as he grows jealous of the Captain’s dalliances with his cohort Kelinda (Barbara Bouchet in a spectacularly simple Bill Theiss costume surely ranks as one of the most sizzling alien sirens Kirk ever seduced), “By Any Other Name” hits the finish line as a full-fledged farce and it’s pretty funny. “It would appear you have little control over her,” Spock says to Rojan of Kelinda. “Or perhaps Captain Kirk has more.” There’s a number of other nice lines (Scotty’s “It’s, uh…it’s green.” And Kirk’s “I’m…stimulating him!”), the effect of the Kelvans reducing Enterprise crewmen to crumbly dodecahedrons with their belts is classic Trek gimmickry, and before the comedy takes over there are a couple of crackling suspense sequences, particularly when Scotty rigs the Enterprise to explode upon contact with the galactic energy barrier. Less effective are the early scenes in captivity, especially when Spock has to replay his mind meld lure scene from “A Taste of Armegeddon,” with Kirk helpfully referencing the episode for continuity porn purposes (this does allow Spock to get a mental glimpse of the hideous creatures the Kelvans actually are, however). “By Any Other Name” isn’t a TOS classic but enjoyed on its own merits it’s still a lot of fun.

By late second season photography of the large Enterprise miniature had been finessed to the point that the horrific blue spill, heavy grain and obvious matte line had been largely eliminated, so new effects shot for the episode of the Enterprise streaking toward Andromeda and eventually wheeling away from the distant galaxy to head back for home looked pretty decent. Other effects, such as the return to the energy field at the edge of the galaxy, were recycled from the “Where No Man Has Gone Before” pilot. CBS-D goes the extra mile on this one but in doing so they call some of the oft-stated precepts of the project in question. As in “Spock’s Brain” we get a gorgeous introductory matte painting enhancing the landing party beam-down that goes a long way toward erasing the problem of the claustrophobic, bland original planet set. The team reuses the hyper-warp effects from “Day of the Dove” and replaces the pilot-style Enterprise model with the “production” version for shots of the starship moving towards, through and away from the galactic energy barrier. The sensation of speed was always very well put across by the original episode, particularly in cutting around Chekov’s line “We…made it…” with the ship shown streaking away from the barrier and immediately after rocketing toward the Andromeda Galaxy. The new effects team has always done a great job painting astronomical objects and Andromeda here is rendered larger and with far greater detail and color than the original—the effect is particularly impressive in a rapid whip-pan showing the Enterprise streaking toward and then away from the camera as Andromeda is slid into the frame. The final shot of the Enterprise banking away from Andromeda was nicely enhanced by a terrific music cue and the new shot answers some of the critics who’ve been carping about all the ultra-fast motion shots of the ship—it’s a majestic banking shot displaying an unusual top angle of the ship before it turns to advance on the camera to leave Andromeda behind.

Great stuff, but the one continuing fly in the ointment is the nicely done but redundant imagery of wholly Earth-like planet “globe” shots. The standard line here is that we now know what Earth looks like from space and so, apparently, ANY planet with a breathable atmosphere not covered by desert must look essentially just like Earth. That’s fine but why, then, is artistic license still the going concern on the spaceship shots and matte paintings? The opening matte shot is done in the classic Trek style with looming moons and a lighting scheme that one has to suspect is far from realistic. And while even the original series probably cheated by making Andromeda a visible disc in the distance as the Enterprise leaves the galaxy, CBS-D cheats even more by making the other galaxy a massive disc filling the frame. Add the standard space lighting scheme that keeps the Enterprise brightly lit no matter where in space it travels and you hardly have a strict, scientifically accurate view of the universe here. So why allow all the pulpy, colorful artistry that makes Trek so fun in these other areas and refuse to allow for any real variety in the planet exteriors?

The other continuing question is the inconsistency in effects application where it’s clear some episodes have few resources thrown at them while others get the royal treatment. This speaks to hard choices made by the new effects team and it’s clear that the overall budget and schedule is to blame here. The irony is that the basis for the schedule was arguably the DVD release schedule, but since Paramount chose to hitch its star to HD-DVD that’s now thrown out the window and we likely won’t see season two until the end of the year. Given that this work probably could have been done on a far more leisurely schedule and truly been done for posterity instead of as an alternate syndication package where quality fluctuates from week to week. It’s still frustrating to see shots that totally fulfill the project’s goal alongside imagery that’s just not photoreal enough to satisfy tech-savvy 10-year olds who are used to much more sophisticated effects.

SCREENSHOTS
by Matt Wright

Remastered & Original

 

extras

 

SFX VIDEO

couldn’t get to the reel on time, but Xindi1985 did one so thanks and here you go

 

 

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Not the best episode…. just ok

it’s green!

Classic Trek had the hottest consistency women on an episode to episode level. And “By Any Other Name” is no exception!

MAYBE NOT GENERALLY REGARDED AS A “CLASSIC”…

…but “By Any Other Name” has always been one of my personal favorite second season episodes, purely on overall entertainment value alone.

I truly enjoy the humor in the TOS episodes, whether or not it fits the overall tone of an episode. There’s some damn serious stuff going on here, but it’s not morose or dull. Just enough humor to make it FUN.

I’d hate to see what kind of a take the sterile TNG would have made with a plot like this.

I’ll tell you one thing I’ve noticed with this enhanced HD and scrubbing of images they’ve done; and that Nimoy’s smokers bottom row of teeth before he got his dentures. Man, that’s very evident on these new remastered shots.

And as I said on another thread – I always notice that smoking hot Barbara Bouchet in any version. She and Sherry Jackson are near the tops for me of Star Trek women.

Oh, and then there’s Barbara Luna. How could I forget her? Which reminds me, she’d be the perfect subject of an article on Trek conventions. I’ve never seen anyone work a convention like her. She ought to write the text book. She sells it. Man, she’s good.

The only creepy thing was the killing of the red shirt girl would couldn’t act.

Still my favorite shot ever is the TOS version of the Enterprise turning around back towards home. That is such a majestic shot–the slow banking of Big E and the lighting; It can’t be duplicated.

This episode has some great moments and the remastering was quite good. I’m glad they didn’t recycle the Barrier shots from WNMHGB.

“I’ve been giving Hanar injections of Formazine. It should have him climbing the walls.”

-Dr. McCoy

Haven’t seen this remastered ep yet. They don’t air til 3am Monday Mornings here in Miami :( However from the stills above, the new galactic barrier shots look GREAT! along with the opening matte painting. Looks like a winner for CBSD

#5

Agree with your on Barbara Luna. I’ve seen her at conventions several times. GREAT lady. She certainly does know how to work it.

The reduction of people to the ‘octahedral’ shapes was what freaked me out as a kid. But the most memorable moment was Scotty… ‘It’s green’. The delivery of that line was, IMO, a ST classic.

I agree not the best episode, but those screen shots look fantastic,the planet the ship of course. But on top of that they did a remarkable job on the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy and the ship traveling through ithe barrier and leaving the galaxy to Andromeda. In the original series, it looks as though they simply reused the same barrier sequences from the second pilot episode Where no man has gone before which was common practice back in those days The original sequence looked one dimensional which begged the question of why the ship didn’t fly over it instead of through it This was not their fault the problem is they had neither the budget nor the technology to render it any better then they did, I am not knocking what they did achieve, that was state of the art back in the 60’s. They also did a great job rendering the landscape of the planet based upon the original. I may be a critic of certain aspects of the story , but not the effort to make the episode look so much better.

Bouchet is OK, but I say Marianna Hill retires the award. Dr. Helen Noel, in Dagger of the Mind. You take the rest, give me Hill!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c1/MariannaHillstartreck.jpg/250px-MariannaHillstartreck.jpg

Ok, what were the octahedrals really made of?

Bill Theiss deserves a medal… or a lengthy sentence. In any case, Kalinda is yet another babe to inspire young men to learn their science, and biology.

I’ve never been too clear about the chain of events regarding the Kelvins. They came to “invade”… what? The entire Milky Way? Aren’t there only six of them or so? If you wanted to invade a galaxy, wouldn’t you just go for it. Send, dunno, 50-60 trillion of your multi-limbed bad-boys and kick some Milky butt?

OK, maybe they’re a scouting mission. Whatever… So, their ship is kerblooey at the edge of the galaxy and they barely make it to purple world with the clothes on their backs. (Off the back, in Kalinda’s case.) First order of business? Use their extensive supplies to build a cave/jail and send a May Day (something they no doubt would ignore since they’re intergalactic jerks) directed specifically at the Enterprise.

Hey wait, we got too many dang limbs for the turbo-lift (which we know about, cause we’re all alien and stuff.) No worries. Along with the cave-jail, we brought a dna-reseqencer. Poof. We’re pasty-white humanoids.

So… we freeze-dry the E crew and… what? Send out a message that it’s open season on the Milky Way? Nope, we head back on a trip on the E that even with our super-science is gonna take longer than we’ll live.

Does this even begin to make sense? It’s somewhat better than the Martians’ plan in Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (hide the ships during the time when hominids can barely wipe their own butts so we can surprise them in their industrial age.) But, still Plan Kelvin makes me think Bush is running Andromeda.

Anyway, this is one of those eps that is definitely a lose framework for character moments to hang on. It’s clear that Gene and the writers knew who “the big four” were and were playing to them. And on that level, it works just fine. “It’s green” got more play at high school and college parties than I can count.

Woo, that got long. Anyway — fun ep. Nice enhancements from CBS-D.

One of the best McCoy scenes ever! As Spock passes out, McCoy makes this great face of surprise. Go check it out if you don’t know what I’m talking about! Maybe there’s a vidcap or something. It’s funny!

Oh, yeah, couldn’t the effects guys put that moon/second planet in the space shot? Would’ve been kinda cool

This one always bugged me, in that the head Kelvin purposely killed one of Kirk’s crew, and yet seemingly gets away with it without punishment, in the end. Major plot hole, in my opinion. A better way to wrap this one up would have been that the head Kelvin is killed – maybe in a heroic way to redeem himself, and the others colonize the planet.

Jeff Bond, tellin’ it like it is! Jeff Bond, takin’ it to The Man!

Good points about the remastering effort, Jeff. I agree.

And the caption for that picture of Kirk with Kelinda above:

“What does THIS button do?”

I don’t know what that means.

Scott B. out.

Re: #15 mntrekfan — excellent point! Where’d the moon go? Bolsters Mr. Bond’s comments about the new planet effects’ ineffectiveness.

Scott B. out.

Here is my opinion. I am just getting bored with the same earth type planet (talk about the reuse) with different sky!! I was OK! with what I saw, but nothing really said WOW!! Physically, moving through the barrier was interesting and the conclusion of turning around was NICE! but I just did not jump out of my seat!!

CBS has gone on for too long with jacking up this 2nd season remastering efforts. I dont know! What’s left?? I still think “The Cage” deserves a special touch. Even though “The Menagerie” will save them some time. We just did NOT see many ship exteriors in the pilot. I thought perhaps showing the E on approach to Talos IV would be good. My favorite revision is when the Talosians probed the computers we saw 1960’s history,perhaps can we see a quickie of 9/11, iraqi war, the presidential race, shuttle explosions. I deeply apologizze for offending any sensitivities, just offering an opinion.

Can someone tell me what you think of those ideas??

All this does is add more weight to the statement of the keeper. “This makes you too violent and dangerous of species for our needs”

#19 I agree I would like to see the cage get the full treatment, sliding in historical events like 9/11 and the Iraq war would not be a bad idea at all.

#16

Yeah, I wonder how Kirk explained THAT to her family.

“We regret to inform you that your daughter/sister/mother died. Her death served no purpose except to demonstrate the inhumanity and ruthlessness of a conquering thief. But rest assured he was brought to justice and given his very own planet.”

LOL 20, and 21. Hope in one hand, spit in the other and see which one fills faster. Good idea though. We’re about to run dry in this well here.

Always one of my favorites. I’d say that I classify this ep as a guilty pleasure, except I really only know that phrase from hearing others use it; I can’t quite parse the concept :)

Always one of my favorites.

For instance, another way these guys at CBS is going to fly under the radar again will be with “Is there in truth no beauty?” We have another visit to the barrier (3 totaled so far) That episode was not exactly my favorite, but here again ” a little more sensationalism” could’nt hurt either!! LOL.

One might ask “What are you looking for exactly, Batts?” I come to you with an opinion poll, whoever wins with the best suggestion, gets a walk on part in the new movie and $1000. I know i have been drinking Sorium Brandy and smoking Maka Root!! LOL. Ha HA. Good night, fellow trekkies!!

#23 Sean4000, your right this topic is running dry, how many times can say we like the visuals before it gets old, well it has ,When it comes to the technical aspects of the remastering process Im way out of my league on this one. I am not a technical person per say. I read what you and Spockboy and the rest talk about, its simply beyond me> I must say i have learned a few thing though. Good night all!

Hey, Garo. Keep the praise and nay says coming. lol. I meant that TOS-R is coming to an end and that the well is almost dry in that respect. Not that we’re sick of seeing comments; not at all.

Oh! I forgot one more thing!! How come the ships computers did not catch fire and explode and no one’s ESP was heightened??

19 & 21. RE: “The Cage”

The Remastered version airs week of April 26.

….Aaaaaannndd again another planet with blue oceans seen from orbit and yet a magenta/violet sky on the surface — and CBS-D even put in a lake in their matte painting that reflects that magenta/violet sky!

The seas should be the same color as the sky, as on earth.

Actually one of my favorite aspects of this episode ARE the continuity references– both the Taste of Armageddon reference and Kirk telling Rojan, when talking about the Barrier, “yes, we’ve been there.”

That kind of thing was so rarely done on the original series, that it really jumps out at you here. I always get a kick out of that.

I also love the idea of the Enterprise having to travel BETWEEN galaxies for once. Watching Trek, it’s easy to forget sometimes that we’re only seeing this one, lone galaxy being explored in episode after episode. There’s an entire universe out there that is still completely unexplored in Trek.

I’m not sure why anyone would be complaining about the planet in this one – the original was hardly anything to write home about in terms of TOS planets.

That aside, it IS frustrating when the remaster team gives us several flops and then randomly treats an episode like this with the gold treatment. I’m just not sure how they qualify an episode as worth the extra effort? A coin flip, perhaps?

How is it that an advanced race such as the Kelvans would have problems entering the barrier (their ship was destroyed), when the good ship Enterprise acts as if it were just a speed bump?….I don’t know, maybe it was the technological trap of a more sophisticated technology failing when more rudimentary equipment endures. Also, it’s a good thing nobodies EPS ratings jumped though the roof after leaving the galaxy or they would have a number of “Gary Michaels” to deal with on the return flight. : )

Oops…that was ” Gary Mitchell’s” not, “Michael’s”. It’s late!

Christ the old barrier was so much better in terms of color, design, and sheer power. The new one looks like a long stringy cloud. Probably the most CG effect in the TOSR project.

<“I’d hate to see what kind of a take the sterile TNG would have made with a plot like this.”

Actually, I think post-third season TNG would have handled this story with a lot more depth and sophistication, if less campy fun. There is a memorabe scene or two, the main cast gets off some jokey dialogue that fans remember fondly, and don’t even get me started about Barbara
Bouchet. But with its furtive stabs at suspense, intrigue, sci-fi, and, ultimately, farce, in the end “By Any Other Name” just doesn’t know what kind of episode it wants to be. It’s an okay hour of ’60s action-adventure television, but a far cry from the mature, literate SF series for adults that Roddenberry had initially promised.

As for the remastered FX, other than the inevitable reuse of the horribly reconceived energy barrier from “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” no complaints here.

Jeff Bond wrote:

> So why allow all the pulpy, colorful artistry that makes Trek so fun in
> these other areas and refuse to allow for any real variety in the planet
> exteriors?

> It’s still frustrating to see shots that totally fulfill the project’s goal
> alongside imagery that’s just not photoreal enough…

Huh? I’m confused. Jeff Bond wants more pulpy, colorful artistry and yet also wants photo-realism? There’s a contradiction.

In my opinion, the Remastered FX team is trying to strike a balance between the two styles, and for the most part, they succeed.

11. Gene L. Coon Was A U.S. Marine…
Check out Marianna Hill in 2005 dvd release of “State of Grace Coma Girl “… cameo role that doesn’t do her justice…but she still looks great at age 67!! Not the greatest dvd release, but it’s something.
Also, who can forget Marianna Hill in the “I Robot” episode of The Outer Limtis from 1964, as Dr. Link’s daughter. Leonard Nimoy also in the episode.

Scotty’s “it’s green” line reoccurred nicely in his role in TNG “Relics” as Data offers an aging Mr. Scott a drink from Guinan’s secret collection in Ten Forward. Scotty asks Data what the drink is. Unsure of the answer Data tastes it, gives up and declares, “it’s green.”

I would have liked a shot of the Milky Way being left behind, instead of three or four shots of Andromeda.

The Kelvins are planning an invasion and they only send one ship, now given the fact that it takes them 300 years to reach our Galaxy, you would think in all that time that they would have sent addtional follow up expeditions to see how the first one fared. The Kelvins must be seriously cash strapped if they can only afford to send one ship every 300 years.

1) the remastered shot of Andromeda is way too large for it to be 300 years away.
2)Why were Kirk, Spock, Scotty and McCoy spared from being crystalized when they would not survive the trip anyway?
3) If the Kelvins could make the E go up to warp 14+, then why didnt they have the knowledge to break on through the energy barrier.
4) Is the energy barrier at the edge of the Milky Way real science? I’ve heard there could be such a barrier at the edge of our solar system.
Discuss…

Doesn’t the new barrier shots kind of look like the shock wave from the Praxis explosion? Haven’t see the whole episode yet. My favorite part is Scott getting his drunk on.

How come we gave all the other galaxies cool names like Andromeda, or Holmberg, or even Pancake (yes there really is a galaxy called the Pancake Galaxy ^_^) and we name our own something lame like “Milky Way?”

BTW – Barbara Bouchet did some work for Penthouse…

#41 marshmelloncraver:

1) That’s a completely subjective call–we don’t know how big the damn galaxy would look in this instance. But anyway, it’s artistic license. It looks great. Give it a rest.
2) Good point, this episode is full of holes. Still, I disagree with everyone else who downplays its quality. I think it’s a fantastic episode. Funny, tense, dramatic, cool… I find nothing wrong with it (except the aforementioned holes).
3) Easy to answer this one. Clearly the energy barrier is unique to our galaxy (or at least Andromeda doesn’t have one) because Rojan makes the point of saying “there’s an energy barrier at the edge of your galaxy.” Had there been such a barrier around Andromeda, he would have said something like, “there’s an energy barrier at every galaxy’s edge.” Clearly he was pointing out that this is something unique to the Milky Way. So the Kelvans were unprepared for it. Not knowing the nature of it, they tried to cross it without whatever precautions the Enterprise’s crew has learned to take—and their ship got destroyed. Probably had the Kelvans been prepared they would have made it through okay.
4) The energy barrier is not really “real” science. There’s no theory that would support such a thing, though there were ideas at one time how something like it could occur–so it’s not totally out of the question. There is no such barrier at the edge of our solar system–what you are thinking of is either what’s called the “Bow Shock” or the “Heliopause.” These are the boundary lines between where our sun’s influence ends and deep galactic space begins–i.e., where the solar wind reaches it’s farthest limit, and is, in a sense, “blown back” by the particles and energies of deep space. This forms a kind of bubble around the solar system, protecting us (to some degree) from dust and energy from galactic space. But it isn’t an energy barrier of the type shown in Star Trek… merely a sort of boundary layer between the sun’s influence, and where that influence stops. The Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft will soon be crossing over into the area where galactic space begins—first man made objects to ever do so.

Freakazoid:

Come on, look up at the sky. The Milky Way is visible (at least one of its arms of stars, gas and dust is) from earth. Doesn’t take too much imagination to think of it as a great trail of milk, squirted across the sky.

And this is just how the Greek’s envisioned it–as coming from the breast of Hera, queen of the gods. Her milk streamed across the sky—hence, “Milky Way.”

Is that really any worse than “the Pinwheel Galaxy,” or “the Sombrero Galaxy?” Most galaxies just have numbers, not even names.

“Barbara Bouchet in a spectacularly simple Bill Theiss costume
surely ranks as one of the most sizzling alien sirens Kirk ever seduced”

I’ve had some serious bones for this lady for only . . . 40 years (laughing).
I imagine when I get to see this ep in HD I’ll be in a spin ALL OVER AGAIN . . . .

Man…seeing this as a kid in the early 70’s freaked me out a bit when they’d crush the sponges and thereby kill a person–I wondered what that must’ve felt like! What a way to die.

Loved the updates on this one, nice job, CBS-D!

Arrr…
How many degrees Kelvin is Barbara Bouchet? Hot, hot , hot!
And now she’s a grandmother… soooo… uh…. I should be ashamed of meself.

This was a good adventure and a hoot ta boot.
Funny how what we could call “character flaws” in Kirk and Scotty are what drove the Kelvins (sorry Kelvans with an “A”… oh, and some “T” as well here…) batty.
Now, I know Scotty was not a drunkard… but Kirk of course chased tha gals so… I think I lost me point before i start- just as well as I wuz ta draw similarities to today’s health paranoia and drug pushing with McCoy doing the same thing to intentionally drive that Kelvan batty,

Ahhh… at the end they all knew what was bound ta happen being human.
(Being a Kelvanist, I suppose they believe in pre-determination.)

Great Scott! Green! Wonderful moment ta be treasured. Despite Scotty needin’ an interior decorator.

arrrrr…

It’s amazing how the energy field effect from the 1960s has a much more “real” and cinematic feeling than that computer game plasma CBS-D has produced…