Star Trek: The Original Motion Picture Collection (1979-1991)

[ChuckT43]

I think they will re release them at some point. Hopefully soon. The transfers are not very good. Plus every other format saw two releases. I would hold out and get the better transfer when they eventually release them.

[Gold Ranger]

We've already got the Theatrical Blu-Ray's.
What we need now are those "Extended/Alternate/Hybrid/Director's Cuts"

[whbinder]

Originally Posted by Kinetic_Blue

We've already got the Theatrical Blu-Ray's.
What we need now are those "Extended/Alternate/Hybrid/Director's Cuts"

It might be a while since those cuts were edited in SD. (Except, I suppose, the Australian cut of IV)

[trevanian]

Originally Posted by Livelong420

I'm sure the film elements do exist. I'm not sure they will ever re-do the effects on the director(s) cut to make it acceptable for blu.

Many film elements on the films do not exist. For one thing, Paramount never even bothered collecting all the original elements from Apogee and EEG at the end of the first movie, and in Trumbull's case, they ran out of space and got tired of holding them and threw them out in 1982. Reuses of TMP footage are apparently just contact-print style copies of the original film, plus some odds and ends Paramount wound up with (explaining the slightly different end to the jump-to-warp seen about halfway through TWOK.)

[trevanian]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

No it doesn't.

It was BLINDING in the theater, in both 70MM and 35MM. You're used to previous video transfers where they toned it down because NTSC can't handle the range. The BD restores the original intended look.

You just made them a sale with that comment. I've been sorely disappointed with the lack of range on some pictures, and that, along with the tank room explosion in ALTERED STATES, were two of the most impressive lightshows I can recall in theaters.

[trevanian]

Originally Posted by Panama Jack

However, I was sure that when the Director's cut DVD came out, they had a special screening of it in LA or someplace. If they could produce a 35mm version for a showing on the big screen, why can't they produce a BD from that print?

They were just projecting the DVD when the TMP-DE debuted. No film print. In recent years they've been showing blu rays of TNG remastered in theaters to tie-in with the BR releases.

If you go back to Wise interviews in the years after TMP first came out, he had very specific ideas about re-editing the film ... and almost none of them are what you see in the so-called director's edition. This is much more the vision of the people who masterminded it, who also headed up the restoration earlier of his SOUND OF MUSIC, the folks at Sharpline Arts, who should be held responsible for the immense creative failure of the 2001 cut of TMP.

Outside of putting the 'spock crying' scene back in, most of the changes are pretty bad. They replace hurried matte paintings with marginal digital matte paintings, add some pretty prosaic bridging shots that don't do justice to the look of the original Enterprise shots, create a horrid sound mix ... at the same time, they ignore a scene where the color is totally off because it was shot with blue costumes against a bluescreen, and instead of fixing that (probably simple to fix, too), they put a very awkward looking engine nacelle in behind them outside a window that sits there like a Federation Sore Thumb for 2 minutes.

To get this dumb view of one ship's engine, this lounge would have to be hovering in space above the recreation deck instead of being on the back top of the dish, where you'd've gotten a nice symmetrical view of the engines.

Bad call on top of bad call.

[BouCoupDinkyDau]

Originally Posted by trevanian

Bad call on top of bad call.

I gotta disagree with you. I think the DC of TMP was well done, and finally finished a movie that always looked unfinished.

I'll take a slighly awkward nacel shot over Shatner deploying out of an incomplete airlock on a sound stage any day.

[Revolution 9]

Originally Posted by trevanian

If you go back to Wise interviews in the years after TMP first came out, he had very specific ideas about re-editing the film ... and almost none of them are what you see in the so-called director's edition.

Robert Wise was clearly unhappy with the way the theatrical version came out in 1979. If a director has decided to re-edit his 1979 film after-the-fact, why would it matter if his ideas in 2001 didn't match his ideas in 1981?

Do you think the director's opinion in 1981 were somehow more legitimate than his opinions in 2001?

Originally Posted by trevanian

This is much more the vision of the people who masterminded it

Can you point me to concrete sources that corroberate these allegations? I was under the impression that Robert Wise himself supervised and approved the Director's Edition.

Originally Posted by trevanian

the immense creative failure of the 2001 cut of TMP.

Bad call on top of bad call.

Every one has their own opinions, of course. The majority of reviewers in '01 had opinions that were very different from yours. Most of the reviews were positive, and a few were lukewarm. Very few were outright negative.

[BouCoupDinkyDau]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

And despite their flaws the BDs whomp on the DVDs for quality.

I agree with this, but the BDs were enough of a disappointment for me that I'm still holding out for the inevitable remasters. The only two Trek films I own are Khan and '09.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Revolution 9

Robert Wise was clearly unhappy with the way the theatrical version came out in 1979. If a director has decided to re-edit his 1979 film after-the-fact, why would it matter if his ideas in 2001 didn't match his ideas in 1981?

Not to be stereotypical but when you're that age you aren't as sharp as you used to be mentally (he passed in 2005 at 91).

I saw Mr. Wise present the Director's Edition to ComicCon (San Diego) that summer of 2001 and he was extremely frail and read only from prepared notes. Even then it was difficult to understand what he was saying. I got the impression he was shown the cut with the changes and made approved them. Any statements and answers to questions about what was done for the DE was handled by the Sharpline Arts team members there.

[trevanian]

Originally Posted by BouCoupDinkyDau

I gotta disagree with you. I think the DC of TMP was well done, and finally finished a movie that always looked unfinished.

I'll take a slighly awkward nacel shot over Shatner deploying out of an incomplete airlock on a sound stage any day.

You're talking about a shot that was never in the theatrical cut, just the expanded TV cut that went onto home video vhs and laser.

[trevanian]

Originally Posted by Revolution 9

Robert Wise was clearly unhappy with the way the theatrical version came out in 1979. If a director has decided to re-edit his 1979 film after-the-fact, why would it matter if his ideas in 2001 didn't match his ideas in 1981?

Do you think the director's opinion in 1981 were somehow more legitimate than his opinions in 2001?





Can you point me to concrete sources that corroberate these allegations? I was under the impression that Robert Wise himself supervised and approved the Director's Edition.






Every one has their own opinions, of course. The majority of reviewers in '01 had opinions that were very different from yours. Most of the reviews were positive, and a few were lukewarm. Very few were outright negative.

That's probably because very few people had gone the laserdisc route, so they hadn't seen TMP in any form above VHS in decades, and it seemed fresh to them (that was the case with the people I knew who were impressed by it.) On the other hand, the people who detested the DE more than I had seen the LD regularly and even caught the occasional theatrical reissue -- serious TMP devotees -- and so rather than be concerned with the volume of positive reviews, I'd concern myself with the knowledge and quality of the people making the comments.

There's absolutely nothing in print to substantiate any of my Sharpline / Wise statements .. but that doesn't make them any less true. The DVD itself was a political football being kicked back and forth, with the original documentary stuff being rejected by Paramount as too unflattering, which delayed the release from the original January 7, 2001 date (1-7-01) ... I know some of this because I was trying to cover the restoration work from my staff writer position in 2000, and getting the most insane responses from Sharpline, and other stuff because folks I regularly corresponded with had inside sources on the project.

And yes, a director who considers the film unfinished and needing work just post-release is in absolutely the right position to evaluate it, whereas 20 years down the line, it is more about posterity than the specifics of the film's flaws.

I'm by no means a big fan of Wise's work, but DAY THE EARTH is damned near perfection, THE HAUNTING just misses greatness by a fraction and I find value in ANDROMEDA STRAIN. It may well be that nobody could have pulled TMP together back then (though if Katzenberg hadn't had his head up his ass, maybe somebody would have realized how extreme the VFX problems were a year prior to when they finally dumped the original team), but the final product is just too tepid. It's like they strove for maturity and wound up with something geriatric.

[stvn1974]

Best Buy has listings for the individual releases of the remaining films that weren't put out the first go around. Any one know anything about them? They are listed as 2 discs.

[WorkShed]

Via The Digital Bits

In announcement news today, Paramount and CBS have officially set Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season Three and Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Best of Both Worlds for Blu-ray release here in the U.S. on 4/30. That same day, Paramount will also re-release Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis on Blu-ray as singles (Star Trek II and IV aren’t yet listed on the site). Here’s the kicker though – Paramount’s press site claims that Star Trek: The Motion Picture will be the “newly restored Director’s Cut.” Frankly, this seem way too good to be true so we’d suggest you not get too excited. Rest assured, we’re trying to confirm this one way or another. We’ve asked if any of the other films will feature newly-remastered transfers as well.

[mayday72]

Originally Posted by WorkShed

Via The Digital Bits

Hmmm . . . have put off buying both ST sets for awhile now. I however have been coming closer & closer to pulling the trigger. Sounds like I better keep waiting.

[HD Goofnut]

If this is true I'll definitely double dip on The Motion Picture since the Director's Cut is superior to the theatrical cut.

[blonde_devil]

don't bet on it being the director's cut of TMP - if they were going to do it, they probably would have done it for the set. plus sites have been advertising it on bluray ever since the set came out. but maybe....

[kemcha]

I just heard. It's about time that the rest of the Star Trek films are being released. April 30th ... but, I'm expecting them to carry each with a $2o price tag.

[stvn1974]

These are most likely just the same discs in the box set released individually. Wrath Of Khan, Voyage Home, First Contact have already been released by themselves so that is probably why they weren't listed in the press release. Bummer, I would love the Directors Cuts.

[WorkShed]

I don't believe it is out of the realm of possibility, since there's been so much work done on the TV shows.