I've heard the stories. The masters for the FX were destroyed, whatever. So we get really bad looking FX shots. What's worse is the VFX/Live Action composite shots. Here is an example. 99% sure these two pics are the SAME exact shot, only the second one had the effects so it was first cropped on the sides, and then later on the top and bottom: (note that these images have anamorphic crunch, I didn't bother to stretch them out to the proper AR, but I didn't crop them or alter them in any way)
Crappy, but I guess un-avoidable. Unless they released the show in 4x3. Which would suck to lose the compositions of the live action scenes, which look decent.
What's worse is that they didn't seem to bother to take any care in matting the image. Instead of examining the 4x3 image and deciding if they should do a straight top and bottom, or take away image ONLY from the bottom, ONLY from the top, or half and half, 2/3 and 1/3, ect....they just did half and half arbitrarily for every shot. Took a look:
The 'souls' are cut off on the top, meanwhile the bottom of the image features the guy's stomach. Wouldn't it have been more prudent to just chop off the bottom to fit eh 4x3 frame into a 16x9 frame? I've actually done this with some 4x3 material. You go through it shot by shot, deciding what picture information should stay and go. You don't just zoom in and hope the shot compositions aren't ruined. Tsk, tsk.
I hope someday WB releases a fully remastered version of the show. I'd like to see all-new FX produced (using the old ones as animatics), using the original 16x9 plates of the composite shots with new VFX, and over course the over-all thing being cleaned up better and in HD. Doubtful, I know. But Trek did it. So there is a glimmer of hope.
For now, these sucky versions will just have to do.
Crappy, but I guess un-avoidable. Unless they released the show in 4x3. Which would suck to lose the compositions of the live action scenes, which look decent.
What's worse is that they didn't seem to bother to take any care in matting the image. Instead of examining the 4x3 image and deciding if they should do a straight top and bottom, or take away image ONLY from the bottom, ONLY from the top, or half and half, 2/3 and 1/3, ect....they just did half and half arbitrarily for every shot. Took a look:
The 'souls' are cut off on the top, meanwhile the bottom of the image features the guy's stomach. Wouldn't it have been more prudent to just chop off the bottom to fit eh 4x3 frame into a 16x9 frame? I've actually done this with some 4x3 material. You go through it shot by shot, deciding what picture information should stay and go. You don't just zoom in and hope the shot compositions aren't ruined. Tsk, tsk.
I hope someday WB releases a fully remastered version of the show. I'd like to see all-new FX produced (using the old ones as animatics), using the original 16x9 plates of the composite shots with new VFX, and over course the over-all thing being cleaned up better and in HD. Doubtful, I know. But Trek did it. So there is a glimmer of hope.
For now, these sucky versions will just have to do.
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