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Check Out This Bad Ass City In The Sky!! It's 'The Cloud Minders' On This Weekend's STAR TREK REMASTERED!!
Merrick here...
...with a shot from this weekend's episode of STAR TREK REMASTERED.
It's "The Cloud Minders". This always struck me as STAR TREK's take on METROPOLIS: beleaguered workers on & beneath a planet's surface toiling for the detached & unsympathetic aristocracy living in a city that floats in the sky.
For the new iteration of this episode, the nature of Stratos (the floating city) has been significantly broadened via design changes, new angles, etc.
BELOW: a shot of Stratos as it appears in The Original Series -vs- the remastering. I'm told that if you look at the remastered image very carefully, you can spot the character Droxine (Diana Ewing) standing on her balcony. I've tried to find her and failed.
Before the comparison, I'll pass on a few more notes about the remastered image. They reflect the level of detail and dedication with which the remastering team approaches their tweaking of Original Series material.
Note that the image of the planetscape below is a matte painting based on the same photograph used by Cinema Research Corp, which did the original visual effects for the episode in 1969.
The original planet view was based on a photograph of the Hadramawt Plateau dry river basin in southern Saudi Arabia. The photo was taken by astronauts on the Gemini IV mission in 1965.
For the remastered visual effect, Dwayne A. Day of the National Research Council and John Hargenreder of the NASA History Office combed through NASA archives at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. to find the original photograph for the remastered visual effects team.
The distant mountains on the horizon are from a different photo, taken by astronauts on the International Space Station.
Here are the images...
Original
Remastered - CLICK TO EMBIGGEN
The "remastered" images above is a matte painting by Max Gabl, based on a digital model by visual effects supervisor Niel Wray.
HERE's a newly updated list of stations carrying the next wave of REMASTERED episodes.
Airtimes/stations may be in flux. If you've been watching these, be sure to check for changes in your area.
If you can't find a station near you, they can also be downloaded via iTunes and XBOX Live (where a number of episodes are available in High Definition - the series is not shown in HD by many, if any, broadcasters).
"Original" images from TrekCore
[[[e-mail Merrick]]]
The original planet view was based on a photograph of the Hadramawt Plateau dry river basin in southern Saudi Arabia. The photo was taken by astronauts on the Gemini IV mission in 1965.
For the remastered visual effect, Dwayne A. Day of the National Research Council and John Hargenreder of the NASA History Office combed through NASA archives at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. to find the original photograph for the remastered visual effects team.
The distant mountains on the horizon are from a different photo, taken by astronauts on the International Space Station.
Original
Remastered - CLICK TO EMBIGGEN
HERE's a newly updated list of stations carrying the next wave of REMASTERED episodes.
Airtimes/stations may be in flux. If you've been watching these, be sure to check for changes in your area.
If you can't find a station near you, they can also be downloaded via iTunes and XBOX Live (where a number of episodes are available in High Definition - the series is not shown in HD by many, if any, broadcasters).
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Apparently, no cable channel I have actually shows any of them. I'd like to catch one. One day.
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Looks like a Flash-animation for some Star Trek parody on YouTube.
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sorry...far and away the closest to first i've ever been...
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There I said it before anyone else. Now that that's out of the way...
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Kind of looks like Cloud City at first glance. Really dig these new effects. I thought it would take away from the natural cheese factor of the original show. Nope, still there.
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That is funny shit. Cloud City!
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This has always been one of my LEAST favorite TOS episodes. The girl you can't see in the photo, Droxine, always reminded me of a poodle. And for some reason, she INSTANTLY wants to bone Spock. And delivers her lines in this breathless, whiny voice that made me want to pitch her off the cloud.
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i think that girl is in the square little garden area at the bottom. there's a white figure/image in the midde so if she wears white in that scene, thats probably her.....unless its a lamp.
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I'm just saying? It was on the schedule, and now it's not. DAMN YOU CBS!
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And will the revised special effect city still float on top of a cloud, 'cause that aint a true shot-by-shot comparison? Luv original series Trek. Yeah, Lucas mined this episode for Bespin... Baby Boomer Lucas will always be The Greatest Generation Roddenberry's bitch!
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And will the revised special effect city still float on top of a cloud, 'cause that aint a true shot-by-shot comparison? Luv original series Trek. Yeah, Lucas mined this episode for Bespin... Baby Boomer Lucas will always be The Greatest Generation Roddenberry's bitch!
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The circular building in front-center of the picture...
look at the tower just left of that one, and you'll find her. The balcony is on the right-front corner of that tower. -
probably the best i've yet seen of the remastered fx.
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This is the kind of thing that CGI graphics ARE good for. Buildings and landscapes. Not green rubber Jedi masters or lead singers of alien pop groups.
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This entire story hinged on the presence of a gas in the mines. Federation scientists should have been able to determine that in about 1 minute. And that chick doesn't beleive in a gas that she can't smell or see? Stupid episode. Also, that updated pic looks like the city is about 30000 feet, maybe higher? Fun breathing!
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don't be such a spoilsport.
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I taped last week's episode, and noticed it was about 44 minutes long, which is just slightly above standard for today's hour-long TV shows. I'm pretty sure there were fewer commercials per hour back when these episodes originally aired, so... is there some cutting going on?
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Yeah - they are being butchered. Some episodes are almost painful to watch as a result. The only reason I watch is the new FX.
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the DVDs restore everything that was cut (including some of the enhanced effects shots too, talk about stupid moves by CBS)
Too bad the DVDs are like 60 bucks a season. -
yea, well i just got season 1 of The Invaders for like 27 bucks, so Paramount if you're listening: eat it beyotches! At least some companies aren't insane!
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And he doesn't look like Gumby. Pics are on Trekmovie.com. And the Gumby line 'aint mine. The new matte looks great! That's good work compared to the horrible original.
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NEVER refer to your penis as wee-anything. Call it a warp nacelle if you're keepin' it Trek. But as a Trekfan, always exagerrate, never diminish. Hard enough to get the girls to look past the taped up glasses and "I Grok Spock" t-shirts. The giggling is OK. Chicks will think you're sensitive.
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I went back to my DVR box and re-watched "Assignment Earth"....Earth IS spinning backwards in the whole episode!
Hos does that slip by a man, like sean said, that worked for NASA?
Does S4K post here too?
I kinda agree that this whole project is a very rough ride and a lot got passed up. The mattes are great all around. -
Kind of a shame that it's seen from above rather than below. Now it no longer looks like a floating city so much as a model shot from just the right angle in a balloon or something.
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...have any decent cloud effect generating software, maybe?
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...never seem to be able to develop the concept of railings or fencing on the edges of their massive, floating structures to prevent the inevitable accidental 30,000 foot falls?
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Nothing but orange skies do I see.
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where Spock talks casually about pon farr to a space chick he barely knows, despite the fact that the previous year it was Vulcan's best kept secret. "We do not talk about it with outsiders." And yes, I am a nerd for writing this...
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Really needed fixing!Thats one fake looking little city on a cloud!Whilst veeeery cgi the new stuff , has a respectful feel , that shows how this sort of thing can be done.That said I think George did improve his own floating city in the Empire SE.That was the only one of the original trilogy that was improved , instead of adding shitloads of digital slapstick or pointlessly replacing okay fx with even faker looking ones.
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do i know you?
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I was told by my kindergarten teacher that thunder was the sound of clouds crashing into each other. No lie.
I also thought that clouds were made by factory smokestacks. I was a gullible child. -
Except Empire does have that shitty CGI sequence with the ships flying and weaving through Cloud City.
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Do you mean the scene where the falcon first arrives?{which i kind of like}Or the bit ,where cloud pod cars fly around and then go past leia's window?Which I agree is total shite!
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