Harmy said:

Well, in order to do that, he could basically do what I'm doing and make a fake original by just cutting the scenes that were changed into the SE, leaving the re-comped shots in there, which would mean they'd have to scan and clean up about half of the shots they'd have to to make a proper restoration that way (not to mention scanning and restoring the whole film, which would be optimal but most complicated and expensive) and that's what I'm afraid might happen :-(

If it did happen that way though, could you accept it? What if they left the recomped shots of the SE in but didn't recomp anything else? A form of "damage control" as it were. With the requirement that they don't claim it it be the "original" and label it as the "1977/80/83 release edit conformed edition" or what have you.

I mean, it looks like the scenario you've outlined here is perhaps the *only* plausible route left open for the "original" version? A semi-original might just be the only thing one could in fact reasonably expect at this point - because nobody's going to cut the SE changes that only feature recomped shots, they'd be focused on returning the editorial to its original state. Which is all I really care about anyway - the STORY in its unaltered state. Because I think it worked best like that. And I don't care if the color timing isn't exact so much as I care that it looks natural.

All of which is hypothetical anyway as I severely doubt it'll ever happen trough the official channels.