Info: Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan - ABC cut — Page 2

It would be a pity if no one were in a position to capture this.  It might be our last chance to have a rare treasure in half-decent quality.  Oh, to work for a television station!

I have a friend who has a digital tuner and DVD recorder. We've worked out that he can capture it on two dual-layer DVDs, each in 1-hour mode (switching during a commercial break).

That seems like the best thing other than ripping directly into a capture card (though if anybody has a high-quality This stream and can do that, that'd also be good...)

SilverWook said:

I had ThisTv on in the background this evening as TMP was on. I was surprised TWOK came on after it. As I'm doing my internet thing, I swear I hear the extra McCoy line when he gives Kirk the glasses. Nah, it couldn't be...

So, I walk over to the tv around the time Kirk boards the Enterprise. Crossing my fingers here. Extended Peter Preston scene or not?

HOLY CRAP! IT IS THE ABC CUT!!!

Even the commercial breaks/fade outs seem to be in the same places. Who knew this this video master was even still around?

Does anyone have a really good feed for ThisTv they could record? According to the website, it will be shown again Sept. 23.  It is far too heavily compressed on my cable system. (Like a bad VCD.) We have got to get this recorded before somebody realizes they've let this version sneak back out!

The only downside is that annoying logo bug in the corner of the screen, and some popups coming out of commercial breaks. The popups ought to be gone by the time the extended footage comes up.

My home situation isn't back up to snuff yet.  I can watch this I just cannot record it.  I REALLY hope we have someone doing this recording.  I know the Trek fans here are passionate and would cherish this.  Here is to hope.

If we can get something on which we can perform a successful IVTC, it will be a big improvement on what we have currently.  PCM would indeed be preferable.  And as long as the alternate material is there, it doesn't matter what the rest of it is like because we have better sources for everything else.

My friend's DVD recorder previously belonged to me. Checking the discs I recorded on it, it seems that in 1-hour mode, the sound is encoded at 384kbps.

I will also say that both the digital tuner output and DVD recorder input have S-Video; I assume we should go with that over composite?

Also, it's rerunning Thursday 9/25 at 10:30 AM, and again on Monday 9/29 at 9:30 PM, if anybody else wants to take a shot at it. (Anybody else have the ability to pick up ThisTV over the air, like my friend does?)

At least my friend (who lives IN Los Angeles) will be able to get it from antenna - we'll see how that turns out.

SilverWook said:

Excellent!

Agreed.  This is very exciting news.  Yay for all the Trek fans here.  :)

Clarification - when I said "Over the air" I was referring to the means of reception, not the means of capture. It will be on DVD-R (albeit in 1 hour mode, across two DL discs), but it will be coming from digital antenna, not from a further-compressed digital cable feed like SilverWook's.

FWIW, my friend says his digital antenna reception is excellent and never has drop-outs or stuff like that. Unless someone here has a digital antenna wired into a capture card, and a clear shot at their This affiliate, this will probably be the best we can get.

Well these are some great news, I hope the capture will be a success

My friend is watching the broadcast right now, and he says the elevator scene is NOT the TV version?

I hope they didn't swap the edit out after that one airing. He's just watching tonight, he will actually be recording the Thursday morning showing.

Ask him to tell us specifically about the turbolift scene between Alley & Shatner. Is it one single shot during for most of the conversation, or does it cut to each actor during each of their lines?

He had texted me during the Tuesday night airing saying it wasn't the TV version, but I will ask him again tomorrow as he's actually recording.

OK, my friend had to go out somewhere today, so he recorded it on a DL disc in 1.5 hour mode instead of 1 hour because he wouldn't be home to switch out the discs. It was unavoidable, hope it doesn't affect the quality too much.

He said again that the elevator scene is a static shot. Does that mean this is some bizarre alternate TV cut we haven't seen before?

Here's the scene as it appears in the ABC TV cut.  If your friend's recording matches, then he has what we hope he has.

I watched that and asked him. He said it was "the same as VHS." He seemed to indicate it was the theatrical shot, he said it didn't cut away and there was very little panning.

He's sending the disc to me and I'll check, but I have a feeling this is some later franken-cut we haven't seen before. (That could also explain SilverWook hearing David's "You son of a bitch!" and seeing more Ceti eel footage?)

He also curiously said that the opening credits are "open matte". When I said that wasn't possible since this was an anamorphic movie, it had to be squeezed or letterboxed, he said "You'll see." So does this also have redone/video-generated credits a la the pan-and-scan Star Trek V? Did the ABC cut have the credits redone in 4:3 also?

Chewtobacca said:

Here's the scene as it appears in the ABC TV cut.  If your friend's recording matches, then he has what we hope he has.

Thanks for the link.

I grew up with the ABC version with the tubolift scene from the link Chewtobacca put up. One thing always confused me about that scene when I was watching it in the 80's: when Kirk says " you may ask", he presses a button on the turbolift controls. I could never understood why he did that, nor McCoy's subsequent line when the doors open.

But, looking at my Director's Edition of TWOK with the static turbolift scene, when both Kirk & Saavik enter and the doors close, you can clearly hear a sound for the lift, indicating it is moving. When Saavik says "May I speak sir?", she touches the control panel, and the sound stops, indicating that the lift stopped and the button is a stop button. When Kirk says "You may ask" and presses the button, the sound resumes indicating the lift is moving again. When the doors open and McCoy asks "Who's been holding up the damn elevator?", his line makes sense.

Now, listening again to the ABC cut, Saavik never touches the stop button and the moving sound is continuous throughout their conversation. Now, Kirk still touches the button at "You may ask", but the sound was always there. When the doors open and McCoy asks his line, it doesn't really make sense.

While I prefer the acting in the ABC cut, the weird continuity error in it does make watching the scene a bit odd.

Now, if the scene existed in a good widescreen version, one could do some fancy editing and create a best of both worlds with that scene: cuts from one actor to the other, but including Saavik pressing the stop button, and editing the audio to have the sound stop when she presses the button and the sound resume when Kirk presses the button.

I had set this to record off of THIS TV on my DVR while I was away last week. I Got back late Tuesday and watched it last night. Is is the Directors cut that is available on the Collectors edition 2 disc DVD Set. Only I think it is 4x3 aspect ratio.  I was so hoping this was it. THIS TV is also showing Silence of the Lambs soon and I hope that is the TV Cut as that is a rare version. 

Has anyone had any luck finding a copy of the pre release press kit for WOK? I understand that that has some missing footage that if we could get a copy could be edited back in.