I saw part of that on PBS over the weekend. Had to change channels when they started showing news coverage of Jim Henson's passing though.
Funny, I've always thought of Elmo as displacing Grover.
Test audiences are a pox on film making. Get a bunch of random people together who probably wouldn't see said movie in the first place, and watch the carnage ensue in the editing room once the comment cards are compiled.
Came up dry with that Ebay seller. They were very nice in taking the time to check the Laserdisc they were selling though.
Has anyone listened to the songs I captured off the analog sound LD yet?
Oh crap! I didn't think they could be that off. Is scanning them inside the little lucite holders the culprit?
The other problem is, all the loose 70mm frames I've ever seen are faded to pink.
Would that site with all the 70mm frame scans be a good resource?
Oh I see. Why did they want a Ferengi instead of a TOS alien? Was it a screen used costume you got to wear?
Cool! Did you work at the Trek Experience in Vegas?
TV's Frink said:
I literally pictured a moon falling on Chewie, rather than the moon crashing into the planet.
lolz
IIRC, in the Chewie comic TK-949 mentioned, Threepio goes around recording stories from friends, family, even a couple foes, and Chewie's dad refers to his son's death that way. And yes, it's Itchy from the SWHS.
I've never read Vector Prime, therefore Chewie isn't dead. From a certain point of view. ;)
Also Mermaid Man on Spongebob.
He shared his "secret" to living to a ripe old age on Fox News a few years back. The video went viral of course.
If you like Rear Window, you'll get a kick out of this. :)
silverwheel said:
The original THX did not at all feel like an American movie. The style of the movie (particularly the editing) reminded me a lot of Antonioni. The GLDC was a poor attempt to infuse a lot of kinetic energy into a movie that was designed for slow burns and oppressive atmosphere.
Maybe that's one reason the movie seems to have enjoyed a wide release outside the U.S. :)
As I've said many times before, when the documentary on the DVD cuts to a CGI cityscape as George talks about using real locations in 1970, my jaw dropped.
If Lucas really wanted those kind of shots back then, he probably could have gone with matte paintings. Guys like Albert Whitlock were still practicing their craft in the industry at the time.
As it is, those sprawling cityscapes undercut the claustrophobic underground vibe.
Given the other genre series Williams was working on in the 60's, (especially Lost In Space) I'm surprised he never scored a TOS episode.
I'm only aware of Chewie's controversial death in Vector Prime. I think a moon fell on him?
Luke appears as a Force ghost in the Legacy comics, set over century after the OT, but I don't think it's revealed when or how he died. Artoo is still around and ends up with Luke's descendants in the story.
I know Threepio apparently buys the moisture farm in an issue of Star Wars Tales, but it's more of a one off "What if?" kind of tale that isn't tied to any other continuity. I would consider the SWT stories non canon.
http://majorspoilers.com/2010/08/22/retro-review-star-wars-tales-19-may-2003/
Han also dies in a another story in the same issue. (With one heck of a crossover with another Lucas universe.)
What's equally amazing is how little publicity the changes got compared to the Special Editions. You'd think there would be a documentary bit with George explaining how that little albino lizard bit him, when he tried gluing antennae and wings on it back in 1970. ;)
This also seems to be the beginning of the trend to not even credit the people who worked on the new shots.
I kind of like evil bearded Spock. And IMHO, Uhura should have worn that revealing uniform all the time. ;)
The Enterprise two parter revisiting the Mirror universe, complete with "evil" opening credits and theme music is probably my favorite episode of that series.
The MST3K parody of Mirror Mirror is hilarious.
The Gungans could be funny, in a movie not called Star Wars. ;)
If Universal screws it up, someone around here will probably try to fix it.
Gregatron said:
There's an interesting parallel between Lucas and Roddenberry.
Both were "typecast" as "Mr. STAR WARS" and "Mr. STAR TREK".
Both receive most of the credit for being the genius visionaries behind their respective franchises.
Both were/are lousy writers. Of the few TREK episodes Roddenberry actually wrote, only the original pilot was an out-of-the-ballpark-good script. His other scripts ranged from so-so ("Mudd's Women") to utterly lousy ("The Omega Glory", "Turnabout Intruder").
The original SW trilogy was very collaborative, with the first film, in particular, being saved in post-production by editing and window-dressing (music, FX, etc.). EMPIRE's creative success was largely due to Kernsher and Kasdan.
And Roddenberry, being a notorious credit-stealer, was more of a guiding influence than anything else. Gene Coon was perhaps the person most responsible for the feel of TOS as we know it, having served as producer after the first dozen or so episodes, penning many great episodes, and rewriting others.
Both Roddenberry and Lucas later came back to their respective franchises, with mixed results.
Lucas made the prequels, without a system of checks and balances.
Roddenberry came to believe the hype being repeated to him over and over again by fandom, with the result that STAR TREK-THE MOTION PICTURE depicted a boring, bland, "perfect" future--which was not at all what TOS was about.
The critical failure of that film led to his removal as creative controller, and it took two outsiders (Harve Bennett and Nick Meyer) to get back to the heart of TOS with THE WRATH OF KHAN.
And then Roddenberry went off and created TNG, which, at first, was in the vein of ST-TMP: bland, with no conflicts between the main characters. That first season is just horrible.
Both Lucas and Roddenberry, after being hailed as visionaries, decided that their franchises needed to be IMPORTANT, to the detriment of said franchises.
STAR WARS went from the ultimate popcorn movie to a "deep", mythic, multipart "Saga", which resulted in the 6-film patchwork quilt we know today. The original film is the only one that doesn't fit within that framework.
STAR TREK went from a fun action-adventure-drama series to a talky, bland, preachy series about how perfect man will be in the future. The original series is the only one that doesn't fit within the framework of the spin-offs. And ENTERPRISE went out of its way to erase TOS and steal many of that show's "firsts" (by showing an Enterprise before Kirk's, having first contact with many races that were originally first contacted in TOS, etc.).
Far and away, for me, TOS (third season aside) and the original SW film are the best incarnations of those franchises. Almost everything that has come after has served to undermine and/or erase/supplant those original, iconic versions.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds!
TMP showed an Enterprise of unknown class between the space shuttle and the tv series' version in the rec deck scene. There's never been anything I can recall being said on screen that the name had never been used for a spacecraft prior to the 1701.
All the important first contacts I saw on ENT were with species well known in Kirk's time or races we didn't see until Next Gen originally. Not counting aliens of the week that are never seen again.
And when the heck did we turn into a Trek board? ;)
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I'm old enough to remember Star Trek vs. Space:1999 arguments. ;)
I have wondered why "holy sake cup" vs. "sacred wine glass" on the different translations. Perhaps it depends on who is doing the translation at the time, and their cultural background?
I recall "new more accurate subtitles" being a selling point on some foreign films in the past.
Is it the one for the Italian cut?
I would think so, but without a 1-800-PHONE-THX type hotline around, who's going to fink on them?
I've had theaters shut the credits off on the final show of the night. Bad showmanship.
I think Star Wars was the movie that first made me want to stick around for the closing credits. And in the years that followed, I would start to recognize the names of all the ILM guys on other films.
I don't watch the whole thing. I just check the Yoda scenes once in a while, as it's the fastest way to know what version they are running.
Frink's version is more fun anyway. ;)