Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Star Trek THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE Enhanced

So, we all know via this here blog that there are a couple of people who took a 1967 episode of the original STAR TREK, ripped out the old cro-magnon special effects, and added new special effects. I'm talking about the STAR TREK episode called THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE wherein Kirk encounters a planet killing machine (see that photo at the bottom) and the mad captain of a destroyed starship.

NOW TWO MORE MORE PEOPLE ARE TAKING THAT EXACT SAME EPISODE AND SOUPING UP THE SFX!

Eric Reinholt has, available so far: the first 33 seconds of the episode, the next bit of the teaser, and then an effect of the Enterprise in orbit.

Scott Gammans has a blog that details each sequence in THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE where he's inserting his own new effects.

It's hard for me to tell who these guys are. I couldn't find any bio on them on a Web site. Maybe I missed it. Of course, they're fans of the show. But I can't tell if they're professional SFX guys or just people with a lot of software knowledge. Regardless, both of them are doing wonderful work in their spare time here that deserves a glimpse.

Scott Gammans takes an "I can do anything" approach to the project, with extreme close ups of the Enterprise, under-the-belly angles of the ship, etc. The destroyed solar system is full of careening rock, whose innards are still pulsing with a hot orange hot core.

Eric Reinholt takes more of a traditional point of view, with straight-on shots ala The Old Show. I thought his view of the destroyed solar system (dark planetoid chunks floating, with a small, cold sun in the background) was chilling and to the point-- almost like a Chelsey Bonestell painting.

They're both only a couple of minutes into the show. It'll be interesting to see how this progresses.

By the way, all of these photos are from the original episode.

5 comments:

Eric said...

Hello, I'm Eric Reinholt and I'm sorry to say that I only saw your comments today (12/31/2006).

I wanted to thank you for mentioning my work!

I am a PACS Administrator for a Pennsylvania Health System (Mercy Health) and like Scott, I have no connection to the effects industry.

Years ago I wanted to find a way to clean up the original Star Trek effects because of my love of the show but opted for recreating them instead. So I taught myself how to use TrueSpace 3D to try and approximate the original series effects.

However, Paramount Pictures is currently achieving this goal with their reissue of the original series episodes including new CGI.

Eric said...

Hello, I'm Eric Reinholt and I'm sorry to say that I only saw your comments today (12/31/2006).

I wanted to thank you for mentioning my work!

I am a PACS Administrator for a Pennsylvania Health System (Mercy Health) and like Scott, I have no connection to the effects industry.

Years ago I wanted to find a way to clean up the original Star Trek effects because of my love of the show but opted for recreating them instead. So I taught myself how to use TrueSpace 3D to try and approximate the original series effects.

However, Paramount Pictures is currently achieving this goal with their reissue of the original series episodes including new CGI.

Scott Gammans said...

Hi Mike! Was Googling myself today -- yes I am that narcissistic ;) -- and came across your 2006 post. I've been working on and off on this project and am STILL trying to finish this. Just thought I'd also add that the website link you have is not accurate anymore; my web addy is just plain old

http://www.scottgammans.com

Thanks!

Mike Lynch said...

Hi Scott! Link fixed as of today (12/11/2009). I'm going to blog about some of the new footage you've put up soon!

Scott Gammans said...

Please be kind :D ;)