Overwriting the Data
I found a copy of Star Trek season 1 on Blu-ray used for a great price a little over a week ago. Since my husband has been working odd hours this week, I've been popping the discs in while I've been working on something mindless or when I need a break.
Let me preface this all by saying that as a kid, I was that kid. You know, the one who couldn't wait to turn 18 so he could get the Enterprise tattooed someplace unfortunate. The kid who had every episode memorized, and got annoyed when people didn't know whether a given episode was in the first season or the third. The kid who tried desperately to understand how the Engineering section could be both on Deck B and in the lower decks of the ship. Yeah, that kid.
Seeing the episodes on Blu-ray is like seeing them for the first time.
The Blu-ray allows you to select whether to watch with the original effects or the "enhanced" effects. Since the "enhanced" effects, in my opinion, look no better (only updated), I opt for the original effects. It's true that the Blu-ray reproduces the show a little too well. Suddenly computer memory tapes are clearly just painted scraps of wood. Flats failing during fight scenes become apparent. Compositing artifacts are painfully evident. But, really, the fact that Star Trek looks cheesy today has little to do with the special effects. Television acting and writing have also evolved a great deal in the last 40-odd years, so choosing "enhanced" effects does nothing to enhance the enjoyability of transporting yourself back to that bygone era.
But, what has been striking me, over and over again, is how little I actually remember of the show. Granted, I only saw the show in syndication, so -- with the exception of the episodes I bought on VHS -- most of them have scenes in them I had never seen before. But far too much of most episodes feels unseen to me for me to chalk it all up to that.
In fact, tonight, I watched an episode, "Court Martial," where I could recall only two shots. I had no memory of the plot. I had no memory of the characters. I had no memory of the settings. Finally, as I was watching, a weak childhood memory of the viewscreen showing Kirk hitting buttons in the wrong order and Kirk saying, "But that's not how it happened," flashed into my mind. Yes, that was the only thing in the entire episode I remembered. I can see why, as a kid, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable episode (it's a low-key courtroom drama), but I must have, at one point, had it memorized along with the rest of the canon. I was that kid!
But, years, life, and maturity have intervened. Today, I don't watch Star Trek with the fanboy slavishness, hanging on every word, believing that somehow I'm seeing an actual record from a real future. The data tapes in my brain that once held the Star Trek canon have apparently been overwritten with more useful information. Today, I enjoy the series as an excellent example of an era, a pioneer in a medium that previously had never taken my favorite genre seriously. Today, I am blown away by the cinematography. Today, I marvel at what they were able to do with miniscule budgets and no computers. Today, I watch Star Trek as a professional, respecting my predecessors and understanding their compromises and mistakes.
And if I could go back in time and tell that kid what I know now, I'm quite sure he'd hate me for bad-mouthing the Church of Trek.
All I can say is, thank God we have the chance to overwrite data from time to time.
And thank God I never got that tattoo.
Let me preface this all by saying that as a kid, I was that kid. You know, the one who couldn't wait to turn 18 so he could get the Enterprise tattooed someplace unfortunate. The kid who had every episode memorized, and got annoyed when people didn't know whether a given episode was in the first season or the third. The kid who tried desperately to understand how the Engineering section could be both on Deck B and in the lower decks of the ship. Yeah, that kid.
Seeing the episodes on Blu-ray is like seeing them for the first time.
The Blu-ray allows you to select whether to watch with the original effects or the "enhanced" effects. Since the "enhanced" effects, in my opinion, look no better (only updated), I opt for the original effects. It's true that the Blu-ray reproduces the show a little too well. Suddenly computer memory tapes are clearly just painted scraps of wood. Flats failing during fight scenes become apparent. Compositing artifacts are painfully evident. But, really, the fact that Star Trek looks cheesy today has little to do with the special effects. Television acting and writing have also evolved a great deal in the last 40-odd years, so choosing "enhanced" effects does nothing to enhance the enjoyability of transporting yourself back to that bygone era.
But, what has been striking me, over and over again, is how little I actually remember of the show. Granted, I only saw the show in syndication, so -- with the exception of the episodes I bought on VHS -- most of them have scenes in them I had never seen before. But far too much of most episodes feels unseen to me for me to chalk it all up to that.
In fact, tonight, I watched an episode, "Court Martial," where I could recall only two shots. I had no memory of the plot. I had no memory of the characters. I had no memory of the settings. Finally, as I was watching, a weak childhood memory of the viewscreen showing Kirk hitting buttons in the wrong order and Kirk saying, "But that's not how it happened," flashed into my mind. Yes, that was the only thing in the entire episode I remembered. I can see why, as a kid, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable episode (it's a low-key courtroom drama), but I must have, at one point, had it memorized along with the rest of the canon. I was that kid!
But, years, life, and maturity have intervened. Today, I don't watch Star Trek with the fanboy slavishness, hanging on every word, believing that somehow I'm seeing an actual record from a real future. The data tapes in my brain that once held the Star Trek canon have apparently been overwritten with more useful information. Today, I enjoy the series as an excellent example of an era, a pioneer in a medium that previously had never taken my favorite genre seriously. Today, I am blown away by the cinematography. Today, I marvel at what they were able to do with miniscule budgets and no computers. Today, I watch Star Trek as a professional, respecting my predecessors and understanding their compromises and mistakes.
And if I could go back in time and tell that kid what I know now, I'm quite sure he'd hate me for bad-mouthing the Church of Trek.
All I can say is, thank God we have the chance to overwrite data from time to time.
And thank God I never got that tattoo.