CGI and new FX: Enhancements for old films and TV shows...

[Quatermass]

Now, on some TV shows and films, old effects have been remade either for a re-release of the series on television, or else release on DVD. Of various TV shows, I can name the original series of Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Red Dwarf.

Opinions, if anyone has seen films/TV series with new enhancements? Should they be optional, like with Doctor Who, able to be available either as an option, or else part of a special edition? Or do they need to be built in, like the remastered versions of Star Trek or Red Dwarf?

Personally, I feel that some of the CGI effects added to some of the DVD releases of Doctor Who work well. Not all of them (they do enhance, but don't actually impress or add that much). I did like the work done for the release of Kinda (the CGI Mara is probably the single most impressive work of CGI I have ever seen), Earthshock (the scenes involving the freighter crashing into prehistoric Earth is one of the better enhancements ever done, giving more impact to that final scene), The Invisible Enemy, The Invasion of Time, as well as the special editions for The Curse of Fenric and The Five Doctors.

CGI enhancement, I feel, should be optional.

 

[The Mad Collector]

I agree, I've got all those DVDs and have watched with and without the CGI. They are usually pretty good at being restrained in how much they change things so it doesn't look out of lace but I do like to be able to see how it was originally broadcast as well.

 

[raisindot]

Yuck. Hate the whole idea. Part of the charm of watching those old shows is seeing how chintzy the effects were during that time. For me, it's equivalent of colorization, another bastardization process I also hate.

 

[Quatermass]

Yuck. Hate the whole idea. Part of the charm of watching those old shows is seeing how chintzy the effects were during that time. For me, it's equivalent of colorization, another bastardization process I also hate.

I too am not fond of colourisation, when it is used to make something that was originally black and white into colour. If it is to restore something that was originally colour back to black and white, then hey, I don't care. BTW, raisindot, this brief documentary shows how colourisation can be a good thing, if it was for an originally colour show.

But some shows are enhanced by the new effects, I'd just prefer the option.

I mentioned the special editions of The Five Doctors and The Curse of Fenric. These (along with Battlefield) are extended cuts of the originally televised stories, with new effects (and often new music to cover the new edits) for good measure. They always leave the original as an option, although you'd have to swap discs.

 

[Quatermass]

Oh, BTW, here's a trailer for the enhanced edition of Day of the Daleks. Now, one wonders if they are going for optional effects, or else two alternative versions of the story. They are putting the story on two discs, apparently...

 

[Quatermass]

Well, here's a bump because I found this on YouTube: the climactic battle sequence of Day of the Daleks, as enhanced with CGI effects and new Dalek voices.