I had been wanting to D/L this edit for some time, but never seem to get around to it until today.
When I saw the original version of this movie in the theaters, I thought it was so horrible that I had put a self-imposed ban on Star Trek. It took me until ST 6 was released to even start watching ST TNG on tv.
I was glad to have watched this edit. It is an immense improvement of a nearly unsalvageable film. Gone are about 99% of the “UGH moments, poor acting/comedy bits/against established character scenes that have always annoyed me in the original version.
Technically, a wonderful edit. I like his use of “cliffhanger go to commercial” fades and the way he executed them. I can’t comment really on the video quality, as I had to D/L the .avi version from RS verses the dvd version (I don’t have MU). The audio is perfect and I thoroughly enjoyed the “classic” sound effects, especially the “planet background” effects.
As far as the edit, I completely agree with RockSavage, the opening “cliffhanger” was much too long. I did not really get the feel of watching an episode until around Act II. Although I agree that this scene he used as the opening is utterly necessary for the edit, it is just too long to be a teaser. Not sure what could be used in place.
One of the big pluses of the way this edit has been done, is that the Sybok is Spock’s half-brother is eliminated. The edit has a much more Vulcan guy gone crazy that Spock once knew feel to it and makes for a much more tense viewing. Gone is the silly Uhuru fan dance (maybe she could have pulled that off in the 60s, but not in the late 80s!) and, whew, gone is the leotard 80s hair chick cat woman attack! Thank you JackMarhsall!
As RockSavage wrote, I , too, would have liked to see the silly “Scotty hits his head on a bulk head” scene gone. The entire scene can be completely excised after Scotty blows the jail cell.
As a whole, this is my preferred version of ST V. It’s is a huge improvement over the original!
I must say, when I first saw that someone had edited Star Trek V, all I could think of were A) the rock climbing scenes, B) some little kid I knew giggling at a three-breasted woman in a bar, C) Spock’s crazy (and “is he really necessary?”) brother named Sybok and his search for God, and D) the shuttlecraft crash. But why did any of these things happen? I couldn’t say, as it was far from the most memorable movie to me.
Having said that, this project really intrigued me, and I basically watched “In Thy Image” with a clean slate. I must say, the concept really worked! It certainly does feel like a classic episode and is quite enjoyable. (The only thing that didn’t feel TOS about it was some of the language, but that couldn’t be helped.) There is a fun feel to it, and having some of the old sound effects in there, combined with some of the fun lines that were retained give a nice feel to it.
Well done, sir, and we look forward to future offerings!
