Lucas made such a mess of the original Star Wars movies with his changes over the years that I’m sure a lot of people are probably sour in general on the idea of unnecessarily changing anything in a remaster.
But what about minor production errors that don’t have any impact on the plot?
Modern productions like Lower Decks are usually extremely careful to use contextually-correct sounds and effects. But shows produced before the age of Web 2.0 weren’t always so diligent.
I have DS9 in mind, specifically. We see the technology of numerous species in DS9 on a recurring basis, each with their own unique audio/visual cues that the viewers come to readily identify.
But due to what I can only imagine were production errors, things don’t always sound like they should.
Does it make a difference to the story that the comms on the Defiant sometimes use the Terok Nor paging sound? No.
Does it drive a nerd up the wall with how jarring it is? You betcha.
So while we decide what color we want our unicorns to be eagerly await the DS9 remaster, what are your thoughts on correcting minor production issues along the way?
Do you lean strongly on either side?
If you’re for minor corrections, where do you draw the line?
Would you like to suggest touching grass if something so minor even bothers someone?
To start things off:
I’m sure the first thing that will come to many people’s minds is the infamous badging error in TOS:
https://www.startrek.com/news/starfleet-insignia-explained
Some may suggest that since it was caught during dailies and intentionally left in, then it should stay as it always was.
Others may suggest that if modern technology were around back then, it would have been fixed in post; so why not let that happen now?
For that specific example, I’d probably argue for leaving it alone.
That Bob Justman memo reminded me how much fun they had making TOS (as well as working long and hard of course). Perhaps my favourite is the memo chain Justman started about Vulcan proper names.
Re fixing mistakes: I guess I don’t have a problem with it as long as the mistakes are trivial, are clearly errors, and the original version remains available. What constitutes a “trivial error” of course can be up for debate. Correcting a background audio cue - sure, why not? Changing early TOS references of “Vulcanians” to “Vulcans” - definitely not.