Space 1999

Re-mastering seems set to become all the rage now that HD TV is coming in. The original 60's series of Star Trek has just been given a make-over with new CG visual FX etc... Now I'm not really a fan of making changes, cleaning up and restoring yes, but making changes no.

However when I talk to people about this and I'm asked if I could change something in a TV show/movie to improve it what would it be ? One thing that has bugged me since being a kid was the FX work in Space 1999, on one hand it was superb, fantastic miniatures, explosions etc... but the thing that bugged me was the lack of stars in most of the shots. This for those who don't know was due to the fact that the model and the stars were simply double exposed onto the same piece of film, so had the ship passed over the stars they would show through the ship. Some shots looked OK, some had this kind of black corridor running through the centre of the shot that was the area where the Spaceship was to travel to avoid the starfield. And some shots had no stars whatsoever. People have become used to seeing stars in space shots, so to see a spaceship just against black in a Sci-Fi show tends to look odd.

I'd love to see stars added back into the space shots if this show ever goes for re-mastering, no CG ships etc... just the stars will do fine. I've added 2 Photoshop examples of before and after. :)