MovieChat Forums > Space Battleship Yamato (1979) Discussion > Star Blazers returns to television

Star Blazers returns to television

posted 14 years ago by doctorcrimedog
15 replies | jump to latest

Starting on April 21st, the absurdly-named SyFy Channel will begin airing Star Blazers for the first time in decades. They are only going to be running the first season, likely because the existing masters of season two are in unairably poor shape (as anyone who bought the DVDs knows). If you want to see season two back on TV as well, email Voyager Entertainment and express your interest in seeing the Comet Empire season given a proper restoration job.

[email protected]

-There is no such word as "alot."

[–] xenophile2002 14 years ago

I've got Brandy set to remind me. Thanks.

I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler.
- Jon Stewart

[–] xenophile2002 14 years ago

And she did remind me. St. Babbage bless that agent.

Star Blazers begins airing at April 22nd at 1:00 A.M. Central Daylight time on SyFy (and yes, I hate those stupid "y"s). Check your local listings and time zone.

I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler.
- Jon Stewart

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] DrWhen 14 years ago

Just got the first two on the DVR. I haven't seen these since rushing home from school to see them in the original US release.

[–] Mr. Hole 14 years ago

Watched it today and season 1 looks bad too, the picture jumps all over the screen.

[–] DrWhen 14 years ago

I was wondering about that jumping. I haven't seen it for 30 years, so I don't remember if it was like that in the original release. It always seems to be during panning.

[–] Mr. Hole 14 years ago

I don't see why anyone would intentionally make it look like that, and the so called "shakey cam" look hadn't even been invented yet. On another board someone told me they are using copies from a VHS tape, SyFy has a lot of money they could have remastered the source, cleaned it up some.

[–] DrWhen 14 years ago

I kind of doubt VHS, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was from an old 1" broadcast tape. I thought they had remastered the entire series for the DVD. Maybe this old copy was cheaper for filling to 2am time slot?

[–] abbogus 14 years ago

I just found it last nite. Recorded two episodes.

Interesting... the show surprisingly has held up to time and memory. When I was 15 and watching oh so many years ago, it was so edgy. I still see some of that edge; which actually shocked me.

Not to say it isn't a bit banal now, but some of the maturity it had means it may not quite connect with a modern 8 year old.

The quality is rather poor, I will say that. The overall presentation made me feel like was watching it on my old RCA 25" console, c1980!!!

But it was a nice trip down memory lane. And it didn't cost me a penny! Talk about absolute value!

[–] DrWhen 14 years ago

Check out some of the original sub-titled versions on youtube. I found a lot of the big flaws are actually mediocre writing on the English version. A lot of things simply don't make sense, and they tried to change it into a younger kid's cartoon. I suspect a lot of the lines were improv'ed to try to fit with the mouth movements but no one bothered to go back and check for consistency.

[–] doctorcrimedog 14 years ago

SyFy could not have remastered the image, because they don't own the rights to the source material. The masters of Star Blazers have deteriorated over the years due to poor maintenance. The only source for a better quality image is the Japanese version, which HAS been remastered and looks beautiful, but SyFy doesn't have the rights to Yamato. The American rights holder, Voyager Entertainment, could theoretically do such a remastering job, but I've spoken with them and they seem profoundly disinterested in bothering. Now that the series has been dropped by SyFy halfway through the first series, I expect that this will only confirm their opinions that it's not worth the effort.

-There is no such word as "alot."

[–] dev_nada 14 years ago

Is this still on syfi?

I don't see it on tonight, and the syfi.com site
doesn't have it listed anytime this week.

Any idea what's going on?

[–] VoodooChicken 14 years ago

Looks like a swing and a miss. Such a pity.

-----------------------------------------------------
Look behind you! A THREE-headed monkey!!!!!!

[–] xenophile2002 14 years ago

Would it have killed them to air eight more episodes? Four more Fridays and wash your hands a la Pontius Pilate.

I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler.
- Jon Stewart

[–] DrWhen 14 years ago

Apparently. Can running another SG-1 re-run really do that much better in the 1am time slot?