Apollo 14: To Fra Mauro
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• DVD-Video
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Apollo 14: To Fra Mauro Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Disappointing as editing goes . . . but I liked it anyway
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I just got this long awaited set and have not yet completed watching all five discs, so this is just a preliminary review.
Like the last reviewer, I too am an Apollo Junkie. I concur with that reviewers comments, and his fitting review title (Historical treasure, production nightmare"), but I cannot be nearly as accepting of the way Spacecraft Films chose to (not) edit the audio and video sequences in this DVD set.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of video footage with a "substitute" sound track where what is shown in the video does not match. In fact, the video and audio are from entirely different parts of the mission, and thus completely out of sequence. I suppose it is possible (although unlikely) some of NASA's original coverage of Apollo 14 did not have TV film and audio recorded together, such as an audio tape recording without motion pictures, and vice versa.
For example, at the beginning of Disc 1, there are a series of pre-mission press conferences and interviews with the Astronauts where you "hear" the Q&A session but what is shown at the same time in the video is a totally different aspect of the mission itself. This detracts from the continuity of the DVD because it is distracting to view one without the other.
I suppose "seeing" the Astronauts going through pre-mission training exercises (on the ground), while listening to a Voice of America interviewers Q&A session, is a good way to economize on DVD disc space. Frankly, I would rather see AND hear what I am watching and listening to at the same time, and of the same event, exactly as it happened in the original recording.
Even more annoying is an early on DVD segment of the astronauts' POST-mission press briefing that is completely out of sequence with respect to the rest of the DVDs. In this segment, the astronauts are giving a slide show presentation of photos taken of the Moon while in orbit, followed by a Q&A session with the press. However, what you are "seeing" in the video during this segment has nothing to do with that press conference. Stu Roosa's commentary during the slide show is very interesting, but without the video to go with it, the average listener will be puzzled why s/he is unable to "see" what the Astronauts were talking about in slides. This is DVD editing at its worst!
There are some unavoidable presentation issues with this and Spacecraft Films' other DVDs of the Apollo Missions. But why is there no attempt to at least subtitle the voice transcripts of the Astronauts in-flight and EVA communications between themselves, and with Mission Control? Unfortunately, there are many voice communications that are partially garbled and/or drowned out by air to ground radio static, which makes it very difficult to understand the how, what, when and where of the activities taking place in the video. For example, there is a segment on Disc 2 of the actual lunar landing from the 16mm DAC. This is a truly fascinating live action film footage to watch especially after pitch over while the LM travels past Cone Crater just before the landing. But, there is still leave much to be desired. So much of the real time voice communication from the Astronauts during this particular segment is just plain unintelligible. (This is the point in the mission where many of details about the contaminated Abort switch's and late landing radar lock-on, and their deterious affects on the primary guidance computer, are in the dialog between Shepard and Mitchell and Mission Control, during the actual PDI burn to the lunar surface.) During many periods of garbled voice communications, ubtitles would have greatly helped to follow along, and should have been provided. This would have been an appropriate, if not easy measure to remedy this quality deficiency, without taking away from the authenticity of such an exciting event to relive 35 years later.
I don't think I am overly nitpicking . . . but still gratified to be able to have captured on DVD ~15 hours of one of the six Apollo missions to land men on the Moon. Nevertheless, it is disappointing that a new DVD just released in 2006, cannot have better editing in order to coordinate the historical film and audio elements together to make for a much more enjoyable A/V presentation. For this reason, sadly, even a 3 star review is perhaps being a bit generous. |
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