I've fantasized about the possibility myself, mainly because we all know George loves to muck around with his past work anyway, and putting
Young Indy in high-def would pretty much necessitate it in the way of the
Star Trek TV series high-def projects, so as long as he was doing it at all anyway, he might opt to change his work again, hopefully this time putting at least some of the original bookends back and dropping some of the ungainly new linking footage. On the other hand, he could tweak them further in ways that make them worse, not better, so perhaps it's just as well if it doesn't happen...
The thing is, I actually really, really like
some of the alterations done to transform the show from
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles to
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones; it's a mixed bag (like the later versions of the
Star Wars movies are for me, unlike a lot of people who just flat-out prefer the originals in pretty much every respect). I'd like to see the show finalized in a form that combines the best aspects of the
Chronicles and the
Adventures, though of course George and I would probably disagree on what those would be (then again, probably every other fan has his or her own opinion, too, and perhaps none of them match...).
WeAreGoingToDie said:
To be true HD, they'd have to scan the original film elements (assuming it was shot on film. was Young Indy shot on film, or video?) and then they'd have to re do a lot of the effects so they don't stick out like a sore thumb in HD. Again, assuming they have the original effects elements or do it from scratch.
The show was in fact shot on film, albeit 16mm rather than 35mm, though that's still enough that it could benefit from a high-definition remaster. (There's even a mention in the end credits of each installment noting that the show was originated on Eastman color film stock, or something to that effect.) As noted, they would indeed have to redo the effects, but then again, these days George practically redoes his old effects work on a daily basis anyway.
WeAreGoingToDie said:
Basically it would mean a BIG undertaking if they do something at TNG levels of restoration.
It would, although some episodes are more effects-intensive than others. There's a lot less sheer material of this show than there is of
Star Trek: The Next Generation (or any of the other
Star Trek series), which helps in that it means a lower total volume of work that would need to be done (lower than
ST:TNG, anyway, not so much the entirely-on-film original series), but on the other hand this show is also less popular than any of the
Trek series, so there might not be enough of an audience / market to justify it. Then again, to his everlasting credit George Lucas has always put more resources into this labor-of-love production than might be justified by looking purely at the bottom line, so perhaps he might be willing to give it a shot sometime.
WeAreGoingToDie said:
Probably won't happen, but at best putting the episodes on blu-ray could result in slightly better audio and fewer discs. But nothing worth a double dip.
Oh, it could result in substantially better video as well as audio - actually, I suspect video would probably benefit more than audio. And that's assuming there were no new extras (or more crucially, new alterations to the show itself, which if they happened could make it either better or worse than the show as it now is, though either way it would be essential for completists).