solarbird | wrath side story

So, I’m crazy with paperwork and stuff today, so I don’t have time for the last Newfoundland post. It’ll be up tomorrow morning, promise.

But! I did upload something over the weekend to my non-band YouTube channel. Back in Ye Daye, there was a fan stage musical parody of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan mashed up with West Side Story. Turns out this wasn’t on the internet, so I’ve taken my dying Nth-generation VHS copy, massaged the living hell out of it (and its sadly degraded soundtrack) and thus…

The Improvisational Insanity Theatre Corps, the Fish and Ships Players, and Clam TV, in extra-cooperation with CRIME and the Forces of Evil, proudly? present a battle for galactic turf: Wrath Side Story.

It was a stage musical, done with no budget at all, performed apparently at a few conventions. The video here doesn’t look great, but the sight gags are broad enough to come across anyway, and I think I’ve done some real good on pulling the audio soundtrack back in. Since I’m treating this as a restoration project, I’ve left in every frame I could, which includes some momentary audio drops on the original.

I’ve also managed to hide a lot of decay damage off the tape, partly through extending sections of good footage over bad, and partly through creative use of transitions. (A hint: the more complex the transition, the worse the damage I’m hiding.) There’s still one scene at the beginning where you lose picture, but it’s brief. There were… several. There are also some strange moments of sound sync I couldn’t fix without doing work which went beyond restoration.

If anyone with better equipment and more time wants to give it a go, I will happily lend you my VHS tape. But only if you’re serious about it. If you just want the raw rips, no problem; let me know.

One cultural note: the part of Dr. David Marcus in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was played by an actor who had previously played a character in the sitcom Square Pegs. The troupe decided it would be funny to play David Marcus as that character.

This goes entirely over my head, but it was apparently very funny at the time. So, it’s a little dated here and there – in particular, in that one decision – but I still think it’s pretty hilarious. Enjoy.

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come listen to our music!