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Yes the original 35mm films exist for Star Trek, i believe they used the master interpositive (the first positive made from the cut negative, is printed on a negative
type film base). Most of the films from film shows still exist, usually the negative
a & b rolls, the interpositive and the air print as well as the many lower grade and
16MM prints used for later syndication. Thankfully they try to use the negatives or
interpositives these days for DVD release instead of the air prints or 16MM syndications
prints that were so commonly used in the past.
Same thing for old video taped shows, what was used in the past (and unfortunately
sometimes still today) were copies or dubs that were several generations down
from the master tape. The master tapes generally look stunning, for tape anyway.
Filmed shows in the 80's were many times transferred from the camera negative to one inch
broadcast video tape and edited on tape, the negative was never cut (or printed) So what they
are doing now is retransferring the negative to digital tape, often in hi-def, and
re-editing to match the original edit. A very slow, time consuming process, because
many edits have to be visually matched to the original. Cheers is an example of
a show that was recently re-done this way.
All filmed shows today are transferred directly from the camera negative to digital
and hi-def tape and edited on tape.
I have transferred hundreds of episodes of shows from the 50's thru the 90's and
and believe me, the difference between using the air print (or god forbid, the
syndication print) and the negative or interpositive is night and day. As for tape,
I have looked at two inch color master tapes from the 60's that are breathtaking
(except of course for some of the crude keys and effects) and then looked at the
same show on a 5th or 6th generation one inch or 3/4 inch syndication dub and
all that is left is a blurry mess.
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