Subject: TWIN PEAKS SET (the Japanese laserdisc boxed set) From: boyajian@ruby.enet.dec.com (The fox so cunning and free) Date: 1992-02-16, 19:10 Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks,rec.video.releases OK, I finally picked up my copy of TWIN PEAKS SET: 29 EPISODES (well, that's what it's titled on the box). I haven't had the time to start watching the set yet, though I popped around the various discs playing specific scenes. Here are some comments about the package (warning, there'll be a fair amount of obsessive detail). Overall, I am *very* impressed, and glad I splurged the considerable amount of money for it. The set comes in a nice outer box, with a photo of Laura Palmer (dead) on the outside. The contents include: 15 12" LDs 1 8" "LD single" 1 large booklet (and a flyer advertising a package tour to Twin Peaks country. :-)) As noted before, the pilot (either the broadcast version or the extended "Euroversion") is *not* included in the package, just ("Just". Right.) episodes 1-29. I. All the discs are in CLV, have digital sound, and are in stereo. Only the second season episodes have surround sound, but the first season wasn't done in surround in the first place. There's no chapter encoding -- well, actually, there is, but "Chapter 1" lasts the entire side. All of the episodes have their original English dialogue tracks and are subtitled in Japanese kanji. During the Red Room sequences in which English subtitles appeared for the backwards-speech dialogue, those English subtitles are retained, with the kanji appearing as side-titles. The transfers are about as good as one would expect of a non-digital transfer. I've noticed some shots have a little noticible grain to them, but certainly nothing to get bothered about (I used to think my Beta tapes were decent until I popped one in to check something against the disc, and I almost threw up at how bad it was). I expected the discs to be in poly-lined paper sleeves sitting loose inside the box, like various domestic boxed sets, but that's not the case. Each of the 15 discs comes in its own cardboard jacket (as sturdy as any regular LD jacket), with the inner sleeves being of the plastic "U" variety). Each jacket is individually labelled, so that if you prefer, you can place them on your shelf individually rather than in the box. Given the box's dimensions, I've done this and saved a little shelf space (it also makes accessing them easier, which is quite possibly why it was done this way). Each jacket has a photo of one or more of the characters from the series, some being stills from an episode, others obviously being posed publicity stills. For the record, here's a list of the jacket photos ("*" indicates a publicity still rather than an episode scene): Disc Photo Disc Photo 1 * Coop & Harry 9 * Bobby and Shelly 2 * Josie, Catherine, & Ben 10 * Josie and Harry 3 * Donna, James, & Audrey 11 * Windom Earle 4 The Giant ("Noooooo...") 12 JJ Wheeler and Audrey 5 Leland (white-haired) 13 Nadine 6 Audrey 14 The Man from Another Place 7 Donna 15 * Killer Bob 8 Dream-Laura in the Red Room The back of all the jackets is mostly blank, with a small photo of David Lynch in the center. All of the episodes retain the "previously on TWIN PEAKS" pre-credits teaser, but none have any of the next episode previews; they go straight from the closing shot into the closing credits. Because of the way the episodes are laid out, Episode #8 -- the 2-hour second season premiere -- is split between discs 4 and 5 (for the record, they did *not* kludge up an extra set of credits to close the first half or open the second half with). Episodes 28 & 29 have their individual opening and closing credits, instead of the combined set that we got on the US broadcast, since they were shown as a single 2-hour "movie". The other notable thing about Episode #8 is that it has an "alternate version" of one scene. It was noted long ago in alt.tv.twin-peaks that when the episode aired in Britain, the scene of Maddy looking down at the rug and seeing the (what seemed to be) blood stain was slightly different than in the original US broadcast. It was said that in the UK airing she saw an image of BOB in the stain. Sure enough, the superimposed image of BOB comes rippling into view over the stain. One supposes that this episode was late in post-production, so it was printed for US airing without this shot being completed. I haven't noticed anything else different, but as I said, I haven't watched the set straight through yet. II. The 8" LD single is amusing, but no more than that. Titled "Clues to the Mystery", it has numerous short chapters, each about one or another of the characters, with clips from the series of that character. There are also squibs about various "clues", such as "Dale's ring". Unfortunately, the disc is narrated in Japanese, so I've no idea what's being said about the characters or the "clues". As a toss-in freebie, it's nice, but I'll probably never play it all the way through. III. The booklet. *Real* nice. It's 11.5 x 11.5, and 36 pages long. The only real problem is that (naturally) the text is almost completely in Japanese, so I'm only guessing at what some of it is about (I've noted below what's in English). The cover is neat: it's a shot looking down at the top of a coffee percolator, with a fish sitting on top of it. :-) The back cover is a shot of two donuts. Pages 2 through 17 appear to be synopses of all of the episodes, two per page (except #8, which runs a whole page), each with a header strip running from top to bottom with a couple of photos from the episode in question and the writing & directing credits. They also include one for the pilot, and interestingly enough, they label it "Episode 0" -- the first time I've seen the pilot designated this way outside of the net (after all, who but a computer person would think of starting a count with 0 instead of 1? :-)). Page 17 also has a strip labelled "see the other side, hear the other side", but I have no idea what it's about. However, there are two quotes by the One-Armed Man that are printed in English. What makes one of them interesting to Peaks Freaks is that it's the "Fire, Walk With Me" poem, and in the third line, they use "one chants out" instead of "one chance out". Pages 18-19 are a huge chart of all the characters with their various interconnections. It's much more extensive (and complex) than the one in PEOPLE MAGAZINE back during the show's first season broadcast. The interconnectivity legend is in English, too. Pages 20-21 are three maps of Twin Peaks and the surrounding area. The notations on the maps are in English, though the legends underneath are only in Japanese. First is a town map, second a map of the forest area surrounding the town, and the third a regional map of Washington, including the abutting parts of Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. I suspect that these maps were reproduced from THE ACCESS GUIDE TO TWIN PEAKS, but as I (oddly enough) never got around to picking up a copy of the ACCESS GUIDE, I don't know for sure. There's also a mileage chart from Twin Peaks to various points around the globe (but not, strangely enough, Tokyo). Pages 22-29 contain info-boxes of all the major and most of the minor characters (and the actors who played them) that have appeared on the show. In the case of many of the minor characters, it even mentions which episode they appeared in. Pages 30-31 are biographical sketches of David Lynch, Mark Frost, and Angelo Badalamenti. For Lynch, the sketch includes a filmography, as well as lists of his other work. Pages 32-33 are frustratingly titled "Dale Cooper is not what he seems". But it's all in Japanese. Page 34 looks to be -- judging from various dates noted therein -- a production timeline for the series. Accompanying photos are of some of the merchandizing products. They show a copy of THE ACCESS GUIDE TO TWIN PEAKS, the collector's card set, British and Japanese editions of THE SECRET DIARY OF LAURA PALMER, a newspaper called TWIN PEAKS TIMES (which I suspect is merely a Japanese edition of THE TWIN PEAKS GAZETTE) and some Japanese TP *fanzines*. There's also a chart listing the episodes with their original US broadcast dates. Page 35 has a cast list for the forthcoming theatrical film. It's obviously not complete, as at least two people we know to be in the film (Pamela Gidley as Teresa Banks and Phoebe Augustine as Ronette Pulaski) are not listed. The complete title seems to be "Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me, Teresa Banks and the Last Seven Days of Laura Palmer". (I'll be posting the cast list as a separate article, but only to alt.tv.twin-peaks.) All in all, a damn fine package. -- "They say the best things in life are free." "Free!? Hamton, this is the 90's. Take out a loan and buy a clue." --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, "The Mill", Maynard, MA) boyajian@ruby.enet.dec.com