KEY TO STAR SYSTEM,
WORK IN PROGRESS,
and AUDIOFILE EDITING

---

Updated on

---

 

KEY TO STAR SYSTEM

I could call it something else but I like the space theme of the words "star system"!

	Screenshots only (DVD screencaptures). Will be upgraded to 4-star. Meanwhile there is usually a temporary 3-star Episode Guide with fewer and smaller screenshots (often poorer quality, being VHS screencaptures).
	Images and simple text labels. None of this rating left. No more will be added.
	Images and extensive text, almost always including dialogue extracts. There are usually a lot of dialogue extracts and/or they are long e.g. comprising a scene.
	Images, with extremely detailed text, including all the dialogue. Eventually all Episode Guides will be 4-star, whereupon this star system will cease to be used.

In each Season Index, you can gauge how much commentary there is for an episode from the number of screenshots indicated for it. It is a rough guide only, however. Note that the figure given in the Season Index for an episode is the maximum number - there may be alternative slideshows or shorter episode guides that have fewer. If so, reach them at the relevant Episode Index.

"Commentary" is a term often used in an Episode Index. It is a cover-all term for text which comprises labels and/or description and/or narrative and/or dialogue.

Only the still (not animated) screenshots in Episode Guides (not in Episode Slideshows and Episode Synopses) are tallied. Many, but by no means all, of the screenshots in Episode Synopses are the same as those in Episode Guides/Slideshows.

WORK IN PROGRESS

1. Screenshots
   Screenshots were all done by me from Paramount videos or DVDs.
    
2. Upgrades
   I am in the process of doing the following Episode Guide upgrades:
   • 1-star to 4-star. (There will be no upgrades from 1-star to 2-star or to 3-star.)
   • 3-star Episode Guides currently with least dialogue and/or are the most popular episodes will be upgraded to 4-star.
   There are now few episodes indeed which are 1-star and would form the first stage toward a 4-star Episode Guide with DVD screenshots.
   Ultimately all Episode Guides will be 3-star or preferably 4-star.
   I plan that most or all Episode Guides will be 4-star, and that all will have DVD screenshots instead of VHS.
    
3. Slideshows
   If there is a Slideshow but no Episode Guide, the Episode Guide is under construction.
    
4. What's New
   I notify only the following at WHAT'S NEW:
   • New Episode Guide entries - rare as there are only a handful of episodes without an Episode Guide.
   • 1-star Episode Guides where 2-star or 3-star ones already exist. This occurs as part of the upgrade to 4-star because screenshots might be uploaded a while before the commentary is added to the 1-star.
   • Upgrades from 1-star to 4-star.
   • Upgrades from 2-star to 4-star.
   • Upgrades from 3-star to 4-star.
   • Substantial addition of screenshots to 4-star Episode Guides. (Many Episode Guides receive unnotified additional screenshots, as well as unnotified additional media files.)
   
    
5. Replacement of images
   ST DVD screenshots, being digital, are better quality than ones taken from video (which are analogue). I plan to replace most or all videocaptures with DVDcaptures in Episode Guides and a large number throughout the site, but as there are many thousands of screenshots in Episode Guides alone this will take time. Replacements are not necessarily notified in WHAT'S NEW.
    

AUDIOFILE EDITING

1. Audio clips from episodes are denoted by the button
2. Audio clips are not always added at the exact same time that an episode is upgraded.
3. An increasingly large number of audiofiles are edited as soon as I capture an audioclip. All audiofiles on this site were captured by me (unless otherwise stated, those being, I think, only the show's start and end themes, which came from the Web, which I turned into .mp3 for faster download without losing sound quality). A few episode audio clips omit some dialogue, but of all those edited the majority were edited to reduce the length of silence, as silence seems longer in a sound-only clip than when watching an episode on television as an audioclip lacks facial nuances etc (watching the show on television, Paramount video or Paramount DVD is always to be recommended). Such audiofile editing are discreetly done, and if more than one such cut occurs in a clip the reductions are done proportionately throughout. You should not be able to notice that editing has been done. Editing was done also for faster download.
4. So as to offer choice and variety and accommodate visitors with different internet connection speeds, audio clips vary in length, with length being anything from a few seconds to one minute.Content varies as well, of course. Some clips feature mainly background/incidental music, some are mainly dialogue, some feature sound effects. Those with an button are a particular character introducing themselves.
5. Large .wav audiofiles are gradually being converted to smaller .mp3 files, and might be edited at the same time. When the .wav files were first uploaded I did not have the facility to convert them into other file formats.
6. Some audioclips require you to have Macromedia's Flash Player installed. Such audioclips comes with still screenshot(s) - details at the link below. Flash Player is a free plug-in which for many years now has come free automatically installed with modern browsers, or else you can download it for free at Macromedia's site. About Flash and its use on this site (includes link to Macromedia and tips).
7. Sound effects, e.g. holodeck doors opening/closing, can be heard by clicking the button which comes with a text description.
8. To see the length of an audioclip in advance, toggle the appropriate command on your media browser as you call up the audiofile.
9. Sounds from sources EF and CC are not used in episode guides. These are elsewhere on site.