Twin Peaks Gold Box set

[TwinPeaksfan]

Hello,

As most TP fans know, the Gold Box set was the definitive, best version available until the Blue Rose and now the new box sets (Z-A and the Complete Television Collection) became available.

I still had some questions about the Gold Box set:

1. The article on Dugpa talks about how the restoration team made an extensive effort in remastering the series the first time, but did they use the original
broadcast masters or did they start entirely from scratch for the Gold Box set?

In the Season 2 finale, there seem to be some differences between the DVD and the broadcast version i.e. When Cooper meets Maddy in the Redroom, on the Gold Box set, the way she disappears seems different than the broadcast version. Did they redo the special effects for this episode?

2. Did they change the subtitle placement in Redroom scenes for the Gold Box set? There are various videos on Youtube of the Season 2 finale where the
placement of the subtitles seem different.

3. Were the same masters from the Gold Box set used for the new sets i.e. Z-A and the Complete Television Collection? (And are these the same masters
used on the Blue Rose set?)

4. There is a scene with Windom Earle on the Gold Box set which seems very faded, almost looks like they used a VHS source for this scene. Was this fixed
for the new sets?

[Mr. Reindeer]

1. The article on Dugpa talks about how the restoration team made an extensive effort in remastering the series the first time, but did they use the original
broadcast masters or did they start entirely from scratch for the Gold Box set?

I believe, as is common in remasters, they went back to the original (unedited) camera negative, which leads to by far the best quality. This is why a few scenes involving fades (the Episode 8 donuts table/exposition shot) or post-production effects shots (the Briggs “jungle throne” sequence) are of noticeably poorer quality than the rest of the series: in those cases, they presumably deemed it impossible to recreate the complicated final edited sequence from the negative. This might also explain the slight differences you claim to be seeing in Episode 29 (i.e., if they remastered the scenes from the negative and had to then recreate the placement of the subtitles, perhaps they were off by a second?). I have no idea if those things you’re talking about changed from the original airing or not, though.

3. Were the same masters from the Gold Box set used for the new sets i.e. Z-A and the Complete Television Collection? (And are these the same masters
used on the Blue Rose set?)

4. There is a scene with Windom Earle on the Gold Box set which seems very faded, almost looks like they used a VHS source for this scene. Was this fixed
for the new sets?

I believe the series was newly remastered for HD (and I believe 4K, which is why they were able to offer the Pilot in that format) when the Entire Mystery (what you call “Blue Rose”) set was released. It’s worth noting that they did make some changes to correct mistakes (such as digitally removing boom mikes). Based on the kinds of questions you’re asking, I have a hunch that might concern you.

Yeah, there is a random shot of Earle and Audrey in the library in Episode 25 that is of appreciably lower quality than the other scenes. No one has ever explained why this is (maybe they couldn’t find the original negative for that shot?), but it is the same way on the Blu Rays.