Star Trek Remastered: The Story So Far

Star Trek: The Original Series is being updated with new special effects. Each week I'll have a review of each episode and discuss the new special effects shots. To date, six episodes have aired. I'm going to post about these first six epsiodes as a whole and then with the next new episode, move to one posting one review per week.

The last epsiode to air was Arena, so I'll start there. The episode begins with this scene. In the original, it looked like this:And the new:

Notice the new crater, sky, and horizon?? Pretty cool!

And how about this shot of the Enterprise firing phasers at the Gorn Ship?

And the new:

Awesome!!

The episode previous was I, Mudd. There wasn't much in the original for special effects shots other than the Enterprise orbiting a stock planet.

And the new:

Huge difference, right?

There's hasn't been an effects shot that I thought didn't belong. The team involved is doing a great job. That being said, they have already announced they will be using a new CGI model for the Enterprise. Which is wonderful, because I think the current model is much too dark! The Enterprise should have a whiteish-blueish sort of hull tone. Not the dark grey we seen in the pictures above. It really doesn't give us a clear look at all the detail the new CGI model probably has!

Look for the show to air on the weekends on most American channels. If you're in the Shaw Cable area, look for it on Channel 132 at 2:00 pm Saturday afternoons.

I'm sure I'll be purchasing these episodes when they're released on DVD, not only because they're HD ready, but also because I can't stand watching them on regular TV. Remember, these episodes were 51 minutes in duration. To air them today, too much has to be cut from the episode and it's really irritating for me to watch!! I'm constantly catching myself noticing the cut scenes and some of them are original special effects shots, which in my mind, defeats the point of remastering the effects in these episodes! But hey – I don't run a TV station in the 21st century, so I have no idea about the wickedness that must go on – in addition to badly edited programming!

There is a schedule available at http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/25835.html that can give you more detail. I think the shows are great and there's something I didn't expect in every episode (like making the Gorn blink in Arena, or making the android Norman from I, Mudd look more like a precursor to Lt. Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Trust me – you have to see them for yourselves!!