This is an article is long overdue, but one of the reasons I never tackled it is because I wasn’t sure how to. Yeah I could do a whole rundown of these but you can find those anywhere.
Anyway, let me start at the beginning. About ten years ago Star Trek was returned to syndication with a cool change-all of the dated effects were enhanced with modern computer effects. No changes were made to the story, dialogue, or action. It was the same show, it’s just the effects looked much cooler. There was worry when this was announced, that it would harm the original product. But truth is, these effects are fantastic, so much that I find it almost impossible to go back and watch the original versions in some cases. Just check out the differences in “Where no Man” when the Enterprise enters the barrier. The 60’s effects were awful even for then, with the CGI it’s a beautiful sequence now!
To be fair, some of them were more unnecessary than others to be honest. There are times I miss the old shots of the Enterprise. The effects in “Tholian Web” were so damn cool even for the time that all the enhancements did was clean them up a bit. There just wasn’t many changes needed. The scene in “Mirror Mirror” where the Enterprise switches places is fine but my heart prefers the original. And someone decided the chronometer on the Enterprise needed to be different. I guess it’s better but ? And they couldn’t fix everything, for example in “Miri” since they talked about the fact hey had found a duplicate Earth they had to keep it in even though it makes no sense. And the Gorn still looks kind of silly, even with the blinking.
But most changes worked, cleaning up all kinds of shots. We got amazing shots of the Enterprise rather than the same footage over and over. Ships were made cooler, like the Botany Bay in “Space Seed” which retains the original design but is so much better. Some were given unique designs rather than just using the same stock footage over and over like how the star base shuttle in “Menagerie” has its own design. And other vessels appeared fully realized which we simply never saw. In “Is There in Truth No Beauty” the Enterprise rendezvous with a vessel in the end. In the original we see the Enterprise just arriving at a stock planet here we see a unique vessel and it’s a nice design. The same thing happens in the beginning of “Charlie X”, when Kirk says they are arriving alongside a cargo vessel WE SEE THE ENTERPRISE ARRIVE ALONGSIDE THE CARGO VESSEL!! Seems like such a simple thing, doesn’t it? Heck in “Trouble with Tribbles” rather than am obvious model of the Enterprise hanging outside a window we see the Enterprise literally pass by. Subtle, but beautiful! And yes we actually see the Klingon vessel this time (and kudos to the CGI artists for not copying the effects from the DS9 episode).
Matte paintings were enhanced to give us much better establishing shots for these planets, like in “A Taste of Armageddon” where not only does the city look cooler but we can even see people and a working monorail in the distance. In “Man Trap” the planet looks cooler and not so “set” like. The mining cave in “Devil in the Dark” is much more elaborate. Also Rather than seeing the ship orbit the same planet week dafter week, every planet could look unique (and in some cases accurate to the episode). And the action scenes were improved and we could get original shots. Like in “The Deadly Years” which has much cooler shots of the Romulans swarming the Enterprise rather than just watching the stock footage from “Balance of Terror”. Very often the enemy vessels were unseen or just a blur on the screen, now they could be realized. “Errand of Mercy” for instance which not only enhanced the battle scenes but added some shots of the attacking Klingon vessels which we NEVER saw. We even got a glimpse of the Gorn ship in “Arena”!
Rather than just list all of these, which would take forever and can be found elsewhere, here are my ten favorites. Changes so cool they actually enhance the episode! I don’t usually feel the need to point this out, but suffice to say these pictures are taken from the internet and not my own.
10.The Enterprise Incident
Ok I mentioned how the battle scenes could enhanced it wasn’t just stock footage. Here they even fixed a problem. The Romulans having Klingon design was lame, obviously this was to save money (this was season 3), but it was also a line of dialogue so they had to keep it. But nothing stopped them from also adding a few Romulan Bird of Prey which is what should have been there! Even better? The Klingon vessels have the Romulan bird of prey design on them to make it clear these are not Klingon ships. Very nice.
9.Obsession
This is a small one but worth noting. The thing I love isn’t that the creature is much cooler looking (which he is). But at the end of the episode Kirk and an ensign ignite a huge antimatter bomb that goes off destroying the creature. In the original episode the final shot is simply a stock shot of the Enterprise in space. The remastered final scene is the Enterprise pulling away from the remastered planet, and we can see a large crater of damage from the massive explosion!
8.The Lights of Zetar
Small but effective. The lights are much cleaner and have aura around them to help support the fact these are life forms. And when they overwhelm the ship they really overwhelm the ship!
7.Who Mourns for Adonais
This is an episode I always wanted to talk about. This is the one where a green hand appears and grabs the Enterprise. This was pretty damn cool but they really took that concept and improved, and this is change I always wish the episode had done in the first place. When the hand appears and grabs the ship in the original the planet vanishes for some reason. I guess they couldn’t combine the hand with the planet. No problem here. And I love how in the end when the Enterprise is attacked they remembered to have the hand slowly fade away as Apollo’s temple is destroyed. In the original the hand just up and vanishes when the phasers fire!
6.Amok Time
Remember before when I said that they computer effects could allow the creators to create all new images and toss out the existing one’s? This is a perfect example. When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down rather than see the set (and obvious studio lights) we cut to a wider shot showing the rugged Vulcan terrain and area..even a city in the distance! To bad they couldn’t fix the obvious gaffe by Leonard Nimoy in the episode!
5.Tomorrow is Yesterday
This is the episode where the Enterprise is tossed back into 1968, and you’d think there wouldn’t be much to improve. But mot only are the shots of the ship in the atmosphere and escaping the atmosphere fantastic, but we actually see the ship employing the slingshot effect around the sun. So much better than the lame way it was done before just having a perfectly still mode of the ship being shaken around. To be fair the actors sold that previous version very well, but it’s so much better when the action of the ship matches!
4.The Galileo Seven
Here’s a beautiful one. The Enterprise is searching a gaseous nebula and it’s scope and size is much more impressive in the enhanced effects. The scene at the end of the shuttle in orbit when Spock throws up the flare is just wonderful. Also much improved is the shuttle launch sequence, and not only do we see the shuttlebay we see the shuttle leaving the Enterprise! And yes we’d see it again in episodes rather than the boring stock footage originally used, for instance in Metamorphosis we see the shuttle tagging along with the Enterprise in the end and “Journey to Babel” has another beautiful shot of the shuttle carrying Ambassador Sarek coming aboard.
3.The Immunity Syndrome
This is just wonderful. I said that in “The Tholian Web” they just cleaned what already worked. Here while the original effects were good they were truly improved on. The space amoeba looks much scarier and the effects of the Enterprise entering it and working its way out are soooooo much better. Again before we just saw the ship shaking. Here we see it inside the creature and again the action matches the dialogue!
2.Ultimate Computer
In the beginning of the original version of “Ultimate Computer” the Enterprise is seen approaching the same space station they approached in “Trouble with Tribbles”. The enhancements gave us a new space station rather then the obviously recycled footage. They even added another vessel docked there, what a cool touch!!! We also got a new ore freighter rather than the re-used Botany Bay stock footage from the original episode. And the space battle were new shots of the vessels attacking rater than just stock shots of the Enterprise. The vessels actually look like they’re attacking. It’s awesome!!
1.The Doomsday Machine
One of the best episodes to be served by these enhancements, man do the effects in this one improve the quality! Obviously the more space action heavy episodes would need the most work, and this one was one of the biggest. The designs of the planet killer and Constellation are the same but man are they more impressive. Especially the trashed Constellation! And once again the action is great rather than just shaking the model’s of the ships we actually see the Enterprise and Constellation in action! If I were to recommend one episode to watch the remastered version of, this would be it.
Of course these are just the cooler one’s, every episode has a few nice touches, changes or something that’s been cleaned up. You can find out more online, or watch the episode. And yes I should note they also made the shots sharper and cleaner of the characters also and fixed minor gaffes here and there. All in all, Trek is 100 time more fun to watch now! I get that some purists may be put off by these changes, but the important thing to remember is the stories and characters are still the same as they were before. It’s like painting a house you’ve lived in your whole life. It may be a new color, but it’s the home you loved. Whether the ship looks like a model on a stick or a video game graphic, it’s still the same show we’ve watched for 50 years.
And yes I know about the enhancements to Next Generation but those don’t seem to be more than just cleaning up the shots so they are crisper. If I’m wrong let me know.
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