Star Trek

Call it Star Trek: The Special Edition. Beginning the weekend of September 16, Paramount will be rolling out refurbished editions of the original Star Trek series in syndication (more than 200 stations are signed up as of this writing.) The episodes will be digitally upgraded with new special effects and matte paintings. The plan is to upgrade all of the episodes…though, apparently, they won’t be shown in original broadcast order.

According to a press release, the changes include:

Space ship exteriors -- The space ship Enterprise, as well as other Starships, will be replaced with state of the art CGI-created ships. The new computer-generated Enterprise is based on the exact measurements of the original model, which now rests in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Show opening -- The Enterprise and planets seen in the main title sequence will be redone, giving them depth and dimension for the first time.

Galaxy shots -- All the graphics of the galaxy, so frequently seen through the window on the Enterprise's bridge, will be redone.

Exteriors -- The battle scenes, planets and ships from other cultures (notably the Romulan Bird of Prey and Klingon Battle Cruisers) will be updated.

Background scenes -- Some of the iconic, yet flat, matte paintings used as backdrops for the strange, new worlds explored by the Enterprise crew will get a CGI face-lift, adding atmosphere and lighting.

Even our Earth will be given a makeover in the couple of episodes when the Enterprise returns to Sector 001 as we have images of our planet from outer space that they didn’t have when the show was produced in the mid-1960s. And phaser blasts will be given more “oomph!” as well.

I’m sure some purists will cry foul (as some Star Wars fans did when George Lucas performed similar alterations on the original trilogy of that movie series) but, as someone who was an avid fan of the original series when the show was first being broadcasts, I’m cool with the changes. Hopefully the alien worlds will look really alien and not...oh let’s say…like the backlot of a movie studio in Southern California.

Now if only they could something about some of the dialogue :-)