"The Cloud Minders" (Star Trek: Remastered edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 7:37 PM

Star Trek (Remastered): "The Cloud Minders"
Remastered Episode #76 (7/12/2008)
Original Episode #74 (2/28/1969)

Though it didn't quite make my must-see list of Star Trek episodes, "The Cloud Minders" is one of the gems of the third season. Unfortunately, I don't have time to fully review this episode tonight. As I used to do when Star Trek: Remastered first hit the air back in 2006, I'm going to focus this short review only on the effects upgrades rather than the episode itself.

With a plot focused around a city in the clouds, "The Cloud Minders" is an episode I've looked forward to seeing since the original announcement of the Remastered series. The original 1969 version of the Stratos cloud city was actually fairly effective for the time. Stratos offers the chance for CBS Digital to showcase their fine work in a way that most other planet episodes do not.

For whatever reason, however, CBS Digital dropped the ball on this episode. Seen from a distance, as when Kirk and Spock are on the planet below, Stratos in the 2008 remastered version looks only slightly more convincing than the vintage version.

While close-up shots of the city details themselves look great, there were wasted opportunities here to really open the shots up, include some movement, and make Stratos seem like more than just a pretty matte painting. In the end, the whole affair comes off looking like another rush job.

I already found the 1969 effects satisfying, so I can't imagine ever watching the Star Trek: Remastered version of "The Cloud Minders" again.

Dramatic Content: 7 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 5

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"Assignment: Earth" (Star Trek: Remastered edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 9:47 PM

Star Trek (Remastered): "Assignment: Earth"
Remastered Episode #67 (5/3/2008)
Original Episode #55 (3/29/1968)

The Enterprise is dispatched back in time to determine how Earth survived "desperate problems" in the year 1968. Considering all of the trouble they almost caused last season when accidentally going back in time to 1969, Starfleet should really think twice before ordering such a mission.

The Enterprise then intercepts the transporter beam of Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), a man who claims to be a twentieth century human sent by aliens on a secret mission to save humanity from itself. Huh? While a confused Kirk tries to validate his story, he throws Seven in the brig though it doesn't hold him long.

The plot, such as it is, serves mostly to introduce creator Gene Roddenberry's proposed and subsequently rejected Star Trek spinoff series, Assignment: Earth. As episodes go, this one is overly long (actually helped, for a change, by the syndication edits) and really not all that interesting. With a flat performance by Robert Lansing, who seems as bored as the viewers, the episode is somewhat saved by an enthusiastic performance by Teri Garr as Seven's quirky secretary, Roberta Lincoln.

The proposed Assignment: Earth series seems like it would have been a sort of Wild Wild West set in the 20th century using Star Trek style technology, with Lansing as a James Bond type character. On paper, not a bad concept. On screen in this episode, it just never takes off.

Though this episode preceded many of them, the real 1968 indeed turned out to be a year with desperate problems. "Assignment: Earth" is notable for containing another chilling prediction. Spock notes that an important assassination will take place on the day they arrive. The episode originally aired on March 29 - six days before the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, and just over two months before the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy on June 5.

There seemed to be signal problems in our local broadcast of the episode, resulting in audio problems. The video upgrades did not look as crisp as normal, including a lot of flashing brightness issues. However, I'm going to chalk that up to the local problems, as all previous Star Trek: Remastered episodes have looked much better.

The biggest disappointment on the Star Trek: Remastered version of "Assignment: Earth" is the lack of creativity on the newly replaced visual effects. Most notably, stock NASA footage of the Saturn V rocket, filling in as the launcher of a US nuclear warhead platform, unfortunately remains. I suppose one could question why bother to replace actual footage with computer generated effects, but if that is the case, you could extend that reasoning to all of the Star Trek effects.

If the point is not to improve the episodes, then why bother? I can still watch the original episodes with the original effects. The similarly-themed "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" proves that CBS Digital could have done better than this in the creativity department. The effects upgrades they bothered to make look great, though; these are the basic Enterprise in Earth orbit shots. They should have those down by now, anyway. I'm still docking three points for lack of creativity this time out.

Dramatic Content: 7 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 6
Overall Experience: 7

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"The Enterprise Incident" (Star Trek: Remastered edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 9:11 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "The Enterprise Incident"
Remastered Episode #64 (4/5/2008)
Original Episode #59 (9/27/1968)

Forget the Klingons, the Romulans have long been my favorite villains of the classic Star Trek universe, though they only appeared in three episodes. All three of the Romulan episodes are among Trek's best: "Balance of Terror" from the first season, "The Deadly Years" from the second, and, completing the informal trilogy, "The Enterprise Incident" from the third season.

"The Enterprise Incident," which made its Star Trek: Remastered debut over the weekend, starts with a foreboding medical log by Dr. McCoy. Captain Kirk seems to be buckling under the pressure of command, like so many others before him. An angry Kirk orders the Enterprise into the Romulan neutral zone and Romulans soon surround the vessel. To the astonishment of the crew, the Romulans are now using Klingon battle cruisers.

When Kirk berates Spock for not detecting Romulans in the area, the first officer notes that the Romulans have a new cloaking device capable of fooling their sensors. Though not specified in the episode, this is evidently an upgraded, more powerful version of the Romulan cloaking device previously featured on the show.

On the original version of this episode, three Klingon-style battle cruisers surrounded the Enterprise. In the first and second seasons, the original Trek team did not have the budget to create a Klingon spacecraft. They finally created the battle cruiser model for the third season. The first episode produced to make use of the Klingon battle cruiser was "Elaan of Troyius," in which the Federation has yet another planetary claim dispute with the Klingons. Ironically, "The Enterprise Incident" aired prior to "Elaan of Troyius," so 1968 audiences first saw the Romulans using the vessel rather than the Klingons.

While updating the special effects of the entire Star Trek series, the Star Trek: Remastered team has liberally sprinkled the Klingon battle cruiser into earlier Klingon episodes where its use makes sense. The battle cruiser is a fantastic design by Matt Jefferies, who designed the original USS Enterprise as well. The battle cruiser also appeared in three Star Trek movies and several TNG-era episodes, without significant design changes.

Here, the Remastered team's computer generated renderings of the battle cruisers look mostly realistic. As a nice finishing touch, they added a Romulan paint scheme to the vessels, distinguishing them from the Klingon versions. Since the original creators had to reuse the model and footage, this sort of episode-specific detail could not have been performed on the original model.

Another change is that only two battle cruisers appear in the Remastered version of "The Enterprise Incident." The team has replaced the third with a Romulan bird-of-prey, as seen on the previous episodes. This is another nice finishing touch and continuity nod, well worth the small canon ripple. Check out pictures of the new scene here.

The Romulans order the Enterprise to stand down and demand that Kirk and Spock beam aboard the flagship. They do so and meet the Romulan commander (Joanne Linville), a woman who seems to share an instant attraction with Spock. The increasingly erratic Kirk blames the encroachment of the Enterprise on equipment failure, while Spock tells the Romulan commander that Kirk and Kirk alone is responsible.

Picture and sound upgrades are superb. With vibrant colors throughout, the episode looks even better than it did on the 2004 DVD set. As noted, the new special effects are quite effective in most scenes. I would have preferred a bit more creativity when the Enterprise extracts itself from the Romulan vessels near the conclusion, though, rather than the simple maneuver shown.

"The Enterprise Incident" is one of Star Trek's very best and is always a must-see, in its original version or its newly remastered form.

Dramatic Content: 10 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 9
Overall Experience: 10

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"That Which Survives" (Star Trek: Remastered edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 8:34 PM

Star Trek (Remastered): "That Which Survives"
Remastered Episode #61 (3/15/2008)
Original Episode #69 (1/24/1969)

While Kirk, McCoy, Sulu, and D'Amato are in the process of de-materializing to beam down to a deserted planet, a woman suddenly appears in the transporter room, tells them that they "must not go," and then kills the ensign manning the controls by simply touching him.

After they appear on the planet, the landing party immediately encounters a violent storm. CBS Digital's newly-created scenes of the Enterprise encountering that same disturbance in space are, unfortunately, laughable.

Standard shots of the ship in orbit and moving through space look great, as I've come to expect from the Star Trek: Remastered effort. The newly created planet also looks fantastic.

As it has since the beginning, though, Remastered still seems to suffer from a time and/or budget crunch that makes some of the new effects look shoddy while others look brilliant. I consider myself a huge fan of this project, but this is a very disappointing aspect.

The landing party soon discovers that the Enterprise is no longer in the area. Sulu even suggests that it may have blown up, prompting a quick reprimand from Kirk that he is not interested in Sulu's guesses. In fact, Kirk chides Sulu a couple of times in this episode - almost making me want to give it another point just to see the overrated helmsman finally get his due.

Meanwhile, Spock and the others aboard the Enterprise are trying to figure out what happened to the planet, which seems to have disappeared, before they discover that the starship has actually been transported across the galaxy.

Like Kirk, Spock is also more irritable than normal in this episode - resulting in another nice exchange where he points out the uselessness of Scotty's comment that transporting the Enterprise such a great distance in so short a time is "impossible." Since it happened, it is obviously possible.

On the planet, what appears to be the same woman appears and, not finding any red-shirted crewmembers, kills the blue-shirted Lieutenant D'Amato - to the delight of the audience, since it spares us having to hear more of his bland delivery.

The "folding" effect used to materialize the woman appears to be essentially the same as the one on the original version of this episode, as I recall anyway. I'm glad they left this alone, as it was a unique feature of this episode.

Sulu's inferiority complex must grow, as Kirk keeps up his beating. Maybe Sulu made a huge mistake between episodes and is still facing Kirk's wrath. When Sulu notes that D'Amato's death is a "terrible way to die," Kirk sharply replies, "There are no good ways, Sulu."

Later, after they bury D'Amato in a "tomb of rocks" (not unlike the fate that will befall Kirk in Star Trek Generations), Sulu notes, "It looks so lonely there."

"It would be worse if he had company," McCoy tells him.

As Kirk, McCoy, and Sulu try to resolve the mystery on the planet, Spock and Scotty have their own problems on the Enterprise. An identical woman is also appearing there and killing off crewmembers, and the Enterprise just doesn't "feel" right to Scotty.

There's some chilling music in this episode, some of the best of the series. As a mystery episode, "That Which Survives" has a lot of potential and delivers on some, if not all, of it.

By the time of "That Which Survives" in 1969, Star Trek was in the home stretch. Only ten episodes of the three-season series came after this one in production. Conventional Trekkie wisdom has it that Star Trek "jumped the shark" several episodes earlier with the infamous "Spock's Brain."

As I've said before here, I just don't buy that. Yes, "Spock's Brain" is a bad episode but it hardly destroys the entire third season for me. The third season features a new lighting approach to many scenes aboard the Enterprise, toning things down from the colorful and bright previous seasons. There are also noticeable improvements to the special effects in the original versions of these episodes, particularly early on in the season. Perhaps we see a small glimpse of what might have been, production-wise, had the series endured for the fourth and fifth seasons it deserved.

Sure, compared to previous years, there are fewer top-notch episodes in the third season. However, there are plenty of average-yet-solid, "meat and potatoes" episodes. "That Which Survives" is one such episode. While it may not be as memorable as "The Tholian Web" or "The Enterprise Incident," it still offers up what the original Star Trek nearly always delivers: a solid hour of entertainment and adventure.

Sports teams cannot survive on their star players alone. They must have solid players all around to support those stars, and they must have depth in key positions should a player go down. In a season with few "star" episodes, "That Which Survives" represents the depth of the series. Star Trek is great not only for its stand-out episodes, but also for its average episodes like this one.

Dramatic Content: 5 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 7
Overall Experience: 5

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"By Any Other Name" (Star Trek: Remastered edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 7:42 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "By Any Other Name"
Remastered Episode #60 (3/8/2008)
Original Episode #50 (2/23/1968)

"By Any Other Name" is the episode that started it all. For me, anyway. In the late 1970s, when I was two or three years old, I watched Star Trek in reruns all the time with my older brother. Though I'm sure there were others before it, this is the first specific episode that I can remember watching.

Of course, the Star Trek: Remastered version of "By Any Other Name" isn't exactly the same as the one I watched as a kid. CBS Digital has revamped all of the visual effects with CGI, added a new matte painting of an alien landscape, and thoroughly improved the overall picture quality. A member of the Star Trek: Remastered team sent me a couple of screenshots on Thursday. Since I didn't have a preview article in the works but was planning to review the episode, I decided to save them for today. Click on each picture to see larger versions.

The Enterprise responds to a distress signal that turns out to be bait. The technologically advanced Kelvans of the Andromeda galaxy want to use the ship to get back to their own galaxy to report that ours is ready to be conquered. Andromeda will be rendered uninhabitable over the next couple of thousand years and the Kelvan scout ship was damaged beyond repair breaking the barrier that surrounds the galaxy (the one the Enterprise managed to traverse in "Where No Man Has Gone Before"). Though the journey to Andromeda would take the Enterprise over a thousand years in normal circumstances, the Kelvans plan to modify her to allow her to arrive in only three hundred.

To assist them in the use of the Enterprise, the Kelvans - who normally are large beings with a hundred independent tentacles - have assumed human form. In fact, they appear to be "perfect human lifeforms" that exhibit textbook responses. Dating all the way back to "The Cage," this is always an indication of trouble to follow.

The new matte painting (above), which is beautiful yet not too distracting from the overall 1968 feel of the scene, appears only for a few seconds early on. It features a large moon reflected in a beautiful lake. It would have been a nice enhancement to show the Enterprise pass this moon from space while leaving orbit of the planet. CGI renderings of the Enterprise are extremely realistic throughout this episode, though, so I can easily forgive them. Perhaps the moon was on the other side of the planet from where they broke orbit.

Unless you're a Vulcan, hijacking the Enterprise is normally a difficult undertaking. It helps when, like the Kelvans, you have power belts that can temporarily paralyze humans or turn them into small, tetrahedral blocks. Yeoman Leslie Thompson (Julie Cobb) is one of the first turned into a block. A human can be restored from this state as long as the block remains intact. Fortunately, the Kelvans spare us any further bad acting from Cobb by crushing her block into dust. The transformation and crushing of the block is actually the reason I so vividly recall this episode from back then, as it truly scared the two-year old version of me.

Since it didn't happen often due to the episodic nature of the series, I always love when one Star Trek episode specifically references another. When the Kelvans tell Kirk about the barrier surrounding the galaxy, he remarks dryly, "Yes, I know. We've been there." The Kelvans apparently reinforce the Enterprise in some way, though, as the destructive and ESP enhancement properties of the barrier do not come into play this time. Kirk later references an escape ploy used by Spock on Eminiar VII in "A Taste of Armageddon" and Spock tries it again.

As the Enterprise embarks on the three hundred year journey, the Kelvans reduce all of the crew to blocks except Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scott, all considered essential personnel. The supposedly mentally superior Kelvans make the mistake of hijacking Kirk's ship but still allowing him free roam of it.

All-in-all, "By Any Other Name" is one of those average but enjoyable episodes of Star Trek. The remastered version looks incredible and is definitely worth checking out.

Dramatic Content: 5 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 9
Overall Experience: 5

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Images are copyright, © 1968, 2008 by CBS Studios and Paramount Pictures. Star Trek is a registered trademark of CBS Studios Inc. All rights reserved.

Star Trek: The Menagerie

posted by Tygrrius @ 5:23 AM

Star Trek: The Menagerie
Remastered Theatrical Presentation (11/13/2007)
Remastered Episodes #12 (11/25/2006) & #13 (12/2/2006)
Original Episode #16 (11/17/1966 & 11/24/1966)

I don't have a particularly large television, but even when I go to other people's homes who have gigantic TVs they never quite have that movie theater feel. Nothing compares to seeing Star Trek, Star Wars, or Superman on the big screen of a movie theater.

So, when I heard that CBS was going to release Star Trek: The Menagerie to movie theaters in a limited engagement, I was all over it. Not only was it a chance to see the remastered visual effects in the best quality possible, but it was also an opportunity to see William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley together on the silver screen again.

The presentation began with a short intro by Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, Jr. He tells a fun story about his father setting up a projector for him when he was a kid and showing old reels of Star Trek episodes, including "The Cage" - the Star Trek pilot episode that makes up the flashback sequences of Star Trek: The Menagerie. He also tells the "too cerebral" story about NBC's rejection of "The Cage" and the unprecedented ordering of a second pilot that later sold the series.

After that, there was a feature about the making of Star Trek: Remastered, including a look at the HD DVD combo set being released next week. Since I follow the syndicated series rather closely, most of this was stuff I'd already seen. The best part for me here, though, was hearing the collective gasps of other audience members as the new effects were showcased. Incidentally, be sure to stick around after the credits because there is also a sneak preview of the second season set, coming in 2008. This resulted in even more startled but positive reactions as many audience members saw "The Doomsday Machine" and other episode enhancements for the first time.

No mention was made of the syndicated airings of the series, though I did plug it a bit to nearby fans. Star Trek: Remastered, unfortunately, continues to be almost a secret series in this area (and likely many others) due to its odd airtimes. You'll never find an episode starting earlier than 1 AM or later than 4:30 AM here. It's a real shame, considering the quality of work they are putting out. Hopefully the HD DVD combo set release will reach more fans.

Finally, the main event began. In what turned out to be a fortunate accident, I missed watching "The Menagerie" two-parter when it first aired on Star Trek: Remastered last year. So, for this portion, even I was in for some great surprises as I looked at these enhancements for the first time.

Besides the giant screen and great sound system, the other nice thing about the movie presentation (which will also be true of the HD DVD combo set) is that the episode is uncut. In the syndicated airings, about ten minutes of footage is excised to make room for the longer commercial breaks of today compared to 40 years ago.

The Enterprise is diverted to a starbase when it receives an urgent call from her former captain, Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter in the flashback sequences, Sean Kenney in the current sequences). Upon arrival, Kirk discovers that Pike could not have sent the message for an accident has left him immobilized and unable to speak. As Kirk investigates on the starbase, Spock kidnaps Pike, assumes command of the Enterprise without authority, orders the starship to head for Talos IV, a forbidden planet, and leaves behind a rather angry Kirk.

There are many recurring Star Trek themes and concepts in Star Trek: The Menagerie, including emphasis on loyalty, duty, and friendship. Even Spock demonstrates that he believes the needs of the few or the one can sometimes outweigh the needs of the many.

The special effects upgrades are superb, some of the best work of the CBS Digital team behind Star Trek: Remastered. One of the best improvements to the series has been a more consistent look for the Enterprise. Pike's Enterprise looks noticeably different from Kirk's Enterprise (as it should, since there have been two major refits since then), but this distinction was usually lost in the classic airings of Star Trek because effects footage often had to be reused. Sometimes, the same Enterprise had two or three different looks in a single episode.

If you're a Star Trek fan, no matter how casual, and missed yesterday's screening, you need to run to your nearest theater showing Star Trek: The Menagerie for two more screenings on Thursday. You don't want to miss this.

Story: 10 (out of 10)
Performances: 10
Visual Style: 9
Effects Upgrades: 10
Music: 9
Overall: 10

For a listing of theaters and to buy tickets, go to fathomevents.com.

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"The Deadly Years" (Star Trek: Remastered edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 9:52 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "The Deadly Years"
Remastered Episode #48 (11/10/2007)
Original Episode #40 (12/8/1967)

"The Deadly Years" is one of Star Trek's best episodes, so I've been looking forward to seeing the remastered version of this one for some time. After visiting planet Gamma Hydra IV, near the Romulan neutral zone, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, and Galway experience rapid aging. The only member of the landing party not affected is Chekov.

McCoy runs multiple tests on Chekov (Walter Koenig) to determine why he's immune to the condition. Unfortunately, a lot of the ensuing fun moments from Koenig are lost in the syndication cuts to allow more time for the expanded commercial breaks of 2007.

As the aging Kirk, William Shatner proves once again that he is a top-notch actor. His portrayal is quite convincing, which makes the episode all the more realistic. Fantastic makeup effects by Fred B. Phillips also convey the illusion of age.

McCoy takes on a thicker-and-thicker Southern accent as he ages, in a wonderful performance by DeForest Kelley. "I'm not a magician, Spock. Just an old country doctor."

"Yes, as I had always suspected," retorts Spock.

The rapid aging effect will kill them all within a week unless McCoy finds an antidote. Meanwhile, Commodore Stocker is aboard, anxious to be ferried to Starbase 10. When Stocker assumes command of the Enterprise due to the senility of the senior staff, Kirk calls him a "chair-bound paper-pusher."

To top it all off, there's a showdown with the Romulans. "The Deadly Years" even includes references to previous episodes ("Balance of Terror" and "The Corbomite Maneuver"), a rare touch for the original series.

The updated effects by CBS Digital are mostly high-quality. We finally get to see multiple Romulan warbirds taking on the Enterprise, as indicated in the dialogue but never shown until now. The image quality, even on non-effects sequences, has never looked better.

All in all, an episode I'll remember in my old age . . . which won't be for some while I hope.

Dramatic Content: 10 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 8
Overall Experience: 10

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"The 'Galileo' Seven" (Star Trek: Remastered edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 7:24 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "The Galileo Seven"
Remastered Episode #41 (9/15/2007)
Original Episode #14 (1/15/1967)

A new season of Star Trek: Remastered is upon us. By default, this is the last season--at least for updates to the original series. Unless, of course, they decide to CGI all of the visuals on the animated series. Once they had their approach down, they could even create new episodes to fill out the season. I'm sure there are some leftover scripts or concepts around somewhere.

Back to reality, though. "The Galileo Seven" kicks off the 2007-2008 season, a perfect choice for the lead-in. One of the best Star Trek episodes, it also offers a potential extravaganza of visual effects. With last season's 40 episodes under their belts, is CBS Digital ready to take it to a new level?

Things start promisingly enough, as we get a fantastic view of the Enterprise approaching Murasaki 312, a quasar-like formation. (Check out our preview article about this episode for a still of this and other key effects sequences.) The Enterprise is en route to Makus III with urgent medical supplies but since he has a couple of extra days, Captain Kirk decides to send a shuttle out to investigate the quasar.

Kirk claims he must do this, due to "standing orders to investigate all quasars and quasar-like phenomenon." I don't buy it, though. I think he just wants to get under the skin of Galactic High Commissioner Ferris, on board to deliver the medical supplies. Ferris is one of those annoying Federation bureaucrats that the Enterprise carts around from time-to-time. You know, the ones who are always trying to order Kirk around aboard his own ship. The plague of government bureaucracy is alive and well in the 23rd Century, it seems.

Though he stays aboard the Enterprise (someone has to organize the subsequent rescue attempts, after all), Kirk loads the shuttlecraft up with just about his entire senior staff. Also joining Spock, McCoy, and Scotty are Yeoman Mears and Lieutenants Boma, Gaetano, and Latimer.

The shuttlecraft launch is outstanding, and we even get a nice view of another shuttle, Columbus, sitting on the flight deck as the Galileo departs. We've seen other shuttle launches on Star Trek: Remastered before, but I still can't get over how real the effect looks. To see the Enterprise and other classic vehicles from original Star Trek fully realized for the first time has been nothing short of amazing, a lifelong Trekkie's dream-come-true. CBS Digital is doing all of this with budget limitations that are rivaled only by time constraints.

As you might expect, things go horribly wrong and the shuttle crashes after losing contact with the Enterprise. Not only has the Murasaki effect crashed the shuttle, it has also severely limited the Enterprise's sensor capabilities (not unlike the Mutara Nebula, actually). They are essentially left to search for the shuttle within four solar systems by sight. Ferris, who opposed the scientific mission in the first place, is none too pleased when Kirk informs him that finding a needle in a haystack would be "child's play" compared to finding the lost shuttlecraft.

All of this before the opening credits!

While Kirk has to deal with the nagging Ferris, Spock has his own set of naggers to deal with during his first command. Dr. McCoy gangs up with Lieutenant Boma to pester Spock at every turn. Though I'm a McCoy fan, the writers take him a bit too far in this episode. It seems out of character for him to allow Boma to insult Spock so often and even to jump in with a few thorns of his own. Sure, Spock and McCoy have an ongoing "feud" about passion versus reason but it is usually good-natured.

Here, McCoy just seems mean. Perhaps he has a hard time dealing with stress when Kirk isn't around, as the only other episode I can think of where he seems so out of kilter is "The Tholian Web"--where Kirk is presumed dead and Spock is in command.

The rest of the episode overcomes the problems with McCoy, though. As we see Spock in command for the first time, the Vulcan learns a number of lessons about logic. As he would later tell Valeris in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, "Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end." Full of tension, drama, and action, "The Galileo Seven" represents Star Trek at its best.

Speaking of one of his command decisions, Spock notes, "I may have been mistaken."

McCoy retorts, "At least I lived long enough to hear that." That's the McCoy we know and love, so the writers weren't completely off target.

As for Boma, he places extremely unrealistic demands on the Vulcan. Though he is supposed to show the human consequences of Spock's logical decisions, his constant nipping at Spock gets annoying. When the planet's ape-like natives kill two members of the shuttle crew, Boma insists that they take the time to bury them despite the enormous ongoing danger posed by the natives (the damaged shuttle needs to be freed of excess weight if she is ever to lift off).

While I understand the need to give the dead a proper burial, it's just not the right time for it. You don't jump out of the trench in the middle of a battle to bury the poor guy killed next to you. Otherwise, you'd better dig two holes.

Aboard the Enterprise, Ferris repeatedly stalks on and off the bridge, reminding Kirk constantly of exactly how much longer he has to conduct the search before he assumes command of the ship to deliver the medical supplies. Kirk shows great restraint by not knocking the guy on his bureaucratic ass.

The ape-like creatures have not been updated. They still throw small spears that suddenly turn larger (a creative but failed attempt on the original episode to give a sense of enormous scale to the creatures) and they still look way smaller than 10 to 15 feet tall as they approach one of the crewmembers for a kill.

CBS Digital usually does not tackle these sorts of changes to the on-set costumes and effects, though they did make the Gorn blink last season on "Arena." The end results would likely not justify the time. I think it's fine as it is, as I don't want every single piece of the classic show to be updated anyway. Yes, the creature looks fake, but it's a charming reminder of the simpler television times of the 1960s.

The newly created visuals are breathtaking throughout. We even get to see the Columbus ferrying back and forth from the Enterprise as she searches for the Galileo. One of these includes a movie-quality shot of the Enterprise from below. Fortunately, the Columbus is not similarly affected and crashed or Kirk would have even more officers to find.

If you have an HD DVD player, it's episodes like this one that will make the remastered Star Trek season 1 set worth the seemingly high cost in November. Since "The Galileo Seven" was part of the original series' first season, it is included on the set. (The remastered episodes air out of sequence in syndication.)

"The Galileo Seven" represents the finest work of both the 1966 and 2007 creative teams. This is a must-see.

Dramatic Content: 10 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 10
Overall Experience: 10

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"Tomorrow Is Yesterday" (Star Trek: Remastered edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 11:39 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"
Remastered Episode #29 (5/5/2007)
Original Episode #21 (1/26/1967)

After last week's light-on-effects installment of Star Trek: Remastered, "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" provides the CBS Digital team the opportunity to show off a bit.

Though I unfortunately didn't receive them in time for a preview article, I've intermixed pictures from CBS for this weekend's episode with my review. Click on each picture to view larger versions.

After encountering a black star that hurls her across time and space, the Enterprise falls into a low Earth orbit, nearly out of control. The year: 1969. Just a week before the launch of Apollo 11.

The initial shot of the Enterprise in 1969 is somewhat disappointing. The tiny ship wobbles unrealistically, a little too reminiscent of the 1967 effect for my tastes.

After a return from the opening credits commercial break, though, CBS Digital more than makes up for the weak start with an awe-inspiring view of the Enterprise as she flies over the US midwest (below).

I'm sure that RiffTrax's Mike Nelson would call this "fanboy porn," but if so I'm definitely a fanboy when it comes to TOS. I replayed this sequence several times before proceeding with the episode.

For me, this marks the true achievement of Star Trek: Remastered's potential, a chance to see the original Enterprise as we always imagined her. The new series has been a classic Trek fan's dream come true.

Spotting the Enterprise on radar, the US Air Force sends up a jet fighter to intercept. As the crew regains control of the starship, Spock notes that the fighter's nuclear weapons could prove a danger if the pilot were to open fire.

The Enterprise snags the fighter in a tractor beam, but the aircraft begins to break apart. With no other choice, they beam pilot John Christopher (Roger Perry) aboard.



Throughout the episode are fantastic shots of the Enterprise orbiting Earth (including the one above). Though the pilot has been beamed aboard a ship from 300 years in the future, Kirk naturally decides to give Christopher a tour of the vessel, with no restrictions on what he learns.

As they enter the bridge, Christopher is relieved to find that Kirk is from Earth of the future, rather than an alien. "I never have believed in little green men," says Christopher, who then looks up to see Mr. Spock for the first time.

"Nor have I," replies the Vulcan.

There's a bit of fun in this episode, as the ship's computer has recently been reprogrammed on the female-dominated Cygnet XIV to respond as a flirty woman rather than in the normal monotone, much to Spock and Kirk's dismay.

Kirk and Spock soon must deliver bad news to Christopher: he cannot return to Earth of 1969, for he has seen and heard too much about the future and could pose a danger to the timeline. There are other problems, though, for no one is sure how to return the Enterprise to the 23rd century.

Though it is a solid episode, "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" is not stellar. Parts of it drag on, including a subplot to retrieve footage of the Enterprise taken by Christopher's aircraft while in flight. A subplot rendered meaningless by the episode's conclusion, I might add.



The updated effects are mixed, alternating between unbelievably great and disappointingly mediocre. I'm not sure why there is such a marked difference, except perhaps for the issue that plagues all projects: lack of time. I will say that the good stuff here is terrific enough to make up for the mediocre. I'm left with a feeling of awe, which is how Star Trek is supposed to be.

One aspect of Star Trek: Remastered that I've failed to highlight in previous reviews is the overall enhancement to the picture throughout each episode, not just the effects. Even compared to the 2004 DVDs, these newly broadcast versions have much more vibrant colors and a crisper look.

In many ways, "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" is the perfect episode for the Star Trek: Remastered concept. The original version suffered due to the limitations of the 1967 effects (one shot of the Enterprise leaving Earth had portions of the warp nacelles disappearing, for instance). Now, today is yesterday and it is as if Remastered line producer Michael Okuda and crew were able to slingshot around the sun and give the 1967 team a bit of 2007 technology.

Dramatic Content: 7 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 8
Overall Experience: 8

* * *

Episodes and air dates for Star Trek remastered

US stations carrying Star Trek remastered

For more information

Images are copyright, © 2007 by CBS Studios Inc. All rights reserved. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc.

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"A Piece Of The Action" (Star Trek: Remastered edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 4:57 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "A Piece Of The Action"
Remastered Episode #28 (4/28/2007)
Original Episode #49 (1/12/1968)

The Enterprise discovers a planet of mobsters who have patterned their lives on a book called Chicago Mobs of the Twenties. The book was among the items left behind by the USS Horizon, which visited about a hundred years ago and prior to the adoption of the non-interference directive. It's up to Kirk, Spock, and McCoy to undo some of the damage.

William Shatner proves yet again that he's great with comedy, when given the right material. As Spock, Leonard Nimoy is the ultimate straight man. In fact, much of the back and forth between Kirk and Spock in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the pinnacle of Star Trek comedy, is reminiscent of "A Piece Of The Action."

After riding along in a 1920's style car driven in fits and starts by Kirk, Spock dryly notes, "Captain, you are an excellent starship commander but as a taxi driver, you leave much to be desired."

Later, when they need the car again, Spock hesitates and notes that it's not as safe as walking.

"Are you afraid of cars?" asks Kirk.

"Not at all. It's your driving that alarms me."

The mildly insulted look on Kirk's face after Spock's retort is priceless.

* * *

I'm having a harder time getting excited about Star Trek: Remastered versions of episodes with little or no effects. That's no reflection on the shows themselves, as "A Piece Of The Action" is one of the best.

It's also no reflection on the quality of work by CBS Digital. I'd be the first to complain if they added barrel rolls or other such nonsense to spruce up the few seconds of time that the Enterprise appears in this episode. For the effects that need upgrading, their work is great.

The main problem is that I've gotten used to watching the classic Star Trek episodes on DVD over the last few years and it has spoiled me. No commercials to fast forward through, and, more importantly, unedited versions.

Since fewer commercials aired when Star Trek was first broadcast in the 1960's, most of the classic episodes are around 52 minutes long. To fit the commercial requirements of a one-hour timeslot today, about ten minutes of episode has to be trimmed. That means the edited versions have lost an astounding 20 percent of their original content.

Though CBS makes both edited and unedited versions of the syndicated Star Trek: Remastered episodes available, my local station chooses to air the edited versions. They have to pay the bills, after all. Apparently, most of those bills are paid by 900 numbers offering a variety of services, at least in the wee hours of the morning that Trek airs.

This is a fun episode, one of the all-time classics. Make it a double-feature with Star Trek IV and laugh all night.

Dramatic Content: 10 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 7
Overall Experience: 10

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"All Our Yesterdays" ("Star Trek: Remastered" edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 11:08 PM

Star Trek (Remastered): "All Our Yesterdays"
Remastered Episode #27 (4/21/2007)
Original Episode #78 (3/14/1969)

Though it is essentially an inferior remake of "The City on the Edge of Forever," there's something oddly compelling about "All Our Yesterdays," which was the second-to-last episode to air of the original Star Trek. It certainly would have made a better season/series finale than "Turnabout Intruder."

Maybe it's the librarian with the perfect name, Mr. Atoz (Ian Wolfe). Or perhaps it's Zarabeth (Mariette Hartley), a political prisoner exiled into an Ice Age solitary 5,000 years in the past by an apparently blind evil dictator. There's also a strong performance by Leonard Nimoy, in perhaps his most convincing display of emotions as Spock. (There's no crying in Star Trek!)

Okay, it's Zarabeth. Without her, this episode's probably a five. Six at best.

Arriving just before a planet's sun is about to explode, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find that most of the inhabitants are missing. The only ones left are Mr. Atoz and several duplicates of him. When Kirk hears a woman screaming for help, he naturally runs off to assist and accidentally steps through a time portal. Don't you hate when that happens?

Seeing their captain vanish, Spock and McCoy of course run after him and vanish, too. Fortunately for them, it wasn't a vaporizer ray. Anyway, Kirk arrives just in time to save an annoying woman in the past. She soon accuses him of being a witch, since he keeps talking to an unseen voice named Bones. The Captain is imprisoned as such and, worse, so is the annoying woman.

Spock and McCoy arrive in a different time period, much farther back, during the planet's Ice Age. McCoy nearly freezes to death and tells Spock to leave him behind. The Vulcan refuses, but soon a mysterious person dressed head to toe in fur appears and takes them to safety in a nearby cave.

The mysterious person turns out to be Zarabeth. She heats up the cave so much that she has to strip out of most of her fur garments. Back in 1969, the NBC censors, in their infinite wisdom, went after "All Our Yesterdays" because Hartley's costume was originally too revealing. They demanded that shocking and disturbing imagery of Hartley's bare . . . belly button not be shown.

I suppose the thinking was that the sight of 28-year-old Hartley's private part would just be too much to handle for whatever audience was left watching Star Trek near the end of its run.

The rest of the actresses' body remained relatively unclothed through most of "All Our Yesterdays," though. Who says that Star Trek lost the vision of Gene Roddenberry in the third season?

Hartley later appeared in Genesis II, a failed Roddenberry TV pilot in the early 1970's. In that show, she exposed two belly buttons. Get it? An extra one to make up for the one they had to cover in 1969. The Great Bird was a clever guy.

As Zarabeth, Hartley heats up the cave, the screen, and Spock. "It is agreeably warm here," he tells her. He uses that line on all the women. Zarabeth's belly button is kept safely hidden, though, so it's okay for the kids to watch this one.

I was going to get into speculation on how the inhabitants of the planet would have been "prepared" for this time travel, essentially escaping to the past to avoid the future. It would seem that sterilization and possibly even memory wipes might be necessary. But then, I remembered those words of wisdom: It's just a show.

CBS Digital makes the most out of an episode that has nearly no effects at all. The Enterprise looks great, they've really got her down. Usually, the ship leaving the planet sequence at the end is a bit of a throway, but this one actually has content. There's an incredible shot of the planet's sun exploding, somewhat reminiscent of Star Trek Generations.

The Star Trek: Remastered version of "All Our Yesterdays" is worth watching, just for those few seconds.

And for Zarabeth, of course, who needs no enhancements.

Dramatic Content: 8 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 8
Overall Experience: 8

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"And The Children Shall Lead" ("Star Trek: Remastered" edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 10:54 PM

Star Trek (Remastered): "And The Children Shall Lead"
Remastered Episode #26 (4/14/2007)
Original Episode #60 (10/11/1968)

"And The Children Shall Lead" is a horrible episode of the original Star Trek. At least, that's what I've read online over the last week or two. And if it's online, obviously, it must be true.

Why the hatred among the normally mild and gentle online population of Trek critics? For one thing, it's a third season episode. Third season automatically equals bad.

And the episode includes, shockingly enough, children. And children just aren't cool. And us Star Trek fans are all cool right? We don't want Annie Skywalker characters to ruin our franchise. We're better than that.

Wesley Crusher.

Now that I've brought you all back to reality, I'm going to go out on a Star Trek limb here and say "And The Children Shall Lead" is not a horrible episode. And the third season does not suck.

There are some horrible episodes of classic Star Trek. I don't watch every episode through rose-colored glasses (of the future!), after all. I can think of four right now, without even trying very hard.

But "And The Children Shall Lead" is not on that list.

The problem with "And The Children Shall Lead" is that there are so many great episodes of the original Star Trek that average, mediocre episodes like this one look worse by comparison.

In many ways, the Remastered effort thus far has been a "best of" collection. Since all 79 episodes will eventually be presented, though, episodes like "And The Children Shall Lead" (and even the truly horrible ones) have to be tackled at some point.

After two effects-heavy episodes in a row, this one offers a bit of a breather to the Remastered team. What's here looks nice, and there are the usual small, polishing touches.

There is one thing that continues to bother me about Star Trek: Remastered, though. I've tried not to harp on it too much but I'll mention it here as it annoys me every single week - especially in third season episodes.

Remastered team, you're doing great and I've tried to support you as much as possible on this little site, but you really need to do something about that opening theme song. I'm not sure why it was necessary to re-record it in the first place. The rest of the music on the episodes has not been re-recorded, so why re-record this?

The new version of the theme sounds horrible. The female vocalist is way too high in the mix. I even compared it against the original version this week, just to see if I was crazy. Still no verdict on my sanity, but the original does not feature the operatic vocals so loudly. I'd prefer to hear the original theme, but at least try turning the female vocals down a bit if you insist on the new version.

All right, that's the last time I'll mention it - unless, of course, it is fixed in the future. And now on with the episode.

The Enterprise arrives at a Federation colony to find all of the adults dead, apparently due to mass suicide. The only survivors are children, none of whom are overly concerned over the loss of their parents.

They are beamed aboard the starship and soon plot to take it over. The children have been empowered with a form of mind control by an evil entity known as Gorgan. Gorgan wants to use the Enterprise to spread his "wisdom" to other planets.

As you might expect, Captain Kirk objects at this point. The children overtake the bridge crew by capitalizing on their deepest, darkest fears ("the beast that will consume them").

Uhura sees her own death, an agonizingly slow one where she looks like an outtake from "The Deadly Years." Contrary to a lot of people's beliefs, Uhura's death apparently does not begin with a fan dance while she sings "The Moon is a Window to Heaven" in the nude.

Kirk's worst fears, of course, are of losing command, losing the Enterprise, and being alone.

As for Sulu, he's apparently afraid of runaway daggars flying backwards through space that would inexplicably destroy the well-shielded Enterprise. His other fears are that people will forget to address him as "Captain Sulu" and that Chekov will get all of the good bit-part lines.

Had they been executed just a bit better and expanded for more of the running time, the "beast within" images of fear may well have nudged this episode up a notch or two. They almost work, creating a sort of Twilight Zone feel. Sci Fi purists will hate it, but they hate most everything (including, alas, the term "Sci Fi").

Is this a heart-pounding episode that will blow you away? No, but it's definitely one that's worth watching. Especially if you're not busy...busy...busy.

Dramatic Content: 5 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 7
Overall Experience: 5

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"The Immunity Syndrome" ("Star Trek: Remastered" edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 7:32 PM

Star Trek (Remastered): "The Immunity Syndrome"
Remastered Episode #25 (4/7/2007)
Original Episode #48 (1/19/1968)

"The Immunity Syndrome" is a terrific but often overlooked episode of the original Star Trek. It first aired during the second season, just three months after the similarly-themed "The Doomsday Machine."

While "The Doomsday Machine" featured a planet killer constructed by a warring civilization, "The Immunity Syndrome" features a naturally-occurring living organism that presents as much, if not more, of a threat. The gigantic "space amoeba" of this episode can reproduce, resulting in enough offspring to destroy the entire galaxy.

When the USS Intrepid goes missing, the Enterprise is diverted from shore leave to find out what happened. The Intrepid is manned by a crew of over 400 Vulcans and Spock instinctively knows they are all dead. Since the Enterprise is populated by over 400 humans with a lone Vulcan science officer, I've always wondered if the Vulcan-heavy Intrepid had a lone human aboard. Doubtful as a science officer, but maybe a janitor or something.

Fearful of facing the same fate as the doomed Intrepid, some suggest fleeing the area. "Our orders do not say 'stay alive' or 'retreat.' Our mission is to investigate," Kirk admonishes them.

En route, the Enterprise encounters a "negative energy field" and is quickly drawn into it. The area is completely devoid of stars. CBS Digital comes through in full force with the effects upgrades here with wonderful scenes of a darkened Enterprise lit only with internal sources rather than the normal, starlit version.

They soon discover they are being drawn towards the space amoeba. McCoy, Spock, and Kirk argue with each other over which of them gets to take on the suicide mission of investigating further with a shuttlecraft. The Remastered team took the right approach on the look of the amoeba itself. It stays true to the original, which was actually a pretty good effect in its own right.

The episode includes some classic McCoy vs. Spock moments, and the Vulcan seems quite pleased when Kirk picks him over McCoy for the mission. Spock points out that it is not the first time that superior capability has won out over higher credentials.

After another nice shuttle launch scene, Spock flies into the amoeba. It's a bumpy ride and Spock notes, "Oh, and Dr. McCoy, you would not have survived it."

"Wanna bet?" Bones answers.

There are some mostly beautiful shots of the Enterprise approaching the amoeba. A few seconds appear rushed or of lesser quality compared to the others, leaving me to wonder if they were perhaps under a more severe time crunch than normal on this effects-heavy episode.

The Enterprise punching through the wall of the amoeba is extremely well executed. Some of the best Remastered work so far.

When the Enterprise takes the shuttle in a tractor beam (against Scott's wishes, I might add, for the chief engineer appeared perfectly content to leave Spock behind), Spock complains that they should release the shuttlecraft rather than risk the starship to save him. "Shut up, Spock, we're rescuing you," McCoy tells him.

Sounding almost amused, Spock actually gives in, "Why thank you, Captain McCoy."

The Remastered team may have restricted themselves a bit too much at times, though. It would have been nice if they cut away from the bridge action for a second or two to show the Enterprise firing a probe into the amoeba or the Enterprise towing the shuttlecraft.

But that's just the Trekkie in me, always wanting more. This episode is one of the finest presented on Star Trek: Remastered so far, right up there with "The Doomsday Machine." It's a lot of fun seeing modern effects applied to my favorite Star Trek series.

Dramatic Content: 9 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 9
Overall Experience: 9

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"Wolf In The Fold" ("Star Trek: Remastered" edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 5:20 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "Wolf In The Fold"
Remastered Episode #23 (3/10/2007)
Original Episode #36 (12/22/1967)

"Wolf In The Fold" offers up a second-season murder mystery from writer Robert Bloch. Bloch is best known, perhaps, for writing a little novel called Psycho. It was later adapted into the screenplay of the Alfred Hitchcock film. Bloch also wrote the Trek episodes "Catspaw" and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

After suffering a blow to his skull due to an explosion caused by a woman, Scotty is brought to a night club on a pleasure planet by prescription of Dr. McCoy.

You see, there's a concern that Scotty might subconsciously harbor resentment towards women due to the accident. McCoy's thinking is that watching women dance seductively would ease any such resentment from Scotty's mind. Taking one for the team, Kirk accompanies the two.

Though not an Orion slavegirl, the dancer Kara certainly evokes the style of one. You can almost imagine the shadow of Gene Roddenberry as he watches off-camera.

Scotty sweet-talks Kara and she leaves with him. Unfortunately for the chief engineer, the dancer soon turns up dead - a victim of multiple stabbings. Scott is found holding the weapon. The rest of the episode is spent trying to explain how Scotty could not have committed the murder, or two subsequent ones in which he manages to implicate himself.

"Wolf In The Fold" offers the Star Trek: Remastered team a bit of a breather, as it contains nearly no effects beyond standard Enterprise in orbit shots. The computer-generated Enterprise continues to look beautiful. She looks real.

Forget the effects, though, what really needs replacing in "Wolf In The Fold" is James Doohan's fake Scottish accent. As a featured background player, Scotty is usually acceptable. In the forefront, as he is in this episode, he often becomes annoying. The character is just too much of a caricature to bear the spotlight for long.

Speaking of characters more suited to the background, Doohan looks like an acting genius compared to George Takei in a thankfully brief appearance near the episode's end. He stinks up the place as a tranquilized/drunk Lieutenant Sulu.

This episode marks the first (and, as far as I know, only) appearance of the "psycho-tricorder," probably a nod to Bloch's novel. The psycho-tricorder looks amazingly like a standard tricorder, the major difference being that it is held by the exquisite Lieutenant Karen Tracy rather than somebody boring like Spock. Tracy is left alone with Scotty, though, so her Trek career is short-lived.

All-in-all not a bad episode, but not one of the great ones. The nice thing about the original Star Trek is that it could feature a murder mystery without having an android play dress-up as Sherlock Holmes.

A couple of good companion movies to "Wolf In The Fold" would be Time After Time (written and directed by a pre-Star Trek Nicholas Meyer and starring a pre-Star Trek Malcolm McDowell and a pre-Star Trek David Warner) and Fallen (starring a pre-Star Trek Denzel Washington - who is technically still pre-Star Trek and, thus, still has a career).

Dramatic Content: 7 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 7
Overall Experience: 7

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"The Paradise Syndrome" ("Star Trek: Remastered" edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 11:09 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "The Paradise Syndrome"
Remastered Episode #22 (2/24/2007)
Original Episode #58 (10/4/1968)

The Film Frontier's celebrity guest reviewer for this week's episode of Star Trek: Remastered is . . . uh, me. Well, that's true; I'm not actually a celebrity. And now that you mention it, I'm not a guest here either. Oh well, you're stuck with me, so on with the review.

Some people turn their noses up at all third season episodes of the original Star Trek. I think that's a huge mistake. There are three awful episodes in the third season. Most of the others are quite good, and some terrific. There were some unique adventures that season, including "The Paradise Syndrome."

Star Trek fans seem to either love or hate this episode. Aside from a couple of cringe-worthy moments, this has been one of my favorites for years. I am, after all, a sucker for sad endings and this has one of the saddest.

On their way to divert an asteroid the size of Earth's moon, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to scope out a planet directly in its path. They find a large, pyramid-shaped obelisk, created with technology that may be greater than that of the Federation.

The first thing that is noticeably different about "The Paradise Syndrome" compared to many other episodes is that it's actually shot on location, rather than confined to the sound stage. Though this means that the planet looks almost exactly like Earth, at least it serves to make the adventure seem more real. And they even include some story explanation later on as to why the planet looks like Earth, since it otherwise should have appeared quite different.

The inhabitants of the planet turn out to be Native Americans of Earth descent, a mixture of Navajo, Mohican, and Delaware tribes. Since the tribe does not have advanced technology, they could not have built the obelisk and the trio avoids contacting them. Kirk goes off alone to take one more look at the structure. As he calls the ship on his communicator, a trap door opens and he falls through. Grasping a computer console within to get up, Kirk accidentally unleashes a beam that wipes out his memory.

The beam also cues up a ham acting moment by William Shatner. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Shatner's and think his Star Trek performances are sadly underrated, but this particular scene isn't one of his best.

When a search turns up nothing, the Enterprise is forced to depart without her captain in order to intercept the asteroid. Meanwhile, the beautiful Miramanee--tribal priestess--and one of her handmaidens have made their way to their temple, the obelisk.

And from out of the temple, walks Kirk. Both immediately confirm what we have all suspected for years, that Kirk is a god. The women bow down to recognize him as such, but Kirk still has no idea who he is, much less who they are.

They take him back to the tribe, where a special council is held. Salish, the Medicine Chief who is betrothed to Miramanee, doubts Kirk's godhood. The session is interrupted when a young drowning victim is brought to the Medicine Chief, who pronounces him dead. Kirk intervenes and instinctively resuscitates the lad.

"Only a god can breathe life into the dead," says the tribal elder. Salish is stripped of his Medicine Chief title, which is handed over to Kirk. With the title comes Miramanee, who also seems to have genuinely fallen in love with Kirk.

With Spock in command, the Enterprise arrives at the asteroid. The original episode also contained some of the best special effects of any season. The shot of the Enterprise shown from the aft as she moves in reverse within the path of the asteroid was beautiful. Even when I watch today, I still find it amazing given when it was accomplished. The effect was later re-used several episodes later in "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky."

Since the upgrades air out of sequence, the remastered "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" actually aired a few weeks ago. The asteroid from that episode was not re-used in the remastered version of "The Paradise Syndrome," though. One of the nice touches of the remastered episodes has indeed been the use of "unique" planets, asteroids, and guest ships each week rather than stock footage.

The shots here are nearly identical to the originals, which I think is a good call for this particular episode. It was already an incredible shot, so no need to mess around with it. One piece that is different and quite interesting is that the deflector beam is actually shown emanating from the Enterprise's navigational deflector dish. This is shown from the side and slightly behind, though, so you don't get the full effect. Still, it's a nice use of the dish.

When the deflector beam doesn't work, Spock puts all of the Enterprise's power into phaser beams in an attempt to break the asteroid apart. This serves only to drain and damage the warp drive, much to Scotty's chagrin.

The Enterprise limps back to the planet at impulse power. A trip that would have taken several hours at warp will now take 59 days. The asteroid follows about four hours behind for the entire trip. Spock spends the time studying a recording of markings on the obelisk. McCoy spends the time alternatively pestering Spock or worrying about Spock.

Back on the planet, the tribal elder asks Kirk what he would like to be called. Trying to remember his own name, he manages "Kirr..uh..k" which the elder interprets as "Kirok." Yes, this is the episode that spawned the "I am Kirok!" riff used so often on Mystery Science Theater 3000. That's two key MST3k-referenced episodes in a row.

Full of rage at losing both his title and Miramanee, Salish attacks Kirok with a knife and cuts his hand. "Behold a god who bleeds!" mocks Salish. Kirok soon gets the upper hand but refuses to kill his attacker. That's right, Kirk always attempts to avoid killing. That instinctive part of his nature is still there, too, despite the memory loss.

Kirok and Miramanee marry, while Salish gives Kirok a temporary pass on telling the others about the whole god who bleeds incident. Perhaps he didn't want to admit to being beaten by Kirok, god or otherwise.

Kirok and Miramanee are deeply in love, and Kirok is more happy than he's ever been in his life. He does, however, have haunting dreams of what Miramanee calls a "strange lodge which moves through the sky." Kirok's other instincts also prove to be intact and Miramanee is soon expecting their child.

Part of Kirok's responsibility as god and Medicine Chief, though, is to protect the planet from an approaching storm (the asteroid) by use of the temple. Salish's father died before teaching him the secrets of the temple but as a god, Kirok is expected to have this knowledge in order to save the tribe.

Watching third season episodes like "The Paradise Syndrome" often makes me wish that NBC had stuck with the series for at least another year or two. In some ways, the show was really starting to grow up when the plug was pulled.

Despite its flaws, this remains one of my favorite episodes. Do the effects upgrades improve it? Not really, but that's no fault of the fine work presented here. It's simply an emotion-driven episode, rather than an effects-driven one. And the emotions of "The Paradise Syndrome" need no upgrade.

Dramatic Content: 9 (out of 10)
Effects Upgrades: 7
Overall Experience: 9
Recommended: Yes

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"Amok Time" ("Star Trek: Remastered" edition)

posted by Tygrrius @ 8:34 AM

Star Trek (Remastered): "Amok Time"
Remastered Episode #21 (2/17/2007)
Original Episode #34 (9/15/1967 [2nd season premiere])

An old Vulcan axiom goes, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." The all-too-human James T. Kirk was fond of turning that one around whenever "the needs of the one outweighed the needs of the many." And one of the best examples of this is "Amok Time."

Under the effects of Pon farr, Spock must return to Vulcan to consummate his marriage with T'Pring, a wife linked to him in childhood. "The birds and the bees are not Vulcans, Captain," Spock tells Kirk when explaining that if he doesn't return to his home planet for the mating ritual, he will die.

Starfleet denies Kirk's request to divert the Enterprise away from its original mission to Altair. Knowing what his captain might do, McCoy warns Kirk that disobeying orders will result in him losing command.

Kirk will have none of it. "I can't let Spock die, can I Bones? And he will, if we go to Altair. I owe him my life a dozen times over. Isn't that worth a career? He's my friend." And with that, his mind is made up. William Shatner does a terrific job here, and throughout this episode. One of my favorite Kirk moments, showing that not even direct Starfleet orders can shake his intense loyalty.

"Amok Time," of course, is also a standout for Leonard Nimoy as Spock. We feel Spock's struggle as he attempts to hide the eruption of emotions from Pon farr. While talking to Kirk in one scene, he grips a stylus tightly behind his back, trying to maintain control.

"Amok Time" is not an effects-driven episode, but this Star Trek: Remastered does offer some nice shots of the Enterprise. Her starboard side is shown in extreme close-up at one point, giving an appropriate sense of grandeur to the vessel.

Seen for the first time in this episode (and not again until the animated series), Vulcan has also been spruced up by CBS Digital. The mostly desert planet now sports a massive ice cap, visible as the Enterprise enters orbit.

Spock invites Kirk and McCoy to accompany him to the ceremony, as his friends. McCoy seems momentarily taken aback but responds with, "I shall be honored, sir." One of those great DeForest Kelley moments.

The trio beam down to Vulcan and we are treated to new matte paintings of a sky bridge leading to the arena and an overhead view of the arena itself (see this article for pictures).

Suddenly, Vulcan is no longer a sound stage. Vulcan is real. I can't say enough about how beautiful these new images are. Though they only appear on screen for a few seconds, I can only imagine the amount of work that must have went into them.

The time spent was well worth it. The attention to detail here is amazing. The shots fit perfectly with Vulcan as later seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. As someone who loves the classic Star Trek films above all else in the Trek continuity, I can really appreciate what they have done here.

After the tiny, computer-generated Kirk, Spock, and McCoy make their way across the bridge, we are back to the familiar arena. The new establishing shots were risky, but make me believe that the soundstage-grounded arena is actually perched high in the air.

The introduction of the new shots marks the first time that Star Trek: Remastered has replaced live-action shots of actors with new imagery. There are a few, corresponding seconds of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy making their way to the arena that are now missing from this episode.

One of the fantastic things about Star Trek: Remastered is the way it can open up the original episodes and make them feel even more real. They made the right creative choice here. I hope they will, with appropriate caution, allow themselves similar freedom in the future. Do we need every single "Sulu reacts to the main viewer" shot, for instance?

Once the ceremony begins, it turns out that T'Pring (Arlene Martel) has other plans for Spock. She invokes her right to name a champion to battle Spock for her. In a moment of pure logic that even impresses Spock, she chooses Kirk.

It's not that T'Pring wants Kirk, but she wants Stonn (Lawrence Montaigne). In her logical Vulcan way, she knows that no matter who wins the battle between Kirk and Spock, she will still have Stonn.

Thinking that he'll be able to throw the fight to help his friend, Kirk agrees. Once locked into the combat, he finds out that the fight is to the death.

There is a famous mistake in this episode. While supposedly deep in Plak-tow, Spock can be seen in the background leaning against a wall and looking about quite nonchalantly. Apparently, Nimoy was either unaware that he was visible in the shot or that cameras were rolling. I was glad to see that this little gem remains in the episode for the remastered version.

Star Trek was not perfect, and that was part of its charm. Updating effects and giving the sets more depth are great enhancements, but there is a danger in over-polishing all of the imperfections. This was not meant to be a high-gloss show. The original Star Trek's perfection is to be imperfect.

CBS Digital made the right choice b