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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Original Star Trek Getting a CGI Makeover!

Before JJ Abrams gets to bring the TOS era back to the big screen in Star Trek XI, CBS Paramount has a secret plan to get it back on the small screen, but with a makeover. Over a month ago it was announced that CBS was selling a new broadcast TV (not cable) syndication package for the original series. At the time it seemed a bit odd to try selling a 40 year old show to local TV stations, especially after it has just been sold to yet another cable outlet (this time TV Land…home of retro TV). The Trek Movie Report has now learned from trusted insiders, that CBS Paramount are actually offering an HDTV enhanced version of the Original Series with new state-of-the art CGI visual effects.

The ‘new’ Star Trek

Details are still being finalised, but according to sources, the bulk of shows will be as originally shot, with the new effects limited to the space sequences and the opening credits. In addition, TrekMovie.com has learned that some of the music is being redone (presumably for the opening title sequence). There are conflicting reports on exactly how many episodes are getting the ‘enhanced treatment’, but is possible that it is not all 79 original episodes. This also does not seem to be linked to the recent announcement for the Original Series to begin airing on TV Land in November, they will be showing the classic series in it’s original form. No word yet on if or when the enhanced series will be available on DVD, BluRay, or HD-DVD, but it appears that the newly enhanced shows will first appear in broadcast syndication this fall (so check local listings!). So far the Trek Movie Report has not been able to get an official comment from CBS Paramount, but TMR hears that an announcement from them will be coming very soon.

Not totally new for Trek

Of course the most recent Trek show Star Trek: Enterprise was done entirely with CGI effects. This included creating a CGI version of the Starship Defiant from the TOS era for the ‘In a Mirror Darkly’ arc, as well as a brief shot of Kirk’s Enterprise for the series finale. Paramount also recently re-issued a ‘Director’s Edition’ of Star Trek: The Motion Picture with a number of redone and new CGI effects. And Trek is far from alone, George Lucas it seems can’t stop himself from tinkering with his classic Star Wars films, he has done it so often that this year he is issuing DVDs of the films in their original form. Although TMR did not learn who is doing the work, apparently it isn’t EdenFX (who did the visual effects for Enterprise seen above and below). If the ‘new TOS’ is a success, then perhaps we will see the same thing done with Star Trek: The Next Generation which has a 20th Anniversary coming up soon.



Source: trekmovie.com/2006/08/28/star-trek-tos-gets-redone-with-new-cgi/

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I recall the remake of the GCI effects on Star Wars, although it was nice, it did not change much from the original, and perhaps should have left it alone.

I hope in this round, it will be better.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

'Star Trek' returns to TV with digital facelift

Four decades after Capt. Kirk and crew zoomed off at warp speed to "the final frontier," the iconic sci-fi series "Star Trek" returns to broadcast television this week with an extensive digital makeover.

CBS Paramount Domestic Television, a unit of CBS, is digitally remastering all 79 episodes of the original series to enhance the show's 1960s-era visual effects with 21st-century computer-generated graphics.

Digitally created images will replace the miniature-scale models used for exterior shots of the various spacecraft on the show, including Kirk's Starship Enterprise and the enemy war vessels of the alien Klingons and Romulans.

Shots of distant galaxies and planets also will be touched up with computer graphics to give them greater depth. The flat matte paintings used as backdrops on the surface of the strange new worlds visited by the Enterprise crew will be digitally enhanced to add texture, atmosphere and lighting.

Moreover, the music and sound for the show's opening sequence have been rerecorded in state-of-the-art digital stereo, and William Shatner's classic 38-word introduction, beginning with "Space, the final frontier," has been digitally remastered.

CBS Paramount says the makeover is intended to enhance the show's visual appeal while staying true to the original look and feel of the series.

"Nothing really has changed except for the fact that it's just prettier to look at," John Nogawski, president of CBS Paramount Domestic Television, said in a recent conference call with reporters. "Right down to placement of stars, it is being resimulated to be exactly what was there in the first place.

In the original sequence, the ship's flight path seems to shift slightly to the left and right, a flaw in perspective caused by limitations in the physical length of the dolly track used for the camera shot. The digital rendering creates a more realistic perspective.

"We smoothed out the motion of the Enterprise. It flies more dynamically now," Rossi said. "It occupies real space. It doesn't look like a model anymore."

Source: news.com.com/Star+Trek+returns+to+TV+with+digital+facelift/2100-1026_3-6116056.html?tag=nefd.top

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Although the Original series is rather hokey in effects, I anticipate the new makeover and enhancements!...

[starbux]

Could be nice. But I hope there will still be editions with the original elements unaltered. Kitschy effects have a charm all their own.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I did manage to see the first installment of the new and enhanced Star Trek...and I like it.

It isn't overwhelming, just in bits and places where it's quite subtle, but really kicks up the realism a bit. Even the opening scenes where the Enterprise 1701 zooms past the camera, it's cleaner and motion more realistic. I also noticed audio enhancements too.

In one scene, there was an external shot of a comet that the Romulians were going to enter in an attempt to escape their persuit. The old comet shot was clunky and crude, but this re-enhanced one flowed with grace and was quite nice.

You can tell where they did the work, but it does not detract from the original in anyway and isn't overbearing. This evening will be another showing of a different episode were the crew encounters an alien disease. Let's see how the GCI effects go there. But if it's like the first one I saw, I won't be dissapointed.

Hail good taste!...

[starbux]

I don't know if they're doing it but a cable channel called G4 has a version of TOS which I watched when I was in Vermont this summer -- had the show shown in a relatively small box while around it you saw trivia pop-ups and realtime chat going on. This is obviously not for the first time viewer of the show!