I have to admit that I have not seen all of the episodes of remastered STAR TREK, and I can't now because I dumped cable for a satellite dish (cost of cable was skyrocketing, quality was going down, but the tradeoff is that I now have no local channels) so now I can't see any more. Despite this, I've been combing over the fan-posted videos on the web and I've got some things to say. Please forgive if any of this has already been said.
(1: I thought what they did with "The Naked Time" was fantastic. I was really impressed. The ep was noticeably improved. There was one shortcoming, however. Despite the grainy and often discolored look of TOS' FX, the TOS-R re-makers did not do the time travel sequence justice. TOS may have been limited in FX, but relative to what Roddenberry & company did do with them, the dissolve from the Bridge to the time warp did not capture the original's sense of this being something special.
(2: I was expecting a little more umph out of the usual FX clips showing the obligatory Enterprise-on-approach, Enterprise-in-obit, Enterprise-breaking-orbit, or Enterprise-in-deep-space. The remastering crew went to the trouble of cleaning up and changing some of the images, but then they didn't bother to show any more creativity beyond that. It seems that the overwhleming majority of the images of the Enterprise show it moving along a single, flat plane all the time. Even when it banks in turns. This is hard to accept after seeing the refit Enterprise in the first six movies. One shot in "The Undiscovered Country" really stands out in my mind: it's when the Klingon cruiser swoops in to rendez-vous with the Enterprise. I can't understand why we don't see shots like that of the remastered Enterprise.
(3: I was pleased that some attention was paid to the Bridge's computer graphics in "Friday's Child" and to the Murasaki 312 phenomenon in "The Galileo Seven". One caveat, though: since the Galileo was on phaser-induced impulse power during its final flight, it would've made more sense to see Spock's booster "flare" coming from the impulse vents of the ship rather than the nacelles. Overall, though, "The Galileo Seven" was extremely impressive. The new FX gave the old girl a huge boost.
(4: I thought it was a really nice touch to make the Enterprise's nacelles look "old style", just for "Where No Man Has Gone Before". I was also surprised to see that the reverse-orbiting I.S.S. Enterprise of "Mirror, Mirror" had the same "old style" nacelles. Guess that shoots a major continuity hole in the Defiant being part of the same "mirror universe", since the Defiant seen in "The Tholian Web" looks to be the exact same vintage as the Enterprise.
(5: The shuttlecraft scenes got a huge boost from the remastering efforts in "Metamorphosis" and "The Menagerie, Part 1". This is great. I only wish they'd show some more dynamic angles on those little ships. I wonder if they'll do anything interesting with "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield".
(6: Everyone seems to be passing judgement on "The Doomsday Machine", which was good, but I think it could've been better. Another huge one for me is going to be "The Ultimate Computer". I want to see something spectacular done with those four starships... as well as the Alpha Carinae II footage and the Woden.
(7: "Bread and Circuses": Disappointing. I thought we should get a good look at the SS Beagle. The re-masterers copped out.
(8: "Where No Man Has Gone Before": while the clarity of the shots of the Enterprise is much improved, one imprefection I liked was also sterilized away: I always enjoyed that strobing image of the Enterprise in the maelstrom of the Barrier. Showing the Enterprise flailing around like that went great with the Bridge footage. Now the Barrier effect itself is too refined and the Enterprise shots in the Barrier are too ho-hum to fit in with the Bridge action.
(9: I do not see why the phaser fire shots still have to look and sound like photon torpedoes in the teaser to "Errand of Mercy". They could've changed that. In fact, they could've changed them for "Balance of Terror" as well.
(10: I know this may sound like blasphemy to some, but I do not see why some ships cannot change to distinguish themselves better in TOS-R. I thought that the new Antares looked great in "Charlie X". By that same token, I wish either the Constellation or the Exeter or the Defiant had also become a different class of starship. It would've added a little more variety. One ship that simply must change to a different design: the Aurora in "The Way to Eden". A backwards Tholian ship with nacelles doesn't cut it.
(11: I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see the Astral Queen hanging in orbit near the Enterprise in "Conscience of the King". After seeing the ion-storm-damaged Enterprise in orbit next to the Intrepid and a freighter in "Court Martial" (why no spacedocks, by the way?) it would've been neat to see the Astral Queen, especially if she were a starliner pod to be docked to a tug of some kind.
(12: Maybe it's just the way they're rendered on the web, but the shots of the Romulans attacking the Enterprise in "The Deadly Years" look awful. I don't recall the Enterprise dropping out of warp, either. Yet she's just hanging there...
(13: One really good thing about "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is missing in the rest of the remastered eps: a bright, starry background in space. I realize that this ep is supposed to be set at the Galaxy's edge, but one thing TOS (and apparently, TOS-R as well) seems to overlook is that the starlit sky in deep space is going to be brighter than even the clearest nights on Earth. The deep space shots are way too muted.
(1: I thought what they did with "The Naked Time" was fantastic. I was really impressed. The ep was noticeably improved. There was one shortcoming, however. Despite the grainy and often discolored look of TOS' FX, the TOS-R re-makers did not do the time travel sequence justice. TOS may have been limited in FX, but relative to what Roddenberry & company did do with them, the dissolve from the Bridge to the time warp did not capture the original's sense of this being something special.
(2: I was expecting a little more umph out of the usual FX clips showing the obligatory Enterprise-on-approach, Enterprise-in-obit, Enterprise-breaking-orbit, or Enterprise-in-deep-space. The remastering crew went to the trouble of cleaning up and changing some of the images, but then they didn't bother to show any more creativity beyond that. It seems that the overwhleming majority of the images of the Enterprise show it moving along a single, flat plane all the time. Even when it banks in turns. This is hard to accept after seeing the refit Enterprise in the first six movies. One shot in "The Undiscovered Country" really stands out in my mind: it's when the Klingon cruiser swoops in to rendez-vous with the Enterprise. I can't understand why we don't see shots like that of the remastered Enterprise.
(3: I was pleased that some attention was paid to the Bridge's computer graphics in "Friday's Child" and to the Murasaki 312 phenomenon in "The Galileo Seven". One caveat, though: since the Galileo was on phaser-induced impulse power during its final flight, it would've made more sense to see Spock's booster "flare" coming from the impulse vents of the ship rather than the nacelles. Overall, though, "The Galileo Seven" was extremely impressive. The new FX gave the old girl a huge boost.
(4: I thought it was a really nice touch to make the Enterprise's nacelles look "old style", just for "Where No Man Has Gone Before". I was also surprised to see that the reverse-orbiting I.S.S. Enterprise of "Mirror, Mirror" had the same "old style" nacelles. Guess that shoots a major continuity hole in the Defiant being part of the same "mirror universe", since the Defiant seen in "The Tholian Web" looks to be the exact same vintage as the Enterprise.
(5: The shuttlecraft scenes got a huge boost from the remastering efforts in "Metamorphosis" and "The Menagerie, Part 1". This is great. I only wish they'd show some more dynamic angles on those little ships. I wonder if they'll do anything interesting with "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield".
(6: Everyone seems to be passing judgement on "The Doomsday Machine", which was good, but I think it could've been better. Another huge one for me is going to be "The Ultimate Computer". I want to see something spectacular done with those four starships... as well as the Alpha Carinae II footage and the Woden.
(7: "Bread and Circuses": Disappointing. I thought we should get a good look at the SS Beagle. The re-masterers copped out.
(8: "Where No Man Has Gone Before": while the clarity of the shots of the Enterprise is much improved, one imprefection I liked was also sterilized away: I always enjoyed that strobing image of the Enterprise in the maelstrom of the Barrier. Showing the Enterprise flailing around like that went great with the Bridge footage. Now the Barrier effect itself is too refined and the Enterprise shots in the Barrier are too ho-hum to fit in with the Bridge action.
(9: I do not see why the phaser fire shots still have to look and sound like photon torpedoes in the teaser to "Errand of Mercy". They could've changed that. In fact, they could've changed them for "Balance of Terror" as well.
(10: I know this may sound like blasphemy to some, but I do not see why some ships cannot change to distinguish themselves better in TOS-R. I thought that the new Antares looked great in "Charlie X". By that same token, I wish either the Constellation or the Exeter or the Defiant had also become a different class of starship. It would've added a little more variety. One ship that simply must change to a different design: the Aurora in "The Way to Eden". A backwards Tholian ship with nacelles doesn't cut it.
(11: I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see the Astral Queen hanging in orbit near the Enterprise in "Conscience of the King". After seeing the ion-storm-damaged Enterprise in orbit next to the Intrepid and a freighter in "Court Martial" (why no spacedocks, by the way?) it would've been neat to see the Astral Queen, especially if she were a starliner pod to be docked to a tug of some kind.
(12: Maybe it's just the way they're rendered on the web, but the shots of the Romulans attacking the Enterprise in "The Deadly Years" look awful. I don't recall the Enterprise dropping out of warp, either. Yet she's just hanging there...
(13: One really good thing about "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is missing in the rest of the remastered eps: a bright, starry background in space. I realize that this ep is supposed to be set at the Galaxy's edge, but one thing TOS (and apparently, TOS-R as well) seems to overlook is that the starlit sky in deep space is going to be brighter than even the clearest nights on Earth. The deep space shots are way too muted.
