Updated Trek

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will the BBC ever show the new version?

Seems as good a place as any to post some thoughts on the remastered season 1

The HD-DVD/DVD combo box set arrived yesterday. First off, another triumph for Star Trek and its "Stupid Packaging" trend. This time the discs come in the usual plastic "stack" inside a cardboard sleeve which, in turn, is housed inside a clear plastic box, hinged at the bottom, which I'm guessing is supposed to look like a transporter pad. Seeing as the 10 discs are all double-sided (HD-DVD one side, regular DVD the other) this means that, when you slide the stack out of the sleeve, there's a good chance that the exposed side of disc 1 may get damaged in some way. I was also somewhat non-plussed to find that there was no booklet included but a set of five plastic cards with an image on one side and a listing of the contents of two discs (per card) on the reverse. Very strange decision.

On the plus side the box is considerably smaller than previous Trek releases. But, as far as the packaging goes, that's the only plus.

I only had time to watch a couple of episodes, so I was picky. I didn't want to watch The Man Trap, it's not one of my favourites. So I decided to start at the beginning (as far as what's available here goes) and went for Where No Man Has Gone Before. After a few seconds trying to figure out which was the HD-DVD side of the first disc I put it in the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive and sat back, preparing myself to be hyper-critical (bearing in mind that I'd only seen a few minutes of the remastered Balance of Terror before, and then on a ropey download)

Things didn't get off to a good start. I immediately realised that the tv settings for my 360 are quite different from those I use on regular tv and other AV inputs. Shatner's face was too red and Nimoy's was two green. After pausing and messing around with the settings for a minute I put them back where they were and switched the tv to "cinema" mode. Perfect. Almost too perfect, in fact. Suddenly I could see every pore and tiny wrinkle on Kirk's face. The advantage of the series being committed to film, rather than tape. Shatner will definitely not be happy with the level of detail that HD-DVD brings out

Then the re-jigged opening credits. Shatner's voiceover started and the cgi Enterprise swoops onto screen. Oh dear. The picture froze. I think this is more to do with the idiosyncracies of the 360's HD-DVD drive than anything else. Fast-forwarding a couple of seconds then scanning back seemed to cure the problem.

So to my main bug-bear with these remasters - the new special effects. Some of them are good, some of them - to be frank - are worse than the originals, which is inexcusable. I'm wondering how much of this is to do with them jumping around between seasons, picking and choosing episodes, and then suddenly realising they had to do the whole of season 1 for this release and therefore rushing the process on some episodes. There's one shot near the start of the episode, as the Enterprise is limping away from the energy barrier, where the starship looks like a plastic model being dragged across a black mat by a piece of string. At least the original effects can be viewed with affection and a deal of admiration for what was accomplished at the time. This just feels clunky, cheap and amateurish.

However, when they're good they are actually quite decent. The encounter with the energy barrier is done very effectively, for instance. But, after over 30 years of watching this series I can't help but find them jarring and intrusive. And unnecessary. Were it not for the next paragraph I would say this was just change for change's sake.

But the remastered live action footage looks absolutely stunning. Whilst I couldn't do a side-by-side comparison between the two sides of the disc, I did dig out my original dvd set and load up this episode, paused it at a particular point, then did the same with the new set, and flicked between the two inputs on my tv. As you'd expect from HD-DVD, the picture is pin sharp (when they're not employing the good old soft-focus approach to make Shatner look younger...), the colours are vivid and beautiful, and the level of detail on show is jaw-dropping. I've never seen the show looking this good. And you have to remember that my regular dvd player was upscaling the original image to 1080p as well. Tbh, that sold the whole, erm, enterprise to me. Couple that with the remastered Dolby TrueHD soundtrack and a creditable rerecording of the theme tune and I can just about look past the new effects.

With that episode out of the way I decided to watch another and delve into some of the interactive features. So I went for Balance of Terror. I turned on the Starfleet Access option. This is only available on selected episodes. It brings up various icons - at the side of the screen as the episode progresses - which cover a number of categories including science, races, technology etc. Select the icon and it shrinks the main image and pops up text and images relating to whichever subject you chose. There's also an option called "Genesis" (haha) which sends the main episode image into a box on the lefthand side of the screen (where it keeps playing) whilst bringing up another box on the righthand side where various Trek personnel share their recollections. The Okuda's popped up a lot, as did DC Fontana, David Gerrold and some other guy who was involved with the new effects. Basically it worked like a regular audio commentary at selected points in the episode, but with the added "bonus" of being able to see the participants. All very flash and showy but hardly necessary and a "watch once and forget" kind of experience. Those involved didn't really divulge any new information either. As an example of what HD-DVD can do, though, it is quite impressive and is the sort of thing that will no doubt become more involved as the technology progresses.

I'm not sure I can honestly say that another £80 on another box set of a show that I have already owned in various formats about three times beforehand is worth it. Okay, it really isn't worth it. But if you have an HD-DVD player you'd really be missing out if you don't at least rent it. I'm so impressed with the quality of the picture and sound that there's no doubt in my mind that I'll get the other two seasons as well. It's served to remind me why, for me, this is the only real Star Trek

So now I have to do a full rewatch

Brent Spiner Interview


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And it took a huge special effects team to do it.

And it took a huge special effects team to do it.

Crikey, you're just commenting on something I wrote over 4 years ago

I'd forgotten I even had HD-DVD, and now I've got all three seasons on blu-ray

I suppose it should be mentioned that, on the blu-rays, you can seamlessly switch back to the original effects if you don't like the cgi versions, which is great. I can't remember whether or not you could do that on the HD-DVDs. I definitely prefer what they have done with the effects on the TNG blu-rays.

And it took a huge special effects team to do it.

Crikey, you're just commenting on something I wrote over 4 years ago

Was I around 4 years ago ?

If I was, I was working on my response.

And it took a huge special effects team to do it.

Crikey, you're just commenting on something I wrote over 4 years ago

Was I around 4 years ago ?

If I was, I was working on my response.

Should've waited another 4 years and worked a bit harder

And it took a huge special effects team to do it.

Crikey, you're just commenting on something I wrote over 4 years ago

Was I around 4 years ago ?

If I was, I was working on my response.

Should've waited another 4 years and worked a bit harder

I never said I was working hard. Or at all.

And it took a huge special effects team to do it.

Crikey, you're just commenting on something I wrote over 4 years ago

Was I around 4 years ago ?

If I was, I was working on my response.

Should've waited another 4 years and worked a bit harder

I never said I was working hard. Or at all.

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Not a bad idea.

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