Star Trek: The Original Series to Get CGI Enhancements

The thought of doing this occurred to me some time ago, but it’s official: CBS Paramount has announced that newly remastered episodes of The Original Series in HD, with digital upgrades, will begin broadcasting on September 16 (just two days away from September 18, the day TOS premiered on NBC in 1966). I love The Original Series. I grew up with it on TV in reruns in the 80s—Channel 12 out of Portland, Oregon. Mmm. Yes, those were the days. I can’t wait to see what they do with these episodes! The announcement at startrek.com says:

The most noticeable change will be redoing many of the special effects, created with 1960s technology, with 21st century computer-generated imagery (CGI). Upgrades include:

• Space ship exteriors – The Enterprise, as well as other starships, will be replaced with state of the art CGI-created ships. The new computer-generated Enterprise is based on the exact measurements of the original model, which now rests in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
• Show opening – The Enterprise and planets seen in the main title sequence will be redone, giving them depth and dimension for the first time.
• Galaxy shots – All the graphics of the galaxy, so frequently seen through the viewscreen on the Enterprise’s bridge, will be redone.
• Exteriors – The battle scenes, planets and ships from other cultures (notably the Romulan Bird of Prey and Klingon Battle Cruisers) will be updated.
• Background scenes – Some of the iconic, yet flat, matte paintings used as backdrops for the strange, new worlds explored by the Enterprise crew will get a CGI face-lift, adding atmosphere and lighting.

This has the potential to be really cool, and it could solve some problems and infelicities in the series. For example:

1. The USS Constellation in “The Doomsday Machine.” The forty-year problem of its unacceptably low registry number (NCC-1017) can finally be fixed on the CG model. Further, the CG model can look more like the Enterprise (instead of the cheap, inaccurate, 1967-vintage AMT/Ertl model originally used).
2. The multiplicity of Constitution-class starships. In the first-season episode, “Tomorrow Is Yesterday,” we are told by Captain Kirk that there are only twelve starships like the Enterprise in Starfleet. Yet in every episode that we see another Federation starship, it’s a Constitution-class vessel like the Enterprise. Now, the Federation is supposed to be around two thousand light years in diameter, and yet there are only twelve Constitution-class starships to cover it. (Assuming that the Federation is a sphere of radius 1,000 light-years, that would make an average of one Constitution-class starship per 350,000,000 cubic light-years!) Yet we only ever see Constitution-class vessels (in “The Doomsday Machine,” “The Ultimate Computer,” “The Omega Glory,” and in “The Tholian Web”). So, why not make one or two of the four starships seen in “The Ultimate Computer” into something else besides Constitution-class vessels? How about some TOS-era version of the Miranda class, or some of Franz Joseph Schnaubelt’s designs, or the excellent work of Masao Okazaki (especially the Early Federation Wing)? For that matter, there is no special reason for the Exeter in “The Omega Glory” to be Constitution-class. Maybe it could be something else.
3. Unseen starships. In “Charlie X,” we never saw the USS Antares. Maybe they could show it alongside the Enterprise at the beginning of the episode, like Captain Kirk’s log entry indicates. Also, how about showing some Starfleet ships in orbit over Starbase 11, perhaps in drydock facilities, in “The Menagerie” or “Court-Martial?” Or how about the Astral Queen in orbit above Planet Q in “The Conscience of the King?” How about some other ships hanging around Deep Space K-7 in “The Trouble With Tribbles?”
4. Unfortunate use of the SS Botany Bay miniature in “The Ultimate Computer.” It’s hard to believe that the ore freighter SS Woden would look identical to the two hundred–year-old SS Botany Bay. Let’s make a new CGI model.
5. The vague or silly appearance of certain ships. In “Mudd’s Women,” Harry Mudd had a J-class cargo ship which looked like—well, a breast implant. In Star Trek: Enterprise, the J-class cargo ship has a more defined and realistic appearance. Also, the Klingon scout ship in “Friday’s Child” looks like a finned Flash Gordon craft. And then, in “The Way to Eden,” the SS Aurora is an obvious kitbash of the Tholian cruiser with the support pylons of the Klingon D7 battlecruiser and a pair of Enterprise-style warp nacelles. All of these could be corrected with CG.
6. Uniform insignias in “Court-Martial” (and perhaps “The Tholian Web”). In “Court-Martial,” in the bar scene where Captain Kirk meets some old friends from the Academy, they all wear the Enterprise’s arrowhead emblem on their uniforms. But in other episodes (and in other parts of this episode), it is established that each vessel has its own emblem, as well as starbase personnel. With CGI, we can give these people different emblems. Also, the dead crewmembers of the USS Defiant in “The Tholian Web” all wore Enterprise emblems, although it’s never clearly visible on any of them. Those could be corrected, too.

More things could be done to enhance continuity and add flavor to the Star Trek universe of TOS, I’m sure. I would love to have this set of episodes on DVD or HD-DVD or BlueRay—but I’m glad I have the original, unaltered series on DVD, too.

Update: Here’s a proof-of-concept.

tags: star trek, scifi, science fiction, cgi, television, tv, tos, original series