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How Good Is The Remastered Star Trek?

At a time when Star Trek had been aired so often that prints were scratched, hazy and dull, Paramount/CBS figured it was time to re-engineer the original series (TOS) by restoring the original master negatives, increasing the quality of the images and re-recording the background music. Then they decided to take a further step and replace the aging FX shots with digital CGI effects.

All this was spurred on by the appearance of High Definition DVDs in the consumer marketplace. A year ago (late 2007), there was an arms escalation between the two competing High-Def formats: HDDVD and Blu-Ray. Neither side seemed to appeal more than the other to the consumer. All that changed early this year when Warner Bros. finally decided to exclusively support the Blu-ray format.

Part of HDDVD’s arsenal, though, was the release of the remastered series one of Star Trek: The Original Series. Toshiba, who were backing HDDVD, invested a sizeable amount of money into the remastering project and the release of the remastered Star Trek series was heavily promoted.

All the original series of Star Trek were shot on film which is inherently a high-definition, high-contrast medium. It was also shot using filmatic techniques. More recent series of Star Trek such as Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager were all shot using video, an inherently low-to-medium definition, non-high-contrast medium. In addition, Next Generation especially, was recorded using low-contrast lighting that was in vogue at the time. The outcome of this is that it’s not very likely that any of these series will ever appear in high definition on Blu-Ray. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Original Series does make an appearance on Blu-Ray at some point in the future.

Ok, so what are my impressions of the Remastered Series?

To begin with, it looks gorgeous in High Def. The 4:3 aspect ratio has been kept and the prints are exceptionally clean and crisp. Contrast has been boosted somewhat so images have more punch. The only downside I can see is the common criticism levelled at high definition: too much detail is apparent! For instance on the HDDVD you can see the zippers on the cast’s shirts.

The HDDVD release featured a High-Definition version on one side and standard definition on the other side (so it plays in a normal DVD player). Both sides have a good set of extras with little material being repeated.

Now the rest of this review will look at the standard definition DVD releases of the remastered series.

A few months ago, the first series of the Remastered Star Trek was made available in a standard DVD edition. in the meantime, the second series has been released and the third series of TOS will become available in November. If you already have a copy of the previously released version of the series on DVD (without remastered special effects and music), is there a good reason to acquire yet another edition of Star Trek?

For me, having grown up watching the series, I just had to get the HDDVD version. I was more interested in the quality of the image and the show looking as clean and pristine as it did straight out of the camera in the 1960s. I was somewhat dubious about the new CGI animations replacing old ship and other special effects shots and whether they’d be intrusive. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The effects do make the show even better, giving it a more immersive quality and lending a more realistic feel to the alien landscapes.

All the effects shots were done inhouse by CBS (who now own the rights to the TV series). While, for the most part, they’ve done an outstanding job, a few ship FX look plasticy rather than like hammered metal. The company that did the {effects for Enterprise~I believe the company that created the effects for Enterprise} were originally slated to create the Star Trek FX but they turned out to be too expensive and so CBS did the effects inhouse instead.

The thing that makes the remastered series so great is that they aren’t trying to alter or re-imagine the episodes (for better or worse). There’s no “look at what we can do” attitude here. Instead what they’ve done is clean the show up and presented it exactly as it was originally meant to be, musical note for note, shot for shot. The musical score has been re-recorded completely, but apart from it now being crystal clear (and in 5.1 Dolby Digital) you’d never know it. FX shots of the Enterprise have been rendered with CGI, but it’s hard to tell any difference (except on rare occassions), and it now looks brilliant instead of worn out, washed out and incredibly grainy. The new CGI effects fit seamlessly amongst the original live-action footage. Remember those black matte lines, especially around ships orbiting planets? They’re gone. And Fuzzy prints? They are also a thing of the past. The colors are brighter, the shadows are deeper and Star Trek has never looked so beautiful.

Like I said previously, I was dubious about a version of Star Trek that replaced spacecraft models with computer generated images or tampered with the originally recorded background music. But what they’ve done here is so faithful, that there’s nothing that you can do but applaud their efforts. It’s obvious that the work has been carried out by people who love the series. It’s just a shame it’s not being put to better use. Paramount has declined to air this new version in high-def, even though they now have the capability to do it. Combine that with how difficult they’re making it to see it on cable and satellite, and I just don’t see any reason for bothering with it on television.

Better to beam this pristine version of one of TV’s most venerable and classic shows onto DVD at warp speed. And if you bought into HDDVD and don’t have the Remastered HDDVD, pick that one up instead. You won’t be disappointed.

Star Trek Movie (2009) – Trailer 1 / Trailer 2 / Trailer 3 / Tv spot