Star Trek (TV Series)

Premise

The skilled crew of the starship USS Enterprise explores the galaxy.

Overview

The original Star Trek series, often referred to as Classic Trek or TOS (meaning The Original Series) was a moderate success on its initial run, eventually being cancelled in its third year. The was a gap of ten years until the release of the first Star Trek film, during which time the series seemed quite dead.

Today Star Trek is legendary, ingrained in popular culture. Paramount is seeking to kick-start the franchise again with a new movie set back at the beginning, in the time of TOS, featuring the original characters played by new actors. Fan speculation about the movie is rampant, and opinion is divided on whether it is necessary to effectively rewrite Trek continuity in this way.

Trek Remastered

To enable broadcast (and eventual home release) of Star Trek in HD, the show was remastered from the original film. For a variety or reasons, CBS decided that the special effects should be updated with CG animation where possible.

Mike Okuda and a team of animators begin the daunting task of recreating every effects shot in all 79 episodes, slated to take two years. The episodes are not being remastered in broadcast order, but all will eventually be completed.

The initial plan was to simply recreate each shot to match the original as closely as possible, but as the team found their feet, more artistic license was granted. The CG model fo the Enterprise has been improved as the process continued, leading to criticism that the remastering process has been rushed. Two years spent doing effects shots for three years worth of episodes is indeed a tall order.

Record 588 - TV series - Last update 31 Oct 2007, 19:04:44

Entry written by: DiscoBurgess

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