Star Trek: Enhanced.

[lars573]

It's the same basic concept that you see in the Star Wars original trilogies special edition, but using the original series of Star Trek. Replace all the old Visual effects with modern CG ones. In this case 100% of the exterior shots of the Enterprise and space. Plus the view screen, transporters, and phasers on the interior shots.

Here is what has been done. It's the first act (including the opening credits) of "The doomsday machine." On youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9XHmj-dPEY

The creators site. http://www.trekenhanced.com/

This might actually make the TOS watchable, if Paramount ever had the brains to do it. Even if was only as a DVD release.

[Reverend Joe]

No... no... no, no, no, noone could possibly... they couldn't... nobody could have that much time... and...

*views video*

NONONONONONONO THEY DID IT! THE IDIOTS ACTUALLY DID IT!

[Kanamori]

I'm glad my dad still has the seasons of ToS on Beta tapes and that he kept his old beta players hidden away... Old movies aren't better remade! The new effects mixed w/ the obvious older elements, like the technology that the crew uses, looks and feels terrible.

[English assassin]

This is a crime against retro.

[Red Peasant]

*underwhelmed*

[The_Doctor]

I remember those doomsday things from Star Fleet Command, you had to beam special mines into them to kill them before they destroyed Earth.

I crashed into Earth and bounced off it.

[Vladimir]

Oh yea, old Star Trek. Does anyone think the "Crawling" video was cool? Huh? Anybody? Just me I guess

[Gregoshi]

I thought it looked pretty good but it didn't really add anything to the show. It was just fine with the (now) cheesy 60's special effects technology.

Vlad, I thought the Crawling video was pretty good too. The Picard Techno was very creative and funny though the distorted audio was sometimes hard to make out. One of Picard's speeches enhanced to music starting between the 1:00 to 1:30 mark was especially hysterical.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

TOS=awesome

All other Star Trek series=Dreadful, despite much better effects.

Therefore, I think we can conclude that TOS does not need to be remade.

[Big_John]

i'll agree that ToS should not be remade.. but only because you can't polish a turd. i mean, it's good for a few laughs here and there, and some of the laughs are provided by the "special" "effects". so updating those only decreases the "entertainment" "value".

[lars573]

TOS=awesome

All other Star Trek series=Dreadful, despite much better effects.

Therefore, I think we can conclude that TOS does not need to be remade.

No you got it backwards.

TOS=crappy, and unwatchable.

All other Star Trek=great, even Enterprise. All are better than TOS though.

THEY DID IT! THE IDIOTS ACTUALLY DID IT!

Idiot actually. This is all one mans labour of love. I really hope that Paramount actually goes for it some time in the future.

[Geoffrey S]

I only really disliked TNG and bits of DS9, though the latter did have very good episodes too. I really enjoyed later Voyager episodes ("coincidentally" after they get 7 of 9? ) and I was enjoying the Enterprise series a lot before it got taken off dutch TV.

TOS I watched when I was younger, and hence I may remember it differently than I'd view it now. It was enjoyable, but I wasn't ever tempted to watch it more recently.

That Doomsday Machine episode was great though, as was the one when some tactical computer takes over Enterprise and goes on a rampage.

This upgrade though isn't that great; I mean it's better than the old effects, but really more nineties tv quality than anything you'd want to see today. Looks too rendered; also hated the constant fading, though I'm not certain if that was present in the original or not.

[Reverend Joe]

The original was funny as hell. Trying to make it serious-looking removes any possible reason for watching it.

Hell, while we're at it, why not update "The Time Tunnel" and "Land of the Giants" as well?

These series are made for stoners. You scifi nerds can keep your pretentious, shallow storylines and CGI.

[lancelot]

TOS=awesome

All other Star Trek series=Dreadful, despite much better effects.

Therefore, I think we can conclude that TOS does not need to be remade.

Blasphemy! DS9 was awsome! Best. Trek. Ever.


EDIT: Just watched the video...very well done, although I wish they'd shut that giant canary up!

[Vladimir]

DS9 was a breath of fresh air (or fire) compared to the relative gayness of the first seasons of TNG. I mean season after season of building up to a huge war for your survival...friggin great! I wasn't able to watch it much once the war kicked off but it was more a manly man's type of, umm, geeky show. Voyager was limp-wristed by comparison and Enterprise was weak and uninspiring. Maybe I'm just too much of a cowboy but when you venture into the vast unknown for the first time you need to carry a swagger. Enterprise had more of a power walk.

[Ser Clegane]

DS9 was awsome! Best. Trek. Ever.

Completely agree
- best overarching storyline
- best characters (those were really "round" characters), including a very rich group of supporting characters
- best actors

I like TOS, but most episodes are best watched with some friend to cherish fond memories and to get the giggles

[Navaros]

DS9 is indeed the best Trek show, followed by TOS. I agree that the other ones (TNG, VOY, ENT) suck really bad.

TOS' effects still hold up just fine today in my view. Except for the exterior Enterprise view, which is indeed very painful to watch. I wouldn't mind that being updated. As for all the other TOS effects being updated: unneeded as they still look great as is.

[BDC]

Voyager's terrible scripts and appauling acting annoyed me. Clearly the only thing worse than a blue screen to act against is a cardboard spaceship.

[Gregoshi]

Well, apparently the enhanced original series is a reality: Paramount Confirms and it is coming - at least in the US - starting on September 16th to 200 TV stations.

[rasoforos]

I like bad special effects...which is why I love 70-80's doctor who.

Imagine the Daleks...if you can conquer the univers with 4 wheels and a toilet plunger then you must be extremely powerful indeed....

...or in Trek, if your mysterious enemy can pulversise you into stardust, just by one of his cardboard made spaceships! That is much scarier and worrying than a sleek big metalic spaceship or a borg cube!


I personally believe that the reason that Star Trek is failing as a series is that they have wondered off too much from the original:

1) Instead of the brave new world style of the original we are now getting a 'soap opera in space' like stroyline...

2) Where is the sexist attitude? The blondes with with the extra short skirts? Most importantly WHERE ARE ALL THE GREEN WOMEN?! I miss captain Kirk's 'we probably come in peace, take us to your women' attitude...

3) Power ratios. It seems that while the original enterprise and the early NG one could more often than not pack enough power to kick some borg/ferenghi/romulan/klingon butt to outer space, the later series (Voyager, Enterprise) kept us on the weak spot. People are tired of us humans having to talk our way out of situations to avoid a doomed battle...

4) Where are all the green women?


5) WHERE ARE ALL THE GREEN WOMEN?



...perhaps we should just enhance the later series to add more green women and shorten the skirts (I still havent forgiven the NG director for disposing of Deana Troy's short skirt uniform after the first two episodes...)

What do u think?

[Beirut]

Leave Star Trek as it was. The classics do not require being reworked. What next, sound in Chaplin movies? Colour in Casablanca. Blasphemy!

By the by, all Star Trek is good. There may be some bad episodes, but all the series were excellent. Never saw much Enterprise, though, so I can't say much about that one, but TOS, ST:TNG, DS9 and Voyager were all excellent!

[Mikeus Caesar]

This might actually make the TOS watchable

WHAT YOU SAY!?

TOS is watchable as it is! Heck, TOS is probably the best of the Star Treks!

Which reminds me, the Sci-Fi channel (in Britain) is having a Star Trek Marathon this week to celebrate it's 40th birthday.

All this week, Sci-fi channel will show nothing but TOS.

I'd better assemble the Star Trek fanclub for this, even though it consists of me and two of my friends, with whom we regularly about which series was better - Voyager, DS9 or TOS.

[lars573]

I hate the writing and direction of TOS. Hamfisted morality lessons about the cold war suck.

Leave Star Trek as it was. The classics do not require being reworked. What next, sound in Chaplin movies? Colour in Casablanca. Blasphemy!

This project has been green lighted. It's on, there doing it now. They've already done it to the first movie and possibly Wrath of Khan (not sure on that). They also talk of doing it to TNG.

[Gregoshi]

Those of us in the US will find out what these changes do to the original show in just two weeks. I suppose we will be seeing commercials for the enhanced version very soon.

I'm not going to try to prejudge this until I see it. I was not really moved one way or the other by the "proof of concept" sample of The Doomsday Machine episode that lars provided to start this thread. While the special effects may have wowed us back in the 60's, I think it was the stories that kept the series popular since then. I will be curious to see fan reaction to the changes. This may turn into an old Coke/new Coke thing - the new may be "better", but not enough to overcome the blasphemy of messing with the original recipe.

[CBR]

Deep Space Nine.. I could never get past the feeling that it was a badly done rip-off of Babylon 5, which remains my favorite sci-fi series of all time.

Hm didnt DS9 start before B5? But anyway B5 is certainly my favorite sci-fi show too


CBR

[lancelot]

Wow.. looks like I'm in the minority for greatly enjoying Enterprise. The Next Generation was the best, though.

Deep Space Nine.. I could never get past the feeling that it was a badly done rip-off of Babylon 5, which remains my favorite sci-fi series of all time.

Enterprise was just getting good when they cancelled it...I bet a 5th season would have let the show pick up.

Didnt DS9 come out before B5? Regardless, it was about a thousand times better than B5 (in SFX alone)

[Sir Moody]

Bab 5 was a far better than any star trek, basically for the same reasons Deep space 9 was one of the best Star treks - It was dark brooding and FAR more believable than Star treks "everything will be alright" future...

It had proper politics (with one side manipulating the other more often than not), it had humans who didn't act like saints - you watch an episode of Bab 5 and you see all of humanities vices played out and yes while the graphics were not the best (hell they were animated on Amiga's (I'm not joking)) the story was so well thought out and integrated with the entire show it didn't matter.

but back on topic the series doesn't need better graphics it was IMO the worst star trek because the plot lines and stories were so ham fisted and poorly written... that said my favorite ever star trek was Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan so its not the actors - just the crappy plots

[Mikeus Caesar]

For those who say DS9 is one of the best, thank you for sharing my opinion.

I mean, come on, good characters, brilliant plot lines, large scale galactic warfare - what more could you ask for?

All it was missing was a giant space amoeba.

[doc_bean]

I mean, come on, good characters, brilliant plot lines, large scale galactic warfare - what more could you ask for?

Decent pacing ?

[lancelot]

Bab 5 was a far better than any star trek, basically for the same reasons Deep space 9 was one of the best Star treks - It was dark brooding and FAR more believable than Star treks "everything will be alright" future...

It had proper politics (with one side manipulating the other more often than not), it had humans who didn't act like saints - you watch an episode of Bab 5 and you see all of humanities vices played out and yes while the graphics were not the best (hell they were animated on Amiga's (I'm not joking)) the story was so well thought out and integrated with the entire show it didn't matter.

DS9 had all that dark broody stuff in abundence...galactic war, rouge agencies that betray the very principles of the Federation, tricking states into war...800 million person genocide of Cardassia...plenty dark for any sci-fi series.

So much so that Rodeberry's widow complained that Trek had moved to far away from the 'Perfect future' Rodenberry had envisioned.