Star Trek for the last 40 years has been a domineering force in regards to helping not only the progression of the Science Fiction Genre when it comes to Television, but has also been the pioneer in many technical aspects, not least of which is visual FX and 3D Animation as well as having helped launch CGI as a viable way to produce FX that can almost pass for the real thing.
As a result of progress the original series began to look a little dated in regards to much of the special FX shots and though the actual story lines and plots of the original series remain as true today as they always have, the visual quality of many of the old FX shots were showing signs of age. So it was decided late last year that the series would benefit from having many of its special FX shots redone using all the latest technology and a team comprising of David Rossi, Michael and Denise Okuda and a few others was put together in an effort too update the look of the original show in the hopes of introducing it to a younger audience as well as amazing the older fans.
The latest episode to be upgraded is the classic story, which introduced viewers to Spock’s parents Ambassador Sarek, (played by the late Mark Lenard) and Amanda who was (played by the late Jane Wyatt). The press release, which talks about the episode reads:
The Starship Enterprise hosts an explosive gathering of interstellar
diplomats in "Journey to Babel," an episode of Star Trek Remastered,
premiering nationwide during the weekend of February 3, 2007. "Journey
to Babel" is regarded by many fans as a pivotal episode of the series,
introducing Mark Lenard as Ambassador Sarek, Spock's father, and Jane
Wyatt as Amanda, Spock's human mother. In the episode, an alien spy
nearly kills Captain Kirk (William Shatner), putting Spock (Leonard
Nimoy) in temporary command of the Starship Enterprise while the ship
comes under deadly attack. The situation pits Spock's logical duty to
his ship against his all-too-human desire to reconnect with his dying
father.
It also goes on to explain about some of the inspiration behind updating this episode that wasn’t renowned for any grand scale action sequences.
Although most of the episode takes place on the Starship Enterprise,
D.C. Fontana's script afforded the visual effects artists at CBS
Digital the opportunity to show off the Enterprise's shuttlecraft
hangar deck with an all-new shuttle landing sequence. They also
reimagined the mysterious alien raider ship. In the original 1967
version of the episode, budget limitations forced the show's effects
team to use a simple spinning wheel of light to represent the attacking
spacecraft. For the 2007 remastered edition, digital artists remained
faithful to the original effect, but embellished it by creating an
ingenious ship design that used the spinning lights as a powerful alien
propulsion system. Finally, this episode offered one of the original
show's only glimpses of Spock's homeworld, Vulcan, as seen from space.
As you can see by the pictures on the right there has been some fantastic work done here in order to update the look of this episode. Note that if you would like to view a bigger version of the pictures all you have to do is click on the smaller images in order to load a copy of the full size image in a separate window.
Also do not forget to make a date for this episode which premiers on February 3, 2007.
It's so good to see that after all these years this old show has allot to offer still.
