Last night I was fliiping through the channels when I saw that an old original series Star Trek episode was on. As I hadn't seen one in a while I decided to watch.
As I started watching, I was really impressed by how crisp and clean the image was and how much detail was visible. I have just recently gotten an HDTV and the station was broadcast in digital, but it still looked good for a non-HD program. The exterior space shots looked particulary impressive.
Then I saw something that made me sit up in my chair! In this particular episode,
Tomorrow is Yesterday, the Enterprise has to fly in towards the Sun and then pull away. They showed the Enterprise flying towards the Sun and then
the Enterprise skimming over the surface of the Sun in a tight orbit ! I had no recollection of this second shot ever being in the episode.
I started paying more attention to the exterior shots for the rest of the episode and realised that there were other differences from what I remembered.
After the show ended, I got on the web to see what was up (and to reassure myself that my memory had gone south on me). Here's what I found out. They have re-released the Orginal Series on HD-DVD. The episodes have been digitally remastered, and the exterior space shots replaced with new CGI shots. The station I was watching was using the new HD-DVD episodes.
Here's a link that shows an example of the difference between the original and new up-dated exterior space shots.
STARTREK.COM: Behind Star Trek
I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the re-vamped episodes, it'll be like watching the series for new all over again.
