Below are episode reviews for the newly remastered Star Trek. Review source is the HD-DVD discs. I’m reviewing them as I watch them in production order rather than airing order. After having seen The Menagerie theatrically just before the release of the first set of HD-DVDs, I was anxious to see more episodes in their new glory. Like most fans, I had initial apprehensions when they announced that they were “enhancing” the original series. Once I heard that the Mike & Denise Okuda were handling things, I let out a sigh of relief. I knew they would do things right, and from what I’ve seen so far, they have. The effects shots have been retooled with an excellent amount of restraint, trying to match the original material and intentions as best as possible. On rare occasions do they add extra flash to stuff. The shots are all quite nicely done. The remastering of the picture is breathtaking. This series has never looked anywhere near this good. The contrast and color restoration, not to mention the damage cleanup, is top notch work. The one complain I’ll make so far in regards to the HD-DVD set itself is the interactive behind-the-scenes videos that are in a handful of the episodes. My complaint is not with the content itself, but in the fact that you have to keep manually activating it. Drives me absolutely bonkers. I hate that crap. Just give me an option to always enable it, or better yet, to just watch all the extra content outside the episode in a continuous manner. The whole interactivity aspect of it is an absolute joke, and is annoying beyond belief. Anyway, on to the reviews. I’ll add to these as I sporadically watch episodes from the set. I’m hoping to do a couple a week, give or take. The number after each title is my score out of 10 for how much I like the episode.
1.02: Where No Man Has Gone Before (9/10)
After the original Trek pilot, The Cage, was rejected by NBC, this second pilot was commissioned. That second chance at life is one of the first miracles that Trek received throughout the long history of the franchise. With all of the crew replaced, with the exception of Spock, this new crew faces their first on-screen challenge. Said challenge is a mysterious power granting 2 crew members extremely enhanced ESP ability, to eventually elevate them to god-like powers. Gary Lockwood does a decent job with the guest role of Gary Mitchell, a supposed academy friend of Kirk. It’s one of many things in this pilot that would go either unmentioned again or changed over time. I doubt we’ll see Gary Mitchell in any proposed academy-based settings in the Trek franchise for Kirk. Sally Kellerman appears as Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, who suffers the same fate, but takes the higher road. The two guest performers do a good job elevating the production. The series is somewhat infamous for the break-kneck, low-budget production, but many amusing little mistakes appear in this episode. From numerous crew/equipment shadows not only in the background but also on cast members to some seriously bad stunt double matching (bad even for this show), the episode is still fun and charming. Continuity errors also appear, like James Kirk’s middle initial of R on the tombstone and other little tidbits like “lithium crystals” (as opposed to the eventual famous dilithium crystals). Few of the final cast of the series are in this pilot. Scotty has a fair amount of material, and Sulu gets in a couple brief appearances (but not at the main console). Uhura is nowhere to be seen and we have a different doctor, who is treated as more of a bit-player than what Bones would be (which is interesting, since the doctor in The Cage had a much more Bones-like role to play). And Leonard Nimoy is still toning down his performance as Spock from The Cage, where he was far too melodramatic with every line reading. He is also still wearing the “jaundice” makeup (an initial idea having to do with his green blood), which they would give up on after a few episodes. The newly remastered effects are few and far between for this story, but they are darn nice. The clean-up on the transfer is gorgeous. Like the handful of other episodes I’ve seen so far, it has never looked better. Reviewed 11/26/2007.
1.03: The Corbomite Maneuver (8/10)
The series begins to find grounding in what it would settle into. We get brief scenes of what is to come. Scenes such as Kirk & Spock strategizing with each other while teasing each other. Bones makes his first appearance, already working well as Kirk’s sounding board and friend. Uhura is now at her station, with almost no recognition so far. Yeomand Rand makes her first appearance as well, with a bit more attention paid. The Enterprise is still classified as a “United Earth” ship rather than a Federation ship. Interestingly, the opponent’s ship is from the “First Federation.” Balok is amusingly played be a VERY young Clint Howard (and overdubbed so badly that it seems like some bad kung-fu movie). And good grief, is Anthony Call doing some horrible overacting as Bailey. Ultimately, this is a first representation of the usual “Kirk facing certain doom and tricking his way out of it” plot. One amusing thing to note is that Fred Steiner’s score features a few little bits that remind me of James Horner’s score from The Wrath Of Khan. I doubt it, but I almost wonder if Horner incorporated some of it due to the similar nature of the plots. I must say that I was extremely pleased with the enhancements the VFX guys did to this episode. The exterior ship stuff is beautifully done. Consistent to the original, but cleaned up well and given some life. I also liked the subtle touches of replacing the clock and engine panel readouts. Not garish changes, but nicely cleaned up. And the picture quality is lovely thanks to the new contrast and clean-up done. All in all, a pretty good episode with some fantastic remastering and visual effects work. Definitely a good example of what they can do to keep this series alive. Reviewed 12/03/2007.
1.04: Mudd’s Women (7/10)
What can one say about the outlandish Harcourt Fenton Mudd? This is Trek bordering more on the playful and humorous than the dramatic, though it does still follow through on a morally driven subplot. We get some more early-episode kinds of trivial bits, like the fact that the dilitium crystals are still called lithium. In terms of story, this is an episode that features plot elements that would be seen in later episodes, both original series and franchise sequel series. The concept of aging is a favorite topic of sci-fi, and had featured in an earlier episode, even this soon into the run (Where No Man Has Gone Before). In this case, it’s far more about vanity than anything else. As always, the show goes out of its way to attempt “glamour shots” of the women on screen. Another couple Trek staple elements show up in this one, such as the need to bargain with the “locals” or some planet or another for some various resource, as well as the story element of Kirk having to have some kind of stand-off with a dastardly passenger. So, while this episode doesn’t break a whole lot of new narrative ground, it does lend itself to being a bit more playful than past episodes, if only for brief moments. Yeah, we still get the moral of the story (”it’s inside that counts”) and so on. Overall, not a bad episode. We’ll get to see Harry Mudd turn up again (heck, even in animated form). There’s now a whole lot of newly mastered shots in this episode, but what they did do is well done. Stuff like the asteroid belt and the planet surface are punched up a bit. Guess they didn’t feel the need to do some CGI plastic surgery on Mudd’s Women… Reviewed 12/18/2007.
1.05: The Enemy Within (9/10)
How can one not love this episode? I mean, come on, EVIL CAPTAIN KIRK! Yes, this is the first of the staple “evil twin” genre of sci-fi for Trek. This early entry relies on a transporter accident, not the as-yet-discovered Mirror Universe concept, which would serve future Trek series well. Heck, this is hardly the last “transporter accident” driven plot that we’ll see, in both the Trek franchise or the original series. One thing is for darn sure, Shatner really gets to play things over the top in this one. His diabolical performance as the evil Kirk is too much fun. Still, he actually does a pretty good job with the “good Kirk” character, with the slowly lowering sense of authority and strength. Shatner does his darnedest to make sure that the audience knows which Kirk it is that’s on screen. Sometimes that means clubbing the audience over the head, in ways that would surely be thought of as needless on a modern series. Then again, this is the era of “reality TV,” so I don’t put anything past the stupidity of the audience. Then again, we’re talking about the science fiction audience, so I’m sure there’s no need. Quite the contrary, actually. Rand gets to play a fairly significant role in this episode (heck, even the victim of a rape attempt - though they would stop short of actually calling it that in a 60’s series). Ultimately, I think the most laughable element of this episode is the evil dog. And as far as standard story elements go, we get to have the “away team stranded on the surface” subplot in this one. Of course I do the same thing as every Trek viewer when they watch this episode. I shout, “send down a shuttlecraft for crying out loud!” It’s quite the oversight on the part of the writers - if for no other reason than for them to at least tossed in one line explaining why it wasn’t possible. We know that it’s the drama of the transporter not working that’s stranding the away team, and that they need it for the plot. Then of course there’s the very small matter of them having yet to invent the shuttlecraft for the show (one had yet to appear or be mentioned). As for remastering, this episode is very light in the tweaks department. Of course it has gone through the usual contrast and defect clean-up, and looks great as a result. Visual effects changes are pretty much just some work on the planet surface, as well as some of the stock “Enterprise in orbit” shots. Overall, this is an infamous episode, if for no other reason than Shatner’s over-the-top Evil Kirk performance. Reviewed 12/30/2007.
1.06: The Man Trap (8/10)
We get another Trek staple in this episode, that of the alien creature simply out to survive. The appearance here of said plot is somewhat unique in the fact that it doesn’t have the typically Trek style ending to such a story, where our crew comes to an understanding with the creature. In this one, the creature is actually killed, which is certainly something Trek fans have taken objection to, in not holding with the Roddenberry ideals of the show. Not only that, but it’s Dr. McCoy who kills it. Speaking of McCoy, this episode has the distinction of being the only episode to show his quarters, oddly enough. We also get a little bit more of the trademark Trek “actor playing multiple roles in a shot” kind of scene, particularly with McCoy. Then there’s another favorite Trek staple, which would later come to be known at the “red shirt rule.” We’ve got multiple Starfleet personnel beaming down on the away team without or main cast members, which of course results in their timely deaths. It’s the only reason they bring these extra crew members on away teams, of course. This episode suffers a little bit in the production department, such as the audio recording down on the planet being less than ideal, with blatently obvious studio echo being heard in the voices. In terms of the new HD remastering, this episode doesn’t have a whole lot of changes, but the ones that are there are done well. Stuff like the planet surface being redone (but still looking very much like a classic Trek planet set) are very well done. And of course, there are the random shots of the Enterprise that have been reworked. Overall, a pretty good episode. It’s certainly one that fits comfortably into the Trek style of the classic series, despite stuff like the killing of the creature. This episode did have the distinction of being the first one to actually air (many theorize this on the more straight-forward aspects of the plot). Reviewed 2/20/2008.
