Space, the final CGI frontier.....

[patgund]

Seems in both the mid 90's and again in 2003, Paramount tinkered with the idea of "updating" Star Trek - The Original Series, with modern CGI and special effects.

The results, for both concepts, are surprisingly good.

http://www.screenhead.com/funny/clips/star-trek-enhanced-183109.php

There's more eye candy in the mid 90's video, but tighter intergration in the 2003 version.

I could see Paramount, (if they were smart, and we know better), doing these as a video release, with the original on one disk and the enhanced version on another. Just as long as people had a choice on which version to watch.

On edit: Also http://www.trekenhanced.com/

Comments

[jkusters]

As I recall, the second video was definitely a fan rework. I remember a site that had that exact video offered up as their own work. I would guess the first video is also fan work. I do not believe that either is from Paramount at all.

JOhn.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

According to the site, the 2003 work was at least semi-official and used as pitch material for Paramount. It got though three layers of meetings before Paramount executives said "we reviewed something like this years ago, decided we weren't interested then, so we're not interested now".

[firedrake-mor.livejournal.com]

Gee, Rob Caves does FX more complex at Hidden Frontier . . . which can be seen on several of your ABC outlets this very day -- I just wish we knew more precisely when.

It's an interesting thought, but I can see why they wouldn't be interested. Now, if they could take the library of shots of the various characters and create CGI characters and new episodes, THEN they might have something, but De Kelley and Jimmy Doohan would create event horizons spinning in their respective graves.

[ismarc.livejournal.com]

This was nice. It's very delicate work, which is a tribute to the effects artist(s). It's the restraint that really marks a talented individual. Though I must confess that the "Horn O' Plenty" in the 90s version was a little overworked (what's with the green horns?)... it was beautiful in the more recent clip. I did like the impulse engine effect in the 90s clip.

Also, I noticed a bit of audio enhancement in the 90s clip (only in the CGI scenes), perhaps even a bit too much as I had the volume turned down to very low levels and the sub-woofer was still going nuts. Nevertheless, it is nice to see "enhancers" not neglecting sound, which in it's own subtle way, is more important than the visuals. It took Hollywood years to realize this and I used to go insane when I'd see poor treatment of sound back when I was working as a sound engineer.

I'd love to see the whole series get this treatment... but then Paramount just doesn't give a shit. Trek is nothing more than a cash cow to them. Until someone who gives a shit purchases the franchise don't expect much.

[loli-cat.livejournal.com]

Personally I can't see the problem Paramount has with this - they have the Trek fanbase that will virtually guarantee sales and it appears to be simple enough to do within a reasonable budget. Since they've been treating Trek as a cash cow since Roddenberry's death, I'd think they'd jump right on this what with it's guaranteed income stream and all...