Do you think Greedo will shoot first here too?

So apparently today is the official 40 year anniversary of Star Trek, and whether Goose likes it or not, the Lodge needs to give props. This impact of Trek is huge and is not really something I even need to explain. There are two Trek-related topics I wanted to cover that I think the lodge may actually be interested in, so here's the first...

Star Trek: Special Editions

It was recently announced that CBS Video was going to be prepping The Original Series of Star Trek (From this point on referred to as TOS) for HD. The episodes will be released throughout the next coming year in sydication (Channel 11 will be the first station to have them in Washington State). Included in this restoration project they also decided to update many of the effects, as well as a handful of other cosmetic changes. Here's what to expect:

• Re-recorded Music
• A remastered image in HD
• New Special effects for the Space shots
• A new opening
• "Atmosphere" alterations to scenes that take place on planets.
• Various other "fixes" to effects that didn't work on the original show (i.e. there's an episode where Scotty uses a phaser, only the phaser beam doesn't show up)

You can get a further idea of some of the changes with this video file.

The producers of the project have stressed that they are not changing anything that would affect the plot, or be too distracting to the episode. They are leaving in many of the little blemishes that give the original series it's charm. You'll still see the zippers on various space monsters, the bridge will still look like it's made out of cardboard, etc.

From all I've heard it sounds closer in spirit to the Empire Strikes Back special edition than say, Return of the Jedi. They're not adding any scenes (ala Dance numbers in Jabba's palace), they're just tweaking what was already in place.

Normally, I'm a little wary whenever this gets done to a show. They did it with Red Dwarf a few years ago and IT WAS TERRIBLE!!!!!!! But that was more because they extended out all these CG scenes, and then cut jokes & shortened scenes to make room for all this pointless CGI. They made the alterations more important that the actual show itself. It doesn't sound like they're doing anything like that here, which is good.