May 3, 2004

2:54 PM

I'm throwing around ideas for an up-coming writing project and I seem to recall reading about ten years ago about a special edition version of the original series of Star Trek which ran on a cable channel in the US. Did this ever happen, did anyone see them, and what form did it take -- were there new scenes and/or special effects?
posted by feelinglistless to (6 comments total)

A special edition ran on the Sci-Fi Channel--I don't know if that's the one you're talking about, because it was more recent than 10 years ago--I want to say about 2 years ago. There were no new scenes or special effects, but they did air each episode in its entirety, including scenes which appeared in the original airings, but were usually cut out in syndication reruns to make room for more commercials. Also, each episode was padded with commentary between the episode itself and the commercial breaks; along with the Sci-Fi Channel's commercials, this stretched each episode to 90 minutes. I seem to recall that this was done twice, with two different sets of commentaries; one by William Shatner, and one by Leonard Nimoy.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 2:58 PM on May 3, 2004

That could be the one. Maybe my memory is playing tricks with me.
posted by feelinglistless at 3:00 PM on May 3, 2004

I think they digitally restored the episodes too. The picture quality was a little less grainy than the usual syndication prints, but still had that weird 60's TV orange-ish tint to it. Audio sounded comparable, at least on my TV.
posted by Asparagirl at 5:12 PM on May 3, 2004

Also, once in a blue moon I have seen TOS eps with original irising cuts, in which the end of the shot to commercial irised to black through a red-bordered hole in the shape of the Enterprise ships' breast-badge.

I don't recall if the SFC version incorporated this - they might be on the DVDs. Anybody know?
posted by mwhybark at 5:44 PM on May 3, 2004

Forgive my ignorance, but how does your opening statement relate to your question?
posted by Grod at 8:34 PM on May 3, 2004

Forgive my ignorance, but how does your opening statement relate to your question?

I write for a TV website sometimes and one of the ideas I'm having is about the repackaging of old television for a new audience. So that would be the new versions of Red Dwarf, the US versions of Tom Baker Dr. Who etc.
posted by feelinglistless at 4:30 PM on May 4, 2004