Tribbles Look Particularly Terrific on HD DVD*

Star Trek fans, this is the Captain speaking (not really). One of the things I’ve been enjoying the past few weeks on this 37" LCD TV is the restored and up-rezzed Star Trek: The Original Series- The Complete First Season set on HD DVD, which I just finished watching last night. I admit that I was skeptical prior to viewing the 10-disc set, particularly after having watched the poor-quality HD DVD transfer of the otherwise-excellent 1981 An American Werewolf In London.

Just how good could late-1960s material be made to look after-the-fact, I wondered, especially when it was originally targeted for televisions versus movie theaters’ big screens? Would Styrofoam boulders and lame alien costumes look even worse in high-def? And what on earth (or, if you prefer, Vulcan) would the restoration engineers do with all those intentionally soft-focus close-ups of Kirk’s various female consorts? My worries were for naught; the content looks incredible (and the soft-focus close-ups seemingly didn’t get touched, aside from fixing the film flaws).

Wired has a nice writeup with all the restoration details; I noticed the improvements most readily in the various cut scenes of the Starship Enterprise flying through space, firing phasers and photon torpedoes, and orbiting planets, all of which had seemingly been redone from scratch. Even the soundtrack was re-recorded. Generally speaking, the restorers’ touches were beneficial but not jarringly so…anyone who’s watched the digitally ‘enhanced’ re-releases of the first three Star Wars movies (Episodes 4-6, for those of you counting) will understand what I’m contrasting the Star Trek animators’ excellent jobs against.

Star Trek: The Original Series isn’t the only sci-fi material to recently receive retouch attention. I haven’t yet seen the latest iteration of 1982’s seminal classic, Blade Runner, but Sound & Vision Magazine does a good job of covering the details of the restoration process. Wired also published a short writeup, covering the available assortment of standard- and high-def disc (and disc set) options. What did you think of the re-(re-re-re-)release?

*Truth be told, I don’t (yet) know how Tribbles will look in high-def, because The Trouble With Tribbles (Episode 29, for those of you counting) didn’t air until season two. Suffice it to say though, fellow Trekkies, that the Gorn, Horta, Neural Parasites and other creatures in season one look great. So live long, prosper, and save StarTrek.com! Oh…and don’t forget to snag your free phaser.