Preview of New ‘Catspaw’ Castle

This week Trek Remastered has a Halloween theme with ‘Catspaw’…check out the brand new spooky castle…


click to supersize it

UPDATE: HD Widescreen Pic, Video Preview 

Thanks to the CBS team who sent us the Catspaw update with no strings attached . They did a great job integrating the original shot into the new  matte. here is the old version…

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woah!
Where’s Vincent Price?

:)

I love it!

HD resolution, no less. Mmm… detail…

That looks fantastic!! It begs the question, will the sky be redone to look like that in all of the shots on the planet???

No HD. Maybe next year or eventual Hd media but these are only SD versions being delivered to stations….

oops, did you just mean the photo above? ;)

Another cool surprise! I love the spooky face hidden in the castle wall!

That castel looks like: Frankenstein? Count Dracula? the Munsters?? Cool!!!
for Holloween effect, 1st the Gorn now this!!

Lovely!

That’ll make one helluva desktop wallpaper.

-cs™

Holy crap. I didn’t even see the face there!!!!
cool

I havent seen “catspaw” in atleast 15 years. BIG DAWG A.P. – can you give us a shot of the old to contrast with the new?

These fuckin guys at CBS.. I’m sure they read this site now. First of all, THANK YOU. Second of all…. THANK YOU. Don’t get deflated by the criticism that you read in the comments of this site. You are doing GOD’s WORK. You are doing it well.

Trek remastered simply rocks. Ignore the haterz. Besides, you wouldnt please them all in any way that you did this.

Not since the late 70s as a child have I so looked forward to classic Star Trek in syndication. I used to run home from school daily just to catch the re-runs at 4:00 on KCNC in Denver. Now… this is so much better. People taking the time to restore and enhance the classic. I never imagined it would happen.

I would compare it to doing a chick in high school and then hooking up with her as a MILF at the 20 year reunion, but I know that would offend the sensibilities of the “geeks or nerds who usually grew up feeling a bit of stigma or discrimination by being all into SF etc…”. SO I shalln’t.

AS I atone for all those at “beer chuggin’bigots.com”; which I fully do not condone at this time, I thank the CBS folks for this.

The remasters ROCK.

best!!

=h=

Trek or Treat!
What they didn’t do with the Gorn ship they’re doing with the castle. I don’t understand those people.
But… I like it much! A perfect home for any Munster or Addams! I like the face in the left part of the picture and I hope they also re-do those little aliens crawling around in this episode. This time without strings please.

The Gorn ship was really far away, so they couldn’t show it any closer. (I’ll bet they wanted to, though!) But Kirk walked right up to the Catspaw castle, so they could show it REAL close. Sweet!

This picture is very encouraging. Catspaw was a pretty poor episode all around, and certainly needs a lot of SFX help. I’ll be really interested to see what they do with Korob and Sylvia in their true form.

They have stayed faithful to the course to date out of respect to the purists. Thats one thing that I love about the remasters.

But seriously, get in and mix that shit up too. The Saturn rings at the end of I Mudd… go crazy with that shit. I think at one point I even advocated the insertion of Hayden Christensen aka end of Jedi remaster for the Metron dude. or chick as it were.

The CBS dudes are condemned either way. SO HAVE FUN WITH IT. Some of us purists appreciate your time and effort no matter what you do. Because the absence of that is the bullshit fakey 60s shit that we’ve always had.

Who’s to determine the line for you?

Probably only the budget of CBS.

My instruction to you is to rape the shit out of that as PHAT as you can.

best!!

=h=

Post #14, Matt Wright, why do you feel Catspaw to be “pretty poor episode all around”?

Story? Script? Effects?

Are you a purist, if so, is the a TNG ep or DS9 ep, or V’GR ep that is better or WOULD do it better?

As a child… I ALWAYS saw Catspaw as the ULTIMATE star trek halloween episode. I am lost here. Why don’t you like it, dude?

best!!

=h=

Cool deal CBS! Can’t wait to see it.

@Ron Jon
Hmmm…
And I first thought they had a special cloaking device that made them shrink to only several centimetres in scale.
The second thought I had was that the main screen was defective and that thing in the middle was just a bad pixel.
But there was also the possibility that the Metrons just didn’t want them to see the ship in it’s true glory and played with the magnification alignment of the viewscreen.
Another option was, that the Gorn vessel itself is really only centimetres in scale and the crew scales up when they leave their ship.
And, and, and…

No! Please don’t look for excuses for people who couldn’t do it better. Even if it was for financial reasons. That was s**t!

The Enterprise followed the Gorn vessel at warp 8 and they saw the Gorn on their screen from the beginning. And when they closed up, nothing changed! Sorry, I don’t buy it!

Much better!
I hope thats not the only thing they changed.
It would be very cool if they show the miniature Enterprise
with glowing engine caps and lighted windows.
CG aliens at the end, not digital erasure of the puppet strings.
Those puppets stunk.

Fan-bloody-tastic!

Nice. Appropriately “spooktacular”, considering the timing. This Trek looks to be treat!

It was pretty obvious that the Gorn ship was supposed to be far away and that this was a creative choice — and a good one, IMAO.

The CBS Digital team has demonstrated that when they choose to add a significant new element to an episode they’re entirely capable of doing it well. The most criticism they come in for are the effects that are supposed to closely resemble original series shots.

I wouldn’t particularly like to see Eden FX doing this show. I *would* like to see Zoic take a crack at “Star Trek.”

“Catspaw” is a misfire on the script level, a kind of tapdance through the graveyard by Bloch. He turned in at least two superior episodes, “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and “Wolf In The Fold.” “Catspaw,” though, is not a keeper.

Awesome scoop! That’s great. This kind of thing really expands the scope of the show beyond the limits of the original studio-bound setting. But still keeps within the capabilites of the 60s technology (well, more or less, anyway).

And am I alone in hoping they ONLY remove the strings from Korob and Sylvia, but leave the bodies untouched? I’ve grown kind of attached to those little boa-wearing squidheads over the years (pun intended).

Wow what a great shot. A little paint a couple of throw pillows and presto
a new castle. It looks fantastic.

I, too, have always had issues with this episode and I’m glad to see something associated with “Catspaw” that actually looks frightening.

I can’t wait to see what they do with the turtleneck witches.

Or the blue puppets.

It’d be really cool if they could alter the lighting of the show to make it more creepy throughout, but I guess that would go beyond their ‘mandate.’

#16,
#22 hit upon some of it. It is so blatantly Star Trek\’s obligatory “Halloween” episode. Ya know how TV shows often have an obvious Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas themed shows? Anyway. It just seems like a slapped together plot: “how many stereotypical gimmicks can we use?”
Black cats
The Female “Vamp”
Pseudo-magic/tech fusions
Zombie-like states
Witches (used as a warning in the beginning)
Voodoo (the Enterprise in a plastic block)
etc.

And it all adds up to a goofy episode that while could be scary in some moments it pretty much disjointed and not scary. The culmination is the quite obvious made out of pipe cleaner puppets of Sylvia and Korob.

I think Lao3D hits it on the head o’ the nail.

The updated FX done so far work best when it looks like Roddenberry & Co. had about $4 million per episode back in 1966. Basically, it should feel old in that it works seamlessly with the untouched old elements but at the same time it should impress us today for its overall quality. I cannot wait for the new Enterprise CG model to premiere. When they make that ship look like a model again, we’re all going to celebrate.

Yeah, Matt, I suppose my deal is that I still watch these with the bewildered eye of a 7 or 8 year old as when I originally saw them. I think Cobain said it best in his suicide note that there’s an innocence lost after the fact when you grow up, make it big in a seattle grunge band, get hooked on heroin and have to deal with Courtney Love.

Is that chick whacked or what?

And poor Frances Bean… ironically will grow up to be a stable, productive drug free member of society. I think it’s because she’s gonna watch Catspaw remastered with the same eye of a child. Even though she’s probably about 15 now. Who knows. Time comes and goes so quickly. AS Soran tells us “Time is the fire in which we burn”. Those words are so very wise.

Even though he was the bugger that KILLED JAMES T. KIRK.

I’m down with the bringbackkirk.com cause. I haven’t checked that site in a while. They demanded justice and a better ending for James T. I wonder what their take of the rumors about the new movie are?

best!!

=h=

I like the castle a great deal! Looking forward to it.

BTW… anyone ever notice this blooper: when McCoy attacks Kirk with the mace, and Bones is knocked out, when the drops the mace, the obviously rubber prop bounces around like… well, rubber!

I always thought that was funny. Same thing happens in the Wizard of Oz. When the Lion is startled and the “flower pot” crown falls off his head, it bounces and rolls around!

There’s actually something cool about this episode now!

I think the halloween thing is cool. I mean, at least they acknowledge that this was the aliens attempt at being frightening by saying “an elaborate trick or treat”…. and that obviously it wasn’t REALLY frightening them.

Hey everyone, the preview is up at startrek.com!!

Cransy is correct —
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/episode/68720.html

The Castle is nice but the weak visual links in Catspaw are the “Alien” Lifeforms at the end and the bulk of the Large Cat sequences. The Promo on Startrek.com does not show any New “Cat” effects. But that doesn’t mean there will not be any.

Good Work Cransy!

Hmmm, how much Remastering will it take to save this mostly *stinker* episode?
;-P
A lot.

I always did like the Starhip in a block of lucite… tempted to do that to my small diecast Enterprise someday…. :-)

The Enterprise on the trailer looks a whole lot bluer and a whole lot whiter and a whole lot shinier than before… could it be the new CGI model?!

“I think the halloween thing is cool. I mean, at least they acknowledge that this was the aliens attempt at being frightening by saying “an elaborate trick or treat”…. and that obviously it wasn’t REALLY frightening them.”

Actually, if I recall the in-story rationale correctly the aliens weren’t trying to frighten them — they were trying to make the landing party feel comfortable and at home on the planet.

Korob and Sylvia had meant to take familiar images and surroundings from the conscious minds of the Earth people, but screwed up and tapped into their subconscious minds instead. Bloch’s notion was that witches, black cats and creepy castles are somehow archetypical symbols of our dream worlds.

Or, more succinctly:

“Monsters from the Id, John! Monsters from the Id!”

Yes, the Enterprise in the CATSPAW trailer seems bluer than it has been, but I don’t think it is the new model. (Personally, I think it’s a little too blue, but the lighting is a little bit better.) The CBS guy said that it the new model would not premier until TRIBBLES.

I hope it’s true that they airbrush out the strings. But I really really hope they don’t put in all new kewl CGI creatures. Little Syliva and Korab are just plain creepy as they are, and I wouldn’t want to see Species 8472 from VOYAGER.

thanks DB, been awhile
cheesy of not it’s a fun episode IMHO.

The plots of old TOS episodes are taking up valuable memory that I could use for things like womens’ telephone numbers. :(

jonny