The Enterprise and her crew are held captive by some spoooooky aliens
Video preview / Local Station & Showtimes / More at Memory Alpha
This rare ‘themed’ episode is yet another one with few opportunities for new CGI crew. We already know there is a new matte painting for the castle. In addition keep your eye out for…
- new planet and Enterprise in orbit shots
- new witches maybe?
- maybe some new magic flashes?
- …and for the aliens…no strings attached!
so what did you think of Catspaw Remastered
The castle looks awesome! I hope at least that they use the same aliens, no CGI, just without the strings would be nice. :-)
I’m really lookng forward to this episode. While there are limited chances for new effects work in Catspaw, here is what I would love to see from our friends at CBS Paramount going forward:
-Continue to give us more shots of the enterprise from different angles.
-Re-do all phaser and photon effects including one’s where our heroes use their hand phasers. The phaser effect in Devil in the Dark is terrible and should have been redone.
-Add sound effects where they were previously missing. (Sulu punching keypad in arena.) Or add new and improved sound effects wherever possible.
-Replace old soundstage sets with digital sets (digital sky, clouds etc.) I think we are going to get this in Catspaw even before the castle is reavealed to us.
-Do more with the Enterprise. Lots of chances wasted, especially in the Naked Time. Should have shown the Enterprise Warping out of orbit or an exterior shot of the Enterprise skimming off of the attmosphere.
I think the team has done great work on the shots they have redone. I am also looking forward to the NEW Enterprise in November, hopefully they get alittle more bold and try some more stuff.
I’m totally against “improved” sound effects (other than re-mastering for surround) but I am for filling in missing sound effects using sounds already used in TOS. If pushing buttons makes a sound in most episodes, then put that sound in the episodes when it’s missing. Anybody can buy TOS sound effects on CD (GNNPD 8010).
Typo. I meant GNPD 8010.
Is this the new CGI Enterprise? It looks stressed and has more detail. Actually I don’t like it.
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/25055.html
Then go to “New digital Original Series Enterprise” on the left panel
Ralph-
Those pictures have been up since before Balance of Terror hit the airwaves. So what you are looking at is the first digital Enterprise. It’s the one that IS being replaced soon.
I never thought of adding a matte painting of the castle, but it will really add to the Halloween “spookiness” of the episode. I’m pretty sure the Enterprise in this episode will be the old version, but it definitely looks bluer in the trailer. A little too blue. But I can’t wait to see Sylvia and Korob sans strings!
ok cool Jim, thanks! Just didn’t notice it before.
I in favour of the episodes being released in the highest possible standard.
If that means the ***occasional*** additional sound effect, I’m all for it. I wouldn’t mind, for example, if they added the warp speed effect seen in the TOS Trek movies from ST2 onwards. I didn’t like the TNG or TMP warp effects.
I found some great behind-the-scenes pictures of the original Enterprise filming models at Desilu studios. They may provide a good point of reference. This site has a bunch of cool pics and information about how TOS was filmed.
http://www.startrekhistory.com/restoration/bluescreen.html
Hope you enjoy them.
Hey Gregster–
Awesome link. I know most of us have spotted some of the Enterprise modifications just from obsessively watching the show, but it’s great to see it all itemized and illustrated this way. The model shots are great.
I wonder if the Remastered folks preserve some of the old vs new model differences in their effects for “The Menagerie” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before”? I’ve always appreciated the differences in the model as suggesting actual upgrades and refits to the vessel itself over that 13-year period, rather than continuity glitches. I hope they do keep some (or all) of the differences in the “older” footage.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Cranston! If you click on the hyperlinks at the top or bottom of the page it becomes clear that the good folks who worked to create TOS were every bit as passionate and obsessive about the series as fans are today.
Long live TOS!!
Finished watching the episode — The New Castle seems to be the major addition to Catspaw. The Giant Cat “Shadowplay” remains and seemingly those dark “Puppet Lines” have been removed from the Aliens final appearance.
I was distracted during my viewing so I really couldn’t say if the “Witches” had any touches added (they didn’t seem to). Someone look at the first look of the “Dinner Table” which Korob offers the Captain & Crew to be seated. Is that the same?
As I said I really didn’t have my full attention on the show so I can’t do it justice. There are of course new ship orbitals. Plus recycled breaking orbit shots.
A few of the clips at http://www.startrekhistory.com/restoration/bluescreen.html belcong to Olde Timey under the name “Joseph A”
:-)
Curt is a real wiz with film restoration! Check out my clip of Fessarius. I scanned it myself and found a dim image of a man in the lower left corner. Curt was able to scan and enahnce to pull him from the mud.
I thought the planet was wicked cool in this one! It actually LOOKED scary. It was colorless, but I dunno, looked evil. It would have been cool if they would have done something with the Enterprise when Sylvia had the heat on!
Thanks for that link showing the old Enterprise stuff. (Why are those guys not wearing shirts?! Guess they had more fun than they should have LOL!!)THAT’S the color it should be! I hate that blue color Daren D. did and other people do. It looks more like a real ship when it’s not blue. I hope the CBS guys take a look at that link!
Next week K-7 space station and a Klingon ship!! Maybe we’ll FINALLY see the new Enterprise model!! (WHITE NOT BLUE!)
I sure wouldn’t want to see “new” warp effects and certainly not new sound effects–TOS had some of the coolest, most organic sound effects of any sci fi TV show or movie I’ve ever seen, and I find them far more interesting than the air conditioning hum that passed for sound effects on TNG and later shows.
I haven’t seen the new “Catspaw” yet but I’m almost relieved we still have the crab claw aliens intact…they were probably the MOST “alien” creatures ever put on Star Trek, despite the obvious technical limitations of what was done. It was just a great, crazy idea–let’s make these powerful aliens turn out to be tiny, weak little crustaceans (I wonder if they were limited at all too by the slow motion footage they had to work with). The biggest effects problem in the episode is the adorable cat footage that was intended to be scary–and if they really wanted to get daring, why not put a translucent cubical shield around the Enterprise after Syliva puts her charm on the ship?
Spockariffic–the technicians were sans shirt because the film stage was an old Quonset hut — i.e., corrugated metal building — in LA during the summer.
No AC either!
Jeff Bond.
Yeah. I agree, ultimately. The original audio fx were wonderful. Amazing how much the bridge scenes in the Director’s Edition of TMP improved with them running in the background, as well. TOS had wonderfully distinctive well-designed sound, be it planet backgrounds, the sightly eerie transporter sound or some of the weird ‘parp’ sounds when things or people are thrown about by strange forces or disappear. The wonderful, often psychadelic-sounding music also helped.
Hopefully Balok’s missing countdown announcement will be dropped into The Corbomite Maneuver, though!
Just saw it, pretty good, except — Smilin’ Bob advertisements twice in the hour and another herbal to reduce “belly fat”, so the line where Spock replied “really bad poetry” was cut.
The aliens — they removed the strings. To me, it looked, other than the matte shot of the castle, very much like the original.
I don’t know that the Enterprise was white; I always saw it light, gun metal gray. The overall quality of Darin’s work, Spockariffic, I liked.
Here’s the link:
http://betafive.com/wordpress/?page_id=25
The schedule of “Remastered” (well, duh, for me) is right here:
https://trekmovie.com/tos-in-hd/hdtv-star-trek-tos-episode-order/
So, the commercials make me want to buy the DVD.
Oh, one continual error — the rear Enterprise “engine bulbs” should glow bright white; they’re too small and dark.
Jeff and Dom, Man, you guys are hitting it right on the nose, the audio fx were excellent and hold up to this day. Not to mention the background music. But I would like to say, please, no new warp effects. To my way of thinking, it never was necessary to depict the warp effects as they did in the movies. (Perhaps the new ships of the movies were faster, so they needed to show the ship actually entering some kind of warp space).
In the original show when the ship was in warp, generally it zoomed past the camera in a hurry, sometime so fast it seemed that it was blurred from a stationary vantage point. Or at times, when the ship was cruising at warp speed, the stars rushed past in a quick fashion, typical of the ‘space-time dilation’ effect. Love that stuff. And who’s to say it needs to be so dramatic: At sublight speeds, the ship moves slowly, without the ‘rushing’ stars effect. In warp, there are some rushing stars. Easy. (And don’t forget some of the colored ones).
Never been in space, but I still like the look of the original.
To me, Catspaw is a terrible episode, but if its remastered, right on! I don’t get TOS remastered in my City, but I love your old versus new screenshots
Not only no AC, but lots of really hot lights, hotter than for actors because models need more light to photograph to scale.
Can you guys maybe get more old versus new screenshots pleassssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeee?
#24 old vs. new of what?
Just saw it. The castle was cool, but too quick. It was GREAT to see the black strings removed! I’m glad that they did’nt make a new CGI version of Sylvia and Korob. The originals are still pretty creepy to me.
Also, there were a couple of VERY subtle effects added to the dungeon scenes that no one has mentioned yet. (Unless my memory is playing tricks on me.)
Ron, thats what I thought — I checked on my feeling that the Dinner Table was enhanced — but it wasn’t. It was just the fact that the transfer was so much better it seemed to me to be different. If you’ve spotted anything specific let us know. I really can’t find that much enhancement this week.
As always, very greatful for the New Transfers.
PS Shameless plug for some New ENTERPRISE Wallpapers over at Trekenhanced.com:
http://betafive.com/wordpress/?p=41
The new tweaks are shown in my screenshots that I just put up. The cat being right at the dungeon’s door is a new tweak I noticed.
Thanks Matt. Heading over —
Thanks for confirming that the cat at the dungeon door was new, Matt! I wasn’t sure if I was imagining things.
Sybok,
I liked what Darin did too. No insult to his work, I just didn’t like the color of the ship he did. I’d be happier with white/gray than blue. All in all just another example of how we all “see” the show as different things.
Here’s hoping Tribbles is cool!
Man, why do people want to perpetuate the myth that the Enterprise is WHITE???!!!
Folks, it’s not white.
Daren’s CGI model is a perfect duplicate of the actual shooting model.
The refit for ST:TMP isn’t even pure white for crying out loud.
The NCC-1701 D has the blueish cast as well…because…DUH…the original ship had that color. I remember the builders of the ILM model for ST:TNG saying they wanted to duplicate the color of TOS’ Enterprise.
It’s not white. Stick a fork it that topic folks…cos’ it’s done.
THEETrekMaster
The actual 1701 model may have been painted blue or grey or green, but it looked white-ish/grey to me, at least on my TV. The model isn’t the “real” Enterprise. The image on the TV screen is.
Lighting.
If the Enterprise flies by an orange sun and the sun from the light makes the Enterprise look orange…does that mean the ship is ORANGE???
LOL!!!!
Please.
Lighting.
If the Enterprise flies by an orange sun and the light from the sun makes the Enterprise look orange…does that mean the ship is ORANGE???
LOL!!!!
Please.
Move along… nothing to see here.
Really, though, this episode had the least of the new enhancements of any done so far, I think. And it could have used some.
The witches black-clothing should have been removed so that the intended effect, that of floating heads, was more convincing.
But at least they got rid of most of the puppet strings at the end.
Still one of my fave episodes, mostly because of Antoinette Bower and her incredible performance as “Sylvia” – definitely one of my top-3 fave TOS women. She and Shatner have one helluva good chemistry, even after 40 years.
Episode was shockingly sliced up, however. No Sylvia in her various “guises” for Kirk; significantly reduced Bridge scenes with DeSalle, Uhura and Chekov; no gale-force wind blowing K/S/M toward the castle at the beginning. Big disappointment.
But they didn’t touch the witches … thank the gods.
The enhanced castle was awesome in its creepiness! Great CGI work! Also, Pyris VII finally looks as dreary from orbit as it is on the surface.
Gotta say I was really disappointed that the “pipe cleaner” aliens weren’t completely excised and replaced with CGIs. I was looking forward to this the most. I even sat up for a closer look at the TV just beforehand. Yet another missed-opportunity that kinda makes you go “hmmm.”
According to this:
http://www.startrekhistory.com/restoration/bluescreen.html
The model was a light gray-green, which certainly seems plausible.
I’m not perpetuating a myth, just saying I prefer those lighter/whiter tones to blue-green. Put a fork in it? No thanks. I’m still hoping for a color that more resembles a ship and not something from a fish tank. I want the Enterprise to look real…to me that is.
I agree with Ron Jon. It’s not about the model. It’s about how it looked on TV and I’ve seen it appear both ways; closer to that blue color and closer to the white-grays I like.
If the Enterprise passed an orange sun would it be orange? Well now it’s philosophy! If everyone’s eyes, from birth, had an abnormality that caused them to see orange, what color would clouds be? As they are or as they would be because of the abnormailty? Talk amongst yourselves.
#39,
I agree, the CGI is supposed to be “faithful” so I think the Enterprise should resemble what we know from TV. Clearly the Enterprise isn’t bright white, nor is it blue. There is a sort of light gray/ivory medium there somewhere that I think would strike a balance between what the model itself was and how it often appeared on TV.
To me the point here is almost nostalgia, but made in CG for the high def era. So the Enterprise which is the really hotly debated CGI thus far requires a tender touch of a true fan and a talented CG artist in one. I’m not certain CBS has such people. But we shall see what they do in the coming episodes which have the tweaked model.
Matt,
Dave Rossi claims to have no equal when it comes to his love for the original series. The Okudas of course are much respected by Trek fans. However, CBS’s approach to the whole project feels half-hearted. When did CBS Digital come into existence? With this project? I’ve felt CBS believed they could do the effects in-house to save money and build a digital effects division over time. But currently at our expense — not completely, but many of us do have “issues”.
A New Effects Team, Little Money, No Time and perhaps Under-Staffed???? Yet, they (and we) demand results —
Reminds me of another tale of the Miller’s Daughter. Locked in a Room Overnight she must spin Straw into Gold by Morning or Die. Hummm, not much to work with …
The New CGI Enterprise (to be seen this coming weekend????) a gift from Rumpelstiltskin??
Well maybe I stand alone here, but I thought this was the first episode where the Enterprise looked pretty darn good. Even the nacelle caps didn’t seem to bother me. IS it better or am I simply getting used to it? :-)
You’re getting used to it.
Again, Dochterman’s Enterprise is the way it should look.
Hands down. End of subject.
Finito.
Maybe not quite the end of subject, at least for me.
I like Dochtermann’s ship, and especially his nacelle caps, but I think his hull plating owes a little too much to the TMP Enterprise. Not that it’s a bad look, but it’s just not how I want to see the TOS ship.
OK I’ll give in. Dochterman’s is the way it should look… TO YOU. (That’s the only part you forgot.) Then again, maybe you can tell us all what else we should like based on your tastes. HELLOOOOO IDIC anyone? Anyone? Beuler?
The entire universe revolves around me, so therefore everything should be subject to my taste.
Is that what you wanted to hear?
;-D
THEETrekMaster