I miss the excitement of Spock calling out:
“Scanners report some type of craft approaching from below,
under cloud cover and closing.”

Then the shock cut to the F-104 at high speed. The whole sequence was chopped up to get down to the 42 minute edit (from the original 51). There were other scenes that could have be excised instead of this one — like the outdated female computer running joke. That could have been totally eliminated as saved some minutes. Oh, well.

I liked what was there in terms of SFX. I was hoping there were going to clean up some of the F-104 flight footage — the ground footage was decent. It was cool seeing Mercury and Pluto (maybe they reinstated planetary status back to Pluto by the 23rd Century).

Out Frakin Standing!

I was in my early teens, and Star Trek was a four-letter word (or two of them) in our household. My stepdad hated it (basically because I was a trekkie and he thought everything I liked was stupid) and I could never watch it when they were home. So, on Saturdays when they went for a drive, I would stay home and watch it, and they didn’t know it was on.

My stepdad never finished grade school, and resented me because I loved reading, was technical oriented, and didn’t care for hunting.

This particular Saturday, they were late leaving, and it was almost time for it. I was jittery, hoping they would leave soon, when my step-dad turned on the TV until my mother was ready to go. As fate would have it, it was on the very channel that ST would be coming on in a minute. I was panicking! If he saw it, he would make me go with them just to deny me the joy of watching it.

The teaser started, and on came the scrambling jet fighter. He watched absently until my mom came out, ready to go, and he stood up and walked out JUST in time to miss the Enterprise in the sky! WHEW! Close call! Any other episode and I would have been busted.

Yep, that’s EXACTLY what happened the first time I saw this as a kid in the 70’s!!! I don’t recall if I actually changed the channel but changed it back because we only had 5 channels, or if I waited it out. But I do recall thinking “Dammit!! Where’s Star Trek???!!!!!! AAAAHHHH!!!”

Now this is the episode that *I’ve* been waiting for with remastered, not Doomsday Machine. I’ve been following updated DM stuff since Digital Streams, still have all their movies, and have been used to that ep being updated for over a decade.

This one could benefit the most. Mainly at the end, because what you see inside the ship just doesn’t match what you see outside the ship. Inside it’s all super dramatic and intense. Outside….not so much. Just the ship looking like it’s standing still and wobbling. Of course as a kid, this was one of the coolest FX scenes because it was the ONLY time where you saw the ship shaking from the OUTSIDE. Plus cable wasn’t in widespread use, so there was plenty of snow on the t.v. and I coulnd’t see the image clearly anyways.

That’s the one of the main reasons the original is still my fave, because it was years and years before I saw all the eps in crystal clear clarity. I’m always discovering something new, even to this day.

But I digress. Now we’ll be able to see the exterior shots match the interiors in intensity. Plus it should make up for the visually dull “Naked Time” timewarp, both original and remastered.

Having said that, while most of those shots blow me away, the one from AICN doesn’t. In fact I thought it was a photoshop job because the Enterprise should be far more brightly lit. It is near the sun after all. Other than that……looks super awesome!

They are beaming both 20′th century guys back, first Captain Christopher, then that other guy. On “the other guy” the Beam up/down was shot through the door with a window and lettering.

The sparklys show through the lettering when the sparklys should be behind it.

A simple hold out matte for the letters would do the trick. We’ll have to see if they get that one in.

If they don’t I won’t be pouting though, it’s just something I’ve always noticed, watching the episode and I’d be tickled if they fixed it (as long as thye are fixing things).

The new pic is breathtaking. I am completely blown away.

TTM:PII