This weekend the remastered Star Trek episode “Court Martial” airs. There weren’t a lot of new effects, but the TOS-R took the opportunity to make one of their new ‘additions’
…see details below
From the CBS TOS-R Producers…
“Court Martial” Remastered
Captain Kirk on trial! The Enterprise, damaged from an ion storm and minus Records Office Ben Finney, pulls into Starbase 11 for much needed repair. While there, the apparent circumstances of Ben Finney’s death point to Kirk’s error. Now, with hotshot lawyer Samuel T. Cogsley (played brilliantly by Elisha Cook Jr.), Kirk must defeat the harshest witness of all: The Enterprise computer!
“Court Martial,” while relatively light on visual effects, gave us the chance to address the age-old question of where the Ion-Pod is located. Looking at an old script for reference we couldn’t find anything definitive. We labored long and hard over the positioning
and ultimately felt it made sense for Ben Finney to be close to Engineering since his plan included getting quickly to the lower decks where he could tamper with the ships computers in reasonable secrecy and be close to his hiding place to avoid the search he knew would follow.
We added some ships in orbit of the planet . Out on the frontier, we wanted Starbase 11 to have some activity happening in orbit, but not enough to take you away from the wounded Enterprise and its missing Ion-Pod.
Installing the new ion pod (click to enlarge)
I wasted a first posting on that. What I really need to do is go get the TOS remasters. The packaging looks nice and they dropped the price. Besides, there’s only going to be three, right?
Looks sharp. I just bought my HDTV so now I’m really looking forward to a Blu-ray release
I see something but can’t tell what it’s supposed to be…
I heard from AICN that there were spacesuited workers installing a new pod… hope we can see them in the video.
haha, cool. I always expected the Ion-Pod to be attached somewhere at the saucers rim… ;))
“Captains and officers, one and all….but not Finney” Or something to that affect. I always liked that line.
Speaking of lines….where’s ‘Garth of Izar’? I heard one of my favorite lines from him yesterday as I viewed his episode early on Nick. It’s one he spoke to Yvonne Craig. “I should have you beaten to death”. That episode has some funny stuff I never noticed as a kid.
I’m still not sure what I’m looking at on this one either.
…and the hull sections appear to be numbered with 4-digit-codes…
Love this episode.
not enouf activity- i wanted to see a repair crew on the ships outer hull.
It’s nice though, looks very weathered and more realistic than is sometimes the case…
Looking forward to the effects real and the review…
I always liked this episode, will they change the “1 to the 4th power” line do you suppose?
:-)
Three things that strike me about this episode:
During the computer-readout of Kirk’s starfleet record, the unending list of awards and commendations attached to his service record. Very few eps give good background info on Kirk – this one lets the viewer in on how he was able to command the center-seat of the Enterprise at such a young age.
Spock’s single-handed saving of his captain and friend’s career (although the writers did not even show Kirk thanking him). I would much rather have had the last scene be Kirk saying something meaningful to Spock on the bridge instead off kissing the woman who tried very hard to take his ship away from him (she did not have to try SO hard, just my humble opinion…).
Finding out that only three people on board had the computer savvy to change the computer transcripts of what happened – the records officer, the first officer and the captain. This says to me that Kirk has an extrodinary knowledge of how the computer systems work on board his ship, confirming that this guy is, indeed, an amazingly intelligent individual.
“i wanted to see a repair crew on the ships outer hull.”
The screen caps for this ep are already up on TrekCore…..While you won’t have enough time to see it in the ep….if you look to the top left of this pic:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x20hd/courtmartialhd047.jpg
You can see two tiny guys working on that thing sticking out from the warp engines. They finally got the scale of the original Enterprise right!
Also, the remastered team did an excellent job with this ep. Before remastered, it was just one of many eps I enjoyed. After remastered, it’s one of my faves.
The work they did just seems, to me, to really open up the Trek world a bit more. Yeah, there should’ve been an orbiting station or drydock, and there should’ve, IMO, been more orbital traffic, but alas…..
But we get some nice views on Starbase 11….they use both shots of the base in one episode whereas “Menagerie” and “Court Martial” before each had their own matte paintings of the base from different angles. There’s a nice variation on one of those with a moonset.
It works in the way that the special edition of Empire Strikes Back works. More subtle, broadening the world….less “in your face” stuff.
I always wished that Starbase 11 would’ve been a regularly recurring locale on the original Trek. It looked exotic, had a cool landscape….it would’ve been nice to have been able to see more.
Yo, BIG DAWG AP… dude, give us the skiinny on the remaster of Ben Finney and what be goin down with Rossi’s Posse®.
It seemed at the beginning of this project, when it had the momentum… these guys were giving you all kinds of exclusives, posting on the site and all dat. what happened, bro?
You’re the inside man on the outside of the deal. Only you can tell us why this thing fizzled out like it seems to have. Why was the Earth rotating backwards? Why did the CBS-D tell us that after the first few episodes and then they revised the Enterprise that they were going to go back to the first few remaster epsodes and fix them, they did not do that. Because dude that was way before the format war was over – they just released v1 on HD-DVD and didnt make v2 on those episodes. What about the downloads on X-Box, etc? When did they return to using the original music in the opening? What happened to all these things they talked about in the beginning, dude? Surely you have a perspectus.
I think we peaked at Doomsday Machine. I hate to say it. This project should have been so much more… as promised.
It’s disappointing, man. But I am sure you are in the know, so SPILL IT MON CAPITAN POR FAVOR!!!
best!!
=h=
One problem with re-visualizing this episode is having to answer questions that the script poses, which do not have easy answers:
What is an “ion pod”? What can it do that the ship’s sensors can’t?
Why does a man need to be in it?
Why does it have to be ejected?
Where on the ship is it?
I don’t think anyone has ever come up with logical answers to these questions. If they have, I’d love to hear them.
“We added some ships in orbit of the planet . Out on the frontier, we wanted Starbase 11 to have some activity happening in orbit, but not enough to take you away from the wounded Enterprise and its missing Ion-Pod.”
Makes a lot of sense. Can’t wait to see the episode!
I have this ep on HD DVD. The ion pod is located on the starboard side of the engineering section, not too far forward from the shuttle bay. You don’t actually see the pod, just the hatch where it used to be stationed.
The interactive Enterprise tour on the DVD confirms this is the pod’s location.
re: # 15
It’s kind of hard to see the pod hatch on the photo above. If you look at the 2 longer rectangular windows that are furthest to the left (closest to the shuttle bay) the ion pod is below the window on the right side. It looks more like a rounded burn mark next to 2 round portholes.
I’m going to get the first season, remastered. Should I get HD or Blu-Ray?
“Because Jim Kirk, my dear old love… I am the prosection.”
Oh what a devastation! What a space babe! I hope Ariel Shaw is the unnamed blonde in Star Trek!!!!!
uh that was supposed to be “prosecution”.
My bad!
17,
As of now, season 1 exists only on HD-DVD/DVD combo discs. Season 2 is only on SD-DVD. No Blu-ray as of yet.
Film stock used in this remaster is bad. Fluctuating brightness in the briefing room scene when the court beams on board. Glaring flaw that goes on intemrinably and takes away from the new effects in this episode. Strange thing is the film stock used in the dvd release from 2004 doesn’t have the pulsating brightness in this scene.
AInt It Cool News reported on this two days ago. If you click on their image, it shows an enlarged image in a new window. There are two little spacesuited figures working near the Ion Pod hatch if you zoom in on it to see the detail.
As someone mentioned above, there is a great shot of one of the nacelles wtih two tiny astronauts working near the end of the starboard nacelle. Look for the “fin” — the two tiny figures are barely visible. It helps if you have a large hi-res monitor.
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x20hd/courtmartialhd047.jpg
The 1701 is huge, man.
“There are two little spacesuited figures working near the Ion Pod hatch if you zoom in on it to see the detail.”
Not that I can see.
Isn’t this planet the same as the one that was in “The Menagerie – Part 1”? If so, then why does the planet clearly look different than the remastered “Menagerie” one?
“https://trekmovie.com/tosrem/menag1/sb11planet1new.JPG”
I thought the remastered team was trying to keep things consistent.
#1
sorry but i dont like the packageing. stop spending the money on the extra plactic case and just give us a reegular dvd package please.
#3
hole the size of a photon torpedo. too small.
#5
i was always thing up close to the dish
#12
god i hate htose trekcoree links they nevber work. makes me manualy hunt it down.
ok great pics. as to the proper size of the ent coment. now i want you to comapree the pic from trek of the work crew next to the intercoller againt the pic wrok crew next to the intercoller from the teaser trailer.
#17 you’ree funny
i say dont. wait for the blue ray then wait for some one to reeport that the final fx have been retro aplied to the earlier eps. and then and only then should you buy.
Isn’t the USS Intrepid in orbit at the same time, undergoing some unrelated repairs itself. Do we see her as well? I thought I heard we do.
Nice pic. Look forward to the episode.
Here’s a bigger, clearer picture of the ion pod’s location – sans ion pod.
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x20hd/courtmartialhd003.jpg
Courtesy of Trekcore.com. :)
Hmmm… In this ep, all the officers in the bar have the Enterprise logo, whereas in other eps, each ship had its own logo.
And with the HD, you can actually read the charts on the wall better. There is one that lists about a dozen ships in various stages of repair, yet when they switch to a view from space, there are only two Constitution-class ships and one starbase shuttle. Some docking bays and/or space station would have been nice. But hey, what they *did* do improved what was never one of my favorite eps.
You can see the Intrepid in orbit with the Enterprise here:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x20hd/courtmartialhd001.jpg
The one reason the ion pod was on the outside of the ship and had to be manned… was for story reasons. It’s not logical, I agree.
If I were doing the remastered version, I’d worry, not about the ion-pod, but about giving McCoy something to hold other than a Mr. Microphone! :-)
#27
yep its there
#29
ok i looked.
there is a ship in orbit that apears to be the Intrtepid (ncc 1631). however the chart in the office has a ship NCC 1831 or 1931. its a bit hard to tell. there is a 6 among the other numbers up there.
but looking at it it apears to be just a piece of paper on the wall. maybe this could have been an oppertunity for sbc-d to replace it with a viewer, flashing thru various repair charts. even a pic of a ship or cross sec etc.
now as to the comment on where aree all these ships. they could be orbiting on the far side of the planet or on the ground being worked on.
(Hopefully this won’t be a re-post…)
Can anyone who has seen the whole episode tell us if they replaced the controls on Kirk’s chair?
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Image:Capt_chair_control.jpg
The original was sort of ridiculous: “Alert”, “Alert”, “Jettison Pod”. As if jettisoning the pod happened all the time. Not to mention the button is set next to the condition green light, which would seem like a setup for lots of accidents.
#35
for new fx and our changing tech that we have now. i would say that those controls aree not perminent. but the labels and the button functions change as the situation demands.
if you look at the pic it shows arrows pointing at BOTH the green light and the white button.
i dont recall any ‘condition green’ ‘cept it beeing used a code for distress in bread and circuses.
#14 What is an “ion pod”? What can it do that the ship’s sensors can’t?
–I always took it to be a “collection” point… some sort of ‘drain’ or ‘trap’. When travelling through subspace at hyperlight speeds (ludicrous speeds or plaid…) there must be some sort of ‘spatial friction’ which ionizes the hull. So the function of the ion pod is to work as a “gathering point” to deionize the hull perhaps by some singularity that sucks in ions.
#14 Why does a man need to be in it?
–Because the controls and circuits that run the ion pod can NOT be connected to the rest of the ship: if they were, the excess ions would feed back into ship’s system. It has to be isolated, following my “retcon explanation” above.
#14 Why does it have to be ejected?
–Because it’s a turd? (Reference to on-set jokes made during this episode?) But, following the previous “explanations”.. .perhaps if it builds up excess charge to the level of teracoulombs of charge, it must be ejected or it will ‘burst’ and contaminate the ship with excess charge.
# 14 Where on the ship is it?
–I always thought the ion pod was on the back side of the saucer section, near where ions would stream out of the purported fusion reactors. I guess anywhere they wanted to put it will do. The challenge of getting to the lower decks I guess makes more sense if it’s in the saucer. If you’re already in the “lower decks”, getting to the ‘lower lower decks’ doesn’t seem so challenging. It works I guess though.
#35
— I always figured the buttons were multi-purpose… they’d be the five most needed functions. The letters are if you will a 23rd century LCD screen equivalent. The lights (normally 5) are clear, and colors can change to the appropriate needs… lettering changes for the appropriate needs.
That’s the one “update” I hope to see with the new movie… something similar to what many fans have suggested with the helm and navigation controls… that what we looked at in the 60’s as blinky buttons, are actually pressure sensitive, terapixel display devices that can adjust to different needs.
The Lensman wrote:
> You can see two tiny guys working on that thing sticking out from the
> warp engines.
Great catch! I didn’t see that when I downloaded the shots from Trekcore a few months ago.
Enc wrote:
> i would say that those controls aree not perminent. but the labels and
> the button functions change as the situation demands.
Agreed. Press a button and the function of a whole set of controls changes, something I always thought would happen with the controls at all the control consoles around the bridge.
#38
exatcly
can you imagine if cbs-d made the pod out to be the sensor dome under the saucer. ehh
now check out those pics of kirk and the buttions over at trekcore and you know what. i see dirt on the lense that needs work.
That’s no Ion pod, It’s a running light!!!
I don’t know why everyone keeps talking about iPods and where they’re mounted on the ship.
I mean, I keep my iPod right next to me when we go to the center… I wouldn’t put it on the outside — especially during a storm….
….
Oh. Never mind.
/RIP Gilda
Gorgeous Shot !!!!If only we had consitant stuff like this through the whole project how awesome it could have been. Love this episode though especially when our favorite captain says “Beaten and sobbing”
Just looking at a still from The Galileo Seven that shows and exterior shot of the shuttle launching. No ion pod. The weird turn signal light is visible in some TOS-R shots, but not most. So… once again, dogged consistency is an occassional thing.
. Lord Garth, Formerly of Izar – May 8, 2008
“Beaten and sobbing”
Yes, I’d forgotten about that line. Great line. Great Shatner delivery.
And then there’s Shatner’s replacing these huge cables and the ship shuddering from side to side.
Hey CBS-D! What’s up w/ the penchant for GIANT shuttles?
Geez, that shuttle would fill the ENTIRE shuttle bay. This isn’t the first time you guys have done this either. Every shuttle in the remastered series is Ginormous. If they were real to scale they’d be 10 story high shuttles…….for a crew of a thousand ten miles tall. LOL.
I think that the shuttle is giant because it’s close to the camera. At least, I hope so.
#43 They had at least some consistency, the ion pod is visible in the remastered “Conscience of the King”
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Image:Ion_pod%2C_The_conscience_of_the_king_remastered.jpg
It would be interesting to look for it in other remastered shots. They probably came across the ion pod well in advance of starting Court Martial, since they would have gone over all 79 episodes to block out the work to do.
#45 I suspect you’re joking. The shuttle’s clearly closer to the camera, or else you should also complain that the planet is way the heck too small.
#11 Finding out that only three people on board had the computer savvy to change the computer transcripts of what happened – the records officer, the first officer and the captain. This says to me that Kirk has an extrodinary knowledge of how the computer systems work on board his ship, confirming that this guy is, indeed, an amazingly intelligent individual.
I always took it to mean that only the Records Officer, First Officer and the Captain had the computer security clearance needed to change records as Finney did, not that it took any kind of computer savvy.
#49
so sulus chronometer is still flashing 12:00 :)
great now only if pikes ent had the ability to make record tapes of this type. oh wait Archer ent already did. damn.