This looks absolutely phenomenal. I am thrilled by the preview, and it’s always better on the TV!

Looks better than the original already.

I was a bit disappointed in The Tholian Web, so I hope Immunity Syndrome is better.

Looks awesome. I can’t wait!

yes, looks very promising!

What I see looks good, but I’ll reserve final judgement until after I see the FX in the context of the full episode.

I hope there are additional “close-ups” of the amoeba.

It’s a great episode, let’s see what they’ve done with it!

My desktop wallpaper is the shot from Tholian Web of the ship only lit by its own lights cause I thought it was so cool. Now you tell me that most of the next episode has the E only lit by its own lights?!

*cue people complaining that the dark is too dark*

This looks absolutely fantastic, movie quality.

Last week’s Tholian Web offered imagery that was only slightly new and only slightly improved as compared with the original. We did not get new and improved Tholians. We did not even get that one crucial long shot of the Enterprise completely surrounded in web. In my opinion CBS-D gave us nothing beyond what was minimally required of them. I found it disappointing.

On the basis of the preview, it would seem that next week’s Immunity Syndrome promises better than that. Let’s hope that CBS-D will be generous this time out.

Doomsday, Babel, Amuck Time—I love it when I look at the screen and see visuals that are both NEW and IMPROVED. I hate it when I look at the screen and see neither.

Oh no wait, it doesn’t look like I think it should look, or like Enterprise

WHAAAAAAAAAAAA

The Enterprise looks great, but does anyone else think that the amoeba looks like a cartoon?

Nope, it’s just you, Chunkay!!!! lol

I agree, the Enterprise finally looks fantastic. I expect wonders with this one.

Preview looked great and I will not bash the good folks at CBS for the very hard work they are doing. It must be difficult for them when so many fans are giving them hell for their work. Thanks to them Classic Trek will be around for a long time to come.

This is just too friggin’ fantastic, can you see the various colors from the lights on top (and underneath) of the saucer section? Red, greens, white lights, etc. Whoo-hoo….bring it on!

Am I seeing things, or can you see the space amoeba in Spocks shuttlecraft viewscreens as he is falling on his ***?

CBS expects total honesty from all of us. Lets hope XI does as well. I thought I saw a hint of movement inside the organism. Hope it’s real. Cool.

I like how the amoeba looks wavy.

Wow…just WOW!!!

And yes, you CAN see the space amoeba through the shuttlecraft viewscreens.

Oh no wait, someone’s spoiling the infantile delight I get when even the most minimal standards are met

WHAAAAAAAAAA

This looks great–at least they can’t replace that ameoba with something from Enterprise!

One of TOS’ dumbest/coolest episodes, the middle child of the “How do we kill it?” trilogy of “The Doomsday Machine,” “The Immunity Syndrome,” and “Obsession.” Frank Van Der Veer’s space amoeba was as elaborate a visual effect as TOS ever got, and it’s a pleasure to see that CBS-D didn’t take it upon themselves to change its look all that much. I was with the purists in their overall disappointment with “The Tholian Web,” but it looks like they may have nailed this one.

Agreed with 23 and other posters… Tholian was a bit of a let down, but the trailer on this one looks very promising.

Didn’t The Immunity Syndrome win a special effects emmy?

Hey, this episode is responsible for my own personal career choice . Lots of engineers today cite Scotty as their inspiration, but I decided on a career in microbiology which probably had a lot to do with the fact that this was my favorite episode as a child.

I still enjoy the episode, but as an adult, there are others I would cite as better overall (City on the Edge of Forever, Balance of Terror, Doomsday Machine come to mind). Still, this is a very fun episode and I very much look forward to seeing how they “enhance” it. The original effects were actually quite good, IMHO…especially given the limitations of the time.

And I think it was “The Tholian Web” that won an emmy for special effects…

I thought it was “The Tholian Web” that won the Emmy. Does anyone know for sure?

I agree Chunkay, I think the amoeba looks like a cartoon.
CBS Digital’s achilles heel sadly.
To be fair though, these quicktime previews are notorious for giving the wrong impression.
AT LAST…
You can actually SEE the navigation lights!
Granted you have to fly into a dark zone with a giant space amoeba in the center to make it happen, but I’m happy all the same.

: )

I’m loving the dimly lit illuminated shots of the E both here and as seen in Tholian Web. I hope the “interior” scenes of the amoeba fare as well. Its always tricky to avoid the “cartoony” look when you throw a lot of colored light at the ship (like the ringed planet shot from I, Mudd or some of the barrier shots from WNMHGB). Anyway, I think they’re doing great work adding subtle texture to the surface of the ship and the camera angles that capture that “third season” look. Can’t wait for this one!

This is looking great!

After Tholian Web its hard for me to be excited about any of this anymore. Does anyone know how they cleaned all that protoplasm out of the E’s vents? Is a starship rated for travel in liquid?

#31- As cynical as this seems, I appreciate your comments totally- ESPECIALLY after Tholian. (If it ain’t broke…)

Once again, the new FX shots look great. They’ve really got the Enterprise looking like an actual ship instead of a CGI creation, which is why I REALLY hope they go back and re-do the earlier episodes.

Anyway, I’d love to see an exterior shot of the Enterprise with the shuttlecraft in tow. We never saw it in the original version, and its just a little detail that would be cool to see.

That WOULD be fantastic.

Nothing was wrong with Tholian Web…whine, whine, whine!

I think the ameoba looks more realistic. (Because I’m an expert on 11,000 mile long ameobas.)
Actually, it’s hard to see in this preview. The ship looks wonderful. The big flu bug looks a little soupy, but maybe that’s what it’s supposed to look like.

ANTIBODDDDDIES…….ANTIIIIIIIIBODDDDDDDIESSSSSSS !!!!!!!!!

I was dubious about how they’d pull this one off. The preview does look promising. The original psychodelic effect of what looked liked colored liquid and gels worked great to create the ameoba, and I am still dubious as to how it can be recreated in CGI. So far, it looks good and I’ll wait to see it broadcast before critizising it.

I agree the dimly lit Enterprise shots are great and adds a mood to the shot.

Thank you CBS for the preview!

Love the dark look…. mmm yea.

I’d say all those disappointed by the Tholian Web and most others will be disappointed in this one. I, for one, am thrilled with what I’ve seen and can hardly wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

^diabolik - I’d say all those disappointed by the Tholian Web and most others - will be disappointed in this one.

That’s a rather narrow minded assumption.

I was disappointed with Tholian Web, but I think this looks fantastic.

Hard to really tell from these previews, but looks promising.

Looks good to me. The Zone of Darkness really is a Zone of Darkness!

I know I have said this before, but just so CBS-D gets the message:

I think that it would be really, really cool if we could see the Enterprise in the standard warp sequence seen in all of the other series where the ship is slowly approaching the camera and the stars in the background are moving by quickly with a sort of pulled back effect. This has always looked good and the effect is pretty hard to screw up. Some very headstrong purists might not like it, but I think the majority of viewers would.

#31

“Does anyone know how they cleaned all that protoplasm out of the E’s vents? ”

By processing it through the Golgi Apparatus? (arcane reference)

it would be cool if we get to see the space debris that spock mentions
maybe bits of the Intrepid, floating in the Space amoeba outer layer. That would be cool. The space amoeba dosent look that great on the preview, but I am hoping its just becasue of the quaility of the preview.

I had some friends and I get together and this is what we came up with:

We looked at the comparison video between orginal and remastered footage for “The Tholian Web”. Our conclusion: Both original and remastered versions have their hies and lows and depending on preference, they can be equally desirable. We then watched this preview. Our conclusion: This is a considerable improvement over “The Tholian Web” remaster, at least by what we could gather. We watched at this trailer again and the trailer for the Enterprise episode “In a Mirror Darkly” part two. Our final conclusion: The remastering project as a whole is improving. CBS-D’s current digital rendering of the Enterprise looks just as good as Eden FX’s. Not so much in “The Tholian Web”, but it is not bad by any matter of means. We think that overall, CBS-D, is doing a fine job, but we were all in favor of Eden FX’s explosions and battle scenes over CBS-D’s. So from this point forward, I think this will be the area that CBS-D will have to work on the most.

As a side note, I am not solely basing my judgments on the previews. I have seen the turn out of all of these on TV except for “The Immunity Syndrome”.

..weeeeeellll doggies!!

this one’s gonna be good!!

I don’t personally consider myself a pursit at all. If I was to define a purist .. A Purist is fan who is afraid of change. I may like TOS more than the spin offs but im trying not to go out of my way to trash them. I think what I expect is the execution of a remastered episode. If I disagree I disagree.

OK enough about that. This looks really cool. The Enterprise has lost that look. A real departure from “the Tholian Web.” It looks ten times better this week. I would be interested in the shuttle craft shots as soon as they become available.

@Redshirt-

I’m with you. I’m the furthest thing from a purist. Change is great…especially if it is done well, like this episode appears to be.

#25,27:

Memory Alpha reports that Tholian Web won an effects Emmy for Mike Minor and Van der Veer Photo Effects. It does not mention any Emmy for The Immunity Syndrome. However, that is a wiki and Wikipedia itself incorrectly states that Star Trek never won an Emmy!

Here is what the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences online Emmy database reports regarding special effects in the Original Series - they don’t specify the episode(s) that were submitted:

SPECIAL CLASSIFICATION ACHIEVEMENTS - 1969
Star Trek - NBC - Howard A. Anderson Company, Special Photographic Effects; The Westheimer Company, Special Photographic Effects; Van der Veer Photo Effects, Special Photographic Effects; Cinema Research, Special Photographic Effects

SPECIAL CLASSIFICATION OF INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENTS - 1968
Star Trek - NBC - The Westheimer Company, Special Photographic Effects

NDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENTS IN ART DIRECTION AND ALLIED CRAFTS - 1967
Star Trek - NBC - Jim Rugg, Mechanical Special Effects

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENTS IN CINEMATOGRAPHY - 1967
Star Trek - NBC - Darrell Anderson, Special Effects; Linwood G. Dunn, Special Effects; Joseph Westheimer, Special Effects

Meh.

#39 Xai “Love the dark look….mmm yea”.
That “mmm yea” has a pronounced sexual overtone to it that even a paragraph of lustful thought (artfully described) wouldn’t convey! Did you actually enjoy the preview THAT much, or, to rephrase the question, was it good for YOU? Bahahahahaha…….(I’d show a little yellow smiley face, but I don’t know how to do that).

I’ve Been really looking forward to this episode and it looks great!!!

#53 Michael Appleton….

Good grief you read a lot into 2 words.

Enterprise is a fine lady, and while I find her “good”, my wife is far better.

Redshirt and New Horizon, you’re singing my song. Change is great. I want NEW and I want IMPROVED. To get new and to get improved there must be change.

#55
Hey, two words can convey a lot of meaning, such as:
“not tonight”
“get bent”
“good grief” a Charlie Brown fixation , perhaps?
Sorry if I read too much into the phrase “mmm yea”. I’m probably harkening back to my mispent youth where that wording has a nostalgic significance for me. Obviously I have too much bloody time on my hands! Glad to hear your wife enthralls and captivates you more than a 40 year old T.V. show! Bravo and best wishes!

This looks great! The Tholian Web was amazing - this one looks even better. CBSD really does a fantastic job on these.

For all of you complaining and whining about the cartoony look … the original was even more cartoony.. especially the phasers and anything that was in space such as the Tholian ships, the Fesarious (sp.), etc. I think it looks LESS cartoony and less laughable now… well, except for Spock’s Brain… I try to forget that episode.

Them’s my two Canadian cents…

Pardon me sir,
but how can a REAL eleven foot MODEL look more cartoony than an actual…..uh…..CARTOON?

I think CHEESY is the word you are looking for.

I take it you don’t live in the English speaking sector of Montreal ; )

This one’s looking good already. I give this episode high marks for drama, Effects and science fiction concept and writing. The writers put everything known about cellular biology into this episode.

I for one would like to see this one re-made.

I don’t think they’re going to add that TNG-style warp flight stuff, Gd… It seems like that goes beyond their supposed intent to not overdo the effects so it looks like one of the later shows.

If you look very carefully at the saucer “windows” in the first shot you will see the interior. This would suggest that they are infact windows and not some sort of viewscreens. But really, who cares? I just think it looks really cool

59 - Spockboy

My mother tongue is English and I live in an Eglish part of town. Yes, I meant to say the 11 ft model was more cartoony… AND cheesy. It also looked two dimentional to me. Yes, I am saying that CGI looked more realistic and more 2D than actual model did. I think it has more to do with the way it was shot and how it looks on firm after all these years. I work in television and deal with chroma keys (green screen) all the time - I still find that there is no depth to it when we shoot chroma key.. if it was shot using ultimatte (which wasn’t invented then) it would be pleasing to me.

Don’t get me wrong - I still love TOS the way it was.. that’s all I get up here.. but I just like the way the CGI ships look in the remastered shows.

Spockboy… Just want to say to you, thanks for all your side by side comparisons.. I love them! I think everyone here appreciates your hard work. Please keep it up I first saw your work on YouTube. I’m a big fan.

#63 Montreal Paul
Atta boy, Paul! I think you’ve shared some very good comments and observations. I live in Toronto and, like you, am restricted to what I can watch on the Space Channel. It would be great to watch the remastered episodes, wouldn’t it? C’mon Space Channel, get with the program! (yes, pun intended).

Does the amoeba in the original version move or is it basically just a picture that the Enterprise flies towards? The one in the preview DOES move. So doesn’t that make it more real-looking and more lifelike?

The original moves… well, it oozes anyway. Not sure how the ship’s propulsion systems operate in ooze. Scotty may have one bitch of a clean-up afterwards.

Oh, okay. I only saw the episode once, so I didn’t remember.

egads.. I speak English but I obviously can’t spell! So many spelling errors! That’s what happens when you are switching a TV program and typing at the same time. My apologies.

Michael.. thanks! Yes, Would be great if Space ran the remastered episodes. Maybe we can get a letter writing campaign going! LOL

Anthony… shout out for GeekMonthly.com … but, your readers need to learn to be more vocal, like the TrekMovie readers are.

Hey… I’m 69! Woo-Hoo!
See… aren’t inanities fun?

They should rename this episode “Attack of the Giant Mutant Teenage Omoeba” !

Mike

I rewatched this episode on my dvd today just to be prepared for the weekend. WOW, did this thing need cleaning up. Unlike Tholian…this one has a lot of glaring special effect problems. I can’t wait to see them resolved by CBS-D. It’s really gonna make the show rock, because the drama is great already. I’m glad the amoeba looks similar to the original. I have a feeling this could be a home run!!!

#70 CmdrR. “See…aren’t inanities fun?”
What’s even more fun is to insert an ’s’ between the ‘n’ and ‘a’ of inanities to reflect your state of mind on some days at that age! Happy Birthday!

Kirk battles amoebic dysentery around Uranus. This is a cool episode.

Funny, I hear nowadays it’s George Takei’s mission in life to reach Uranus.

With the advent of color TVs in the 1960s, shows like Star Trek utilized bright colors to help sell televisions. My parents have plenty of stories about that, particularly with RCA using Star Trek to promote that.

Now we have high-definition TV… and a lackluster CGI Enterprise, new f/x with lousy, dull lighting, and muted colors, esp. with “The Tholian Web” and now “The Immunity Syndrome.”

CBS-D, I *hate* what you’ve done here. That space amoeba could have been much better. I would have preferred the organism to be brighter, more colorful like the original.

Ugh.

I thought that the main point of having High Def TV is to make the picture realistic - to make it look like you’re actually THERE. Not to make it more colorful.

Did you ever think that maybe there’s something wrong with your TV, because none of the episodes look dark on my TV. Or maybe it’s the network airing them. I suppose that could be it.

You’re missing my point, Kyle Nin. The 1960s Star Trek was designed with bright, vivid colors in mind. I wish that had been carried over into various aspects of the new, exterior shots.

Complain complain complain. If you don’t like it, then don’t watch it.

The creature seams just as colorful to me. Just looking at the still of it, it’s rather hard to tell from the original.

Looks like it has the same shape, but the colors have definately been subdued. Here’s a link to the original…

http://www.startrek.com/imageuploads/200306/tos-048-the-enterprise-flies/320×240.jpg

I hate computers. That link didn’t work. Try this one instead… same link, but hand typed instead of pasted.

http://www.startrek.com/imageuploads/200306/tos-048-the-enterprise-flies/320×240.jpg

Fine… just type it into your own browser and you’ll see it.

Pink, purple, azure, black, gray, white… wow… all the colors I CAN see in the “dark zone”.
Must the show be completely washed out with no shadows, light gray “space” and a fuzzy blue Starship to please you? I saw the show when aired and am completely familiar with Trek’s color scheme and it’s signature look. It had darkness where needed.
I’ll say it again…. if this was changing the original episodes forever, I’d say the complants were justified… but this is a rework… changing some effects and cleaning up old artifacts and dirt. The originals still exist. I don’t believe that some of the awful statements that have been made toward CBS-D are deserved.
The difference between critiquing, stating an opinion and plain old bit*hing is getting pretty thin in a few posts.

There’s a knob or button on your TV or remote called “brightness” also “contrast”.

My apologies for going off.

The Quicktime version of the preview is higher quality than the Windows Video version. I wonder, why must the Windows Video version be so poor?

The difference is obvious when viewing and comparing both versions at full screen size. The Quicktime version is much better.

In fact the WMV file is under 1 MB and the QT file is almost 3 MB, a big difference. Obviously the WMV version is over-compressed. Someone is doing a poor job with the conversions to WMV.

Whine, whine, whine! ;-.

84 & 85-
Agreed on both of your posts. I always growl when the preview goes up while I’m at work. I can’t watch it at work in quicktime. To add quick time, the tech coordinator has to put on the program. Not planning on that happening any time soon.

I think this whole color thing is being way overblown. I don’t know a lot about HD, but I’m thinking that THAT has something to do with the colors being toned down a TINY bit and everything being just a TAD darker. When watching these on iTunes, however, the darkness is GONE! When the HD dvd’s come out and IF everything is still way too dark, then maybe these darkness complaints will be somewhat justified.

Until then, I just sit back and enjoy…which I feel is a much better way to approach this rather than sitting on pins and needles and looking as hard as I can for any problem or mistake that isn’t even there. Sure, there are a few here and there that we have mentioned, but….man, some people really must lead dreary lives being that pessimistic-GADS!!!!

OK about this darkness BS.
1. HD sources show a ton more detail, and have thousands of more pixels which bring out a different description of the luminance values then poor old 480i (standard TV) could ever hope to reproduce.

2. Further there are clearly differences between the older DVD transfers versus the new HD transfer: the color balance is different and the saturation a bit richer.

3. There seem to be some minor contrast differences between copies of the show depending on the format: The television ready ones sent the affiliates via satellite in digital standard definition vs. the 720p Xbox Live vs. the 480p iTunes versions.

4. Most of you are watching on a random TV set, I bet it has never occurred to most people that you need to properly calibrate your TVs settings for color temperature, brightness, contrast, sharpness, etc. TVs come from the factory setup for a a blown out look for showroom demonstration. There are a couple of good calbiration DVDs out there that can be had for ~$30 that guide you through basic calibration steps.

5. Finally, remember that a PC has a different white to black threshold level then TV. A PC goes from 0-255 while video has a 16-235 level. So what you see on your PC is going to look a bit different then on your TV. Not to mention PC monitors are not necessarily calibrated for the same levels or color temperature as a TV. I can tell you the TOS Remastered episodes I record to take screenshots from look different on my HDTV compared to when I take the recorded TV file to my desktop PC and make screenshots.

I need to see these episodes in HD. Now it’s serious.

#53 Michael Appleton

We need more “smiley faces” in this world Michael!

The way I do them to show up here is to first type a double colon : then without putting a space inbetween, typing a capital D. Now I’ll do it an voila -

In case you miss this I’ll repost this in the near future, ’cause I’m generous that way.

What, still no photos from the “The Immunity Syndrome” CGI ? I thought this episode would provide some good stuff…

Oh, and those Quicktime previews crash my Internet Explorer… I don’t know if it’s the codec they use, but only the Star Trek videos cause this problem.

Well this is a fascinating thread! Without having seen it on TV, I tend to find the criticisms for Tholian Web, seem to match my own previously made criticisms. However, the Immunity Syndrome Clip, looks pretty damn good to me.

For my part of it, a lot of us who complain about the effects, and the lighting and the cartooniness, and the grey Ent, etc etc, are trying to bring a balance between the new and the old. It has to “feel” right. That doesn’t mean we’re opposed to new angles, or warp effects, etc… Bring it on.

The draw back of the original effects (specifically regarding the Ent) isn’t the quality of the effect, it’s that each episode has so many stock shots that CBS-D wouldn’t be giving us anything new if they did shot by shot recreations.

I have my list of regular gripes with the new effects, but when I think they shouldn’t have changed the Tholian ships, it’s not because I’m a purist, or in a “camp” it’s because they were cool as they were. They were alien, and different and interesting. As far as a giant space amoeba goes, it’s an amoeba, it doesn’t really matter. This is where they could interpret if they wanted to.

In any event the amoeba looks pretty damn good, as does the preview in general. I’ll be Tivo’ing it.

Doug

I like your comment Doug, and though I didn’t find any fault with the new Tholian Ships, I agree with your reasons for liking the original.
where I stand, I don’t really like the new or the old any better than the other. Both have different aspects which I like.
___

No clips for The Immunity Syndrome yet? I was looking forward to those. Maybe they’ll put them up later tonight or tomorrow.

Hey Matt,

Do you think they are color balancing each show individually or are they going with a pre-set for all episodes? I/m curious because some shows appear very saturated and rich, while others (like Tholian Web) have marked drop in color saturation. I’m wondering is they are taking some creative license with the color timing, mathing episode moods etc.

Yeah I really don’t know, the color saturation seems pretty consistent, except in the occasional segment where the film clearly hasn’t aged well. But I did notice The Tholian Web being a bit darker all around then most of the others thus far. However I always remembered the The Tholian Web as being darker then most episodes.