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Star Trek: The Original Series episode guides - All TOS episodes rated, reviewed

In those days before the Federation had continuity, there was Star Trek: The Original Series. Watch the TOS stories in any other you wish; it rarely matters, as essentially every single episode in TOS is a bottle episode. Ultimately, however, many TOS episodes are retconned into prequel stories (e.g. “The Menagerie”, “Space Seed”, “City on the Edge of Forever”), sequels (e.g. “Mirror Mirror”) or even crossovers (“The Trouble with Tribbles”) for the other series and movies.

Star Trek: The Original Series – the seaons, the key episodes

Season 1 – In the 1960s, TV was a different beast. Serialization (and thus continuity) was essentially non-existent. Each story plays out over a single episode only (with one exception in three years of Star Trek), thereby not allowing for much character development each season of Star Trek’s original run is really barely indistinguishable from another – but at lest that means that season 1 isn’t filled with the “growing pains” every other ST series goes through. The biggest highlights in Star Trek’s first year has got to be “The Menagerie” (episode #s 11 and 12), an eerie story of Captain Kirk’s doomed mentor Captain Pike, and “City on the Edge of Forever” (#29), a neat twist on the traditional “preserve the past” time travel tale. Also of note: “Space Seed” (#22), the introduction of Star Trek II baddie Khan.

Season 2 – Ensign Chekov joins the bridge crew for season 2, which manages to have some fun in the explicitly comic “Trouble with Tribbles” (#15) and the absolutely bananas “Assignment: Earth” (#26). And Spock fans dig on “Amok Time” (#1) and Journey to Babel (#10) for the info doled on that wacky Vulcan culture.

Season 3 – As mentioned above, a fan campaign saved Star Trek for a third series, but NBC executives were not enthused about supporting the marginally successful series and cut the show’s operating budget in half. However, Star Trek Guide must say that tripling the budget could not save scripts like those for “Spock’s Brain” (Can all Vulcans live without a brain or just Spock?), “Specter of the Gun” (Scotty’s dead because he *thinks* he’s dead?) and “The Savage Curtain” (Kirk, Spock, Vulcan hero Surak and Abe Lincoln vs. Genghis Khan, Klingon Empire founder Kahless, 21st-century Earth dictator Mr. Green – who did it in the kitchen with a revolver – and fuzzy chick Zora?) Dude.

20 Best Star Trek Episodes from the Original Series

By: Author Brad Burnie

Posted on Published: August 15, 2022  - Last updated: March 3, 2023

Share the Universe!

There has been a notable revival of interest in the Star Trek universe buoyed by new productions that can be streamed live. However, the experience can never be as authentic and wholesome if you don’t have a historical view of where everything is coming from. There are numerous characters from different corners of the galaxy and different points in time.

To jump-start your understanding of the Star Trek Universe, you may want to watch Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) so that everything else will fall in place. Here is our selection of 20 of the best episodes from the original series that we believe capture all the variables for your sampling. 20. The Squire of Gothos (Season 1 Episode 17)

The Enterprise crew come into contact with an omnipotent being, a Trelane , on a planet that should not be inhabited. They are awestruck by the 18 th -century environment. The technology on the Enterprise seems to be no match for Trelane’s godlike powers, and he takes quite a bit of pleasure in toying with them.

The self-professed ‘ Squire on Gothos ’ engages them in a game of wits for his enjoyment where they must disentangle themselves to survive.

19. The Enemy Within (Season 1 Episode 5)

The ship’s transporter malfunctions as Captain Kirk is being beamed back onto the ship, splitting him into two different but identical entities, ideally separating the good side of him from his evil version. It takes an attempt by the evil Kirk to force himself on yeoman Janice Rand for Spock to realize there is a charlatan aboard the Enterprise.

The two are extreme opposites of each other, the evil one being extremely domineering and hostile and the good one too passive and indecisive, even while some of the crew are still stranded outside the ship. Each version tries to dominate the Enterprise. The resulting stalemate puts us in an uncomfortable situation, trying to make up our minds on which version of Captain Kirk is more suited to run the ship.

William Shatner delivers one of his best performances, shifting from indecisiveness to lustfulness, from sorrow to violence portraying human nature’s duality and how it is often contradictory.

18. The Naked Time (Season 1 Episode 4)

The crew becomes exposed to an infection that strips inhibitions and begins to act out their hidden fantasies in one of the series’s most comical episodes . Lieutenant Junior Grade Joe Tormolen , who was part of the landing party, removes his gloves to scratch his nose and gets infected, carrying the infectious polywater agent back to the ship.

The infection drives him to a manic rage buoyed by his insecurities, and he fatally stabs himself. His colleagues Hikaru Sulu and Kevin Riley try to stop him and get infected in the process.

The resultant chaos makes the episode entertaining; Riley starts acting extremely Irish, eventually commandeering the engineering room and shutting off the ship’s engine to serenade the crew with an Irish song. Sulu steals the show as he parades menacingly around the ship bearing a sword and has to be subdued by Spock in the initial display of the Vulcan ‘nerve pinch’ that will become a common move in later episodes.

Captain Kirk struggles to fight against the infection to restore order in the ship . He is struggling to resist his own attraction to Yeoman Rand in the midst of all this.

17. The Enterprise Incident (Season 3 Episode 2)

The Federation sends Captain Kir k and Spock to spy on a Romulan vessel and obtain details about its engineering. We see a rare flirtatious side of Spock as he maliciously seduces the Romulan commander for the sake of the mission. He is not entirely comfortable with the method they used and tells her apologetically that he hopes they have exchanged something more permanent.

The plot is well written as the plan is meticulously executed. The mission is successful as they manage to steal the Romulan cloaking device.

16. Where No Man Has Gone Before (Season 1 Episode 3)

The Enterprise comes across a recording from the USS Valiant that went missing some 200 years ago, which seems to suggest they had to self-destruct to prevent some form of danger.

They proceed to investigate and cross the edge of the galaxy, where they hit a strange barrier that damages their ship, leading to the loss of 9 crew members and knocking out the ship’s psychiatrist Dr. Dehner and helmsman Gary Mitchell .

Gary awakes with godlike powers and unleashes them on the Enterprise crew. Kirk tries to imprison his old friend, so he does not have to use lethal means to subdue him but eventually ends up taking his life.

The episode has impressive action sequences with an emotional ending where Kirk observes that Gary did not ask for what happened to him and entered on record that he died in the line of duty.

15. The Galileo Seven (Season 1 Episode 16)

The shuttlecraft Galileo (the first to be featured in a Star Trek production ) is forced to make an emergency landing on Taurus 2 in what was a routine science mission. This is the home of the Taureans ; huge apelike beasts. Seven crew members of the Enterprise led by Stock leave the ship to investigate a quasar-like formation dubbed the Murasaki phenomenon .

Meanwhile, the Enterprise is in route to deliver relief supplies to one of the colonies and is wary of a coming ion storm that is bad news in this distant part of the galaxy. A decision must be made on whether to leave the seven for the sake of the many or wait for the Galileo’s return. Captain Kirk squeezes every opportunity from the chain of command to keep looking for the Galileo and his crew.

This episode brings out Spock’s relevance as a leader of the seven, forcing him to give orders in the face of danger as they have to fight heavily armed violent Taureans . He even goes against his Vulcan logical reasoning and makes an illogical gamble when he seems to lose men after following logic.

14. A Taste of Armageddon (Season 1 Episode 23)

The Enterprise crew comes across a society that has evolved beyond vicious combat to protect their infrastructure and conserve their culture. They don’t fight with weapons but engage in combat through accurate simulations where if your number comes up, you are forced into a disintegration chamber.

This system of planets, Eminiar VII, has been in constant conflict for centuries. Captain Kirk escorts a diplomat to them when a few crew members unknowingly find themselves in a building marked to be destroyed and refuse surrender for disintegration. The Enterprise has to intervene at the risk of reverting Eminiar VII back to destructive combat. Kirk suggests that they have merely muted the horrors of fighting.

The episode has action and thrills and leaves us contemplating whether the Enterprise did the right thing for the first time.

13. The Devil in The Dark (Season 1 Episode 25)

The Enterprise is responding to a distress call from the Pergium mining colony on Janus VI . A rocklike creature (Horta) excreting molten lava has been incinerating workers. This episode addresses the fear of the unknown.

Spock performs a Vulcan mind-meld for the very first time. He can communicate with the creature and realizes Horta’s intentions were not malicious. Rather it was the miners who had done it wrong by destroying its eggs, and it was just trying to protect them.

Captain Kirk and Spock convince the miners to coexist with the creature, which may be useful for their mining.

12. Arena (Season 1 Episode 18)

This is the first conflict the Starfleet ever engages in with the Gorns . The Enterprise is chasing a Goran ship after discovering they have obliterated the Cestus III outpost without provocation. The chase takes them to an unexplored area of space where their ships are disabled by the powerful Metrons , guardians of this sector of space.

To manage the possible destruction that may arise from a conflict, the Metrons pit the captains of the two ships against each other in a battle to the death where the survivor is allowed to go free and the loser will be obliterated along with their ship.

The captains are beamed to a desert planet that should have enough resources for them to fight each other as their crews watch helplessly from their disabled vessels. The Goran captain is physically stronger, forcing Captain Kirk to rely on his wits and every available tool to survive.

11. The Menagerie: Part 1 and 2 (Season 1 Episodes 11 and 12)

This is a flashback episode that takes us to a time before Captain James Tiberius Kirk took the helm of the Enterprise. First Officer Spock commandeers the Enterprise with falsified recordings of Captain Kirk’s voice and sets the vessel on a course to Talos IV under strict quarantine and should not be visited. He takes his former commander, Captain Christopher Pike, who is injured and disabled, with him.

Captain Kirk gives chase in a Starbase shuttlecraft, and Spock lets him into the Enterprise after confirming the shuttlecraft doesn’t have enough fuel to return to the Starbase. He goes on to surrender and requests to be put on trial immediately to explain the reasons for his actions.

He produces a recording of their earlier mission on Talos IV for his defense, which shows what the Talosians (an alien race of telepaths with large heads) had done with the survey ship Columbia survivors that crashed on the planet earlier.

The plan is to bring his former commander, Captain Christopher Pike, back to Talos IV to reunite him with Vina so that he can live out the rest of his life in the illusion of normalcy with help from the Talosians illusions.

10. Journey to Babel (Season 2 Episode 10)

The Enterprise is on a mission to transport ambassadors of the United Federation of Planets to a conference in Babel where they discuss the merits of the possible inclusion of the Coridan System in the Federation. Natural occurrences of the rare mineral Dilithium (used to fuel warp drives in ships) in the Coridan system remain protected.

It is one of the few times the Federation’s founding members are all together on the screen, and new species like the Andorians and Tellarites are introduced. We also get an insight into Spock’s family relations as his father , Sarek, is the Vulcan ambassador and his mother is also present.

The Tellarite ambassador Gav is murdered in a Vulcan-style execution after a major disagreement with Sarek over unauthorized mining of dilithium in the Coridan System by Tellarite ships. All suspicion naturally turns to Sarek , who suffers a cardiac attack and has to be treated using Spock’s blood.

The ship is also under attack from an unknown vessel that seems to be receiving communication from within the Enterprise.

9. The Corbomite Maneuver (Season 1 Episode 10)

The Enterprise is facing imminent destruction from a powerful First Federation Ship called the Fesarius because they have trespassed into First Federation territory and destroyed their boundary marking buoy.

Captain Kirk is forced to resort to a bluff, seeing the Enterprise is no match for the Fesarius . He tells Balok , the commander, that the Enterprise possesses a powerful substance called Corbomite that will reflect any energy projected against the ship back to its source with equal force. He also feigns not to care what happens to the Enterprise and its crew once the Fesarius attacks.

This forces Balok to reconsider his attack and leads to a turn of events that would see them being invited aboard the Fesarius .

8. The Doomsday Machine (Season 2 Episode 6)

This is the episode where the Starship Enterprise faces a powerful machine from a different galaxy capable of destroying entire planets. They find themselves facing the machine after responding to a distress call from the USS Constellation while investigating a surge in star system destruction. The Constellation had been damaged while trying to attack the Doomsday machine.

The machine comes for them as they are trying to repair the Constellation’s viewscreen and weapons and shields, forcing the Enterprise to fight back in what seems to be a losing battle as their phasers don’t seem to have any effect on the machine.

It takes a lot of sacrifice of lives and ships to fight against the doomsday machine.

7. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (Season 3 Episode 15)

The USS Enterprise intercepts signals from a Federation shuttlecraft reported having been stolen while on a mission to help decontaminate the atmosphere in Ariannus , a planet plagued by bacteria.

They bring the craft onboard along with its alien pilot, a humanoid who is black on one side and white on the other. He identifies himself as Lokai , a political refugee from the war-torn planet Charon . They realize they are being pursued by another spacecraft that happens to be ferrying another alien from Charon named Bele , who has apparently pursued Lokai to take him back to face trial for his war crimes.

The two have a charged argument, and at some point, Bele takes control of the Enterprise, forcing Captain Kirk to engage self-destruct to bring him back to his senses. They all proceed to Ariannus to complete the mission. The episode ends with a lesson as they find Charon deserted, with no life, possibly due to civil war. To the enterprise crew, the two aliens seem similar, but they harbored much hate due to perceived differences.

6. The Trouble with Tribbles (Season 2 Episode 15)

The Enterprise is docked at the Deep Space Station K-7 on guard duty for a quadrotriticale grain shipment. It is suspected that visiting Klingons may disrupt their delivery to an Earth colony. The crew enjoys this as shore leave, so does the crew of a Klingon ship.

Lieutenant Uhura purchases a tribble (an alien species that looks like a ball of fluff and purrs) from an interstellar trader. They later discover that tribbles are born pregnant and multiply at a very high rate. The starship is soon filled with tribbles that threaten to consume all their food, including the grain shipment they are protecting.

The tribbles end up taking one for the Earth colony, as they uncover that the grain was poisoned.

5. Amok Time (Season 2 Episode 1)

Captain Kirk disobeys orders to represent the Federation at the inauguration of the new president of the planet Altair VI after McCoy tells him that Spock’s symptoms will kill him within eight days if not treated.

Spock explains he is going through pon farr , a phase in the Vulcan reproductive cycle where an adult male has to mate, or they will die. Kirk risks his career by diverting the ship to Vulcan to facilitate this.

To fulfill the pon farr , Spock has to take T’Pring as his mate since they were bonded as children. T’Pring prefers another mate instigates a physical challenge to determine who will be her mate. Using Vulcan logic, she surprisingly pits Captain Kirk against Spock to spare her beloved Stonn .

4. Mirror Mirror (Season 2 Episode 4)

An ion storm causes a transportation problem which lands Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Scott, and Uhura in a mirror universe , swapping them with their evil counterparts from that universe . The new world is filled with suspicion, betrayal, dominance, and violence, and the Federation is an evil empire.

The crew must find a way to fix the anomaly without spooking the evil Spock from this universe who does not understand their hesitation to attack the Halkans for refusing to allow the Federation to mine dilithium from their planet. Kirk orders them to the sick bay so they can plan their return privately.

Spock is also holding their doppelgangers in sick bay at the same time on the original Enterprise, quite amazed by their new demeanor.

3. Balance of Terror (Season 1 Episode 14)

The Enterprise faces off with a Romulan ship that has a cloaking device that renders it invisible. The ship has been attacking Earth outposts in the Romulan neutral zone declared in the peace treaty that ended the Earth-Romulan war a century ago.

Humans and Romulans have never seen each other before. The resemblance of the Romulan ship’s crew to Vulcans raises discord in the Enterprise for a fleeting second as Spock’s loyalty is questioned by Lieutenant Stiles .

The episode’s highlight is the cat and mouse games and the tactical proficiency in display by both captains as they try to outmaneuver each other.

2. Space Seed (Season 1 Episode 22)

The Enterprise encounters the long-lost Earth vessel USS Botany Bay drifting in space. They find 84 humans who have been in suspended animation for over 200 years, 72 of whom are still alive.

Captain Kirk decides to stow the Botany Bay to Starbase 12 so the survivors can be attended. Historian Lieutenant Marla McGivers identifies their leader, Khan Noonien Singh , a 20th-century human selective breeding experiment product, and is awestruck.

Khan influences McGivers to beam him onto the Botany Bay, where he wakes up his colleagues, and they try to take over the Enterprise.

1. The City on The Edge of Forever (Season 1 Episode 28)

McCoy inadvertently alters the future by going back in time while intoxicated from a sedative he was administering to Lieutenant Sulu . This triggers a series of unfortunate events. Captain Kirk and Spock follow him through to try and restore the timeline.

The mission involves living in the 20 th century for a while as they try to figure out how to rectify the situation before McCoy appears. During this period, Captain Kirk falls in love with the subject of the altered future, Edith Keeler .

The combination of adventure and emotion in this episode makes it one of The Original Series’s most captivating installments.

Brad Burnie is the founder of Starships.com. He loves all video game genres. In his spare time, he loves reading, watching movies, and gaming

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

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Graeme McMillan

WIRED Binge-Watching Guide: Star Trek

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek , the flagship of a massive franchise that by all rights shouldn’t exist. The show’s first pilot was rejected, and the series was cancelled after three years—and yet it kept coming back. It's a phenomenon that seems curious until you actually watch the show, at which point you realize exactly why things unfolded that way.

Star Trek (or Star Trek: The Original Series , as it’s now referred to) is many things: a drama, a comedy, a series about ideas and interpersonal conflicts, a competition to see which actors can eat the most scenery and much, much more. That variety is a strength; even if it’s slow by today’s televisual standards, the fact that you never really know what’s coming next gives the series unexpected bingeability.

And if that’s not enough to convince you to watch, there’s always one of the world’s greatest TV show openings:

What are you waiting for? Here’s a quick guide on how to mainline the classic Star Trek .

Number of Seasons: 3 (79 episodes)

Time Requirements: Five weeks, assuming that you binge a couple of episodes every weekday and six episodes a weekend. That might sound like a lot, but they’re pretty addictive; you might even get through it quicker than that.

Where to Get Your Fix: Netflix and Amazon Prime (Or, if you want to pay for it, Google Play and iTunes).

Best Character to Follow: We'd say the Enterprise, but then someone would spoil everything by pointing out that the Enterprise is a starship and not really a character. And yet, while Captain James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner, who before he became an old ham was a young, surprisingly handsome, ham) might make for an entertaining leading man, it’s hard to argue that he’s the most interesting character in the show. Perhaps Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock would make a more obvious choice, but I’m going to offer a couple of other suggestions instead: DeForrest Kelley’s Dr. “Bones” McCoy and James Doohan’s Chief Engineer “Scotty” Scott enliven almost every scene they’re in. Come for the square-jawed heroes, stay for the irascible space scientists.

Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip: The common wisdom regarding the first Star Trek series is that things started to go wrong in the show’s third (and final) season. That’s a little simplistic—the first episode below comes from the show’s first year&mdash:but not entirely off base. Certainly, the third season is weaker than the first two, with the show falling prey to… well, you’ll see.

Andy Greenberg

Andrew Couts

Steven Levy

Amit Katwala

S1 E6: Mudd’s Women While this episode is dressed up as a parable about the importance of inner beauty, there’s more than a little creep about the gender politics and interpersonal relationships: men are depicted as brainless horndogs where beautiful women are concerned, and women as so desperate to appear attractive that they’ll submit to a life of what's basically slavery for the illusion of eternal beauty. Sure, it’s meant to be wacky, but… yeah. A bit of a misfire.

S3 E1: Spock’s Brain Here’s the plot of “Spock’s Brain”: An alien beams onboard the Entertpise, stunning the entire crew and stealing the brain of the ship’s science officer, Spock. Everyone chases after her so that they can place the brain back into Spock’s body before he dies— including Spock himself , who is operated by remote control. No, I’m not joking. This is an episode that was apparently seen as being so good that it was used to open a season.

S3 E3: The Paradise Syndrome It’s tough to deny that the idea of Kirk having his memory wiped and believing that he’s an indigenous native of an alien planet is a good basis for an episode. The decision to execute this idea by having said natives of said alien planet be literal Native Americans, with William Shatner spending much of the episode dressed in a cheap movie Western’s version of Native American garb while calling himself “Kirok,” however, might not have been the best way to go about things.

S3 E20: The Way to Eden Two words: Space Hippies. Oh, you’re not convinced that’s a bad idea? Fine, you asked for it:

1969, you've got some ’splaining to do.

S3 E24: Turnabout Intruder Star Trek didn’t exactly go out on a high note: the final episode of the series was a lackluster thriller with a dodgy premise: a woman, passed over for promotion, will end up going on a killing spree while possessing a man’s body. As with much of Trek ’s weaker material, there’s a germ of a good idea in there, but the episode itself leaves much to be desired.

Seasons/Episodes You Can’t Skip: Star Trek really hit the ground running...almost. The show famously got two pilots because the first didn’t quite convince the NBC brass back in the day. (The majority of footage from that first pilot turns up in Season 1's two-parter "The Menagerie," so you can see what you missed, like an almost entirely different cast). But because of this, the show avoids the learning curve of many series, and has an impressively strong first couple of years. If you’re looking for a season to focus on, you could do a lot worse than the first. Or, if you’re really pressed for time, try one of the following:

S1 E3: Where No Man Has Gone Before We're still unclear why a show’s pilot (technically, its second pilot) can officially be the third episode, but there you go. Regardless, it’s easy to see why the network said yes to the show after this one, which really does have it all: action, metaphysics, and high emotional stakes. An irresistible piece of TV.

S1 E10: The Corbomite Maneuver Even more proof that Trek got it right almost immediately comes in the form of this episode, which was the first to be produced following the two pilots and just nails it, showcasing both Kirk’s strategic savvy and the occasional utter unknowability of space travel (What is that cube, anyway?). To say anything more would be to risk spoiling it.

S1 E14: Balance of Terror A Cold War episode, transposing the action into space and introducing the Romulans. Tense and complex in a way that goes beyond the simplicity of the western-in-space conceit, this one—like ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before”—suggests that the potential for Star Trek is far greater than many might have believed.

S1 E22: Space Seed Setting the stage for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan —even people who’ve never seen Star Trek know that one—this episode introduces Ricardo Montalban as the leader of a genetically-modified race of supermen who want to conquer the galaxy, but the meat of the story is as much about ideological failures of the past as it is an action-oriented dash towards the finish line.

S1 E28: City on the Edge of Forever DeForrest Kelley gets a chance to shine (or perhaps do the very opposite of shine, whatever that would be) in this time travel story where true love really doesn’t get a chance to conquer all. Enjoyably fatalistic, “City on the Edge” demonstrates the power of a good unhappy ending every now and again.

S2 E1: Amok Time The first episode of the show’s second season gave fans what they wanted (more of Spock’s alien heritage), some of what they had come to expect (Kirk finding a new love interest in space), and just a little bit of what they wouldn’t have thought possible (the two leads of the show fighting over a woman). I’m still unsure about likening Spock to a salmon, but given the high quality of the rest of the episode, we can let that one slide.

S2 E4: Mirror, Mirror Almost certainly the definitive “alternate world where everyone we know is evil” story, there’s almost nothing not to love about “Mirror, Mirror,” which appears to take glee in offering up alternate versions of the regular cast. The mildest of spoilers: Spock gets all the attention, but Sulu’s the Mirror Duplicate that everyone should be watching.

S2 E6: The Doomsday Machine The scale of the threats in this episode are immense, even for Star Trek . Most obviously, there’s a planet-eating machine on the loose, but an even bigger problem is the obsession of Kirk’s superior officer in stopping that machine. Sure, there’s a clear Moby Dick influence in the episode, but it’s like a bigger, improved version of the story: this time, the whale’s in space and could probably end the Earth in a matter of minutes. Beat that , Herman Melville.

S2 E15: The Trouble with Tribbles One of the things about the original Star Trek that didn’t really continue in subsequent series is its willingness to be goofy for the sake of goofiness. Take this episode, the premise of which is essentially “What if there were space rabbits that bred so much they started causing real problems? Oh, and the big bad aliens are allergic to them. Hilarity ensues!” And guess what: it actually does.

S2 E17: A Piece of The Action Another comedy episode—and a chance for producers to save some money by shooting on the Paramount backlot, thanks to the idea of an alien culture based around old gangster movies. Not only is this a chance for everyone involved to get a break from the traditional super-tension of the series’ more serious episodes, it’s also an example of Kirk showing when lateral thinking can come in handy if faced with unusual problems. Just wait for the way this one ends…

Why You Should Binge: The original Star Trek has everything—for better or for worse, given how poorly some episodes have aged. No matter which episode you’re watching, however, the show entertains. At its best, it’s thought-provoking science-fiction that boasts great performances, writing from genuine greats, and also some of the best design and music of the era. At its worst, it’s enjoyably silly science-fiction that still boasts great performances, writing from genuine greats, and also some of the best design and music of the era. Seriously, it’s hard to go wrong with the original Star Trek .

Best Scene—”Status of Mission, Captain?” Does it get any better than this?

Oh, wait, it does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_rTTXCOpL8 Yes, that really is the origins of the “goatee beards mean evil” meme. Star Trek , you gave the world oh so much.

That said, this is pretty great as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSJ0x8j4uLw Yes, Captain Kirk isn’t above racist jokes when it comes to bamboozling 20th century flatfoots. Maybe the 23rd century isn’t quite as evolved as it makes itself out to be, after all…

The Takeaway: Boldly going anywhere has rarely been so much fun, never mind where no man had gone before. (The less gendered "no-one" wouldn't be introduced until 1987's Star Trek: The Next Generation .)

If You Liked Star Trek You’ll Love: Well, there are three other Star Trek TV series, and a whole slew of movies, for you to choose from. If you’d rather look for something set in an entirely different fictional universe, but matching the colorful camp of the original Star Trek , then perhaps the 1960s Batman TV show might be up your alley.

Elizabeth Minkel

Jennifer M. Wood

Screen Rant

20 best star trek: the original series episodes to rewatch.

From the introduction of Khan to profound moral dilemmas, here are the best Star Trek: The Original Series episodes to rewatch today.

As fans are rejoicing about currently having 5 Star Trek series in production at the same time, they might consider returning to the impetus of Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future in  Star Trek: The Original Series .  So much of the material that makes up the foundation of Star Trek lore, foundation, and canon comes from the '60s sci-fi classic, with plot points and storylines strongly felt in  Star Trek: Picard   and to an even greater extent in  Star Trek: Discovery.

RELATED:  Which One Is Better, Star Trek The Original Series Or TNG?

The five-year mission of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Doc McCoy, and the rest of the crew of the starship Enterprise was full of everything from ethical questions regarding the humanity of artificial intelligence, to political intrigue pitting the Federation against Romulan insurgents. It also introduced fan favorites, from the Vulcan salute to the Mirror Universe. Boldly go where you've already gone before with these 15 classic episodes of  Star Trek: The Original Series.

Updated on December 3rd, 2021 by Kayleena Pierce-Bohen: With a brand new season of Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Lower Decks , a brand new spin-off series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , and the all-new animated show Star Trek: Prodigy , it's the perfect moment   to revisit the very best Star Trek: The Original Series episodes. Many of the characters, plots, and themes contained in this prestigious catalog have found their way into the current Star Trek canon, and continue to be appreciated for the perspective and insight they give fans today.

"Spectre Of The Gun" (Season 3, Episode 6)

Don't let the premise fool you -- one of the best Star Trek   TOS  episodes involves an old-fashioned Western showdown . When Kirk gets sentenced to death on a hostile planet, he's only given the most primitive weapons to wage battle -- a pair of six-shooters. Fans of Sci-fi Westerns should love the captain of the Enterprise and his bridge crew blasting their way through a gunfight at the OK Corral.

While  The Original Series  might have been restrained by budgetary restrictions, even the much slicker  Star Trek: The Next Generation   couldn't resist taking elements from this classic episode in "A Fistful of Datas", which sees the bridge crew in a very similar situation on the holodeck.

"All Our Yesterdays" (Season 3, Episode 23)

As a doomed planet hurtles towards its own annihilation, Captain Kirk spends the final hours perusing its library's vast database. Unfortunately, this removes over 50 centuries of knowledge of Vulcan civilization from Mr. Spock, throwing him into a vortex of emotions.

Taking a page from The Twilight Zone 's "Time Enough At Last", in which a book-obsessed bank clerk survives a nuclear attack and believes he has all the time in the world to read (but in fact doesn't), "All Our Yesterdays" (itself a reference to Shakespeare's "Macbeth") plays with a similar issue of cause and effect, and the concept of "be careful what you wish for", making it one of   the   best Star Trek TOS  episodes in its final season.

"The Menagerie (Parts I And II)" (Season 1, Episodes 11 And 12)

Before James Tiberius Kirk took command of the Enterprise, another captain sat in "the chair"; Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter). He was featured in the original pilot for the series ("The Cage"), which ended up being combined with "The Menagerie" for the original series' only two-part episode. While less exuberant than Kirk, Pike was one of the first captains to openly discuss issues involving mental health.

RELATED:  Why Captain Pike Is The Best Enterprise Captain (& 5 Reasons It's Kirk)

The episode begins with Spock committing treason, taking command of the Enterprise, and abducting his former captain (who's suffered a horrific accident) to participate in a tense, mercurial courtroom drama. The episode is necessary viewing for background into Captain Pike's return in  Star Trek: Discovery. 

"The Galileo Seven" (Season 1, Episode 16)

Relief efforts in a mysterious solar system go awry when Mr. Spock and Co. accidentally crashland their shuttlecraft on Taurus II, where they're immediately attacked by a giant creature and depleted of resources. Aboard the Enterprise, Captain Kirk is forced to make an important decision -- continue the mission to deliver relief supplies to the colony, or wait to hear from Spock, Bones, and the rest of his friends.

The concept of placing the needs of the many over the needs of the few would continue to be a major touchstone in the franchise, and it's no better articulated than in "The Galileo Seven". The debut of the shuttlecraft to the lore is another first for one of the best  Star Trek  episodes in the canon.

"The Naked Time" (Season 1, Episode 4)

After the crew of the Enterprise passes through Psi 2000 in an effort to find answers to a research team's unexpected demise, a virus takes hold of them that makes them act out their most hidden desires. For Sulu, that means swashbuckling around the ship shirtless with a rapier and creating one of the most iconic images of the series.

Star Trek  canon would eventually be full of episodes of viruses making crew members behave irrationally ( Star Trek: The Next Generation  also did it early in its first season), but this episode is special because it's recounted with particular zest by George Takei, who explained in his autobiography  To The Stars  that he only had 3 weeks of fencing to prepare for the plot, and 3 days to prepare for appearing shirtless!

"Arena" (Season 1, Episode 18)

After a Federation outpost gets destroyed, the Enterprise makes hot pursuit, until coming into contact with a new and fearsome enemy -- the Gorn. Captain Kirk enters into a fight to the death in the slim chance that he might be able to save himself and his crew.

RELATED:  Every Star Trek TV Series Ranked By Popularity

While some fans might dismiss this episode as Kirk two-fist punching a lizard man, it's one of the best  Star Trek TOS  episodes because it ingeniously straddles the themes of humanity and mercy.  Even after they fight to the death, Kirk spares the Gorn's life (voiced by Ted Cassidy, who played Lurch on  The Addams Family   airing at the same time), an iconic end to an iconic moment in  TOS. 

"The Squire Of Gothos" (Season 1, Episode 17)

For the Enterprise crew, coming into contact with an omnipotent being isn't out of the ordinary, but few are as memorable as Trelane, the "Squire of Gothos". Located on a planet that should be uninhabited, Trelane becomes the focal point of an investigation by the Enterprise, and the crew spends an episode marveling at his 18th-century environment as he marvels at their technology.

Of course, Kirk and Co. soon discover that the anachronistic figure possesses godlike powers, and all their tech is no match for his shenanigans. They become trapped in a game of wits for his amusement, and they must beat Trelane to survive. The character inspired John DeLancie's infamous Q on  Star Trek: The Next Generation,  a celestial mischief-maker known for his obnoxious harassment of Captain Picard and his crew.

"The Enemy Within" (Season 1, Episode 6)

After a transporter accident, Captain Kirk is split into two different entities, a plot point which would be revisited in  Star Trek: The Next Generation  and  Star Trek: Voyager .  The episode becomes a study of the captain of the Enterprise, as each personality attempts to assert dominance over the Federation flagship.

One personality is domineering and hostile, while the other is incredibly passive. As the storyline progresses, it becomes something of a morality play, as it becomes increasingly clear that as each Kirk becomes his own man, it becomes a difficult task to determine who has the "right" to remain as the true James Tiberius Kirk.

"Journey To Babel" (Season 2, Episode 10)

There's a mystery aboard the Enterprise in "Journey to Babel", which marked the first time that representatives of the Federation's founding members were all together again on screen. Vulcans, Humans, Andorians, and Tellarites all appear to attend the Babel Conference, and later a murder occurs.

Not only is the episode full of classic Trek humor, intrigue, and galactic politics, it also reveals a lot about Spock's upbringing. His Vulcan father, Sarek , and human mother are also included in the mix, and Spock undergoes a great deal of character development thanks to the familial exchanges between them.

"The Corbomite Maneuver" (Season 1, Episode 11)

With many Star Trek series like  Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Discovery,  and even  Star Trek: Picard  piggy-backing so many episodes of the original series with their plots and storylines, it's important to remember that what made it unique sometimes came down to Captain Kirk's captaincy.

In "The Corbomite Maneuver", the Enterprise encounters a mysterious alien intent on attacking it. Thanks to Kirk's quick thinking, he outmaneuvers its assault. The episode provides great insight into Kirk's tactical skill, and the original series' ability to create tension without the fancy visuals of  Star Trek: Discovery,  though we suspect Captain Lorca would approve of Kirk's plan.

"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" (Season 3, Episode 15)

A stolen shuttlecraft boards the Enterprise and produces a fugitive from the planet Charon. The pilot, Lokai, has skin that's split down the middle; one side of him is black and the other white. A second shuttle soon arrives bearing Bele, also from Charon, who despises Lokai despite looking almost exactly like him; one side of him is white, and the other black.

RELATED:  10 Alien Species In Star Trek Explained

Conceptual sci-fi takes a very literal turn in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", where the perceived difference in their skin color causes Lokai and Bele to commit to a generations-old feud between their people. It confounds the Enterprise crew, who cannot imagine hating another being for a physical attribute they cannot change.

"The Trouble With Tribbles" (Season 2, Episode 15)

No  Star Trek  list would be complete without one of its most famous episodes, "The Trouble With Tribbles". The light-hearted plot finds the Enterprise docked at Space Station K-7, where fear-mongering has tarnished a Klingon visit and erupted in trade disputes. Uhura purchases what looks like a twittering ball of hair, but is in fact a Tribble - a pregnant one at that.

As the Tribbles begin to multiply exponentially , Kirk must balance Federation politics, the intricacies of grain supply and demand, and the burgeoning Tribble dilemma. The Tribbles proved so popular that they were featured again in "Trials And Tribble-ations" on  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

"A Taste Of Armaggedon" (Season 1, Episode 23)

While most  Star Trek  fans view Starfleet as an organization that represents the highest ideals of the Federation, its members occasionally come in contact with cultures that have seemingly evolved beyond even its utopian parameters. In "A Taste of Armageddon", the Enterprise visits a planet whose inhabitants have grown beyond combat, but not war itself, and as representatives of Starfleet, the crew judged them for their beliefs.

Rather than destroy itself with weapons, the culture encourages warfare to be acted out in an accurate simulation. Trouble arises when the Enterprise crew finds itself in a building marked "destroyed" by the simulation, but rather than turn themselves in for disintegration like other members of the population, they refuse to surrender. This action threatens to bring about real war in all its destructive capacity, but Kirk sagely suggests that without it, the people of Eminiar VII had muted its horror.

"Balance Of Terror" (Season 1, Episode 15)

Not only did "Balance of Terror" introduce the nefarious Romulans to Star Trek canon, but it also featured a pragmatic battle of wills between warriors that, as one Romulan commander relays so poignantly to Captain Kirk, could have been friends in another reality. It reminds viewers that neither men are good nor evil, simply men on missions.

Though the Federation had fought the Romulans 100 years prior, until the incident along the neutral zone that opens the episode, no Federation starships had engaged a Romulan vessel in the years since, making this the premier occasion for visual contact.

"The Doomsday Machine" (Season 2, Episode 6)

In one of the most harrowing episodes in Star Trek franchise history, a destructive machine goes out of control, sparking the sort of paranoia and fear that existed during the Cold War happening during the show's broadcast. Known as the Doomsday Machine, it's being hunted by Captain Kirk and Commander Decker in an attempt to prevent it from destroying entire planets.

RELATED:  The 8 Most Memorable Episodes Of Star Trek The Original Series

While Kirk sees finding the location of the device as one of many missions he needs to complete in the Enterprise's five-year journey, Decker becomes increasingly obsessed. As Kirk nevertheless faces off against it, he continues to promote a message of peace despite the terrifying alternative.

"Space Seed" (Season 1, Episode 22)

This episode was highlighted by two major components of Trek branding - a memorable nemesis, and the presence of relentless optimism. Ricardo Montalban introduced one of the most iconic villains in the entire Star Trek franchise as Khan Noonien Singh, a former dictator of Asia in the wake of the 20th century Eugenics War.

Khan represented the lowest point of humanity and Earth, while Captain Kirk and Co. stood for the great strides that it would come to make between the 20th and 24th centuries. It's not only necessary Trek to view, but sows the seeds of a great rivalry in  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

"The Enterprise Incident" (Season 3, Episode 2)

Though The Federation may have outlawed cloaking technology by the time  Star Trek: The Next Generation  was on the air, in  Star Trek: The Original Series,  it was very much favored. The Federation went so far as to send Kirk and Spock aboard a Romulan vessel to obtain the details of its engineering.

This premise has been visited again in Season 1 of  Star Trek: Discovery,  with Klingons in place of Romulans, but a similarly bizarre romantic interlude occurs. In "The Enterprise Incident", Spock participates in an uncharacteristically malevolent seduction of a female Romulan for the sake of the mission, adding complexity and depth to his character.

"Amok Time" (Season 2, Episode 1)

The first appearance of pon farr in Star Trek history occurs in this memorable episode when Mr. Spock's ordinarily reserved equipoise is disrupted by the Vulcan mating ritual. The Enterprise is rerouted to Vulcan so Spock can take care of his needs with a pre-arranged partner, only to find that she prefers another mate.

Not only does the episode provide insight into another fascinating ritual in Vulcan life , but it also reveals another side to Spock and Kirk's friendship. Not even a fight to the death can drive a wedge between the two, though it's great fun seeing the ordinarily calm and collected Spock lose his cool Vulcan facade. It's also the premiere of the Vulcan salute!

"The City On The Edge Of Forever" (Season 1, Episode 29)

In one of the most revered episodes in the Star Trek canon, one of the most difficult questions in sci-fi is posed; should one person be allowed to die, if their death would keep history intact and save millions? The query is raised when Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock travel back in time to save a raving Doc McCoy, ending up in 1930's America.

The episode is important for not only setting a precedent for time-travel stories in future Star Trek episodes but also to demonstrate that Captain Kirk was capable of true love and William Shatner of genuine acting. Kirk's sacrifice of a future with Edith Keeler so that the future of Earth remains secure is one of the most profound ethical quandaries in the entire franchise.

"Mirror, Mirror" (Season 2, Episode 4)

Before this episode's plot became a huge story arc in  Star Trek: Discovery,  it captured the imagination of fans everywhere as they watched the usually sterling crew of the Enterprise be depicted as malicious conquerors in an alternate reality. A transporter incident sends Kirk and Co. to a parallel universe, where the only opportunity for advancement on a starship is through assassination.

In this "Mirrorverse", The Federation has been replaced by a Klingon-type organization called the Terran Empire. Captain Kirk behaves with the sort of brutal malevolence only glimpsed at in "The Enemy Within", and even a heavily scarred Sulu becomes a vengeful officer, in a reality where everyone is the polar opposite of Federation ideals.

NEXT:  10 Ways Discovery Connects To The Other Star Trek Series

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Star Trek TOS - Original Effects

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Tomorrow is Yesterday (episode)

• View history

The Enterprise is hurled back in time to the year 1969, where the US Air Force sights it as a UFO. The crew must find a way to erase evidence of their visit before trying to get back to their future home.

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.1 Production timeline
• 4.3 Props and costumes
• 4.4 Effects
• 4.5 Continuity
• 4.6 Remastered information
• 4.7 Video and DVD releases
• 4.8 Apocrypha
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Also starring
• 5.3 Featuring
• 5.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.6 References
• 5.7 External links

Summary [ ]

The Omaha base captain ordering a plane to take a look at their "UFO"

At an Air Force base in 1969 , a technician by the name of Webb detects something on his RADAR . At first, his commanding officer believes it to be an enemy aircraft. The signal is over the base near Omaha , Nebraska , but the strange part is that it just appeared. It is as if it simply dropped out of the sky.

Interested by the strange appearance of this aircraft, Webb's commanding officer orders someone to go up there and take a look. He believes they may have a real UFO on their hands. Outside, an F-104 Starfighter is launched. In the sky, the starship USS Enterprise is gliding through the clouds.

Act One [ ]

Except for secondary systems, everything is operational and they are heading on impulse power. Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott brings on auxiliary power from engineering , and Captain James T. Kirk asks all departments to report damage and casualties to First Officer Spock . Kirk asks Uhura to contact Starfleet Control , to advise them of the black star's close proximity to Starbase 9 . Casualty reports show nothing more than minor injuries. Scott reports that warp engines are offline, and he is holding them at impulse in orbit over Earth . The breakaway from the star threw the ship to Earth. They are, however, in a low orbit, and Kirk orders Sulu to use impulse to rise to a higher orbit. Sulu reports that the helm is answering but is a little sluggish.

Uhura reports that there is no response on any standard Starfleet channels; however, she is getting something on another frequency. A radio broadcast states that the first manned moon shot is to take place on Wednesday . Kirk recalls that the first manned moon shot took place in the late 1960s . Spock concludes that the Enterprise is also in the 1960s, having been thrown backward in time by the black star's whiplash.

Captain Christopher approaches the Enterprise

Uhura reports that she is picking up ground-to-air transmissions. A military craft is approaching the Enterprise , fast. The craft, designated Bluejay 4 , is gaining on the UFO ( Enterprise ). Kirk orders Sulu to gain altitude faster. Bluejay 4 states that the UFO is climbing, and he will go in closer. As he raises altitude, Blackjack (the Omaha base) states that Bluejay 4 should be close enough for visual contact. Bluejay 4 spots the Enterprise , which is climbing in the sky, amazed at its size. He starts to describe the UFO, and tries to determine what purpose the cylindrical projections might serve. Blackjack states that backup forces should rendezvous in about two minutes, but Bluejay 4 remarks that the UFO is not going to be there by then. Blackjack gives order to shoot down the UFO, or at least disable it. Spock concludes that the aircraft may be armed with nuclear warheads , which in the Enterprise 's severe condition, could possibly cause serious damage to the hull . Kirk orders Scott to lock on with a tractor beam , but Spock advises against it. Scott locks on, regardless, and the aircraft begins to break up. Kirk orders the pilot beamed aboard. He goes to the transporter room to meet the pilot, and welcomes him aboard. The pilot is surprised to learn that Kirk speaks English , and gives his identification as Captain John Christopher of the United States Air Force , service number 4857932. Kirk remarks that the captain is among friends, and introduces himself. Captain Christopher asks Kirk who they are, and what happened. Kirk states that all will be revealed in good time, but Captain Christopher is understandably impatient.

The Enterprise being pursued

On the bridge, Spock reports that the aircraft has broken up. They turn off the tractor beam, and Kirk takes Christopher to the bridge . Christopher seems surprised to see a woman in the halls. Christopher admires the size and complexity of the ship, and as Kirk explains that the ship is one of twelve like it in service of the United Earth Space Probe Agency . He freely admits that he is from the future. On the bridge, Christopher (after joking about "little green men") is taken aback by Spock's skin tone. As Kirk allows Christopher to look around the bridge, Spock expresses his concerns about their guest to Kirk privately.

Captain Christopher visits the bridge

As Christopher looks around, Spock reports that most main systems have been restored, including the main deflector, which will prevent them from being detected again. Spock also expresses concern for Christopher's presence. He states that Christopher cannot return to Earth, as this could alter the course of history. Kirk states that this is an annoying conclusion, but accepts the truth. He asks Spock to get Captain Christopher some more comfortable clothes, and to bring Christopher to his ready room.

In his quarters, Kirk makes a computer recording.

Kirk also gets annoyed by the computer's frequent references to him as "dear". Kirk asks Spock to fix the computer's affection. Spock explains that the computer had recently been overhauled on the female-dominated planet Cygnet XIV (who thought the computer needed a personality). Christopher, who is now wearing a Starfleet uniform in place of his orange pilot's flight suit, finds the computer system amusing, and would love to see how the dilemma works out. It is at this point, that Kirk breaks the news to Christopher that he cannot be sent back with information he now knows from the future. Christopher asks about his disappearance, but Spock says that Captain Christopher made no relevant contribution to history. Christopher says that this is an outrage, having a wife and children back on Earth, something which seems to catch Spock's attention. He says it is his duty to report what he has seen, but Kirk says that the risk is impossible. Kirk offers his heartfelt apology.

Scott calls to tell Kirk that the engines will be operational in about four hours, but they have nowhere to go in this time. Kirk understands. Christopher finds some comfort in the fact that Kirk and his crew cannot go home themselves.

Act Two [ ]

Finally getting fed up with the computer, Kirk asks it to record that it either be repaired, or scrapped, which seems to take care of the computer problem. Spock calls Kirk, stating that he has new information regarding Christopher. Kirk orders Spock to report to his quarters, and that he will call Captain Christopher. However, Christopher does not respond to Kirk's hails. Kirk orders a security alert, noting that Captain Christopher is not in his assigned quarters. Kirk hypothesizes that he may be trying to escape, and goes to find him.

Captain Christopher (USAF) wants to beam down to Earth

Christopher is indeed trying to escape, but runs into security officer Bobby on his way to the transporter room. He knocks out the security officer, and acquires his phaser. Entering the transporter room and pointing his phaser at Kyle, Christopher tells Kyle that he wants to be transported to the surface immediately, but before he can complete his escape, Kirk comes, disarms Christopher, and knocks him out. In sickbay , Dr. McCoy reports that the injuries are superficial, and Kirk sympathizes about Christopher's want to escape. It is at this time that Dr. McCoy says that they too are just as stuck as Christopher. They can't beam down the entire crew, as it would be too great a disturbance in the timeline. Kirk however, says that Enterprise is not at that situation yet, but even if they do get back to their time, Christopher would be useless, archaic. McCoy says that he may be able to be retrained, but Christopher says that he cannot forget his family. He remarks that he is feeling fine, and Spock comes to sickbay. They cannot keep Christopher aboard, because his son, Colonel Shaun Geoffrey Christopher , did make an historic contribution, heading the first Earth-Saturn Mission. Christopher remarks that he has no son, only two daughters to which McCoy responds "yet". Kirk realizes that they must find a way to return Captain Christopher, and Christopher himself muses of the fact that he someday will have a son.

Kirk and Sulu attempt to retrieve the tapes

In orbit of Earth, Spock states that the biggest problem they must deal with is that Christopher's plane wreckage landed in open land ("an open section of Southern Nebraska"), so search parties will know that he wasn't on the plane. Also, Captain Christopher informs them that his radio conversation was recorded, and that his wing cameras were recording the Enterprise . Kirk remarks that these UFO sightings were usually taken for explainable things, but Spock remarks that their tractor beam destroyed the plane, making them nothing else but a genuine UFO. Kirk then asks about returning them to their own time. Spock has a theory, albeit complicated, which may work. Kirk then makes a plan; they need to destroy the hard evidence of their presence, so that if Christopher reports, there is nothing to support his claims, and he simply joins the ranks of one of thousands who has seen a UFO. Christopher then offers his help, and he sketches out a layout of the base on a PADD .

At the base, Kirk and Sulu beam down, Sulu with a bag for the tapes. They are a bit disoriented at first, but soon find the correct room. They force the door open with little difficulty using their technology. Upon entry, Kirk starts to look for what they need, and soon finds the audio tapes. On the Enterprise in the transporter room, Dr. McCoy is getting nervous, but Spock reassures him, noting that stealth missions are much more complicated than others. McCoy starts to get annoyed, and asks Spock whether he should be working on his time warp calculations, to which he calmly responds, " I am. " Back at the base, Kirk and Sulu finish getting the tapes, when a Security Police staff sergeant enters. He orders them to give him the belts and the bag, with the tapes inside. On the ship, Spock now agrees with McCoy and starts to think it has been too long, so he calls the captain. The security officer opens one of the communicators , transmitting an emergency signal. Spock orders an immediate beam-up, only to find that they beamed up the wrong man. They now have two undesired passengers aboard, and the sergeant is frozen out of both surprise and fear. Kirk calls Spock, reporting that they now clearly have another problem.

Act Three [ ]

The Enterprise in orbit of Earth

Kirk informs Enterprise about their "surprise package", and asks them to keep him in the transporter room. After finishing up in the audio tape section, both Kirk and Sulu go to retrieve the photographs of the Enterprise . They find a darkroom containing freshly developed 16mm movie film of the Enterprise , but set off a silent alarm. They finish collecting the film, but after a small brawl with some security officers, Kirk gets caught. Sulu however, seems to have disappeared. He managed to beam up, with the tapes and film, and Kirk calmly explains to the curious guard that it was only he who was prowling about.

Fellini questions Kirk

On the Enterprise , Scott reports that warp engines are ready for re-firing. Spock orders them to be, so that they can have full power. Down on the surface, Kirk is being interrogated by the guards who caught him. Kirk jokingly references that he got in to the base by popping in out of thin air. Lieutenant Colonel Fellini picks up Kirk's phaser, mistaking it for a radio transmitter. Then he wonders about Kirk's uniform and he starts to list Kirk's offenses, threatening to lock him up for two hundred years. Kirk ruefully comments that that ought to be just about right (to return him to his own era).

" Don't you find that painful, Captain? " " Yes, I do. "

Back in orbit, Spock and Christopher hypothesize in the Enterprise 's briefing room as to the captain's most probable situation, as they are planning a rescue operation. However, Christopher insists on coming down with them, to which Spock reluctantly agrees. He issues phasers only to himself and Sulu, set on maximum stun. They beam down, as the security policeman who beamed up earlier is amazed. Kyle offers the guard some chicken soup from a food synthesizer to satisfy his hunger, which only amazes him more. On the surface, Spock takes out the two guards holding Kirk, and frees him. However, while Kirk and Sulu talk, Christopher gets one of the security guard's guns. He holds it to Kirk, refusing to be beamed back up.

Act Four [ ]

The Enterprise approaches the sun for the time-warp

Kirk tries to talk Christopher out of it, but he doesn't listen. He asks Spock to come out of Colonel Fellini's office, but as he moves towards Kirk, Spock comes up from behind, and administers a nerve pinch . He had suspected Christopher's actions, and had beamed into location for incapacitating Christopher. Sulu then beams up all four officers.

Mr. Spock says that the best possible course of action is to use a slingshot effect like the one they used to arrive in the first place. Theoretically, the whiplash from the sun's gravity would send them into another time warp. At this point, Christopher asks what they will be doing about him and the guard. Spock states that for a moment, they will go into the relative past, and transport both the captain and the guard to points before they were beamed up. The events, though still in their minds, will not have occurred, so there would be nothing for them to report. Scott now brings up one problem. The Enterprise may not have enough braking control to stop in their own time . They may overshoot their century, or be torn apart. In other words, it won't be an easy ride.

The Enterprise skims over the sun in a time warp

Everyone assumes stations, as the Enterprise prepares for the time-warp. They leave Earth, and head towards the sun at warp factor 3. Christopher, at this point, tells Kirk how he always wanted to make it into space, and Kirk tells him that he made it farther than anyone in his century. As the Enterprise heads towards the sun, their warp factor increases, and the chronometers have started to move backwards. Christopher goes to put on his flight gear, and reports to the transporter room. As they approach the breakaway point, Sulu engages engines, and the ship is severely thrown. All power is just barely enough, but they do break free of the pull. As they head away from the sun, they gain speed, and the chronometers begin to move forward. Christopher prepares to beam back to Earth, and thanks Kirk for the look ahead. As they approach Earth, they energize, beaming Christopher back into the plane cockpit where he merges with his earlier self. However, there is no longer any Enterprise in the sky. Christopher reports to Black Jack, marking down the Enterprise as another UFO. They then beam down the guard and, as with Christopher, he merges with his earlier self patrolling the base. The guard finds no unusual activity in the film library and.resumes his patrol.

As they approach their century, they have to begin braking, despite some risks. Kirk, being annoyed by Spock's countdown, asks him to just never mind. They begin braking, but the ship is thrown violently. Scott reports from engineering that the engines are buckling, but they manage to make a safe and complete stop. They hear the friendly voice of Starfleet control, and Kirk reports that the Enterprise is home.

Log entries [ ]

• Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2267

Memorable quotes [ ]

" I never have believed in little green men. " " Neither have I. "

" Don't touch anything, but I think you'll find it interesting. " " Interesting is a word and a half for it, Captain. "

" Maybe I can't go home, but neither can you. You're as much a prisoner in time as I am. "

" Now you're sounding like Spock. " " If you're going to get nasty, I'm going to leave. "

" I made an error in my computations. " " Oh? This could be an historic occasion. "

" Wait a minute. I don't have a son . " " You mean yet. "

" It is a fact, Doctor, that prowling by stealth is more time-consuming than a direct approach. "

" How did you get in? " " I popped in out of thin air. "

" What is that? Is that a uniform of some kind? " " This little thing? Just something I slipped on. "

" I am going to lock you up for two hundred YEARS! " " That ought to be just about right. "

" Blast your theories and observations, Mr. Spock! What about Jim? He's down there alone, probably under arrest! He doesn't have a communicator and we can't locate him or beam him back aboard without one! " " I am aware of that, Doctor. "

" Anyway we do it, it means a mighty rough ride. "

" Well gentlemen, we all have to take a chance… especially if one is all you have. "

Background information [ ]

Production timeline [ ].

• One-page synopsis by Robert H. Justman : 12 April 1966
• Story outline by D.C. Fontana : 3 October 1966
• Revised story outline: 13 October 1966
• First draft teleplay by Fontana: 31 October 1966
• Second draft teleplay: 9 November 1966
• Final draft teleplay by Gene L. Coon : 21 November 1966
• Additional revisions: 22 November 1966 , 1 December 1966
• Day 1 – 28 November 1966 , Monday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Bridge
• Day 2 – 29 November 1966 , Tuesday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Bridge, Transporter room
• Day 3 – 30 November 1966 , Wednesday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Corridors , Turbolift , Sickbay , Kirk's quarters
• Day 4 – 1 December 1966 , Thursday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Kirk's quarters, Briefing room , Engineering
• Day 5 – 2 December 1966 , Friday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Air base corridor, Records section, Security office
• Day 6 – 5 December 1966 , Monday – Desilu Stage 10: Int. Jet cockpit , Photo lab, Dark room, Radar room
• Original airdate: 26 January 1967
• Rerun airdate: 13 July 1967
• First UK airdate (on BBC1 ): 16 August 1969
• First UK airdate (on ITV ): 10 January 1982
• Remastered airdate: 5 May 2007
• The episode originated from a one-page story synopsis associate producer Robert H. Justman submitted to Gene Roddenberry for possible consideration. Although almost beat for beat, Justman's proposed story is the same as this episode, Roddenberry never acknowledged Justman as the source or paid any royalties to him for the idea. ( Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , pp. 133-137)
• This episode was originally going to be the second part of a two part story that would have begun in " The Naked Time ". In an earlier draft of the script, when Kirk ordered a hyperbolic course, he wanted the direction to be " Doesn't matter… the way we came… toward Earth. " [1]

Props and costumes [ ]

• Matt Jefferies designed the trophy with the soaring jet aircraft, seen in the case on the air base. ( citation needed • edit )
• The small scanning device that Kirk uses to unlock the Omaha base computer-room door appears to be the same one used by Scott and Joe Tormolen in " The Naked Time ", and by Richard Daystrom in " The Ultimate Computer ".
• Actor Roger Perry liked his Starfleet uniform so much, he asked DeForest Kelley if he could take the shirt home. Kelley replied, " Well, they frown upon that. But you could possibly just stick it into your bag, and nobody's going to say anything. " Perry decided not to do that, but after seeing the eventual success and legacy of Star Trek , he regretted he didn't take the shirt home. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One , p. 428)

Effects [ ]

Close up of Lieutenant Sulu

• The opening screenshot was actually taken at Georges Air Force Base California. It shows F-104C Starfighter, AF Ser. No. 57-0914, 435 TFS, 1965. This aircraft was deployed to Ubon RTAFB, Thailand in 1966 and assigned to 8 TFW. It crashed due to engine failure over Thailand on 16 January 1967. ( citation needed • edit )
• Footage of the Earth (going closer and further, inside the atmosphere) on the Enterprise viewscreen is reused from " Miri ".
• The music played as Christopher observes the ears on Spock, heard in its entirety in " The City on the Edge of Forever ", was written by composer Joseph Mullendore during his scoring for " The Conscience of the King ", but it went unused at that time. It is an uptempo version of the closing theme for the show. Mullendore had also arranged the "lounge" version of the theme for the same episode, also heard in " Court Martial ". ( citation needed • edit )
• This is the only episode to end on a close up of George Takei before the final Enterprise flyaway.

Continuity [ ]

• This is the first episode where the Enterprise visits Earth during its five-year mission .
• Kirk's assertion that there are only twelve starships like the Enterprise in the fleet is contradicted in The Making of Star Trek , p. 165, by Gene Roddenberry and Stephen E. Whitfield , which lists the names of fourteen starships, though on the same page the starship USS Farragut is described as destroyed, and its fate would already be known at this point in the series. This leaves Kirk's statement technically correct with the Enterprise and the other twelve like it still in service (The fate of the USS Valiant would not be revealed to Starfleet for another two episodes).
• Except for the 6 am launch time for Apollo 11 , which actually was 9:32 am on Wednesday July 16, 1969, the writer of this episode, D.C. Fontana, correctly predicted the day of the week.
• The events of this episode, which take place in 1969 , occurred over a year after those of " Assignment: Earth ", which take place in 1968 .
• This is the last episode in which Spock's rank is stated as lieutenant commander .
• Though Spock tells Sulu to issue phasers for both himself and Spock when they return to the Air Force base to retrieve Kirk, only Sulu is shown armed with a phaser in the transporter room.
• This episode establishes the presence of a quartermaster on board the Enterprise . Kirk said to Spock (referring to Captain Christopher), " Why don't you have the quartermaster issue him something more suitable? "
• Kirk tells Captain Christopher that the Enterprise operates under the authority of the "United Earth Space Probe Agency," which Kirk describes as a "combined service" when Christopher presumes that the Enterprise is operated by the navy. Along with Kirk's log entry reference to "UESPA" in " Charlie X ", this is the only time in the original series that this authority is mentioned. In the Star Trek Concordance [ page number? • edit ] , author Bjo Trimble suggests that it is a fictional name, designed to keep Capt. Christopher in the dark about the true nature of the Federation. The name would be established canonically as being the agency under whose authority the United Earth Starfleet operated under in Star Trek: Enterprise .
• This episode is the first of two episodes to have a food synthesizer in the transporter room . According to D.C. Fontana , budgetary restrictions precluded taking the security police sergeant to a dining facility or having another actor in the scene bring him food, so Kyle was employed to provide the sergeant's chicken soup from the dispenser. ( The World of Star Trek , 3rd ed., p. 40)
• This is one of many episodes to contribute to the ambiguous future timeframe of the Original Series . When Fellini threatens to lock Kirk up for two hundred years, Kirk lightly notes that " That should be just about right. " Two hundred years from that point would be 2169, the mid to late 22nd century. The original series is established to be set in the late 2260s.
• VOY : " Relativity " would later establish a process of " reintegration " of multiple copies of a person created by time travel, with all sets of alternative memories left intact. The exact details were not specified, but the temporal transporter 's existence potentially implies that Spock's transporter technique from this episode had been improved and standardized by the 29th century.

Remastered information [ ]

The remastered version of "Tomorrow is Yesterday" aired in many North American markets during the weekend of 5 May 2007 . The episode was heavy in new effects, with revamped CG shots of Earth from orbit – based on NASA space shuttle photographs – as well as new CGI shots of Captain Christopher's jet fighter, the Enterprise falling into Earth's atmosphere , and an all-new sequence depicting the slingshot around the sun. [2]

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• Original US Betamax release: 1985
• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 12 , catalog number VHR 2305, release date unknown
• US VHS release: 15 April 1994
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 1.8, 2 December 1996
• Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 11, 23 May 2000
• As part of the TOS Season 1 DVD collection
• As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Time Travel DVD collection
• As part of the TOS Season 1 HD DVD collection
• As part of the TOS Season 1 Blu-ray collection

Apocrypha [ ]

• This episode (or more accurately its stardate of 3113) was used as the basis for the "origin" of material that was published as the Star Fleet Technical Manual ; the first pages of this manual explain how this occurred.
• The second issue of John Byrne 's Assignment: Earth series, " Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow ", tells the story of Gary Seven 's role in the events of this episode.
• Before Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds set a different canonical direction for how TOS characters acquired and used knowledge of time travel, the novel Forgotten History depicted the Enterprise crew being debriefed by Starfleet Command after the events of this episode and how they were eventually lead into the events of TOS : " Assignment: Earth ". Meanwhile, the novel From History's Shadow depicted Roberta Lincoln 's reaction to the events of this episode, which also led into her follow-up to the events of "Assignment: Earth". The novel Assignment: Eternity also depicts Seven and Lincoln's next mission taking place soon after this episode.

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• William Shatner as Kirk
• Leonard Nimoy as Spock

Also starring [ ]

• Roger Perry as Major [ sic ] Christopher

Featuring [ ]

• DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy
• Hal Lynch as Air Police Sergeant
• Richard Merrifield as Technician
• John Winston as Transporter Chief
• Ed Peck as Colonel Fellini
• James Doohan as Scott
• George Takei as Sulu
• Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
• Mark Dempsey as Air Force Captain
• Jim Spencer as Air Policeman
• Sherri Townsend as Crew Woman

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Majel Barrett as Computer Voice
• William Blackburn as Hadley
• John Burnside as Air policeman #2
• Frank da Vinci as Brent
• Eddie Paskey as Leslie
• Radio announcer (voice)
• US 498th Airbase personnel
• Enterprise lieutenant/navigator
• Enterprise security chief (voice)
• Air Force guard

References [ ]

1954 ; 1968 ; 1969 ; 2217 ; .38 police special ; US 498th Airbase Group ; accident ; ADC Control ; address ; aircraft ; Air Defense Command ; airman (aka airman basic ); Air Police ; alarm ; all decks alert ; " all right "; " all the time "; Alpha Centauri ; altitude ; AM ; answer ; Apollo 11 ; area ; arrest ; astronaut ; atmosphere ; audio ; authority ; automatic helm setting ; auxiliary power ; B-52 Stratofortress ; bag ; belt ; blackjack ; black star ; blip ; Bluejay 4 ; braking control ; braking power ; buckling ; burglary ; calculation ; camera ; Cape Kennedy ; " carry on "; casualty report ; chance ; choice ; chicken soup ; Christopher, Shaun Geoffrey ; Christopher's wife and daughters ; chronometer ; cloud cover ; cockpit ; computer ; computer check ; computer system ; coordinates ; countdown ; Cygnet XIV ; cylindrical ; damage control party ; darkroom ; deck ; demonstration ; department ; drawing ; duty bound ; Earth ; Earth-Saturn probe ; Eastern Standard Time ; emergency signal ; Engineering Officer ; English language ; error ; escape velocity ; espionage ; evidence ; F-104 Starfighter ; F-105 Thunderchief ; fact ; film (material) ; flight suit ; fool ; friend ; g ; girlfriend ; guest ; hand ; historical tape ; horse ; hour ; idea ; identification ; impulse power ; " in case "; industry ; injury ; interceptor ; interrogation room ; jet ; joke ; jury rig ; landing party ; liar ; little green man ; logic ; Luna ; magnetic tape ; maintenance ; maintenance note ; March, M. ; matriarchy ; Mercury ; mind ; minute ; mirage ; missile ; museum ; name ; NASA ; nation ; Nebraska ; nuclear warhead ; Omaha ; orbit ; " over my dead body "; passenger ; personality ; photography ; photo lab ; physical training ; place ; plane ; Pluto ; power ; prisoner ; problem ; progress report ; quartermaster ; RADAR ; radio ; record computer ; record section ; risk ; rubber band ; sabotage ; Saturn ; search party ; second ; secondary system ; sector ; section ; security section ; signal ; sky ; slingshot effect ; Sol ; space ; speed ; serial number ; staff sergeant ; starbase ; Starbase 9 ; Starfleet channel ; Starfleet Control ; Statistical services division ; Strategic Air Command ; stock ; sun dog ; thing ; theory ; thousand ; time warp ; time zone ; tractor beam ; transmission ; transporter ; transporter chief ; transporter room ; truck ; unauthorized entry ; " under arrest "; uniform ; United Earth ; United Earth Space Probe Agency ; UFO ; USAF ; US Navy ; variable ; visual contact ; Vulcan neck pinch ; warp power ; weather balloon ; Wednesday ; week ; wing ; word

External links [ ]

• "Tomorrow is Yesterday" at StarTrek.com
• " Tomorrow is Yesterday " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Tomorrow is Yesterday " at Wikipedia
• " Tomorrow is Yesterday " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 2 Star Trek: The Next Generation
• 3 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)

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RETROSPECTIVE: The Original Series Remastered Project

| September 6, 2016 | By: Matt Wright 109 comments so far

10 years ago, the 40 th Anniversary of Star Trek was fast approaching. HDTV was the future. CBS knew they needed to do something to be sure the “one that started it all”,  The Original Series , was ready for that future. Produced from 2006-2008, The Original Series  – Remastered (TOS-R) was a huge undertaking that came with a variety of challenges and fan controversies. Keep reading for an in-depth look back at the project.

2006 in review

While we tend to quickly forget, the 40 th anniversary year (2006) was actually a rather bleak time.  Star Trek: Enterprise had been canceled after only 4 seasons the year before. Many Trek products were put on semi-permanent hold or canceled outright. Organizationally Star Trek as a franchise was a mess because of the big Viacom split up that occurred in late-2005. The split resulted in all kinds of purging of Star Trek archives on the Paramount lot through auctions. Later on, while TOS-R was actively being produced, StarTrek.com was shut down for over 2-years (2007), and Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas was dismantled (2008).

Rumors of a rebooted movie franchise had only just started to circulate. It was of course those rumors that led to the founding of TrekMovie.com, known then as “The Trek Movie Report.” Any information about the new film was naturally sparse in the early days. However, the remastering of The Original Series was happening right then and needed to be covered. On a personal note, TOS-R is how I came to be involved with the site; I did the weekly coverage of the episodes as they aired.

Technological Challenges

While CBS knew the future was HD, the realities of the technology in 2006 was that HDTV sets weren’t nearly as ubiquitous as we might expect looking back on it from 2016. The adoption rate of HDTV sets was only ~15% of US households in 2006.  HD DVD and Blu-ray were just barely formats and would be fighting it out for who would win the HD disc wars until 2008.

The idea of a streaming movie/TV service was just being toyed with and not really viable in 2006. Most people still downloaded their content for offline viewing from the iTunes store or Amazon. Netflix introduced their streaming platform in 2007 as an add-on to their DVD rental program. Internet speeds weren’t there yet to support a streaming HD experience, the average US broadband connection was a paltry 2 Mbit/sec or less. Other technology to deliver the content, like commodity chips to decode the H.264 compression standard, also wasn’t quite there. It would take the proliferation of devices like Blu-ray players, the Sony PS3, and the Roku streaming players over the next few years to get the final pieces into place.

Given the state of technology in 2006, the method best suited for first-run distribution of TOS-R was still the tried-and-true weekly syndication model. It slotted into the place of the Star Trek: Enterprise repeats being shown on the weekend by local CBS or CW affiliates. The satellite distribution system for syndicated content was still only standard definition (SD) capable, upgrades were coming, but it would be too late for TOS-R’s run. Even being delivered in SD, the significant work done to clean up the aging film, along with the much better contrast and color of the new film transfers was immediately obvious.

The Remastering Process

Rather than working on an entire season at a time, the remastering was approached like a TV series, where the CBS-D team delivered episodes on a weekly schedule. The schedule was not in season order, rather in a “fan favorite” order, with well-liked episodes such as “Balance of Terror” getting worked on first.

CBS assembled a team based inside their subsidiary company CBS Digital (CBS-D). CBS Digital was doing visual effects, titles, and similar work, for the TV industry. For example, one of their well-known title sequences (from a few years later) is the Modern Family opening credits.

Mike and Denise Okuda were a logical choice to help guide the project. They worked with the production team to go through all the reels of film, to make stylistic choices on the new visual effects, and more.

You can  read more about CBS Digital’s workflow in our article from 2006.

CBS realized they were in a bit of a rock-and-a-hard place with TOS. Unlike the much newer productions (such as TNG, which would later get remastered from the raw elements), they only had the finished episodes. So they did not have the isolated original elements to work with.

The old visual effects were looking worse for wear, by modern standards they never looked spectacular because of all the layers of printing film-onto-film and splicing in the visual elements, and there was lots of generational loss on the frequently re-used stock ship footage. CBS made the controversial decision to replace the visual effects (VFX) sequences entirely with a new computer generated USS Enterprise, and new more realistic planets.

1080p original VFX

The original 35mm film canisters of each episode were pulled from the archives and freshly scanned at 2K. The film was then digitally cleaned up by removing dirt and scratches and given a new color grading.

Since the entire finished episode was scanned, the later 2009 Blu-ray releases of TOS contain an option for either the original VFX or the CGI version. While the original VFX was available (mostly for purists who could get that on the Blu-ray season sets), the “default” version of TOS became the version with CGI.

To hedge their bets, a 16:9 widescreen version of the new VFX, along with the live action footage cropped to 16:9, was prepared, this hasn’t really been seen much, outside of a syndication run in Japan . The wider VFX can be seen in some episodes on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, but the live action is the original 4:3 ratio.

The New Visual Effects

The new computer generated visual effects ended up being a bit of a mixed bag. There was excellent work on faithfully enhancing the matte paintings and creating new planets to give proper variety to the universe. These aspects were generally well liked.

Vulcan arena from Amok Time

The redone “Enterprise in orbit” shots allowed for a greater variety of angles.

Original and new CGI orbit shot from Court Martial

The big sticking point for many fans was the new CGI model of the Enterprise. The first wave of episodes featured a model that just seemed a bit off, with oddly colored nacelle caps. The feedback was not great, and the message was received at CBS Digital. Of course, they already had a number of episodes in the pipeline that couldn’t be stopped. The second Enterprise model was much improved. It debuted with the fan favorite episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.”

The nature of an ongoing project to crank out episodes week-after-week meant that the CBS-D team got better with each episode, the unfortunate reality of this is that episodes done later in the process often look better than earlier episodes. So while the episodes weren’t done in standard season order, it does mean that the first eight episodes prepared were stuck with the initial  Enterprise model, and early versions of planetscapes, etc.

Perhaps the largest part of the controversy with the fans and the CGI model of the Enterprise was the color of the hull. The CGI Enterprise was much more of a battleship grey, lacking the blueish tint we had all known.  The blue tint, of course came from the bright lights and the blue screens behind the models needed to shoot the visual effects in the 1960’s.

The fan backlash was quite loud, the producers eventually made a statement that they had researched the paint of the physical model and their model was derived from how it looked in person. This started an interesting aesthetic debate, what was more appropriate: how it looked on the screen (with the blue spill), or the color of the model as it was in more normal lighting?

It’s interesting to see that the new 2016 Smithsonian restoration, which was painstakingly researched to be as accurate as possible, looks similar to the CGI model the TOS-R team used. The TOS-R version is still a bit darker than the model in the Smithsonian, this was a stylistic choice by the team, they purposefully lowered the level of light that hits the Enterprise as a nod to the fact the ship is in space.

Photo by Dane Penland/Smithsonian

The New Audio Mix

While the visuals were what really needed the help, the audio had been remixed for 5.1 with the DVD releases, the team decided to make a new audio mix. They started with as high quality a source as they could find in the archives. With an eye toward the future, the end result was a high quality 7.1 mix suitable for future high definition disc releases.

Perhaps the biggest audio change for TOS-R was that they found a new soprano singer, Elin Carlson, to record the famous opening “ahhhh-ahhhhh” with modern audio capture techniques which allowed for a fuller representation of her voice, compared to the rather harsh recording of the original singer. It was then mixed in with a newly recorded arrangement of the theme song, and a cleaned up isolated track of William Shatner’s famous opening monologue.

“Risk is our business”

CBS took a big risk presenting new CGI for our beloved show, especially when you consider it was on a TV show budget in 2006. I think ultimately it was a good choice, it let the remastering team provide variety: they could stop reusing the same few ships/starbases, matte paintings, even camera angles of the Enterprise. The downside of course is that the CGI can vary widely, in some shots looking great, and others a bit cartoony. The “feel” of the Enterprise model also was tweaked a number of times, sometimes it moved like a gazelle, others it lumbered more like the original VFX. It was an evolving process, with judgement calls made by the team episode-by-episode.

When the TOS-R project wrapped up in mid-2008, the HD disc wars had just been won, Blu-ray emerged a victor. While TOS-R had been released on DVD, a good High Definition release hadn’t really been possible. There was a Season 1 HD DVD release, but it too only contained the new VFX versions. In 2009 to much rejoicing CBS announced the Blu-ray season sets, thanks to the capacity of Blu-ray these new sets would contain both the original VFX and the new CGI VFX, so this release could become the definitive way to enjoy the freshly cleaned up TOS.

In syndication, for retro TV networks like MeTV, CBS seems to still only be offering up the CGI version, I can only infer that this is what they consider to be The Original Series for the casual fan. The original VFX seems to be reserved for purists and collectors, available on the Blu-ray season sets and the upcoming Roddenberry Vault Blu-ray set.

There’s more information at our TOS-R landing page , it has links to all the articles we’ve written over the years, links to the DVD and Blu-ray reviews, a link to our sub-page with the list of the episodes as they aired in the remastered “seasons”, and an archived list of the stations that were part of that first syndication run.

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I still prefer the look of the original elements. The CGI elements don’t match the photography of the live action elements, and the Enterprise just doesn’t have the depth of the model. Bottom line, it just looks fake. Fortunately, Amazon Prime still has the original cut instead of the remastered.

We all have our preferences. I prefer the CG Enterprise and it totally feels like those were the shots they would have used back then if they had the budget and tech to do so. It’s the old model shots that look fake and worn.

I find the old shots are fine to watch in standard def, the picture standard for which they were intended, but they fail to hold up in HD. Like you, I’m TOS-R all the way for HD viewing.

Both versions are products of their time, but I find CGI in all its forms to look subpar compared to physical models. Even the reboot films, with all their hundreds of millions of dollars, can’t produce a starship that looks a tenth as real as the models from thirty years ago. When they debuted WOK in 4K this weekend, those ships looked real enough to touch — not like CGI toys on screen.

Don’t know how you can make such a claim, given the rich original cinematography and high contrast look, which is there on the CG planets but is completely ‘off’ on the ship shots, which look like a cartoon, seriously. Movement is off as well, but the ship cg look is just godawful bad, and wholly inappropriate to the TOS style.

For these last 10 years whenever I watched a TOS episode it was the remastered version. It’s only now this last year that I started watching the original elements version. And I have to say, I got the feeling this really is the only way to go, it really is part of the charm of the show and I have come to the conclusion that was being taken away with the remastered versions. Never going back to the butchered versions again :)

I agree that the CGI doesn’t look like it even belongs in TOS. Personally, the ONLY copies of TOS that we have or watch are the original 2-episode-per-disc DVDs. Because they don’t have the damned fakey, video-gamey CGI FX.

@Vokar Feeling like a broken record… the Blu-ray sets contain both the original and new CGI VFX, So you can simply choose to watch the original. Then you get the vastly superior restoration of the 35mm film: the cleaner, sharper resolution, and the better color grading.

Say it as many times as you like, it doesn’t change the fact that the “CGI VFX” are a travesty, spitting and pissing on the work of the original special effects creators. Oh, but they’re dead and can’t complain! So it may be that I can “simply choose” but those “updated” FX should not even exist. ST has been bastardized. Fin.

The work of an entire crew assigned to shoot the models is lost with the CG version and that to me is a travesty. Those people worked hard to give us the best they had and with a very limited budget. The CG simply doesn’t match well with the original footage, it’s jarring and distracting.

I’m sure Jim Rugg and his crew would understand and NOT be offended.

You work in the business?

@Mick Davies

Exactly. A travesty indeed. The CGI doesn’t belong at all, whether simply an “option” or not. It’s spitting in the faces of the men who designed created the original models and opticals.

Yea but there are so many great angle and close up shots they did that could not be done back then. Like the new shuttle docking sequences are fantastic. In the episode Court Martial you have close ups of the Enterprise as well as other ships in orbit and shuttles flying around. Bottom line, the original just looks fake. On blu-ray, you can watch either which is awesome. Since 2006, I have not watched the original effects.

I enjoy the new CGI and its variety, and in some cases prefer it (such as new planetscapes, the addition of the Antares or the Medusan vessel)- while in others (particularly my favorite model of the series, the Doomsday Machine!) I prefer the models.

As a video editor, the thing that bugs me most is the way the fades to starship scenes had to be altered, extended to before and after the original fade had completed, and made much quicker to compensate- so they often come in a second too soon, preceding the music cue and throwing off the editing. It was the only thing they COULD do, without the original elements… but the editor in me cringes every time I see it.

On the other hand, the ultra-grain of the original shots can be very distracting in this format, so I do end up watching the CGI effects more often than the original. Still, I always keep a DVD of the original version Doomsday Machine handy, because nothing beats the surreal translucency of the original funnel when it turns.

Agreed Andrew (I’m a video editor too!) It’s a shame the negatives for the transition scenes couldn’t have been located and the transitions redone properly. As it stands, there’s a definite quality drop before breaks and around (now too quick) dissolves.

I don’t have a problem with the wonderful original model work. It’s the technical quality of the optical printing that inevitably looks really messy in 1080p. I wonder how fans might have felt if the Enterprise exteriors had been re-shot with the original model (something I was advocating years before TOS-R!) or if they’d been able to locate the original effects elements, rescan them and recomposite them.

Something missing from the article? It seems to end abruptly after the VFX section. In any case–I have been rewatching a lot of episodes with my son on Netflix, and while he doesn’t see the difference (he’s 12 and watching these for the first time), I must say the jump between the live action and CGI is quite jarring. The CGI itself is generally fine for the age, but CBS made no real attempt to blend it in with the original footage. One should only look at a fan series like Star Trek Continues to see this done well. Color grading, film grain, a bit of blurr–things like that could have been done to blend the footage in better.

I was wondering this same thing about the article- there’s no conclusion or “to be continued”… it just sort of feels like it Sopranos itself.

Yep sorry I rushed to get the bulk of it done for this morning. It’s been updated with the final sections.

There are certainly parts where the CGI looks fantastic, as it went on later and later it did. However, it looks like it is part of a show.

The original VFX, especially not so cleaned, actually looks like you are seeing a huge ship in space.

I have been hooked on the remastered versions since they arrived, re-purchased TOS when they became available, and will never look back. Having watched TOS in it’s original form since the 70’s, I think the upgrades are fantastic.

I remember picking up the old yellow plastic DVD set many years ago for £50, with its claim that the episodes had been ‘beautifully remastered’ when they clearly hadn’t been. The picture was filthy and scratched and sound was less than great. TOS -R, when it came along, was as different as night and day from that earlier release. I’ve liked having the option to watch the original effects on Blu-ray, but I’ve never bothered to do so.

@Dom Yes, they had a rather rudimentary clean up done to them in 1998 (for the Sci-Fi Channel Special Edition showings), the same basic master digital tapes were then used for the 1999 (2-episode Region 1) / 2004 season set DVD releases. But it was nothing compared to what kind of digital restoration tools were available in 2006.

I thought CBS did an actual 16:9 cut for the live action portion as well as the VFX for some territories where it was deemed that the 4:3 might not be accepted. Was this ONLY the VFX then?

I have to say, I’ve been watching it in syndication with my TV cropping it to 16:9, and in almost all cases, it looks much better in wide screen — the framing keeps all the action in the area, and it makes the drama more intimate, immediate and focused; there’s a lot of unused space at the top and bottom of the 4:3 framing that makes a lot of it look like a stage play. There are of course exceptions where a director would stack visuals from top to bottom, all meant to be seen at once, but that’s actually quite rare that anyone got that inventive. While it wouldn’t appease the purists, a little pan and scan, or careful cropping would fix those few scenes, and again increase focus and intimacy. I have really enjoyed watching it this way, as it gives the same old shows a new fresh look.

The great thing is that digital pretty much gives everyone the ability to watch the show however they want. But syndication is more for the average TV audience who don’t likely already own the show in some format. That’s the place where CBS ought to make sure their 50 year old TV show competes 1:1 with current TV shows. This black bars on the side can be just as big a turn off as B&W or SD for a young audience just discovering Star Trek for the first time. Whether CBS ever produces a full length 16:9 version, I’m surprised they haven’t at least generally released the 16:9 VFX version. I’ve been trying to see that version since I first heard about it, but have yet to find it. It seems to me even that small expansion on exterior shots would make a difference, almost like going outside of the ship it gets bigger like the expanse of space, and inside is more contained. Modern films use frame size as a way to tell the story, so I’d like to finally see for myself whether it would work for Trek or not too.

Curious Cadet must not care about all of the women’s beehives getting cropped.

That’s the best part to crop!

Seriously, the people who care about original aspect ratios intended by a TV director from the 60s are not the people being exposed to Trek in TV syndication, who don’t even know they have a zoom button or how to use it. There’s an argument to be made for artistic integrity, and there’s one to be made for marketing the brand.

Cropping and pan and scan is way too risky on a television series with as much camera movement and dollys as TOS. Best to leave it as the director framed it. Of course anyone, who has no problem with compromising the integrity of the original framed composition can always set their TV to “zoom” so those pesky black bars are gone. Either presentation can usually be enjoyed, just depends on how you wish to view it.

I thought CBS did an actual 16:9 cut for the live action portion as well as the VFX for some territories where it was deemed that the 4:3 might not be accepted.

They did, I talk about it in the article. Look for where I talk about a syndicated run in Japan. It also links to an article we ran at the time.

Thanks Matt for clarifying, I thought they did. I was confused by your wording which I thought was applying only to the 16:9 VFX and not the live action portion as well.

How can we see that? Is it available anywhere? I must admit I’m curious as to how much care they took doing it as I have tried it with iMovie on a few scenes, and there’s some pretty tricky nuances that have to be finessed from shot to shot in some cases to compensate for movement. I’m guessing they just centered the picture and let it roll for the most part.

I really don’t know how one would get a hold of them. I think they were only for foreign market syndication packages, I supposed a TV network wanting to syndicate it now could ask for the 16:9 version?

Star Trek TOS is just awesome; picked up the entire series (Remastered) and watching it slowly (one episode every two months is all the TV I get with kids). Watched Friday’s Child as could barely remember it (it was 25 years ago, I know because I saw it on a 25th anniversary run of TOS) and for an average episode, man was it great! The Enterprise must beat the Klingons to a MINING deal(!) by negotiating with a truly alien culture that put’s emphasis on strength over all else (the aliens were willing to sell mining rights for goods?!)! Kirk has to accept the loss of a red shirt within the first five minutes as just a cost of doing business in space. My wife who usually rolls her eyes at the site of anything Trek actually pauses to watch when she realizes they are trying to save a pregnant woman and likes McCoy (though the ethics on him slapping the pregnant woman while touching on equality of the sexes and the medical profession was highly questionable!!!). It had a whole cold war Federation vs Klingon conflict in the background. “I’m a doctor, not an escalator!” “I think you’re both gonna be insufferably pleased with yourselves for at least a month… sir. ” “There’s an old, old saying on earth, Mr. Sulu: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Chekov: I know this saying. It was invented in Russia.” The music is fantastic. Entertaining, thought provoking – that being said I would not be surprised if it is banned as the anti-Avatar in the next fifty years. There is NO WAY this episode would be made today. It made space strange, dangerous and different; yet was entertaining and thought provoking. Enjoy TOS while it can and cheers to those that did not allow it to be buried.

I had heard that the new CG effects were done in 16:9 and the original show elements remained the standard 4X3. But I was really hoping the blu rays would include the full 16:9 shots and just go back and forth with the aspect ratio as needed. Very disappointing the discs maintained the 4X3 ratio for the CG effects shots.

Would be interested to know why this was…. What was the point of doing them in widescreen if they weren’t going to be seen in widescreen?

I agree. At a minimum, this should have been just as much a choice as was giving the original VFX option. I can only imagine that CBS hopes to hold these back and wait for another release to double-dip with a less-purist generation.

The widescreen version is shown regularly here in Canada in HD on the Space Channel. It looks fantastic. Whole different way of viewing the series. Purists won’t like the idea of missing a tiny bit of top and bottom from the original 4:3… but it’s still really cool. All that was missing in the TOS re-master was a warp effect. Boggles my mind not to have added that.

“tiny bit?” Man, do you cut off parts of paintings so they will fit in your existing glass frames? That is one of the most offensive posts I’ve seen here that didn’t get into politics or sexuality.

Yep, that’s about the kind of reply I expected to hear in this forum. Soup Nazi’s of Star Trek. “We don’t care if you like seeing things a different way. One way! One way only!”

Yes. I would crop a photo to fit a frame. I do crop photos to fit frames. Sometimes it looks better. And TOS-R in widescreen psychologically appeared way more modern when it was viewed in 16×9 formatted for a 16×9 screen.

If you can’t process or accept that, it’s ok. I won’t judge you for your preference the way old-school Trek people judge other people for liking variations on a theme.

I gingerly accept a fraction of a shirt or wall panel being cropped so that I don’t have black bars on the sides of every TV that I own.

You’re COMPLETELY missing the point; this isn’t a TREK thing at all, this is interfering with the art form, same as pan&scan. You oughta be ashamed.

I’m guessing you could never deal with black bars on the top & bottom of old 4:3 TVs, either, when seeing films in their original aspect ratio. Now THAT is an old person’s affliction, so old-school is in this case something you’re guilty of, not being able to see the work in the proper context.

For maybe only the fourth or fifth time ever here, I really wish trekmovie had an ‘ignore user’ function.

—> “this is interfering with the art form” <—

Couldn't have said it better! My late friend (ACP) worked for Howard Anderson for several years, and while I don't know whether he had a hand in the TOS FX or not, he worked in opticals and miniatures for more than one effects house during the 50s and 60s, and I'd be livid if his work had been cut and replaced just for the sake of some "yay it looks kewl now!" fanboy's 60 inch 4K curved screen.

Re:Soup Nazi’s of Star Trek

Aspect ratio changing IMAX transfers must drive you crazy.

It as nothing to do with aspect ratio Nazism. It has to do with how museums, both photo and painting, preserve and display original art.

If you’ve ever gone to a museum, you’d immediately realize there’s something up with proper bordering and framing of pictures. It’s not haphazard.

Personally, I think the problem stems from various aspect ratios being transferred to the 16:9 spec discs with no thought given as to how to properly border it with white or off-white as most museums do in photo exhibits. I feel there’s a reason black borders in museums are a minority, and this is why people intuit that something’s off when the disc manufacturers unartfully just allows the mastering to default to black.

Another example, when I attended the Trimble’s Equicon/Filmcon in the 70s the syndicated 16mm reels of the episodes were projected larger than life on the film screen and not a soul complained about the “white” borders on the projection screen. Likewise, I don’t recall in my entire life, anyone complaining about the top and bottom white borders of many of the Trek movies screened in the old movie houses that I’ve seen them screened.

“All that was missing in the TOS re-master was a warp effect. Boggles my mind not to have added that.”

I’m happy they didn’t. TOS didn’t have a warp effect.

Bah. It would’ve been a nice little touch. If they had the time and budget they would’ve done it. First thing they did in TMP was have the warp effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQDS7ajcnZQ

Really!? How’s it look? DId they re-frame any of the shots? Or do you end up with some odd croppings?

It was very well done. Clearly re-framed shot-by-shot… and not just a wholesale crop.

It was written about a full decade ago here on TrekMovie… https://trekmovie.com/2006/12/18/video-of-trek-remastered-in-widescreen/

https://trekmovie.com/2007/07/31/tos-r-goes-widescreen-in-japan/

But obviously not as cool as these stitched panoramas written about 2 years back… https://trekmovie.com/2014/09/10/see-what-star-trek-tos-would-have-looked-like-in-widescreen-cinerama/

Cool beans, I’d like to see how the re-framed episodes look.

But they don’t NEED to crop the 4:3 images. Just go back and forth between the two. Similar to how “The Dark Knight” changed aspect ratios on the blu ray from 16:9 to 2.35:1. That is what the remastered versions on disc should have done. I have no idea why they don’t. Sort of why the famous Star Trek Blooper reel wasn’t an extra on any of the season discs.

Yes, I agree, I’d love to watch it this way. But I’d also love to see it the other way too. In watching TOS in zoom mode on my flatscreen, I’ve noticed the cropped picture works much better in the original framing. Could that be because those directors in the 60s all wanted to be film directors, and were working on their reels at their day jobs?

I always hoped that they would have invited the original directors to come back and reframe their shows. That would have been the height of artistic integrity. But I suspect many of them had passed by the time this project was going. But that would have been the way to do it.

Seriously though, there is so much wasted, empty space at the top and bottom of most shots in TOS since they were often framing a 7 member ensemble cast in landscapes and had no choice but to include a lot of pointless area. TNG was the worst about this, but made all the more difficult to crop, because those guys had some uncomfortably tight close ups that just can’t be cropped and look right.

Good article so far, Matt, but it just stops! Keep going! ;)

Ten years… blimey! I started writing in the comments section back when this site started. In that time, I left my home town for nine years and I’m just contemplating returning. A lotta life gone by! I love my TOS-R Blu-rays and love that I now have access to TOS-R on Netflix. The enhancements were mostly inspired. Barring a couple of misfires, I consider TOS-R to be the definitive version of the show.

My only big complaints were the Tholian ship design in the revamped The Tholian Web and missed opportunities to correct mistakes such as Balok’s missing line in the ultimatum countdown scene in The Corbomite Maneuver. Also, these days, one or two opportunities to sort out obvious stunt doubling such as in The Enemy Within might be possible.

I’m sad that the opportunity to create a CGI ‘Star Trek: Reanimated’ TV show, reworking the 1970s’ cartoon series, has never happened. There’s a great opportunity just screaming out to be taken, given all the imagery we have of the original cast in the TV show in order to enhance facial expressions and so on that is lost in Filmation’s relatively low budget animation.

More please, Matt; it’s a good read. :)

Regarding TAS getting Reanimated. I was very hopeful when TOS-R happened 10 years ago that we would also get TAS-R. I have been disappointed that it has not happened … yet. I think this is a golden opportunity to get an improved animation style put into that series. If and when they ever do it, please add the computer games episodes from the 1990s (25th anniversary edition, Judgment Rites and Secret of Vulcan Fury). I think of TAS and the games as the 4th and 5th year of the 5 year mission.

Nah, animation is expensive. It’s hard to imagine there’s a serious market for it outside of the core fans, and there’s not really enough of them to syndicate, and hard to package them with the live action series.

Ideally they save their money and give us a live-action CGI version when the technology gets there … then they could expand TOS in syndication and that would be worth something.

Yes live action versions of TAS and the Games would be the ultimate. Here is what we know they can do. Rebuild the interior set of the Enterprise, or just buy the existing sets from the fan films that already have been created. Use the original series music and sound effects. Have actors of today come in and play the guest starring roles. I imagine they could get some fairly big names to appear and promote the series. The most difficult thing to do is to make the original cast look like they did in the 1960s. They are getting there, though. They have the voice work already. Bring Shatner, Koenig, Takei and Nichols back to add additional dialogue to expand the episodes to one hour. This last point, to me, is the most urgent. Last year Leonard Nimoy passed away. So I would hope that CBS would have brought the cast together and record these episodes to fit the one hour time limit. By the time, the CGI is up to realistic standards, the original cast would be gone. Get that part done first and then work on the rest later.

Sorry, it was kind of a rush job to make the deadline for today. I just added a conclusion.

I can’t agree at all with those saying that the new CGI effects are jarring and fake. Nothing is more jarring than seeing awful low budget 60’s special effects that take you right out of the story, and this is coming from someone who grew up on the series in the 70’s.

A classic example is the first season episode “Tomorrow is Yesterday”. In order for the crew to get back to the 23rd century the Enterprise needs to slingshot around the sun. Whenever I used to see that, I’d think to myself “where the heck is the sun?”, “what’s with the awful special effetcs of the Enterprise wobbling around in space?” How about watching the original version of that episode and then the remastered episode and see which one is more jarring? Friends used to come round and laugh at that episode. They don’t anymore with the new effects.

For the so-called “purists”, you can keep your original special effects, sheesh!

By that logic, the low budget sets and costumes should “take you right out of the story” too, no?

No they don’t actually. I think for the time and for the budget that they had to work with, I think they were well done. The exterior visual effects were more critical, especially with episodes like the one I mentioned because they needed to properly represent what was happening, such as the slingshot manuever. Not all episodes needed to rely on special effects but when they did, they were pretty poor.

The good news is the original versions are available for those who feel it is the best way to view it. I only look at it when I wish to compare old with new. And remind myself how much better the remastered shots are. Overall CBS-D did a bang up job. Especially in resisting the temptation to do too much with the effects shots. I think they overdid SOME just a little… Making the Amok Time site atop some 4,000 foot rock spire seemed a bit much to me but it did give a nice view of the Vulcan city in the background that was reminiscent of TAS episode Yesteryear. So there was good and bad there. Overall, no complaints at all.

I loved the slingshot effect, but couldn’t understand why they removed footage of an actual F-104 Starfighter and replaced it with the CGI recreation.

It was pretty poor stock footage at the time, likely several generations away from the original stock footage which likely wasn’t all that great.

Yep, the footage was stock promotional military footage that had seen better days even in 1966.

Curious Cadet and Matt Wright,

Re:promotional military footage

Remember this was the Cold War 60s. Promotional military footage had to straddle the two worlds of looking cool enough to promote the military while being generationally downgraded so that the enemy couldn’t extract anything useful from the footage.

The sad thing is the original high grade military master footage used for the military’s own internal performance evaluations would be a vast improvement over anything done to date to improve the war aircraft images and is probably sitting on some shelf in a military surplus store for 75 cents.

Although they absolutely floored me with WORLD WAR II in Color which used formally classified color footage that had remained “classified” until around the turn of the millennium. Maybe a FOIA request might have turned something up for the restorers?

Sure, but of course a FOIA request takes time, they didn’t have a ton of time to make their scheduled dates. But yes, it’s a bummer a good copy of the real footage couldn’t have been used.

It’s the movement of the Enterprise that bothers me most in the remastered episodes. For me, the original series and movies, especially STTMP, got the movements of the Enterprise right: she’s a big ship and moves slowly, but with grace. The remastered episodes are not consistent about how she moves (a problem in its own right) but some of them have her buzzing her around more like a speedboat than a ship of the line, turning on a dime, in my opinion stripping her of mass and scale. Quickness obviously appeals to many folks these days — it rules the Abrams aesthetic — but it’s not always better.

Just watched Dagger of the Mind and was pleasantly surprised, again, by the ringed planet they are orbiting. The shading and lighting of the Enterprise itself comes off as a bit game-ish at times, in various episodes, but it’s not consistant and, for the most part, the ship looks great. Also, aside from the wonderful visuals, the carefully engineered sound-design and remixing of the elelments is top notch. From appropriately placed dialog or a door opening to the right, off screen, that we hear in the right speaker… to completely surrounding you, in reverb, when Kirk goes “shipwide”. The remastered blurays have been and are, still, a joy to behold.

I think they should re-remaster it… I also think an entirely CGI remake of the Animated series would be interesting, akin to Clone Wars/Rebels… They could take the original voice acting, and redo the visuals. It could be really cool. Some of those stories could really standout.

Instead of putting more money into redoing the animation, I’d rather wait until they can get the CGI up to a level of realism and create live action productions truly extending the original series.

In the meantime, I wouldn’t mind seeing James Cawley do a version where they replaced the visuals with live action and lip-synched the performances from the animation! That would be a true fan-film right there …

Curious Cadet,

I think that ship has sailed.

However, I could be possibly interesting if Barco Escape and Cawley’s orginal spec sets could use their technology to create “busy” “framing content” if Paramount is determined to go that route in eliminating the black.

It’s kind of funny that this story is here now. My family missed the airing of those episodes, and we just recently, I mean RECENT, like the last week recent, started watching them on Blue-ray. I’m glad the story’s here because we’re still on the first disk and we haven’t been terribly impressed so far and were doubting we’d continue with it, but “CBS-D team got better with each episode” gives us hope! I didn’t know that TNG was redone though!

So how do we talk someone into redoing Star Trek V: The Final Frontier?

FYI: the Blu-ray sets contain both the original and new CGI VFX if you don’t like ’em

Yes, we’ve seen that as well, thanks! What we wonder, “What were they thinking!” is the audio levels from the landing page to the episodes. The episode is very soft, and when adjusted, the landing page is very loud! But, as was pointed out, not everyone had a front room set up like a theater for sound back when they were made either. . .

While I do agree that some of the new effects are cool and they’ve added some nice little touches (it’s a little thing, but I liked the working gears and other parts in the trap door in Norman’s stomach in “I Mudd”) but as a kid and even into my college years when we’d hit the 20th anniversary mark, I never thought of the effects as cheesy. They were what they were – – a product of their time,….and product of what the show was then. And that’s the show I grew up with and fell in love with. I don’t object to the new effects, or the effort that went in to it. But like I told Dave Rossi at the 40th convention in Chicago, and as Steve Austin said in the third pilot movie – – just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

I have to say I appreciate what they did but prefer the original elements. The model Enterprise had more convincing movement, less herky-jerky than the CGI version, especially the shuttlecraft. They did some effective stuff; the explosion in Pattern of Force’s intro; some of Immunity Syndrome; the phaser hits on Apollo’s temple. But there were editorial decisions made I couldn’t understand. For example; in Doomsday Machine (remastered) the berserker itself appears insanely huge very early in Decker’s first attack. In the original, the attack begins with large shots of Enterprise and the planet killer; they appear almost as equals, so the battle is very dramatic; this is Decker’s perspective. Not until the Enterprise is caught by the machine do we know Decker is insane to try this. In the CGI version, it’s obvious from go the Enterprise is a fly trying to swat an elephant — no drama. An the Enterprise itself appears puny, not powerful. Also thought the long shots of Romulans attacking in Deadly Years wasn’t as effective as the original closeups. Not on a small TV screen. Having said, that, CBS could have invested more money in higher quality CGI, so the team surely gave them good work for what they had to work with. But some decisions, like giving the planets different colors in the original TOS, added to the entertainment value.

Terrific article, Matt! Thank you! :)

I agree that some of the CGI effects do clash a bit and look a touch cartoon-ish. In an ideal world, had the Enterprise model been in the condition it is now, thanks to the Smithsonian, I’d have been all in favour of at least reshooting the Enterprise flybys with the physical model.

Of course, Doug Drexler and his team created the CGI FX for Battlestar Galactica at 720p and uprezzed the shots, rather than TOS-R’s 1080p, finding the shots blended better and sold themselves better when placed alongside the 1080p live action. But what the heck? It’s still a very solid job all round.

I grew up watching TOS on my mom’s Columbia House VHS tapes. They were a rip-off, but that was the only way we could watch them at the time. I was a surprised when I found out there was a tiny bit more footage on the disc releases. Example: A couple shots/scenes at the beginning of I, Mudd …

I only was able to catch a few episodes of TOS-R when they were on. My local station aired them at some weird, and infrequent times. NASCAR cut into the first ten minutes of the Doomsday Machine. BOO!

The CGI was definitely hit-and-miss, but i do agree with the ship’s color choices. I occasionally like to build models and got the big 1/350 scale TOS Enterprise for Christmas. Turns out there are a lot of people out there, beyond the Smithsonian, who have taken the effort to try and nail down the right color (Japanese Navy Grey is pretty close if I recall).

The Max Gabl digital mattes were sublime, and (with the exception of the re-recorded theme) the remastered sound was a delight.

The Enterprise was OK, and it got better as episodes progressed. The Klingon battlecruiser, sad to say, was a little below standard, in my opinion–very low poly and it showed.

Yep Gabl (and Niel Wray too) did some amazing work for TOS-R (and later TNG-R).

on Netflix, season 2’s “Obsession” is presented in the original format

Just a quick question regarding the “edited-for-time (i.e. more ads)” restored versions that are currently running on ME-TV: were these rather awkward cuts made by the studio just for the versions available to the syndicated channels, or are these edited versions (with about 5 to 8 minutes missing) the only restored versions available?

The full episode 35mm film reel was scanned in and cleaned up, and then they created new VFX for it. After the full uncut episode was finished they handed it off to be cut up for syndication.

Our TOS-R page has a bunch of this information BTW: https://trekmovie.com/tos-in-hd/

Thank you, sir; I’ll check it out.

It is not cut up on HEROES & ICONS which airs an episode Su-Fri. But I’ve noticed some weird staccato movements of the reimagined ship fx which I attribute to time compression being employed.

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Both versions are equally special and will likely endure another fifty years long after many of the spin offs, reboots and re images go the way of the dodo

The TOS Remastered BluRay set is one of my favorites. The original effects are there and I for one always liked the new CG effects as well. If anything, the new CG effects were at times too reverential to the original and I would not have minded if they had gotten a little bolder with the ship designs and even the Enterprise going into warp (again, the original effects are still there for the purists). But overall it’s pretty much the definitive set of TOS in my opinion.

Great job as usual Matt, congrats.

My biggest complaint is the “re-done” vocals on the classic “Star Trek” theme song. To me it is such a turn off.

The song as it is now just screams “Yes, this is a show for geeks and geeks alone”….I thought the original theme was cool and needed no augmentation. No offense to the geeks of the world, but I want my original “Star Trek” theme back….why mess with perfection !!!

That’s a good point. Is the original theme music also select-able along with the original VFX in BluRay?

When I get home I’ll pop in a disc and let you know, I believe so, because the opening credit sequences were totally redone both audio and visual effects. So I think you’d get the original version. Been a long time since I’ve looked.

Yep confirmed, as it should be, when you choose the original effects from the main episode menu, you get the original VFX and the matching older stereo audio track too.

I’m so happy they did this.

I’m looking for a final definitive answer to a yes or no question. Without exposition. Can the original TV series episodes in the 50th Aniversay Boxed Set be screened with the original effects?

You’re commenting on the wrong article technically, and also good lord man, the answer is in the body of this article text, also in the comments here, and a person asked this same question in the comments on the review to which you’re referring.

The 50th anniversary boxed set is simply new pressings of the 2009 Blu-ray sets. As I said in the 50th anniversary review.

So yes, you can watch it with the original effects.

So, “Yes.”

Thanks Matt. I admire your professional decorum.

Overall I think they did a good job. They were respectful of the source material and when in doubt they tried to emulate the original effects (i.e. the pulses for phasers in Balance of Terror instead of the more familiar phasers seen later). Sure, they’re not perfect as noted above, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Really don’t understand how there was fan controversy. If you’re a Star Wars fan and what they did to the original 3 movies, you have many legitimate reasons. Everything CBS did was tastefully done drawing on what was originally there, there were no major Lucas type changes and thats because everyone loved and respected the franchise and people like the Okuda’s keeping a eye on everything being done, bless those two.

Personally I would have made 2 more changes to TOS, again minor. First off why did the third season get blue coloured font for the title. IMO, the remastering (as they redid all the lettering) should have done yellow first season, blue second season, red third season, representing the three division colours for the three season. Would love to have seen the “Star Trek” text in red.

The second thing I would have like to have seen is a warp jump created for TOS, there are many times Kirk tells Sulu to go to warp and the Enterprise just slowly moves away from the planet. We never saw a warp jump until The Motion Picture. I would have designed a special warp jump for TOS. Nothing like the stretch effect of TNG more like a precursor to the TMP warp jump effect.

Those two things would have been the cherry on top.

People should understand that the CGI Enterprise and FX shots in TOS-R are specifically made to look 60’s-ish. That’s why it might look like sub-par CGI.

If you look at the connie Defiant in ENT A Mirror Darkly, that CGI connie looks so much better

They also had a much larger budget for that episode.

I really enjoy the fact that the episodes are available to be viewed either with the original effects or the CGI if you have the bluray set. I thought the new effects were mostly done well and in some cases really enhanced the episodes. My biggest objection is the rerecording of the main title theme with the singer’s voice mixed way too heavily. The original had the voice more in the background where it blended in better. I remember this site showing the clip comparisons between the old and new effects back then, which was fun. Also entertaining were the debates over the Doomsday Machine episode for which Mr. Dochterman also did enhanced effects in a different manner than CBS Digital…both great, by the way. Good times back then.

Nice to see the subject of the TOS ‘remastering’ being revisited. I’d like to offer some of my current thoughts on that, and on the ‘widescreen’ issue too. Years ago, I avidly looked forward to each new episode article which previewed it’s new FX on this site. However, although certain new shots and tweaks were excellent at times, there were just too many shots that seemed rushed and quite poorly executed for my liking…and I was sorely disappointed with the missed opportunity to really do a first-rate job at times. And my view hasn’t changed about that. Despite this, I went through a phase of thinking that TOS:R would be the only way I would ever wish to re-watch the show again in the future, no matter what. But I was wrong as it turned out…as the inconsistent work done by the CBS Digital team ended up being just too frustrating for me, overall. Everything from the almost ‘pre-viz’, low-quality CGI in some shots…to the dubious motion of the Enterprise at times…to the numerous untouched hand-phaser FX…all helped to change my mind – and I have now reverted to preferring to re-watch the show in it’s original form in future. Sure, the original opticals look dated, and some of the Enterprise elements look shakey and badly matted in certain shots…but these days, the old FX just tie-in better overall for me in a ‘retro’, stylised way with the rest of the show’s general aesthetics, if you know what I mean. And as much as I really liked some of the more effective ‘remastered’ CGI Enterprise shots, I’ve long decided that I much prefer the look (and color) of the original miniature Enterprise in the scheme of things, despite the flaws. And while there were a lot less angles shown (and a few repeated ones)…I definately prefer the more stately movements of the original Enterprise overall, especially compared to some of the zippy movements seen in in the likes of the remastered ‘Doomsday Machine’. – speaking of which, it was always one of my favourite episodes as a youngster, and I much prefer the look of the original ‘Doomsday Machine’ compared to how it was re-designed in the remastered episode – another big reason why I’m sticking to the original version of the show in future. Another aspect of the original Enterprise that I liked were certain angles that were seen, and which were not as effective in some of the new TOS:R shots. And I prefer the way the original Klingon ship shots were composed compared to the remastered shots, especially as the CGI was pretty unimpressive-looking during those. And while the various TOS:R planets were pretty good overall, I still appreciate the look of the original versions, as they have their own ‘otherworldly’ look to them, generally. Yet another advantage of sticking with the originals, is that the end title shots will match perfectly – it’s a little thing, but in certain instances they don’t match with the look of the TOS:R shots, and it’s a pity they couldn’t have been re-done to fit better with the remastered visuals. Oh and yes…another advantage of my sticking to the original versions will be the fact that I get to hear the original theme arrangement, which I prefer too. I’ve no doubt that these ‘remastered’ versions are becoming the ‘default’ versions that new fans are seeing as their first exposure to the original STAR TREK episodes…and that’s okay I guess, as TOS:R has some neat new shots amongst the more disappointing ones…and will certainly come across as less ‘dated’ overall to fresh viewers. I’m sure if TOS:R had been my first exposure to the show, then I would automatically look on it as being the way I’d prefer to re-watch the episodes in future…in the same way that many who only saw the inferior ‘Special Editions’ of the original STAR WARS trilogy to begin with, prefer to re-watch those same versions they originally got introduced to. However, I was one of those that grew up with the original TOS effects, and have no problem with reverting to the ‘stylistic’ nostalgia they offer, after weighing up the different types of flaws offered by the ‘remastered’ episodes. _________________________________________________________________________ As far as the whole ‘widescreen’ thing goes, I remember eagerly looking forward to the day I could watch this show in a more ‘cinematic’ 16:9 format somehow…and was disappointed that we didn’t seem to be getting the Japanese ‘widescreen’ transmission version anytime soon. Back in 2007 when it was discussed here, I didn’t own the kind of large widescreen tv set which I do now, so I didn’t realise that it would have a range of settings options that would effectively let me do that! But thanks to the various settings, I will never …  Read more »

Sorry, the ‘widescreen’ stretch setting is an abomination to me. Far worse than cropping the top and bottom of the frame, where there is typically wasted, unartisticly framed, space, included in the composition only because of the 4:3 format. Shatner is fat enough in some episodes ;-)

@ CC – I’ve no doubt that the ‘psuedo’ kind of ‘widescreen’ I described above is not for everyone, and that many will prefer to keep the almost ‘square’ look which the existing 4;3 frame entails…even if it means seeing big black bars either side of the picture on their 16:9 widescreen tvs.

And that’s fine, as I once felt that I only wanted to watch the original aspect ratio too. But once I got used to the likes of the slightly ‘stretched’ appearance (without losing any of the picture frame whatsoever), I found it didn’t bother me in the least after a short while…as the impact of seeing the show’s visuals filling the whole of my widescreen tv in a 16:9 aspect was a real treat for me. (and the Shat and everyone else still look plenty thin this way)

Things only look slightly ‘squashed’ at the end of the day, but the overall effect is my preferred default way of re-watching the episodes now. When I tried checking how the 4:3 aspect looked again, I found that I couldn’t revert back to watching the smaller image with black bars in future.

It might not be a ‘true’ widescreen picture, but I’m happy to stick with it…as I have a feeling it will be a long time before there is any kind of official ‘widescreen’ available to us all. And even then, there’s no guarantee that the image will be ‘cropped’ by someone with a very good eye for the task.

I love that this site now gives somewhat obscure but pertinent information on Trek. After many “dark” periods with no new postings for extended periods when Anthony seemed to have left the site, we now get a constant stream of new content thanks to Kayla, Matt, Brian, et al. Thanks to you all for reinvigorating the site over the last few years and making it the go to Trek site once again.

Who here prefers the TOS-R color-corrected picture that shows the true green color of the Command uniforms? Does that affect canon for anyone?

Interesting, I was always aware of the apparent true darker green color of Kirk’s wrap-around-the-belly tunic so it doesn’t surprise or shock me that command gold seems a fiction.

The A/V geek in me wants the photo realism of what the film captured.

But I suppose it all boils down to what the production intended? Were they aware of the flaws of their film processing and did they seek to exploit it so as to use cheaper off-color material to create gold? Or was it always intended to exploit the three primary colors of Color TV, red, green and blue?

Memory Alpha says the command color was avocado green and that would seem to be that. But then canon or no, why did Roddenberry sign-off on this?

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/c/c9/McCoy_command_uniform.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/144?cb=20061209065327&path-prefix=en&trekmovie=.jpg

I have always wondered, and never gotten a straight answer about the animated series. Obviously there was an effort to emphasize the green in both Kirk’s wrap around tunic, as well as the command dress uniforms, which likewise Roddenberry signed off on. I had wondered with some of the animation errors, whether Roddenberry was even aware of the color discrepancy, which I like to think the animation was done by the off-shore animators watching the reruns, and the episodes were delivered fully colored after Roddenberry could do anything about it so he just had to go along with it.

Or maybe he just changed his mind, as there was no green in TMP nor TNG which was his direct involvement.

According to Memory Alpha they caught an overseas coloring flub where Uhura was colored with Chapel’s skin tone and fixed it in time before airing.

Bag on the CG all you want, but my kids wouldn’t sniff TOS with the original FX elements. As a matter of fact they would laugh at being able to see through the Enterprise on some shots. As far as I’m concerned the updated FX shots were the thing that kept TOS relevant to a new audience. Now I catch the kids with the DVD’s in their room.

They don’t have a problem with the ships looking like something out of Hanna-Barbera, but they got uptight over the mattework?

Don’t ever show them WORLD AT WAR, the film grain will probably incite them to madness.

http://www.roddenberry.com/media/vault/Script-StarTrekTheMotionPicture.pdf

Tos-R grew on me quite a bit in the last decade. I now own all three bluray sets. The article said it right, ” mixed bag” is a great way to describe this effort.

FYI – TOS-R is now airing on BBC America. Still looks pretty good.

A sad post-script; they also released 30-second, modern-styled trailers for each episode that were a great deal of fun- but apparently only about 2/3 (the first ‘two seasons’ worth) were ever completed due to StarTrek.com shutting down. For some of us, that was a GREAT disappointment. :-(

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Episode list

S1.E0 ∙ The Cage

S1.E1 ∙ The Man Trap

S1.E2 ∙ Charlie X

S1.E3 ∙ Where No Man Has Gone Before

S1.E4 ∙ The Naked Time

S1.E5 ∙ The Enemy Within

S1.E6 ∙ Mudd's Women

S1.E7 ∙ What Are Little Girls Made Of?

S1.E8 ∙ Miri

S1.E9 ∙ Dagger of the Mind

S1.E10 ∙ The Corbomite Maneuver

S1.E11 ∙ The Menagerie: Part I

S1.E12 ∙ The Menagerie: Part II

S1.E13 ∙ The Conscience of the King

S1.E14 ∙ Balance of Terror

S1.E15 ∙ Shore Leave

S1.E16 ∙ The Galileo Seven

S1.E17 ∙ The Squire of Gothos

S1.E18 ∙ Arena

S1.E19 ∙ Tomorrow Is Yesterday

S1.E20 ∙ Court Martial

S1.E21 ∙ The Return of the Archons

S1.E22 ∙ Space Seed

S1.E23 ∙ A Taste of Armageddon

S1.E24 ∙ This Side of Paradise

S1.E25 ∙ The Devil in the Dark

S1.E26 ∙ Errand of Mercy

S1.E27 ∙ The Alternative Factor

S1.E28 ∙ The City on the Edge of Forever

S1.E29 ∙ Operation -- Annihilate!

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6 TV shows you need to watch in April

Can you believe it’s almost April? While it might feel like you were just ringing in the new year, spring is already on the horizon, which also means a whole new selection of TV shows to sink your teeth into. With dramas, thrillers, shows based on video games, and even a Star Trek franchise show’s final season, this month’s picks are delightfully diverse.

American Horror Story: Delicate Part 2 (April 3)

Star trek: discovery season 5 (april 4), fallout (april 12), welcome to wrexham season 3 (april 18), knuckles (april 26), the veil (april 30).

Half of the six TV shows you need to watch in April are shows returning with new seasons and the other half are new titles that may well become your favorites. They are available through top streaming services , so make sure to bookmark these titles, their premiere dates, and where to stream them so you don’t miss out.

The 12th season of the popular horror anthology series premiered in September 2023, but fans have waited seven months for part 2, which is finally here. As with every season, American Horror Story: Delicate features an entirely new storyline with new characters, who are played this time around by Emma Roberts, Kim Kardashian, Cara Delevingne, and others.

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As the first story to be based on a novel (Danielle Valentine’s Delicate Condition ), American Horror Story: Delicate centers around Anna (Roberts), an actress who is desperate to get pregnant, but believes someone is trying to prevent this from happening. She becomes obsessed with this idea, unsure if she’s just hallucinating or if her paranoid feelings are justified. Beneath the surface entertainment of the thrilling story is social commentary about topical issues like abortion rights, pregnancy, and gaslighting. AHS devotees might miss regular cast members like Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, and Lily Rabe, but the new cast brings a fresh take to the unique story in this season.

Stream American Horror Story: Delicate on Hulu .

Ending its run after this fifth and final season, Star Trek: Discovery flips back to a decade prior to the events in Star Trek: The Original Series . The setting begins in the 23rd Century, though the timeline jumps ahead by the end of season 2 to be well into the 32nd century, where the rest of the show takes place. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is a science specialist-turned-captain who leads her crew aboard the starship Discovery. Fresh off reassignment when her previous actions start a war, Burnham embarks on new adventures, investigating everything from rogue AIs to mysterious signals.

As the seventh Star Trek series overall and the first since Star Trek: Enterprise  ended in 2005, Star Trek: Discovery was a huge draw for CBS All Access (since rebranded as Paramount+ ) when it premiered in 2017. The series was followed by the show Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , which is gearing up for its third season. The upcoming movie Star Trek: Section 31 will serve as a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery. Although it has receivied praise for its prosthetic makeup and visual effects, Martin-Green’s gripping performance is really what fuels Star Trek: Discovery and its story.

Stream Star Trek: Discovery on Paramount+. 

The latest in a series of shows based on popular video game franchises, Fallout brings the role-playing game to life on the small screen. The postapocalyptic story is about a group of survivors residing in underground bunkers known as Vaults. They have escaped the resource war above ground, and are hunkering down in fear of a potential nuclear war. Lucy (Ella Purnell of Yellowjackets ) grew up in the vaults and decides to venture outside to explore the desolate wasteland above. Once there, she realizes the world outside of the fallout bunkers is more dangerous, savage, and terrifying than she ever imagined.

The Fallout TV show is developed by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, co-creators of the Westworld series. Nolan is also known as the creator of the sci-fi series Person of Interest and co-writer of movies like The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises , and Interstellar . The series also stars Walton Goggins ( The Righteous Gemstones ) as a mutated gunslinger called  The Ghoul, Aaron Moten as Maximus, a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, and Kyle MacLachlan as Lucy’s father, Hank. Fallout is a must-watch for fans of the video game, especially as it’s expected to remain faithful to the original story. But even those unfamiliar with the story and game will appreciate the series as another great entry in the postapocalyptic subgenre.

Stream Fallout on Prime Video.

Right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney decided to do something totally unexpected and purchased a flailing Welsh football association club. In true Ted Lasso fashion, the pair believed they could turn the team around and inject much-needed passion (and funds) into the project. Why not chronicle their journey of trying to bring this club back to life in a docuseries? They did, and they call it Welcome to Wrexham.

Inspired by sports docuseries like Sunderland ‘Til I Die, Last Chance U , and Cheer , Welcome to Wrexham follows the new owners, but also gives fans a look behind the scenes at the players and others involved in the club, as well as the games. While Wrexham has yet to achieve its dream of making it to the Premier League, the team has been consistently moving up the ranks. Season 3 will, for the first time, premiere in spring, coinciding with the league games. The heartfelt, funny, and inspirational show has become a hit among fans who recognize the passion behind it.

Stream Welcome to Wrexham on Hulu.

If you love Sonic the Hedgehog , Knuckles should be on your list of shows to watch this month. The miniseries is based on the Sega video game series and serves as a spinoff of the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. The story takes places between the events in Sonic the Hedgehog 2  and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and centers around Knuckles the Echidna, voiced by Idris Elba. The super-strong echidna, who has now moved to Earth, is adjusting to his new life and setting. His primary job, however, is training Wade Whipple (Adam Pally), a dim-witted deputy sheriff, on how to be an echidna warrior, and, of course, how to help save the world.

Also featuring Cary Elwes, Stockard Channing, Scott Mescudi, Christopher Lloyd, and Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles is a fun live-action movie to watch with the whole family.

Stream Knuckles on Paramount+. 

Those who have been waiting anxiously for the return of The Handmaid’s Tale can check out Elisabeth Moss in The Veil in the meantime. She stars in this limited series thriller about two women traveling together from Istanbul to Paris, then London. But this isn’t a joyful road trip: one woman has a dangerous secret and the other is desperate to expose it before thousands of lives are lost.

Written by Steven Knight, best known for creating the BBC series Peaky Blinders , The Veil is all about truth, lies, and two women playing a game with stakes higher than they ever imagined. Moss, who learned a British accent for the role, also serves as a producer of the series.

Stream The Veil on Hulu. 

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While many streaming services continue raising prices, Tubi remains free for all customers. As a FAST service, subscribers gain access to Tubi's enormous library, home to 50,000 movies and TV shows. All of these programs are available for free. The only caveat is that Tubi runs ads. Think of these ads like watching commercials on cable television. Unlike cable, Tubi does not require a subscription fee.

Explore movies and TV shows in genres from comedies and sci-fi to dramas and romance. In March, the genre we've zeroed in on is action. Below, you'll find three action movies to watch on Tubi. Our selections include a hilarious buddy cop action comedy, an underrated crime thriller, and a 1980s gem starring Sylvester Stallone. The Heat (2013)

March is almost over, and while it didn't win a lot of Oscars this year, Netflix is still a winner in terms of popularity. That's primarily due to its diverse slate of hits and critically acclaimed movies and shows, which range from The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie's action-comedy series, to Damsel, a fantasy movie starring Millie Bobby Brown.

Netflix plans to maintain its dominance with its April programming slate, the best yet this year. The month starts with a bang with the premiere of Ripley, a new limited series that adapts the popular novel and 1999 movie The Talented Mr. Ripley, and the debut of Scoop, a drama based on the real-life scandal involving Prince Andrew's controversial interview with the BBC. The month ends with the highly anticipated adaptation of the popular Neil Gaiman comic book series Dead Boy Detectives and the second part of Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon films. Check the list below for everything coming to Netflix in April 2024.

Video game adaptations were wildly successful in 2023, including The Super Mario Bros. Movie, The Last of Us, and the Twisted Metal series. To kick off this year's gaming adaptations, Amazon Prime Video is premiering a new original series called Fallout, which is based on the hit video game franchise from Bethesda Softworks. Prime Video rarely goes small for something like this, and the Fallout TV series has a massive scale that most shows simply can't match.

The first thing that you need to know about Fallout is that you don't need to be familiar with the games to watch or enjoy the show. It's not based on any single game in particular, and it draws from several of the Fallout titles to shape the narrative of the show. But it can't hurt to have a little bit of background information before you're thrown into the wild postapocalyptic landscape of the series. That's why we've put together this roundup of everything you need to know about Fallout on Prime Video. Who's on the creative team behind Fallout? Prime Video brought out its big guns for Fallout: Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. The co-creators of HBO's Westworld signed on to produce the Fallout series in 2020, and Nolan is directing the first three episodes. Nolan and Joy are executive producers on the series, but the showrunners are Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, both of whom are credited as the creators of the show.