The Old Version

It’s been a while since I’ve seen episodes of Star Trek, the original sixties series. I’ve been watching every episode in order a couple of times a week, when I need a NaNoWriMo break. (Note: Current word count is 182,868 — woo hoo!)

There have been strange things I’ve seen that didn’t seem to jive with how I remembered the show. The Enterprise appears to be nicer, less plastic-like than I remembered. The starfields caught my attention right away, especially since it’s the same one every time. (You can tell by the red and blue stars — they’re either in the exact same spot no matter where they travel or it’s reversed like someone flipped the image over in Photoshop.)

I’m finally up to Season 2, Episode 6: The Doomsday Machine. One of my favorites, written by Norman Spinrad. And now I know something has definitely changed. There are a bunch of asteroids floating around that weren’t there before. The Constellation, in all of its wrecked glory, looks different, especially when a chunk of planet hits the saucer section and breaks up.

There is no doubt that they’ve CGI’d the show once the aforementioned Doomsday Machine (DM) shows up. Yes, it does look all nice and shiny with a purple paint job. The interior is glowing like a miniature sun, munching on planets like Goobers® and Raisenettes®.

To be honest, it’s weird watching Star Trek with all of the updated, flashy CGI pieces covering up the original crappy model of the DM, looking like a cross between a Sergei’s Pizza Roll from when I went to SUNY Potsdam and a bad paper mâché Horn o’ Plenty.

I miss my crappy special effects. The new stuff is pretty, but…

Ah, well. Progress, I guess. I’m just wondering when the BBC will start eyeballing those classic Doctor Who episodes with my favorite version, Tom Baker. They can wipe out all of those goofy, campy special effects (that weren’t too special, but I still loved them) and replace everything with super CGI monsters and wild TARDIS special effects.

I think I’m just too old. Yeah, they updated it in 2006, and you can definitely hear the difference in the voiceover for the opening credits. Maybe I should just sit back and let my memories get sprayed over with blue and purple paint. It is what it is, I guess.

Now with more Goobers and Raisonettes…err…asteroids and floaty things.