Okudas, Rossi Reveal Remastered Trek Effects

Denise and Michael Okuda and Dave Rossi promised not to tamper with original series Klingon foreheads and explained their decision to leave certain other shots alone in the remastered original Star Trek episodes.

Speaking with Ain't It Cool News the trio described attempts to balance their budget and time constraints with all the shots they would like to have upgraded. For what Denise Okuda calls "Star Trek's first real time-travel story", for instance - "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" - they incorporated high-definition NASA images of Earth and pictures taken from the International Space Station. Rossi added that they were able to show the Enterprise skimming the surface and give a better sense of the danger of the slingshot maneuver.

The Okudas also described their pleasure at being able to show Klingon ships in episodes where the original series didn't have budget for exteriors, including a glimpse of the Klingon fleet in "Errand of Mercy." However, promised Rossi, the Klingon foreheads will not be retouched. "We don't regard the smooth-headed Klingons to be a 'mistake,'" explained Rossi. "It’s just part of the look-and-feel of the original series." Mike Okuda added that they debated adding wrinkles to the foreheads of some of the Klingons, since Enterprise established that there was a genetic experiment that caused Klingon variation, but they decided it would be too much work.

Some elements that the Okudas believed could be improved with new effects, like the antenna array on the planet from "Shore Leave" that "looked like something you put on your roof in the 1960s to watch Star Trek in black and white", in Mike Okuda's description, would simply have been too labor-intensive without greatly improving the episode. "It would be better to put those resources elsewhere," he said.

One effect they did add was the missile launched from Ekos at the Enterprise in "Patterns of Force": "We had them make a digital replica of the old German V2 rocket," Mike Okuda said. "It was cool to be able to use that historic design."

The full interview is at Ain't It Cool News.

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