STAR TREK Remastered Gets Caught In "The Tholian Web" This Weekend!!

Merrick here... …with some images from this weekend’s STAR TREK Remastered. It’s THE THOLIAN WEB, in which Enterprise is enshrouded by an alien energy web that…when completed…sends its victims into the ether. This always struck me as a fantastically impractical, device - although it’s super mega cool to look at. NOTE: The images this week aren’t embiggenable like they usually are due to some technical funkiness.

First up, a look at Defiant – one of Enterprise’s sister ships – sporting an eerie, Bermuda Triangle-esque glow as she phases in and out our reality. In this episode, it’s never 100% clear what is happening to Defiant. Installments of ENTERPRISE reveal that the Defiant is actually being pulled backwards in time for combat purposes (a la the Babylon 4 station in BABYLON 5’s “War Without End”).

Original

Remastered

Next up: the Tholians begin spinning their web. These Remastered Tholian ships are redesigned from The Original Series, although these guys differ significantly from the Tholian's reworked appearance in ENTERPRISE. Interestingly (and peculiarly), both redesigns effectively negate the original “mystique” of the Tholians (at least from my perspective). The original Tholian ships evoked a crystalline appearance (in keeping with the Tholian’s crystalline form & subtly inferring some sort of Tholian symbiosis with their ships - at least that's the read I always had on the matter). The Tholian designs for ENTERPRISE & Remastered interpret Tholian vessels as, literally, vessels. Not sure I like having that simplicity/mystery undercut. Maybe it’s just me.

Original

Remastered

Here’s a Remastered “classic shot” – the new version is an almost exact duplicate of the original. I LOVE THIS IMAGE!!! Had a poster of the “Original” shot on my wall growing up.

Original

Remastered

Finally, an original-vs-remastered phaser strike on a Tholian ship.

Original

Remastered

HERE's a list of airdates and stations showing the Remastered TREK. If you can't find a station near you, they can also be downloaded via XBOX Live (where an increasing number of episodes are available in High Definition - the series is not shown in HD by many broadcasters). "Original" images from TrekCore

Finally, seems some raw footage from JJ Abrams' STAR TREK has escaped onto YouTube. Reports of A-list casting appear to have been incorrect - he went with unknowns. It also appears that he knocked "that retro vibe" way out of the park. Also worthy of note: this footage appears to be shot in some sort of weird future language instead of the English that is spoken/understood throughout the galaxy (yes, I Know about Universal Translators). Enjoy!!!
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