The 10-star rating is for the parts of this that CBS did not walk all over with size 12 digital Doc Marten boots.
They did add some glittery garbage at the beginning of this episode, like where Julie Parrish looks up in the sky and sees a huge Skyscape of ringed planets.
The "Number One" Villain of this digital trampling was David Fosse: It would have been much worse if Mike and Denise Okuda had not been involved somewhat. As it was, Fosse totally ruined the beautiful shot of the USS Enterprise being buffeted at the Galaxy's Rim in the remastered 2nd Pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before"-Replacing it not with a good digital representation of a classic shot done photographically in the 60's - He CHANGED it, as he changed the Murasaki Quasar in "Gallileo Seven"-Those episodes were No Longer Star Trek.
But in THIS landmark two-part episode which was based on the original pilot of the series, they basically left a lot of it alone, especially in the segments where the Original Pilot footage was used. It looked good in the 60's and it still looks good now.
"The Cage" - The First Pilot starring Jeffery Hunter, Leonard Nimoy and the then Majel Lee Hudec (Later to become Barrett/Roddenberry) is edited to fit within the framing story of the "Court Martial Fantasy" instigated by The Talosians.
This is the core of The Original Series: The fact that we can watch this episode and BELIEVE IT - We do not have to take anything for granted, it is all shown to us here. There is no reason for any "Grains of Salt" - This is Gene Roddenberry's Masterpiece, this is *his* Star Trek, and it was not overly bloated with the "enhancements" of Fosse: Nothing was "Re- imagined" because there was no need for any re-imagining. Majel Lee Hudec as "Number One" brings a Laser cannon down to the planet and they try to blow the top off of a rock face, and that effect remains as beautiful as it originally appeared, to me, over 40 years ago.
That is the entire problem with all of the digital "enhancements" - There really was no need for them, and to CHANGE their nature, to CHANGE those classic images is a crime.
Of all the "enhanced" episodes I've watched, so far, this one remains fairly close to the way the original looked. I can live with it, it was not ruined like "The Doomsday Machine" or "The Gallileo Seven"
They did add some glittery garbage at the beginning of this episode, like where Julie Parrish looks up in the sky and sees a huge Skyscape of ringed planets.
The "Number One" Villain of this digital trampling was David Fosse: It would have been much worse if Mike and Denise Okuda had not been involved somewhat. As it was, Fosse totally ruined the beautiful shot of the USS Enterprise being buffeted at the Galaxy's Rim in the remastered 2nd Pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before"-Replacing it not with a good digital representation of a classic shot done photographically in the 60's - He CHANGED it, as he changed the Murasaki Quasar in "Gallileo Seven"-Those episodes were No Longer Star Trek.
But in THIS landmark two-part episode which was based on the original pilot of the series, they basically left a lot of it alone, especially in the segments where the Original Pilot footage was used. It looked good in the 60's and it still looks good now.
"The Cage" - The First Pilot starring Jeffery Hunter, Leonard Nimoy and the then Majel Lee Hudec (Later to become Barrett/Roddenberry) is edited to fit within the framing story of the "Court Martial Fantasy" instigated by The Talosians.
This is the core of The Original Series: The fact that we can watch this episode and BELIEVE IT - We do not have to take anything for granted, it is all shown to us here. There is no reason for any "Grains of Salt" - This is Gene Roddenberry's Masterpiece, this is *his* Star Trek, and it was not overly bloated with the "enhancements" of Fosse: Nothing was "Re- imagined" because there was no need for any re-imagining. Majel Lee Hudec as "Number One" brings a Laser cannon down to the planet and they try to blow the top off of a rock face, and that effect remains as beautiful as it originally appeared, to me, over 40 years ago.
That is the entire problem with all of the digital "enhancements" - There really was no need for them, and to CHANGE their nature, to CHANGE those classic images is a crime.
Of all the "enhanced" episodes I've watched, so far, this one remains fairly close to the way the original looked. I can live with it, it was not ruined like "The Doomsday Machine" or "The Gallileo Seven"