Star Trek (Remastered)

A shape-shifting, salt-craving creature terrorizes the crew of Enterprise.

In the Remastered version, fans finally get a glimpse at the Antares, the freighter that brought 17-year-old Charles Evans to the Enterprise -- its crew unaware of his true nature being raised from infancy by noncorporeal beings. Once aboard, the teenager develops a crush on Yeoman Rand and proves dangerously unable to wield his enormous psionic powers with maturity until higher authorities intervene -- arriving here in a new, Remastered-version ethereal vessel.

While exploring the energy barrier at galaxy's edge that crippled an earlier ship, Kirk's long-time friend and crewmate Gary Mitchell begins mutating into a god-like entity disdainful of the "mortals" around him. Can the captain overcome his own feelings for his friend before the new entity grows too powerful to stop? The Remastered edition features a more encompassing 3-D version of the "energy barrier" and a view of the Delta-Vega lithium station at dawn. Also, the digital U.S.S. Enterprise model is true to the unique details seen in the original miniature at this stage, the series' second pilot episode.

An alien virus picked up from the now-dead Psi 2000 outpost strips the crew of their inhibitions, causing chaos as each individual is overcome by hidden emotions -- even Spock. Meanwhile, the disabled crew have left the Enterprise unable to react to the planet break-up below that is pulling them down. The Remastered edition now offers the exterior of the doomed Psi 2000 station, the viewscreen shots of the ever-nearer planet are more realistic and intense, and even the ship's chronometers get an updated but still "feel right" look.

A magnetic ore brought back from Alfa 177 causes a beam break-up in the transporter, splitting Captain Kirk into two different beings: one "good" and one "evil." The malfunction must be repaired before Sulu's stranded landing party freezes to death -- and Kirk's separated "halves" perish. The Remastered edition enhances the special effects with some surprises in this landmark show, but Sulu's stranded landing party is still rescued before freezing to death -- and Kirk's separated "halves" perish.

Conman Harry Mudd and his "cargo" of three beautiful wives for lonely miners are rescued by the Enterprise and arrested, just as their ship implodes -- and look for the new Remastered visuals that show it all off like never before. The rescue burns out the big starship's dilithium crystals, but Kirk's unhappy reliance on Mudd's clients for replacements is in jeopardy when the women's real secret is exposed.

Viewers are introduced to Nurse Christine Chapel in this story as she signs aboard the crew to search for her missing fiance, the brilliant Dr. Korby. He turns up on Exo III, oddly working on a plan to create android duplicates of key figures, beginning with James Kirk - until the captain sabotages his duplicate to alert Spock. The Remastered edition gives a modern feel to the android effects, too.

On a planet just like Earth that is populated only by children, Kirk's landing party contracts the virus that killed adults while stretching the youngsters' lifespan to hundreds of years. Enduring the natives' bizarre and violent tactics, the trapped party must cure themselves and the children - including one who has a crush on Kirk. For the Remastered edition, the look of Miri's planet from orbit gets a much more refined treatment with haze and clouds, in the style of the digital graphics used throughout the Remastered series.

Tipped off by a crazed runaway who is far more than he seems, Kirk investigates an experimental facility at Tantalus II for mentally ill criminals and finds a sinister scheme behind its amazing research. The mystery of the vast Tantalus II colony and the Enterprise journey there get the usual spectacular Remastered treatment.

While exploring an uncharted area of space, the Enterprise is outmatched and taken in tow by a massive spherical spaceship. Doomed by the imposing being Balok and his huge ship, Kirk finally resorts to a bluff about a self-destruct system that will also destroy Balok's ship -- and the gamble pays off with surprising results. Balok's perceived power is heightened even more by a more textured and crystalline Fesarius at close-up, a highlight of the Remastered edition. His smaller ship is seen towing the bigger Enterprise in several new angles, and colors emitted by Balok's glowing warning buoy actually reflect off the starship's hull.

Apparently summoned to Starbase 11, Kirk, Spock and McCoy visit a former Enterprise commander, the paralyzed and horribly disfigured Christopher Pike. Incredibly, Spock then kidnaps his old captain, commandeers the Enterprise without Kirk, sets it on a forbidden course, and then turns himself in for court-martial. (Part 1 in Star Trek's only two-parter) Fans should note the Remastered edition features more realistic and populated views of the Starbase 11 complex, detailed graphics on Kirk and Commodore Mendez's pursuit shuttlecraft from the base, and of course upgraded scenes from the opening of the saga of Pike's older Enterprise.

Forced to watch Talosian transmissions of Captain Pike's visit during Spock's shipboard trial, Kirk learns just why their planet is off-limits under penalty of death - and why Spock wants to return his former captain there. (Part 2 in Star Trek's only two-parter) For the Remastered edition, look for enhanced matte paintings for the landscape of Mojave City and a unified Talosian waver effect when their images in the present time disappear as well.

As one of the two surviving witnesses to the mass murders of "Kodos the Executioner," Kirk learns that the criminal may be disguising himself as an actor in a traveling troupe. But Shakespeare has nothing on this real-life tragedy once Kirk meets the suspect's beautiful daughter. Though a story light on visual effects, this Remastered edition does show off beautiful new close-ups of the Enterprise -- and watch for the moving stars outside the ship's outer observation window.

Like the Enterprise crew, viewers got their first look at the Romulans in this tale as Kirk engages the enemy commander in a cat-and-mouse game of wits. How should Kirk react as the Romulans wipe out century-old treaty border outposts with a new superweapon, and Spock's loyalty is suddenly questioned? The Remastered edition features close-ups and angles of an all-new Romulan Bird-of-prey ship and its plasma weapon, as well as the tell-tale comet and the Enterprise's "proximity phasers".

When McCoy sees the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland and is later stabbed by a black knight, the crew begins to realize that the idyllic planet they are visiting is anything but. Somehow, the planet holds the dangerous power to turn any thought into reality-- and the Remastered version brings a crisp, cleaner look to all the oddities, as well as a wonderfully rich look to the planet as seen from orbit.

Crash-landing on Taurus II, the seven crewmembers aboard the Shuttlecraft Galileo are unable to communicate with the Enterprise or to escape the planet's atmosphere and its hostile, giant natives. The Remastered edition enhances so much of Spock's infamously illogical first command, including spectacular new looks at the Murasaki 312 quasar, the glaciated Taurus II, new hangar deck angles and of course the Galileo's fuel burnout "flares".

Encountering an uncharted planet in an empty region of space, Kirk and his crew are entertained by Trelane, a playful being who lacks the self control to wield his great psionic powers with discipline. The being devolves into literal tantrums of selfishness, but Kirk still faces death at his hands -- and watch for the Remastered edition's version of a game of dodgeball between the Enterprise and the planet Gothos

To settle a skirmish between the Enterprise and a Gorn ship, a powerful race calling itself the Metrons force Kirk and the Gorn captain to fight to the death on a empty world, using only their wits and natural materials. The captain eventually finds empathy with the Gorn, surprising not only him but the Metrons as well. Among the highlights of the Remastered edition are a distant but first-ever look at the Gorn ship, a more detailed shot of the destroyed Cestus III base, and a special surprise for fans of the Gorn alien.

Transported back in time to 20th century Earth by a black star's gravity well, Kirk rescues the pilot of a destroyed U.S. interceptor plane who had seen the ship as a UFO. Now the pilot must be returned without altering Earth's future - and the Enterprise and crew get back to their own time. Aside from new ship's chronometers and cloudier, more realistic images of Earth, the Remastered edition offers an original version of a slingshot 'round the sun for time travel.

Arriving at Starbase 11, Kirk faces court-martial for negligence resulting in the death of a colleague. Accused by the victim's family and prosecuted by a former lover, Kirk's career seems doomed until an unlikely attorney and Spock's chess game uncover the truth. And from the arrival at starbase to the logs of the incident, the Remastered edition offers the fresh look fans expect.

Searching Beta III for survivors of the USS Archon, Kirk and crew discover a society whose citizens appear to be staid and respectable, until the advent of "Red Hour" allows them to run amok. The Remastered edition adds to the beauty and mystery of Beta III as Kirk and Spock avoid being "absorbed" into the "body" long enough to discover the bizarre source of the planet's unity.

Kirk meets Khan, a leader of Earth's Eugenics War of the 1990s who has been preserved in a old cryo-stasis ship along with dozens of his fellow genetically-bred "supermen." But Khan is anything but an antiquity, and his ambition and ruthlessness burn anew in a bid to hijack the Enterprise with the help of an admiring female officer. The derelict and battered SS Botany Bay is beautifully detailed and shown off in many new angles in the Remastered version, along with new views of the USS Enterprise while it has it in tow.

Ordered to open relations with Eminiar VII, the Enterprise finds itself tagged in a mutual "computer war" with the planet's neighbor, Vendikar-- and the Remastered edition does the danger proud in the "attack." The idea that citizens report voluntarily for disintegration according to the program of the "clean" war drives Kirk to dirty things up at the source, forcing a real peace.

The Enterprise visits a colony where flower spores provide the settlers with peaceful contentment - and Spock finds he can experience love. The spores also offer protection from fatal stellar radiation, but Kirk's crew finds they also have a more sinister effect. The lovely, wispy looks of Omicron Ceti III from orbit and on viewscreens are a highlight of the Remastered edition.

When mysterious deaths and damage in the mines of Janus VI threaten operations at several colony worlds, Kirk and Spock find not a monster but a mother - a silicon-based lifeform just doing its duty. The foe becomes a friend thanks to McCoy's cure by concrete and the Vulcan's mind-meld. The Remastered edition sports better perspectives in a makeover of the matte painting of the underground the Janus VI complex, plus an upgrade of the horta's "rock melting" entrance.

In the first episode to feature the Klingons, Kirk and Spock intervene to offer protection to the people of a planet caught dangerously between the Empire and the Federation. But the seemingly lethargic Organians turn out to have a few surprises of their own... and those get the Remastered upgrade treatment as well.

When the entire universe seems to "blink," the Enterprise suspects invasion but finds only Lazarus, a man who seems to alternate between two different extremes of nature. The Remastered edition helps hone in on the bizarre visual record of Lazarus, who is actually found to be two twinned beings locked in eternal struggle between their matter and anti-matter universes -- a rift Kirk must help seal.

Accidentally overdosing on medication, a psychotic McCoy leaps through a time portal into the 1930s and somehow disrupts Earth's future so that the Federation and Starfleet do not exist. The stranded Kirk and Spock follow him back to set things right, where a tragic love tests Kirk's resolve. Viewers of the Remastered edition will get a much more detailed vision of the "time planet" from space, and an even more evocative final fade-out amid Kirk's grief and fatigue.

Kirk's brother, his wife, and much of the Deneva colony are found dead from a mysterious epidemic of mass insanity. Spock too becomes infected but survives with Vulcan techniques until he is blinded by the cure McCoy tests on him. Both the neural parasites and the Denevan solar suicide get the Remastered touch, of course.