In 1991, the release of The Undiscovered Country celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the franchise and also marked the original cast's bon voyage: considered too old to be marketable for Paramount, The Unidscovered Country was thought to be their last shot at a graceful exit. Fifteen years later, Shatner and Nimoy are back as the senior statesmen of Gene Roddenberry's creation and have retaken their roles as the mastheads of the franchise. What's old is new again.
Shatner, Nimoy Discuss 40th Anniversary, Trek Rebirth With Associated Press
>> William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy spoke to the Associated Press about the Fortieth Anniversary of the Original Series. Speaking about the first episode aired -- "The Man Trap", Nimoy said "NBC decided that this series would be most successful if we had sort of a monster of the week to sell. What's the monster this week? And so they put a monster show on the air the first episode, and I think it was a terrible mistake, because it was really not what we were about."
>> On Star Trek 11: "He's a very talented man," Nimoy says of J.J. Abrams. "I think he should get in touch with us right away."
"And pay our price," said Shatner, dryly.
"That would make us happy, to be helpful," adds Nimoy, laughing.
TV Land Celebrates 40th Anniversary With Marathon
TV Land, which will be the regular home of the Original Star Trek series starting this November, is airing a marathon this weekend celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the first airing of Star Trek on NBC on September 8, 1966.
CBS Television officially announced that they will be releasing digitally remastered episodes of Star Trek, with new special effects and music -- drastically updating the look and feel of the series to contemporary standards. The retouched episodes will also feature higher quality sound for the opening theme, and glitches in the montage will be rectified. Reports the official website: "The remastered episodes have been converted from the original film into a High-Definition format, which gives viewers a clearer, crisper, more vibrant picture than before, even when viewed in standard definition. Once stations updrage and start broadcasting HD signals, the episodes will be all ready" for that format. The plan is to start converting fan favorite episodes first, beginning with "Balance of Terror", who's story points allow the new process to be fully demonstrated.
How this will affect future DVD releases is not completely known. For a full list of modifications to episodes, and where and when these restored episodes can be seen, read the official announcement.
Enterprise-A: Paramount issued a shot, above, of how fans can
expect the digitally rendered Enterprise to appear when remastered episodes, with updated sound and special effects, begin airing in syndication this fall.
