Star Trek TOS Episode 14 Balance of Terror HD 40th Anniversary by Marc Daniels (1966/2006) XBOX Live Marketplace
16 December 2006I am already a fan of Star Trek The Original Series, and while I hated the idea of this HD Upgrade, I decided I wanted to see the upgraded Special Effects, if only to prove that I made the right decision in purchasing the original series in it’s original form. First off, I purchased this on XBOX Live using my XBOX 360, and I purchased and downloaded the 3 GB Episode, which took about an hour, but was able to watch the episode starting about 20 minutes into the download. The upgrade is interesting, but a complete and total waste of time. They replaced all of the ship shots with digital upgrade, which enhance a little bit, but honestly don’t look better than the originals, and in some cases I think looked far inferior. The interesting thing is that the new effects are in 16×9 widescreen, and the footage from the show is left in it’s 4:3 aspect ratio, and it does look good. Though some shots don’t look as good as they could, and in fact look much softer than I would hope, and i am wondering if that is the original negative, or the transfer.
This is a great episode. It was the introduction of the Romulans, and a very military episode that is very much a submarine episode, with 2 ships hunting each other, and they must use all their intelligence to beat each other. First Captain James T. Kirk (WIlliam Shatner) is about to preside over a wedding, but it is called off when he gets an emergency call. The bases along the neutral zone with the enemy from 100 years past are being attacked and completely destroyed, and Kirk and crew are sent to find out what is happening, but they don’t want to start an all out war.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Meanwhile The Romulan Commander (Mark Lenard) is running a new ship with a cloaking device, and they are testing the federation, and there returning home will cause a major war because the Romulan’s will view the Federation as being weak. Kirk must outsmart his enemy and deal with his crew’s bigotry when they realize that Romulans look just like Vulcans. Kirk realizes the new weapon has a range limitation and that they must drop their cloak to fire. Kirk manages to outsmart his enemy, and while the commander is smart, he has an underling with strong feelings, and big connections, and he forces his hands, and leads their ship to it’s doom, leaving Kirk victorious, and the Romulan’s only choice to destroy his own ship.
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An excellent episode, but I am very unhappy with the HD upgrade. It was a complete and total waste of time and money. I would rather see them spend the money on a new Star Trek instead of fiddling with the old ones, and the Next Generation is going to be next.
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