With every new television show these days designed for widescreen viewing, it’s scary to think that tomorrow’s viewers could one day forget that shows were once composed for 4:3 screens. Will they refuse to watch classic TV like The Twilight Zone out of a distaste for the black bars running down the side of their widescreen TV sets? (Or are they already doing so and I’m just an unaware old fart?)
Fortunately, one intrepid soul has taken it upon himself to introduce the joy of the original Star Trek to those who might consider it too boxy. Illustrator and concept artist Nick Acosta (via Cargo Collective) is celebrating this week’s forty-eight anniversary of Trek by showing us what it would look like in the classic widescreen Cinerama format of the ’50s and ’60s, used for such films as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
“I was able to create these shots by waiting for the camera to pan and then I stitched the separate shots together,” says Acosta. “The result is pretty epic. It reminds me of the classic science fiction movies of the 50’s and 60’s. Suddenly the show has a ‘Forbidden Planet’ vibe.”
You can check out a gallery of Acosta’s work below. Suddenly the Enterprise feels like an even mightier Federation starship, the true terror of having a ton of Tribbles fall on your head hits home, and a small reception for Spock’s parents in “Journey to Babel” becomes a great big banquet.
Do you have a favorite episode that you’d like to see widened? Let us know below.
was TOS filmed or videoed? if it was filmed, it should be much easier to do this officially.
Full Shows !!!
I say WIDESCREEN all 700+hr.’s of Star Trek;(TOS; TNG; VOY; DS9; ENT.).Shot while your at it you mite as well WIDESCREEN , (TAS) to.
Bonk on the head, bonk bonk. “Miri”?
The “Caretaker” pilot episode for Voyager would be nice. Please?
I would love to see full episodes done in this format. The update of special effects was okay wen integrated but it seems to be 90 seconds of updates in some episodes
Wow, this is fantastic! Thank you so much for your efforts, appreciated by Trekkies everywhere… clearly, “The Doomsday Machine” needs to be added here, to show the full gargantuan scope of the mechanical villain and how it dwarfs the shows scale… thanks!
This is pretty freakin’ cool. I love TOS. I
The visual gem that is the original Star Trek lies in the colors.
My family didn’t have a color set until the very early 70’s. Color TV was a relatively new thing when Star Trek was produced.
I dare you to try to find a modern day show that looks like this one in terms of color.
“Will they refuse to watch classic TV like The Twilight Zone out of a distaste for the black bars running down the side of their widescreen TV sets?”
Nope, they’ll just streeeetch it out. Blechh.
The City on the edge of forever.Probably not the most visually striking episode, but the story is strong enough that it could justify a widescreen presentation.
Woah, pretty cool.