The Alternative Factor

Why Use Phasers When One Well-placed Photon Torpedo Will Do the Job?

 

49)  “The Alternative Factor”  Original Airdate: (03/30/67)  Remaster Airdate: (12/1/07)

 

Evaluation:

Whether the RM team ran out of time, money or creative vision, their version of “Alternative” is one of the weakest offerings of the entire RM project.  First to the positives…there are a few nice shots of the Enterprise in orbit around Lazarus’ planet from various angles and ranges.  A new CG rendering of Lazarus’ planet has replaced the original dirty orange orb with a russet globe containing two small emerald oceans.  Some of the new planet shots feature a more subtle pulsing white blip (Lazarus’ ship) on the surface—a nice, if not universe-shattering, alteration.  Before and after Commodore Barstow’s discussion with Kirk, the main viewer contains an image of the updated planet (the viewscreen was solid black in the original episode).  For whatever reason, the RM team turned a blind eye toward the most crucial FX shots in the episode—the collision of the matter/antimatter universes and the eternal struggle between the diametrically opposed representatives from those realities.  Shots of a generic galaxy superimposed over characters and backgrounds, a spinning white square (representing a doorway?) and the two overexposed Lazarus’ fighting amid a nondescript sea of blue all remain unaltered from the original show and are major eyesores.  If these shots had only appeared once or twice, my grade would’ve moved up into the B range.  However, due to their importance to the story and the frequency with which they appear, these unmodified shots relegate the RM episode to the ranks of the woefully deficient.  Adding insult to injury, the unchanged visuals of Kirk and Lazarus beaming across universes, achieved by freezing the frame and animating a pulsing blue energy field over the actors, should’ve been updated with some CG alchemy.  If there’s a saving grace here, the shot of the Enterprise firing phasers down at Lazarus’ craft is glorious in its RM treatment, but, frankly, is time and energy that should’ve been expended on some of the big-ticket items listed above.  The final shot of the upper saucer and warp nacelles framing the rapidly-diminishing planet is an effective visual that’s too-little-too-late; this kind of last minute glamour shot feels like an attempt at making up for earlier slacking.  Ultimately, this updated show capper is so much wasted effort since the episode deserves nothing more than the standard shot of the Enterprise heading into deep space.  Perhaps the RM team in the antimatter universe did a better job on this episode.  Guess we’ll never know.  Way to go, Kirk!

 

Money Shot:  A superb aft perspective of the Enterprise firing phasers down at Lazarus’ ship on the planet’s surface.

 

Wish List:  Updated visuals for the trans-universe beaming effect.  Also, better CG composites for the collision of universes and the melee between the pair of Lazarus’.

 

Remaster Grade:  C-

 

Screencaps:

 

Original                                                                            Remastered