What's New, Pussycat?

Star Trek. I haven’t watched it since the late 80s. It’s been Remastered. Now it’s being Re-viewed.

“Catspaw" aka Star Trek's one and only Halloween episode.

New CGI planet looks like frosting that has melted and been blown around. (Or maybe it's just me.) After the teaser, a new matte painting - in a much wider shot - shows the castle front instead of just the door. A nice addition.

It looks like they shaved Chewbacca's butt to make Chekov's stupid wig. (That thing could easily yield a half dozen toupees for Shatner.)

When they first show the cat at the beginning, whomever they got to dub its meowing did the worst job since Ted Cassidy voiced Godzilla's cartoon roar in the late 70s. (It meows later in the episode and it's fine.)

Shatner pronounces telekinesis as "tele-KEN-ESis" instead of "tele-kin-E-sis."

The chick who plays Sylvia would have been a lot hotter if they hadn't dressed her in a Phyllis Diller Sticks Her Head In A Light Socket wig.

There are two scenes where Korob stares into the camera in a HUGE close up, reminding me of the "Lt. Walleye-vision" gag they did in HOT SHOTS!

Sulu likes to appear in episodes where he gets possessed or goes cuckoo. Catspaw. Return of the Archons. Naked Time (he was one of the first to go). This Side of Paradise.

This seems to be one of the few episodes where when something appears out of thin air (the jewels, Kirk's communicator, etc.) there's no BOooOOooOONG sound, just a light flash (which they re-jiggered with cgi). I think in Arena when Kirk disappeared/re-appeared on the bridge they didn't have a sound effect, which made it more disturbing. But I miss my BOooOOooOONG sound though.

The pipe cleaner & dryer lint alien puppets look even WORSE than I remembered (and this is after they cgi-ed the wires out!). Did they just add some crab claws to the puppets that they got off the craft services table on Surf and Turf Friday?

Disclaimer: Star Trek is Copyright 2009 and a Registered Trademark of CBS Studios, Inc. No infringement of those rights is implied.

Thanks to Trekcore.com for the Star Trek screencaps.