Planets in TOS and TOS Remastered - Part 2

by Jörg Hillebrand, Anthony Pascale and Bernd Schneider, with comments from Max Gabl and Mike Okuda

General NotesTalos IVPlanet 1EarthGuardian PlanetPlanet 2Planet 3Sigma DraconisExcalbiaAsteroidNew in TOS-ROther Celestial Objects

 

Our article identifies the five planet models that can be seen in TOS in the order of their appearance, as well as a couple of other celestial objects, and contrasts these planets with the new ones created for TOS-R.

 

Earth

Earth in natural colors

The second planet model created for TOS is the one of Earth. The planet appears for the first time in TOS: "Miri", here portraying a precise replica of Earth that remains unexplained. In this episode Earth does not yet have clouds and looks accordingly unrealistic. Clouds were added for Earth in TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday". In TOS: "Assigment Earth", however, the planet is cloudless again, owing to the use of stock footage of Miri's planet.

Miri's planet (TOS: "Miri") In TOS-R Miri's planet is still a precise duplicate of Earth, using a much more sophisticated 3D model, of course with clouds this time.
Earth (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday") Earth is very detailed in TOS-R, and shown from much more diverse angles than in TOS (e.g. including the Moon).
Earth (TOS: "Assignment: Earth") We can see more shots of the detailed CGI of Earth in the remastered episode.

Earth recolored

The model of Earth was modified with color filters in the same fashion as the other TOS planets. We can see such variations of Earth as the Amusement Park Planet (green, showing North America reversed on our screen cap) and as Cestus III (orange, showing South East Asia). Both are based on stock footage of the cloudless Miri planet.

Amusement Park Planet (TOS: "Shore Leave") The planet, obviously Class M, looks much more inviting in TOS-R.
Cestus III (TOS: "Arena") The formerly orange planet is yellow in TOS-R. Aside from the thicker atmosphere, the new Cestus III may be overall akin to Mars. The location shoots, which were modified for TOS-R as well but still show a blue sky, insinuate that the planet is more Earth-like though.

 

Guardian of Forever Planet

This brown planet was specially created for TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever". It possibly appeared as Planet 3 some time later. We couldn't find exact matches of clouds or surface patterns, but the only difference seems to be that the latter was accidentally or intentionally blurred during the filming.

Guardian of Forever planet (TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever") In TOS-R the planet is still overall brown, with many mountain ranges, occasional clouds and possibly an ocean. The surface structure insinuates that the planet used to be geologically very active.

 

Planet 2

Planet 2 is a model with large oceans and continents, obviously primarily intended to represent Class-M worlds. The planet was filmed from many different angles, allowing it to appear as various different planets. Moreover, the footage was repeatedly rotated by 90° or 180° or mirrored, creating even more apparent diversity. As opposed to the earlier planet models, which frequently reappeared as unchanged stock footage, several shots of Planet 2 are exclusively shown in just one episode. For instance, the shots made for the first episode with Planet 2, TOS: "Operation: Annihilate", never appear anywhere else. Later episodes use other takes of the same planet that were apparently made early in the second season. In mid-season 2 some more shots were created, this time with the camera closer to the miniature, resulting in a still different look. Despite this variety in the footage, many incarnations of Planet 1 still look exactly alike, owing to the sheer number of appearances of this most often reused TOS planet.

It initially seemed like there could be more than one planet model of this kind. It was not easy to compare views of different sides of the globe, but after many comparisons, partially looking at rotated or reverse images, we found that the coastlines cross-match on all Planet 2 candidates. On our image identical portions of the coastlines are marked with the same color.

Planet 2a - Deneva

As already mentioned, the first shots of Planet 2 appear exclusively as Deneva.

Deneva (TOS: "Operation: Annihilate") Deneva received a similar treatment as other Class-M planets in TOS-R. As could be expected, it now looks much like Earth.

Planet 2b - Gamma Canaris region planetoid

The Companion's planet in this episode is new footage, which was additionally colored purple.

Gamma Canaris region planetoid (TOS: "Metamorphosis") For TOS-R the Companion's planet was transformed into a much more realistic brown rock. This does not seem to comply with the planet surface set, on which the sky is still purple. However, the thin atmosphere of the planet may be actually purple, and it looks like there is a faint purple seam around the otherwise brown rock.

Planet 2c - Capella IV et al.

Beginning in the second season with its many Earth-like planets, we can see newly filmed scenes of Planet 2 that appear in 13 episodes altogether. Tyree's planet uses just once shot of the Planet 2c footage. The rest seen in the episode is of the Planet 2g batch.

Capella IV (TOS: "Friday's Child") The TOS footage was replaced with a Class-M planet with striking turquoise oceans and remarkably elongated continents.
Tyree's planet aka Neural (TOS: "A Private Little War") The remastered version of this planet is very Earth-like with dark blue oceans.
Triskelion (TOS: "The Gamesters of Triskelion") In TOS-R Triskelion is apparently a Class-M planet with oceans, albeit with a brownish basic color. The sky as seen from the surface still has a somewhat lilac hue though. It is also worth mentioning that there are three suns in TOS-R, Triskelion being identified as a planet in a trinary system in the dialogue.
Kelvan planet (TOS: "By Any Other Name") The Kelvan colony planet appears as a Class-M world with oceans, mountain ranges and polar ice caps.
Ekos (TOS: "Patterns of Force") Like we could expect, Ekos is another remarkably Earth-like planet in TOS-R.
Alpha Carinae II (TOS: "The Ultimate Computer") Alpha Carinae II is a Class-M planet, whose large continents are rife with vegetation as it seems.
Triacus (TOS: "And the Children Shall Lead") The remastered Triacus barely looks like a Class-M world. Its two basic colors are brownish and gray. It looks like they represent two fundamentally different types of rock, rather than mainland and water, respectively.
Medusan homeworld (TOS: "Is There in Truth No Beauty?") The planet that was still visible in TOS was removed altogether from the TOS-R version and was replaced with a new Medusan starship.
Unnamed planet (TOS: "Is There in Truth No Beauty?") In TOS-R, the planet is characterized by large continents, lots of vegetation and obviously populous areas (as indicated by the lights).
Beta XII-A (TOS: "Day of the Dove") The planet is like many other Class-M worlds in TOS-R. There are polar lights like on Omicron Ceti III.
Kalandan outpost planet (TOS: "That Which Survives") The planet with the long abandoned outpost was remodeled for TOS-R to look "dead". Its surface structure and color resembles that of the Guardian of Forever planet.
Elba II (TOS: "Whom Gods Destroy") Elba II is an unusual planet in TOS-R. Much of it is covered by greenish (toxic) clouds, which now comply with the shots of the surface that were taken over from TOS. Underneath the clouds we can make out a brown rugged surface. Overall, the planet looks uninviting enough for a maximum security mental institute.
Sarpeidon (TOS: "All Our Yesterdays") Sarpeidon is a pleasantly blue and green world. It looks a bit brownish because of the red light from its central star that is about to go nova.

Planet 2d - Pollux IV

TOS: "Who Mourns for Adonais?" is another episode using footage of Planet 2 that appears exclusively just here.

Pollux IV (TOS: "Who Mourns for Adonais?") In TOS-R Pollux IV is naturally still Class M, with blue oceans and aquamarine (and hence supposedly shallow) lakes or lagoons.

Planet 2e - Vulcan et al.

For the first appearance of Vulcan the shots of Planet 2 was colored red using filters, letting the land as well as the seas appear red. Vulcan was created using footage of Planet 2c, but also new shots.

Vulcan (TOS: "Amok Time") The TOS-R version of Vulcan, basically a red desert planet with little surface water, looks very much as established in the Trek movies and in Star Trek Enterprise. This resemblance may be a lucky coincidence, however. Planet Mutations - Vulcan Max Gabl: "The look had just to resemble the shots taken on the Vulcan surface, and I basically made it up. I haven't seen the last season of Enterprise yet. I also painted two new shots of the ceremony arena on Vulcan for 'Amok Time' where Spock, Kirk, and McCoy beam down to, where - same here - I had to match the original shots of the surface."
Gamma Trianguli VI (TOS: "The Apple") Gamma Trianguli VI, home to a humanoid species, was transformed into a much more credible Earth-like world. The sky in the studio shots is still red, so the planet's green vegetation was given a slightly brownish hue. Also note the red seam around the globe.
Vulcan (TOS: "Journey to Babel") Due to the disorderly production and airing schedule of TOS-R, this episode comes before "Amok Time". The planet model is the same in both episodes.
Tycho IV (TOS: "Obsession") Tycho IV is the planet where Kirk and Garrovick, with an antimatter bomb, kill the cloud creature, thereby ripping away half the atmosphere, as Spock reckons. The lack of clouds when the ship is breaking orbit corroborates this notion. Most notably there is a huge crater and a wrinkled surface around it (effect of the shockwave), hinting at the recent detonation.
Melkot (TOS: "Spectre of the Gun") The remastered Melkot resembles the original. The color was toned down, and a wavy, probably volcanic surface was created.
Memory Alpha planet (TOS: "The Lights of Zetar") In TOS-R the planetary body on which Memory Alpha is located was turned into a cratered planetoid with large rifts. The most significant change, however, is the addition of a supposedly huge building complex for the Federation's largest information archive.

Planet 2f - Halkan et al.

New shots of Planet 2 were used for Halkan, a rose-colored planet. The shots also appear as Omega IV.

Halkan (TOS: "Mirror, Mirror") The remastered Halkan, as a rather prominent planet, partially retains its pink color. It looks like the day side is pink, while the dusk/dawn zone appears to be greenish.
Omega IV (TOS: "The Omega Glory") The TOS-R version of Omega IV does not really resemble the original. As the home to yet another amazingly Earth-like civilization, the planet was given a typical Class M look.

Planet 2g - 892-IV et al.

The noteworthy variation in the following appearances of Planet 1 is that the model was filmed from a different angle, closer to the globe. So either these planets are substantially bigger, or the Enterprise is in a lower orbit. Only in TOS: "A Private Little War", for Tyree's planet, there is a cross-over with Planet 2c footage. The Planet 2g shots were colored pink for TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah", in order to comply with Flint's castle (that is actually stock footage from "The Cage"). Furthermore, the planet Ariannus is shown as being cleaned.

892-IV (TOS: "Bread and Circuses") The planet, which is in the dialogue established as remarkably Earth-like, received a makeover to a Class-M world with bright blue oceans, probably small land areas and large cloud formations. Furthermore, we can see two moons, just like from the ground too.
Tyree's planet aka Neural (TOS: "A Private Little War") The remastered version of this planet is very Earth-like with dark blue oceans, as already mentioned under Planet 2c.
Elas (TOS: "Elaan of Troyius") In TOS-R the hurricane season is obviously at its height when the Enterprise visits the planet.
Miramanee's planet aka Amerind (TOS: "The Paradise Syndrome") The new planet is a typical Class-M world, characterized by its azure seas.
Ariannus (TOS: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield") The dirty planet in TOS was made with a yellow filter. In TOS-R the planet planet is more realistically enveloped by a brownish gray dust layer. The cleaned up version looks like many other Class-M worlds of TOS-R.
Eden (TOS: "The Way to Eden") Eden remastered is a Class-M planet with a considerable share of green mainland areas. There are at least two moons that are visible from the ground too in TOS-R.
Holberg 917G (TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah") The sky in the newly created matte painting of Flint's palace is still pink. This sets the parameters for the planet as seen from space, which retains its purple hue. In the closing scene we can see two moons.
Camus II (TOS: "Turnabout Intruder") Camus II, which is established in the episode as another home of a long-extinct civilization, is yellow in TOS-R and is given a ring.

 

Proceed to Part 3

 

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