For the past year, the team behind What We Left Behind, a celebration of Deep Space Nine for the show’s 25th anniversary, has been raising funds to not just deliver a behind-the-scenes look at bringing this dark chapter of Trek to life, but to give fans a chance to see what could be: snippets of the show redone in glorious HD.
After raising over $US600,000 ($820,977) in initial funding last year, What We Left Behind—formerly set to be directed by Adam Nimoy before he stepped down from the role late last year, and now co-directed by 455 film’s David Zappone and DS9 executive producer Ira Steven Behr—was initially set to include around just five minutes of remastered HD footage from the beloved series as part of its runtime.
But now Trek Core says a new round of crowdfunding through the documentary’s official site hopes to raise funds to remaster the other show footage that is part of What We Left Behind’s runtime—almost 15 minutes more, spread across all seven seasons of DS9. Here’s the new pitch video featuring Behr (and a familiar DS9 face) discussing the new campaign, which includes the tiniest tease of what HD DS9 will actually look like:
After the highly unlikely to happen (or at least, not for a very long time), so what What We Left Behind is offering could be the only chance Trek fans will get to see DS9 in this format for the foreseeable future. But just look how good it looks:
The footage remastered for What We Left Behind will also present Deep Space Nine in widescreen for the first time, using overscreen content from original filming not seen in the show’s typical 4:3 presentation. It really is DS9 like you’ve never seen it before, and it’s stunning. According to TrekCore, there’s no specific funding goal currently confirmed for completely updating all the footage used in What We Left Behind, but as you can see, it’s a pretty extensive bit of work.
If you’re interested in getting to see more footage like this in the final documentary, you can head over to What We Left Behind’s site and make a pledge. The first public screenings of the documentary are set to premiere in New York and Los Angeles next month, ahead of a Blu-ray/DVD release to backers at a later date.