By Steve Krutzler / 10:26, 5 October 2004 / TrekWeb Features

STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE goes where no one has gone before yet again when it premieres this Friday. The show has switched to high definition digital video, and Paramount invited TrekWeb to a special screening co-hosted by the camera's manufacturer, Sony, to see the final result last night. ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT weekend anchor Kevin Frazier emceed the festivities.

The showing of "Storm Front, Part I" in the Paramount Theater attracted a large crowd and much of the cast and crew. Among the cast attendees were Scott Bakula, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Linda Park, John Billingsley, and Anthony Montgomery. Producers Brannon Braga, Peter Lauritson, and Manny Coto took part in a panel discussion afterward, along with director photography Marvin Rush, director Allan Kroeker and two representatives from Sony.

"We've been examining and considering and weighing the possibilities of switching to digital for some time," producer Rick Berman said as he prefaced the episode. "But it really wasn't until this year that we discovered that with these Sony digital, high-def cameras that you'll see tonight, that we could give our audience the quality of image that they've been used to getting for all these years."

"We had tested the technology a few years ago, and at that time, no offense," Braga opened the panel sitting next to Sony general manager Andrew Stucker. "But at that time we didn't feel like the quality quite met the standards of the 35mm we were using. This year, it was virtually indistinguishable and in many ways, better. We have a lot of flexibility in the way that we shoot now, we save a lot of money in the budget, and there was no reason not to make the change."

Visually "Storm Front" is hard to distinguish from what we've been seeing on ENTERPRISE's first three seasons. Rush noted that one of the big advantages of the Sony CineAlta 24P camera is its ability to utilize natural lighting. The premiere features several sequences under the cloak of darkness and the detail offered by the HD camera is superior to traditional 35mm film, according to Marvin Rush, who pointed to a scene of Trip and Mayweather rummaging around with flashlights that required no additional lighting. The "splash" of the flashlights themselves was picked up entirely by the technology.

Rush himself offered a ringing endorsement of the switch, starting off by saying it was possibly the easiest transition in television history: "We set up the CineAlta camera, we put it on our set, and we turned it on. We shot it the same way, we lit it the same way, except for shooting a little faster [there were very few differences]."

Setting up lighting is typically one of the more time-consuming parts of a television shoot. It could take over an hour to light one shot, during which time the cast retires to their trailers until the stage is ready. Rush explains that the new technology allows the director to see a live monitor of the footage, as it will appear in the finished product. This lets the production team see immediately whether a scene has been completed to their satisfaction and move on or take more footage if necessary.

"This camera has tremendous capability on the bottom end, and we exploited it," Rush concluded. "It's better than film."

Scott Bakula says he and the cast were initially skeptical about the change, which required them to begin shooting earlier owing to the time saved in setting up the equipment.

"Seeing that 'previously on ENTERPRISE' clip, which was in our 35mm, and honestly I was nervous about going this way, but as I was watching that I realized that I could not tell. And they were right next to each other. So I stand corrected, and if Rick were here [Rick did not attend the panel], I would stand more corrected."

"I don't have as much time to talk to my kids anymore," Bakula joked about the long waits between takes that have been slimmed down by the new camera. "I think we were all scared at the beginning of the year because we had to get there early and Marvin just yanked the camera out and started shooting... that episode was a seven day shoot and when you think about all the locations and all the intensity and all the prep that went into that, that's a lot of work. We worked hard while we were there, there wasn't much standing around, but at the end of the day the days go faster."