The half-human Mister Spock (Leonard Nimoy) must return to his homeworld of Vulcan to take a mate, or die, in “Amok Time,” a remastered episode of the original Star Trek series, premiering in national syndication during the weekend of February 17, 2007.

Enterprise captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) defies Starfleet orders to take his friend, Spock, to Vulcan. Once there, Kirk finds himself pitted against his friend in mortal combat. Celia Lovsky guest stars as T’Pau, the Vulcan matriarch who presides at Spock’s wedding, and Arlene Martel guests as T’Pring, the beautiful Vulcan woman who is destined to become Spock’s wife.

The digitally-remastered “Amok Time” features two new visual effects matte paintings. Each shows Spock’s homeworld of Vulcan with greater scope and grandeur than was possible when the episode was first produced in 1967. These paintings depict a forbidding desertscape of spectacular beauty, capturing the ancient mysticism of Spock’s Vulcan ancestors. Sharp-eyed fans might glimpse the desert city of Shi’Khar in the background of one of the paintings. Shi’Khar, where Spock grew up, was first seen in the 1973 animated Star Trek episode, “Yesteryear.” These new shots were produced at CBS Digital, and were painted by matte artist Max Gabl under the direction of visual effects supervisor Niel Wray.

The newly-remastered version of “Amok Time” premieres nationwide during the weekend of February 17, 2007, starring William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, with DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy. The original episode was first aired in September, 1967 and was written by Theodore Sturgeon and directed by Joseph Pevney. Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry. Star Trek remastered is distributed in nationwide syndication by CBS Paramount Television.

Here are a just three of the remastered images from “Amok Time.” For a full scale look at remastered scenes and a comparison between the original view and the newly remastered look to the episode visit Star Trek’s official website at StarTrek.com. For a larger view click on each image.

Images show the Enterprise orbiting Vulcan — Spock, Kirk and McCoy crossing bridge into the arena — a more detailed look at the koon-ut-kal-if-fee arena.