Before the Paramount logo, the film had an overture over blackscreen in the theatrical version. In the DVD Director's Edition (= DVD-DC), a star field was inserted for these roughly two minutes. The 4K version of the DC (= 4K-DC) shows a revised version of the star field, with it moving a bit slower. Also, this part is about 14 sec shorter.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

02:56-03:11 / 02:50-03:03

The Paramount logo differs. The DVD had the variant that was in use from 1995-99. The 4K version, fittingly, again uses the older version (1975-86).

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

03:12-04:30 / 03:06-04:28

The credits have been revised. As on DVD, these are in yellow, while the original theatrical version was in white. However, they are built up differently now in 4K - exemplified here by the first credit "Paramount Pictures presents". Again, the other star field in the background stands out. The title card comes flying into the picture from the front, and here you can see particularly well how the whole thing now simply looks much fresher.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

Here is another picture from the theatrical version for comparison.

05:43-05:48 / 05:43-05:48

Black borders around the screen, which revealed the transition of the matte painting, have been covered up a bit.

Directly after that, there is a first example of subtitles appearing in the picture during the dialog in Klingon. On the old DVD, these are only in the player-specific standard font. On Blu-ray/4K-UHD, they have fortunately thought along and now offer these passages in the correct font.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

07:30-07:38 / 07:35-07:43

As the astronaut flies past Epsilon 9, the shot has been revised. It is noticeable that the new DC is much closer.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

07:51-07:56 / 07:58-08:03

Here, on the screen on the left, the background has been replaced by another shot. Only in the DC you can see a Klingon text appearing.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

The theatrical version had normal English on a black background.

08:51-08:52 / 09:00

In the few frames with the explosion, the effect has been reworked. The blue circle is now much larger (and the whole frame is colored blue).

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

09:07-09:09 / 09:16-09:18

Hardly noticeable at the small screenshot size, but in the 4K DC, green digits have been added to the screen, virtually flying up to illustrate the computer's calculation.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

09:30-09:37 / 09:40-09:48

The shot of Vulcan was reworked another time, because the matte painting was only available in SD for the DVD version. Compared to the theatrical version, night has already been turned into day and the moon has been removed. In the 2022 DC, especially the landscape now looks significantly different.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

Here is the original shot from the theatrical version:

09:50-10:05 / 10:01-10:17

The shot of various statues on Vulcan, which was also rebuilt for the DC, has been changed again in the background: Sunlight and completely different landscape.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

Here is the original shot from the theatrical version:

10:08-10:30 / 10:20-10:43

Again a shot already processed in the DC that has been touched again: The background on the left of the image differs.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

11:07-11:14 / 11:21-11:29

A shot of Spock was replaced here on the DVD-DC. This is said to be due to the fact that the original take was no longer found after the subtitles had already been burned in. The 4K DC again shows the original take as in the theatrical version.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

Here is the original shot from the theatrical version:

11:40 / 11:56

Again, the background on the right side of the image was changed in various shots. Not mentioned again individually, this shot occurs several times in the next minute.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

11:49-11:51 / 12:05-12:07

There is also an alternate take of Spock to discover here.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

12:18-12:46 / 12:35-13:04

The introductory shots of the Golden Gate Bridge (almost all supplemented for the DVD-DC) of course also had to be rebuilt and thus deviate again. Buildings on the left and on the right were exchanged, moreover there are e.g. other shadows on the water. Only the third comparison image here was already in the theatrical version, but digitally reworked for the DVD-DC. The following interior shot was also already heavily changed from TC to DVD-DC and deviates again in the 4K-DC.

Note: The final shot from the inside with the bridge in the background is used again in the next minute.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

Here the only, deviating shot of the bridge from the theatrical version and the following one inside: There, the Golden Gate Bridge was still incongruously far away, the trams looked different and so did the building on the far right.

13:27-14:10 / 13:47-14:32

In the closer shot with Captain Kirk, the trams on the left and right were replaced with new CG models. Immediately afterwards, a shuttle pod was added to the lower left of the ship in two shots.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

In the theatrical version, especially the top of the pods still looked a bit different:

14:21-14:27 / 14:43-14:50

Already in the DVD-DC, Kirk's docked pod was added to the left of the picture compared to the theatrical version. For the 4K DC, this CGI pod was reworked again and the proportions are now somewhat different.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

Here is the original shot from the theatrical version:

15:21-15:30 / 15:47-15:56

The earth on the left of the image was reworked in 4K DC. Same game afterwards over the whole background.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

Two more shots with Kirk's capsule in space were recomposited one minute later. But especially on the small screenshots the tiny deviations are not really visible.


17:04-17:14 / 17:34-17:44

Kirk's capsule and the dock are now at the same height. In both the theatrical version and the DVD-DC, the dock was significantly higher up.

Note: This finally fits the position of the dock in the rest of the scene.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

During a tracking shot around the ship, there was a somewhat blurry transition to a matte painting just under a minute later. This has now been somewhat improved digitally, but is just as difficult to immortalize on screenshots. The same goes for two shots of the pods that were recomposited shortly after.


18:58-19:04 / 19:33-19:39

Already for the DVD-DC, a reflection of the ship was placed over Kirk's head. This has now been digitally reworked a bit in the 4K version.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

Here is the original shot from the theatrical version:

Shortly after that, there is another minimally deviating newly built shot of the space capsule.


19:27-19:39 / 20:03-20:15

The nacelle in the center (slightly left) of the image used to be transparent, so that the Earth in the background shone through. For the 4K DC, this part has now been colored black.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

19:41-19:39 / 20:17-20:15

Here again a star field has been added in the background.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

In the following a few recomposited shots, which can't be captured vividly.


20:45 / 21:23

Also difficult to capture, but another interesting fix: The wall in the window on the left shook for a short moment. This jerkiness was corrected for the first time in the 4K version.

22:02 / 22:44

Here, as well as in various subsequent shots, the rapid flickering on the screens (see far left in the image, difficult to show on screenshots) has now been stabilized.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

Relevant audio change
22:59 / 23:45

Chevkov now says something on the radio during this shot: "Engineering. Show me your readings on photon capacitors."

Relevant audio change
23:10 / 23:56

Again, Chevkov now says something on the radio during this shot: "All WD stations. Maintain current status."

28:23-28:26 / 29:21-29:24

Some text was added to the screen for the first time in the 4K DC, which builds up during the shot.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

30:11-30:25 / 31:14-31:29

In two consecutive shots, there's a lot more blue and the astronaut was inserted a bit cleaner. For example, the background no longer shimmers through under his helmet. On the left of the second screenshot, you can also see that the 4K image has been cleaned of damage.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

35:48-36:13 / 37:06-37:32

Only visible if you look very closely: The model arm of the Enterprise covers a part of the light from the dry dock in two shots here. This has now been digitally eliminated. In the second screenshot, however, it is even more noticeable that a part of the outline of Earth can now be seen on the left side of the image. This is the original matte painting from the 70s, which was not used back then by mistake and also wasn't reconstructed on the DVD-DC.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

Here again the relevant part for the model arm marked in close-up:

Note: As already linked in the intro, you can see this much better in a comparison in original HD size. Here you can also see that a new error has been created in the 2021 4K version of the theatrical version, because a part of the Enterprise was cut off unintentionally.



37:10-37:16 / 38:31-38:37

The model of the earth on the left in the picture was exchanged.

2001 DVD Director's Cut	2022 4K Director's Cut

Here is the same spot from the theatrical version, which still had a matte painting of the earth.