It is important to manage expectations.
In 2020, a fan restoration group known as "Project Defiant" (a nod to the show’s famous warship) decided to stop waiting for Paramount. Using a combination of Topaz Video Enhance AI and custom-trained ESRGAN (Enhanced Super Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks) models, they began the painstaking process of rebuilding Season 1 from the ground up.
Unlike standard upscaling (which just stretches pixels), AI upscaling "hallucinates" missing detail. The team trained the AI on thousands of frames of HD Star Trek content (from TNG Blu-rays and Star Trek films). They taught the neural network what a Bajoran ear looks like in HD, what the texture of Odo’s bucket should be, and how to resolve the blurry edges of the Cardassian monitor interfaces. star trek deep space 9 s01 ai upscale 4k 2020
To appreciate the 2020 AI upscale, one must understand the technical tragedy of DS9’s original production. Unlike The Original Series and TNG, which were edited on film, DS9 (from Season 1 onward) was shot on 35mm film but then transferred to standard definition (480i) videotape for editing. The special effects (CGI ship battles, phaser fire, alien worlds) were rendered directly at 480p.
This meant that even if Paramount wanted to scan the original film reels today, they would have to: It is important to manage expectations
The estimated cost? Over $20 million. For a show that was always the "dark horse" of Trek, the studio balked. As a result, the official DVD and streaming versions are stuck at SD resolution, looking muddy, artifact-ridden, and particularly poor on modern 4K televisions.
The release of "DS9 S01 AI Upscale 4K (2020)" was a watershed moment. Prior to 2020, attempts at AI upscaling produced the "soap opera effect" or turned faces into waxy mannequins. But the models available in 2020 represented a quantum leap. The estimated cost
The 2020 release focused exclusively on Season 1 for several reasons:
Starting with Season 1 was a deliberate fan choice. It's the season that often scares away new viewers due to its dated SD presentation. A 4K AI upscale removes that barrier. Suddenly, the pilot "Emissary" feels cinematic. The melancholy of the Cardassian sunsets on the Promenade gains weight. Sisko’s bald head isn't a pixelated mess—it's a landscape of resolve.
One risk of AI upscaling is "temporal flicker"—where details waver unnaturally between frames. In 2020, the best projects employed supplemental tools like DAIN to interpolate motion. For DS9 S01, the team also used a light degraining pass, as the show’s film grain was often mistaken for noise by the AI, leading to "waxy" skin textures. A careful balance was struck to retain a filmic look while eliminating digital blockiness.