Star Trek: The Next Generation, Coming Soon to Blu-ray - Sampler Review
 

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Star Trek: The Next Generation Next Level Blu-ray

Star Trek: The Next Generation The Next Level Blu-ray Review

It looks like TVShowsonDVD.com is reporting that Bill Hunt, from The Digital Bits.com website, has discovered that Paramount just might be moving forward with bringing Star Trek: The Next Generation to Blu-ray.

Apparently, the special effects for the show need to be upgraded to HD quality for broadcast and for the Blu-ray format, like with what they did for TOS. To fund the effort, Paramount could be using the money they they received from their recent Netflix deal to fund this project.

The announcement could be made at the upcoming San Diego Comic Con this July. Check out the whole story here:

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Sta...sc-Plans/15388

That would be awesome. If they go back and use the original film elements and re-make the effects shots this show will look better than it ever did on tv or dvd. I hope Paramount feels it's a worth while investment.

I agree with you Troy. I grew up with this show and it's still one of my all time favs. It is worth the investment and deservedly so.

Oh my god I think I just pee'd my self.
This will *SO* be day 1 for me if they do that

Please please please "make it so"

I've actually met most of the "Next-Gen" cast (except for Stewart, Frakes, and Burton), so having the show in HD, with better FX, would definitely be interesting. However, knowing Paramount's history for overpricing "Trek" on home video, I'll definitely be waiting for quite a while. The original DVD seasons for "TNG" were over $100 each, and I outright refused to abide by that...so, I spoke with my wallet, and wound up waiting several years before grabbing them at about $50 a set. Adding in the four films probably got my overall total close to $400, and I'm not going to shell out double that (or more) for the episodes in hi-def. If that studio wants my money for this, they will have to wait.

Well, we'll definitely find out for sure in the next two months. The San Diego Comic Con is in July, this year, and hopefully, Paramount will make the announcement there.

I've owned TNG (as well as the other shows) on VHS and DVD. I recently tried to watch some early TNG episodes on dvd and it looked like shite. So I really hope this rumour is true.

I started watching TNG when it was first premiered on network television. The first two seasons, I don't really care for because the production does look like cheap crap. But, back then, it was a cool series.

I just want them to clean up the special effects. Particularly, the episode where Tasha Yar is killed off. Those effects were particularly cheesy.

If this is indeed true then 2012 is going to be a BIG year for another major series from tv/movies. Next year will be the 25th Anniversary for ST: TNG and I remember in 2007 they released the entire series as a boxset for the 20th Anniversary. Throw into that the fact that the 2nd of the newest Star Trek reboot for movies is supposed to come to theatres (I heard they might bump it from summer 2012 to fall/winter 2012). Over at the James Bond threads we have discussed at lengths about how MGM/FOX/SONY are going planning to hold back the release of the rest of James Bond on BD to coincide with the newest Bond movie coming out next year and the 50th Anniversary of the first James Bond movie Dr. No. Also another coincidence is the fact that Netflix is streaming the Bond films not on BD on their HD network, and so is Star Trek: TNG. My guess is these studios use the money from selling off their stuf to Netflix and other crappy merchandise (games, books, clothing and all other anniversary crap...including an Enterprise pizza cutter!) in order to fund cleaning up and putting their shows/movies onto BD. Thing is the James Bond ones are already cleaned up and ready to go to BD whereas the TNG is still in the "tinkering" stages and is a much larger volume to upgrade to BD. Obviously these tinkerings have shown promise otherwise they wouldn't allow all this scuttlebutt to leak out. If they don't announce anything this summer at ComicCon or the Star Trek convention then I'd say it's safe to bet it won't be coming for a couple more years (maybe late 2012-2013). Hopefully it won't take until the 30th Anniversary of TNG for it to arrive to BD.

I know this thread hasn’t been posted to in awhile, but have to give my say. :)

TNG is by far my favorite Star Trek series and really hope this makes it to blu-ray. But even still, it has to be done ‘right’. Meaning, a good transfer, very much like how was done with TOS. If they put that much care in TNG, I’ll be there day 1.

I was just thinking about this thread today. With Comic Con only a little under a month away, we could be seeing an announcement there. Anyone heard anything pertaining to this rumor recently?

While this is superb news.

To be honest I would rather have Deep Space 9 on Blu-Ray first.

This is the pinnacle of the Trek franchise in my opinion.

Can I ask anyone in the know as it is a much newer show than TNG (its first season aired when TNG was in season 6) would these go through an easier transition to HD or do the effects need redoing for this too.

I remember some of the defiant battles in season 6 and 7 would be breathtaking in HD.

I agree.

DS9 (and even VOY which was produced 1995-2001) has the SAME problems like TNG.

All Trek shows which are set in the 24th century were filmend on 35mm film but ALL of the post production (editing, visual effects) were done solely on video.

So yeah the SFX would have to be redone or the show would switch between 1080P and 480i (or p?). And even then they would have to cut the whole episodes again and probably even the sound effects and music would be mixed again just to be sure it matches the "new" cuts.

Which while extremely expensive and time consuming is going to be awesome when completed!

Unlike TOS, problem is, most of the SFX shots shared the shot with the actors (digital backgrounds, readouts, those zooming stars outside the windows)--
Reportedly, the 35mm green-screen actor performances are still in a Paramount vault, and WOULD require reconstructing most of every scene from scratch--Leading some to worry whether it would have "washed-out actors" like the Lucas original-SW SE's.

But, the market demands TNG, so we'll find out later whether it was the Netflix deal.
(Paramount took Toshiba's "bribe" to HD-DVD solely to fund the TOS remaster, so they have experience to know they need the angel-backers first.)

Star Trek TNG coming on Blu-Ray...?
 

http://www.digitalbits.com/#mytwocents


As some of you may already know, Star Trek: The Next Generation was mastered only on video tape. This means all the special FX, green screen, and matte work were only done in standard definition. In order for the series to make the transition to HD, they would have to go back to raw film footage, do all the editing from scratch. It's like producing the show all over again.

Things that I'm expecting to happen if TNG goes HD:

• The original SFX done with miniature model work will be replaced with CGI
• The aspect ratio will be re-framed (not necessarily cropped) into 16:9, just like Seinfeld
• Some of the repetitive ship models that kept re-appearing every 4 episodes may be replaced with newer designs

The TOS series was mastered in film, which made it easy for Paramount to offer the unaltered and CGI-enhanced versions both in HD. TNG unfortunately was mastered in video. There's literally no way they can offer the original versions in HD, unless they settle for merely upscaling the standard definition FX and peddling those as HD. I'm pretty sure that TNG in HD will not offer the original versions.

I wonder if Star Trek fans will be ok with all those changes. Will they treat the original source material like it was handed down from God, and go bonkers like some crazy Star Wars fans do with the Special Editions?

upscaling is a bad idea since the resolution is so low compared to bluray that it would just look bad. look at the dvds out there already - they looked great 20 years ago but now, not as good. i am curious what decision they will make on the special effects. like you said, they were composited on video but filmed on 35mm like the trek movies so they could composite them with modern technology and have a good look to them. my guess is that is what they would do but who knows what condition the original stock is in, were the effects filmed as good as the movies were or did they cheat here and there because they knew it wouldn't show on tv and now the effects are not as good, do they want to update/improve the effects like they did with the original series.... wait and see.

i wonder what episodes they will do as a test. if it is only 4, i am hoping "Best of Both Worlds" would be a part of it. It is a good episode, fairly effects heavy - would make a great showcase episode.

These were not released on DVD until 2002, not 20 years ago as you say above. The complete collection was actually not released until 2007.

I know the dvd's are recent - I was commenting on the picture quality. 20 years ago, the effects looked great on tv but when you watch them now, even on dvd, they are not as impressive.

I'm pretty sure that most of the "model" footage and many special effects shots were archived on some form of medium. They just need to look harder to find it.


It would be sad to see the same smeary, glowing and desaturated picture quality unscaled with some funky CGI.

Especially the later seasons of TNG had some excellent model FX work, so if they are doing new SFX shots like TOS-R, the quality of the FX will have to be better. I generally like the new CGI work they did on TOS-R, but there was some weak stuff throughout (the shuttle bay scenes for example, I prefer the old miniature) that was a bit distracting.

"Yesterday's Enterprise" please.

Yes, this is a must. Another episode I would suggest is season 2's "Contagion".

+1701!

I for one was never really sold on the new CGI ships in TOS. Partly because they have less detail than the 97' Star Wars remasters and I've seen much better renders online.

The rest of the effects were really good though.

Holy Crap!!! That would be awesome!!! Can you imagine the Enterprise engaging the Birds of Prey with updated effects? I feel aside from the crap CGI explosions that that scene holds up to this day. Also would like to see Redemption parts 1&2 and Unification parts 1&2. I think we may get the later since Spock is in it.

The new CGI mattes are especially wonderful.

I don't know why people are so down on the CGI for the TOS remasters. Don't they realize that those CGI were made to purposely look fake? They weren't going for realism at all. Realistic looking starships would've been incongruous with the cheesy 1960s sets in TOS. They tried to make the CGI looked kinda cheesy, just to match the equally cheesy sets.

If people need any proof of this, then I direct them to the 6th season Deep Space Nine episode, Trials & Tribblations. That's the one where the time traveling DS9 crew got caught up with TOS-era shenanigans. Or even the 4th season Enterprise episodes, Through the Mirror Darkly. In that episode, Archer & his crew also got caught up with TOS-era shenanigans.

In both instances, the CGI for TOS era space stations and space ships were made to look very fake and cheesy. Even though both shows (DS9, ENT) clearly had the tech to render those CGI in a more realistic fashion, as evidenced by their normally stellar CGI work. The decision to make TOS-era ships look fake is an artistic choice, not a budget limitation.

There's no reason to fear that CGI ships that may appear in a TNG remaster will be cheesy.

The three best episodes IMHO, and I have watched all 7 seasons many times, are Best of Both Worlds parts I and II and Ship in a Bottle.

YES! :rock: + 100000

My favorite episodes are The Inner Light, Darmok and I, Borg.

I know they tried (and succeeded for the most part) to stay true to the original look of the starships, meaning for the Enterprise not adding all sorts of detail to the hull and keeping the models 'basic'. But there were some shots where the CGI model was overlit and it looked like a cheap CGI model instead of an approximation of what you call the original 'cheesy' model.

The Enterprise model seen in DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations" was not CGI, it was a physical model and it looked absolutely gorgeous. The CGI model of the starship Defiant in ENT's "Through a Mirror, Darkly" was as close to a perfect CGI rendition of the original Constitution class as I've seen. A lot of the shots of the TOS-R Enterprise matched that in quality, a number of shots did not. Obviously the TOS-R SFX work was created under more strain of time and budget.

When you say that a decision was made to make the TOS-era ships look 'fake' in TOS-R you are right in the sense that they tried to approximate the look of the original model and not deviate from that look by 'pimping' the Enterprise, but it was not their intention to make the ship look like a CGI model (it did in a couple of shots IMO) as that would create a contrast with the look of the show rather than match it and would thus defeat their intent.

I agree DS9 FTW!!!!!!

That was my favorite Trek series and probably my all time favorite series period.

I know I will be in the minority but I like the idea of it getting reframed for 16x9.

All in all this sounds like a win for fans.

:eek: That would be terrible. If that happened I would just stick with my DVDs.

I want all of TREK on blu....what should I do with my ST: TNG DVD season sets? They are still sealed. :bitenails:

It isn't tangible, that's the problem...with the original models I could always tell the ships were actually on film. Even if they looked a bit sparse. The CGI ships I've seen so far don't have enough detail fleshed out on them to look realistic.

Exciting news! The DVD's look so crappy and soft, even upconverted on these new plasma's and LCD's.

:panic: Sell/trade now or wait? :panic:

You mean your Season DVD's? I'd hold onto them.


Has anyone watch the BBC America HD? The TNG they show on there is much better than the DVD quality.