Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -- Blu-ray

[cavedoctor]

Originally Posted by milojthatch

"Popularity resurgence?" "The brand is healthy?" You're joking, surly.

Just because they keep spiting up content and slapping the words "star" and "trek" over it doesn't mean it's healthy. It means that Alex Kurtzman got a sweetheart deal from Les Moonves before he went out the door. It means that the current CBS execs have calculated that it would cost them less money for now to let Kurtzman pump out his gutter trash than to fire him. Something I'm hearing the guys at Skydance might have a different take on.

All one has to do to see the true health of the franchise is look at the ratings. The best of the Kurtzman era wishes it had the ratings of Star Trek: Enterprise, which Moonves canceled 20-years-ago due to poor ratings.

All one has to do to see the true health of the franchise is look at merchandise, which is hard to find in stores (unlike Mario, Sonic or Bluey) and when they do put out new merchandise, it tends to skew towards TOS or TNG (because that's what actually sells).

When I was a kid in the 90's, the actually strongest era of the Star Trek brand, I could go into any toy store or toy section and it would not be hard to see very prominently the Playmate Toys Star Trek section. Tons and tons of Star Trek action figures! A few years ago, Playmate Toys tried to re-do it. Walmart and Target carried the first wave, but it was A.) never as prominent as in the 90's and B.) didn't take long till what was left of the series got dumped online. It's an action figure series that pales in comparison to the original 30ish years ago.

I could keep going, but I hope I've made my point.

Here's probably something closer to reality. CBS/Paramount have not restored DS9 and Voyager to HD because A.) It's not an Alex Kurtzman property and B.) It's not TOS or TNG. Enterprise only got through the finish line because it was already in HD.

I'm going to put a prediction up, feel free to come back here later in the future to see how close I was:

DS9 and Voyager will not get the HD treatment until A.) Alex Kurtzman has nothing to do with the brand anymore and B.) It is no longer cost prohibitive as a result of emerging technologies.

The one good news here is, possibly both of these issues could be settled as soon as 2025. We'll see. I feel it comes down the the Skydance executives and how important it is for the to actually have a Star Trek brand that is healthy and not just seeming like it because Kurtzman says so on the Star Trek Facebook page. Also, I agree, the I Love Lucy/ AI debacle will play a factor too.

I'm not a fan of the Kurtzman era either, I'll agree.
But I think there's more to that, Kurtzman claimed the brand was healthy, but I think the DS9 remaster started somewhere in 2021 or 2023, and paused somewhere last year, my theory is they're close to wrapping that up before they start Voyager, after the merger goes down.
As for everything else, I've been reading the reddit board about Paramount global stocks to monitor that, and it looks like a giant cluster**** with the Ellison's buying Paramount, but we'll see.
I think DS9 is on the way.
As for emerging technology, if a fan can do an upscale from a DVD, that's amazing, if the studio does it, and has access to a film negative, it's a load of shit.
As for it being cost prohibitive, 12 shows without conformed negatives have been remastered, that's 12 times.
Everyone says it's herculean to do, was it herculean to master DS9 the first time?
Was it Herculean to master LOST the first time?
No.
We've been through 12 remasters now, and more to come, I'm betting.
The Sopranos is getting a 4k remaster right now. It's not as hard as everyone makes it out to be.