Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974)

[whbinder]

Star Trek: The Animated Series Blu-ray

Most Star Trek threads are filled with speculation of Deep Space Nine or Voyager coming to Blu-ray despite some pretty amazing time and resources being needed for such an undertaking. Usually somewhere in there is an aside mentioning that the Animated Series was shot on film, so it could potentially be scanned in HD pretty easily.

Netflix has recently added The Animated Series in HD. It could be an upconvert, but the later live action series don't have HD streams and it certainly looks like a legitimate HD print.

Is it possible that with Enterprise and TNG wrapping up this year, that we might see this arriving on Blu?

[Bucky]

Originally Posted by whbinder

Most Star Trek threads are filled with speculation of Deep Space Nine or Voyager coming to Blu-ray despite some pretty amazing time and resources being needed for such an undertaking. Usually somewhere in there is an aside mentioning that the Animated Series was shot on film, so it could potentially be scanned in HD pretty easily.

Netflix has recently added The Animated Series in HD. It could be an upconvert, but the later live action series don't have HD streams and it certainly looks like a legitimate HD print.

Is it possible that with Enterprise and TNG wrapping up this year, that we might see this arriving on Blu?

Not sure if there would be as much demand for TAS as there is for DS9 and even Voyager.

[MifuneFan]

There's a ton of HD content streaming out there that have little chance of getting a BD release.

[yojoeski]

I'd say there's a better chance of TAS coming to blu-ray than Voyager or Deep Space Nine because TAS has already been scanned in HD so all that needs to be done is to put them on blu-ray discs and ship them out. There was a report last year that it was coming but the person who made the statement retracted it a few days later which leads me to believe that it will be coming and that the person who said spilled the beans a little too soon.

[rrpmpstck]

I am all for it being released. I remember watching it when I was younger. Always liked it.

[Rixx]

With the final season of Enterprise being released in a few weeks, I wouldn't be surprised if CBS got Robert Meyer Burnett & Roger Lay Jr. to make VAM for the animated series and released it on Blu at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

[nousefouraname]

I still think they should re-animate TAS and release it both the original way and with new graphics, maybe CGI, if they are going to do this. It would be expensive, but it would be way more interesting, and might get it back into syndication if they went that route.

[GuruAskew]

This show isn't the red-headed stepchild of the Star Trek franchise that it used to be. It features the original cast and several episodes written by the original writers and even sequels to original episodes. And the mandate that the show is non-canon has fallen out of favor in recent years and things that originated in the animation have crept into other canon Trek episodes and films.

In the JJ era those connections to TOS are more valuable than ever. You could easily make the case that animated Kirk and Spock are more recognizable to millennials than TNG, DS9, Voyager or Enterprise characters.

Furthermore, some of the same sources that reported the other Blu-ray releases have similarly hinted that a Blu-ray release for the animated series is in the works too. I personally have practically no doubt that we'll see a release.

Even if they do don't wanna show their hand or commit to anything I think it's safe to say that Paramount will eventually get to DS9, Voyager, TAS and upgrades of the first 10 films on Blu.

[Batmon77]

I wonder if they can top the packaging of the DVD box which was beautiful.

[popeflick]

Originally Posted by GuruAskew

This show isn't the red-headed stepchild of the Star Trek franchise that it used to be. It features the original cast and several episodes written by the original writers and even sequels to original episodes. And the mandate that the show is non-canon has fallen out of favor in recent years and things that originated in the animation have crept into other canon Trek episodes and films.

In the JJ era those connections to TOS are more valuable than ever. You could easily make the case that animated Kirk and Spock are more recognizable to millennials than TNG, DS9, Voyager or Enterprise characters.

Furthermore, some of the same sources that reported the other Blu-ray releases have similarly hinted that a Blu-ray release for the animated series is in the works too. I personally have practically no doubt that we'll see a release.

Even if they do don't wanna show their hand or commit to anything I think it's safe to say that Paramount will eventually get to DS9, Voyager, TAS and upgrades of the first 10 films on Blu.

I just watched Yesteryear the other day and there's a scene pretty much lifted from there for the 2009 reboot where Spock is getting picked on by other Vulcans.

Season 2 TOS already has one episode on HD (the tribble sequel) and the only thing it does is expose how poor the animation was.

[yojoeski]

Originally Posted by Batmon77

I wonder if they can top the packaging of the DVD box which was beautiful.

God, I hope you're kidding. That packaging is beyond atrocious and frankly, other than the so-called "budget re-releases" of the shows, nearly every Star Trek TV show DVD package I can think of was just horrendous. Especially TAS and Voyager.

[Blades1370]

Originally Posted by yojoeski

I'd say there's a better chance of TAS coming to blu-ray than Voyager or Deep Space Nine because TAS has already been scanned in HD so all that needs to be done is to put them on blu-ray discs and ship them out. There was a report last year that it was coming but the person who made the statement retracted it a few days later which leads me to believe that it will be coming and that the person who said spilled the beans a little too soon.

If this is true I will hold purchasing the DVD for now, I have been toying with buying this the last 4-6 months, but something keeps telling me to hold off. I'll give it another year and see what happens.

[GuruAskew]

There are plans afoot to bring The Animated Series to Blu-ray, and I have an idea that would be crazy to pull off, but if we could it would be really interesting – I like The Animated Series a great deal, despite its shortcomings.

TNG Blu producer Robert Burnett on ST:TAS.

http://trekcore.com/blog/2013/01/exc...rview-part-vi/

[yojoeski]

Yes, that's the statement I was referring to. Burnett later retracted the statement which, as I said, leads me to believe it's in the works, he just spilled the beans too soon.

[GuruAskew]

And some kind of dramatic animation overhaul would account for a lot of things like the crazy idea comment, the timeframe (his comment was over a year ago) and the denial later which would support the theory that Paramount has bigger-than-usual plans for the show.

If the episodes are being redone or even augmented with modern animation I'm sure they'd wanna prepare a big push for marketing or even debuting them on TV like the remastered TOS eps.

[Gold Ranger]

I wonder why they never did a Next Generation Animated Series?

[Maxwell Everett]

Originally Posted by GuruAskew

And some kind of dramatic animation overhaul would account for a lot of things like the crazy idea comment, the timeframe (his comment was over a year ago) and the denial later which would support the theory that Paramount has bigger-than-usual plans for the show.

If the episodes are being redone or even augmented with modern animation I'm sure they'd wanna prepare a big push for marketing or even debuting them on TV like the remastered TOS eps.

If the TAS episodes are being completely redone with computer animation it could conceivably cost something like $1-2 million per episode like The Clone Wars, unless they are doing some really, really cheap-looking animation ($1 million per episode works out to about $700 a second of completed animation). While it would certainly be cool, I'm not sure the market is there to justify spending $22+ million on TAS. That would definitely make it the costliest Trek remastering project CBS could do. As with Enterprise, I think since 1080p HD masters already exist, there will be far too much incentive to just use those and call it a day, I'm afraid.

[yojoeski]

Originally Posted by GuruAskew

And some kind of dramatic animation overhaul would account for a lot of things like the crazy idea comment, the timeframe (his comment was over a year ago) and the denial later which would support the theory that Paramount has bigger-than-usual plans for the show.

If the episodes are being redone or even augmented with modern animation I'm sure they'd wanna prepare a big push for marketing or even debuting them on TV like the remastered TOS eps.

I think more than likely at the time Paramount was on the fence about releasing it and may still be on the fence about it. Internal plans are made by lots of companies that never see the public light of day. I'm honestly sticking to my original statement that of the 3 remaining Trek series, TAS is the most likely to see a blu-ray release since very little would actually have to be done at this stage.

[GuruAskew]

Yeah and it also conceivably be done for half or a third of the budget of Clone Wars. Especially with stuff like writing and acting already paid for decades ago. You could go buck wild on these episodes and they still wouldn't be as visually ambitious as Clone Wars. Not even close.

Do it via traditional cel animation augmented by CGI and the price goes even lower. They could save even more money of they treated the originals as storyboards and retained the original direction.

Air it in syndication or on cable and there are more ways to recoup your expenses.

[yojoeski]

Originally Posted by GuruAskew

Yeah and it also conceivably be done for half or a third of the budget of Clone Wars. Especially with stuff like writing and acting already paid for decades ago. You could go buck wild on these episodes and they still wouldn't be as visually ambitious as Clone Wars. Not even close.

Do it via traditional cel animation augmented by CGI and the price goes even lower. They could save even more money of they treated the originals as storyboards and retained the original direction.

Air it in syndication or on cable and there are more ways to recoup your expenses.

If you can find it, look up how much it cost to produce Transformers: Energon back in 2003/2004. That show was done in the style you're describing with backgrounds being hand drawn while the Transformers and other objects themselves were CGI.