Star Trek TNG Is Coming to Blu Ray

[Friendly]

While Star Trek The Next Generation was originally filmed on 35mm film, the editing and all effects were done on video tape in standard NTSC video resolution. For this reason, CBS shied away from a Blu Ray release for years.

However, apparently this year's 25th anniversary of TNG has finally changed their mind and they have now begun to digitize the original negatives and are re-doing all special effects in HD.
All 178 episodes will eventually be released on Blu Ray in 1080p with remastered 7.1 DTS audio. A 3 episode sampler called "Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Next Level" will be rerleased January on 31, 2012

http://www.startrek.com/article/the-nex ... ch-in-2012

The quality is quite amazing, especially compared to how TNG used to look on TV and on DVD. At least from the promo video from the link it seems like they are aren't doing anything stupid like cropping the image to fit 16:9, or make Greedo shoot first.

[CMoon]

this year's 25th anniversary of TNG

Goddamn I feel old.

[GaijinPunch]

I never watched this, and am not a huge Star Trek fan. After Battlestar Galactica, I was left w/ a feeling that a young women rubbed warming KY on her hands and had been fondling my nut bag from start to finish, and then when the show was over tthat sensation was unfortunately gone. I toyed w/ embarking on TNG, but not sure if it's worth watching this late in the game.

[BulletMagnet]

After Battlestar Galactica, I was left w/ a feeling that a young women rubbed warming KY on her hands and had been fondling my nut bag from start to finish, and then when the show was over tthat sensation was unfortunately gone.

To be perfectly fair, did you double-check to make sure that said fondling wasn't actually occurring at the time?

[Estebang]

and are re-doing all special effects in HD.

Chances of me purchasing this down from 5% to 0%.

[RGC]

At the time TNG seemed great. Now they're just too cheesey to find anything new in them to enjoy. I guess they've taken on the comedy value of TOS, which is a good thing,. I could just about get through the whole lot one last time on BR, but then I'm certain they would just gather dust.

Voted DS9.

Voyager was the biggest let-down, and had all the most irritating or forgettable characters. Plus, the Helium Hairdo herself, with that munchkin voice. Ugh!

[GaijinPunch]

Yeah, I was afraid TNG would not have aged well enough for someone to watch it.

BM, I never check who's touching my nuts. If it feels good, why ruin that w/ the truth?

[RGC]

I think you could still enjoy TNG if you didn't get into it back in the 80s/90s. In fact, that might even help. But it wouldn't even be close to a BSG scrote massage experience.

[maxlords]

Why would they redo all the special effects? Did Lucas get in bed with Roddenberry's heirs or something?

I'd buy Voyager on blu-ray, nothing else.

[Jeneki]

Oddly enough, I know a few people too young to have seen The Next Generation on air, and were watching it on Netflix. They seemed to be throughly enjoying it.

I asked them if they had tried the original series. Apparently that one is a bit too old for them, hehe.

[StarCreator]

I heard about this happening last year and was wondering when this would finally hit. Got my preorder in a couple weeks ago - it was $14.99 on Amazon at the time. Still not sure if I'll pick up every last BD set, especially since the first season or two are kind of meh compared to the rest of the series.

Why would they redo all the special effects? Did Lucas get in bed with Roddenberry's heirs or something?

I'd buy Voyager on blu-ray, nothing else.

They have no choice, because the original effects were edited on video, limiting the effective resolution to 480i or thereabouts. For a proper HD remaster they're going back to the original shooting film and essentially re-doing the post-processing for every last episode.

Redoing special effects isn't necessarily bad, as long as whoever is overseeing the effort doesn't get overzealous about rewriting history.

Also, the prospects of this level of remaster are dim for Voyager and later seasons of DS9 - both used excessive CG that would have to be completely redone for HD and are new enough that they -might- have been shot on digital video instead of film, which pretty much throws the entire thing out the window.

EDIT: Random Googling suggests DS9 and VOY were indeed still shot on film, so if true it would just be the expense of redoing all the CG above what's being done with TNG.

[Friendly]

I heard about this happening last year and was wondering when this would finally hit. Got my preorder in a couple weeks ago - it was $14.99 on Amazon at the time. Still not sure if I'll pick up every last BD set, especially since the first season or two are kind of meh compared to the rest of the series.

Why would they redo all the special effects? Did Lucas get in bed with Roddenberry's heirs or something?

I'd buy Voyager on blu-ray, nothing else.

They have no choice, because the original effects were edited on video, limiting the effective resolution to 480i or thereabouts. For a proper HD remaster they're going back to the original shooting film and essentially re-doing the post-processing for every last episode.

Redoing special effects isn't necessarily bad, as long as whoever is overseeing the effort doesn't get overzealous about rewriting history.

Yep, exactly. It's like I said in the first post; the source material is low res. And I don't see this as a bad thing either, as long as they keep the original look by re-creating it faithfully, which is what they seem to be doing. This can't really be compared to the usual Lucas-bullcrap at all.

[Ed Oscuro]

and are re-doing all special effects in HD.

Chances of me purchasing this down from 5% to 0%.

If they have the original effects guy doing it, it might be worthwhile.

Hopefully they will be able to simply re-composite most of the effects from the effects footage without needing to "redo" it.

I personally am interested although I would obviously have highly preferred "original" effects all the way through (if they are being redone). That being said, the original Star Trek series looked pretty good at DVD resolution as a clean transfer from film - even if that was more detail than they would have liked us to see at times...

Vaguely interested...it's a good show, I haven't watched many (probably most) episodes at all, and haven't seen one in years.

Voted for TNG...good taste here overall!

[Raytrace]

this year's 25th anniversary of TNG

Goddamn I feel old.

seconded

while I've never been the most hardcore Star Trek fan, I have always liked in all it's versions (yes even Enterprise) - in fact the only Star Trek anything I haven't liked was that recent film

This is cool though TNG getting a Blu-Ray release - next up original BSG remastered @1080p (probs not though :'( )

[Raytrace]

TNG is cheesy? - Jesus I really am old - if anything it seemed not cheesy enough when it first came out compared to the original Star Trek hehe, I thought it too serious at first.

Actually this is embarassing but I remember the first time I saw it the sound was turned down when I was at someone's house and I actually thought Ryker was meant to be a 'new Kirk' or Kirk's son or something -
TRUFAX (*^_^*)

[StarCreator]

If they have the original effects guy doing it, it might be worthwhile.

Hopefully they will be able to simply re-composite most of the effects from the effects footage without needing to "redo" it.

That's exactly what's being done in most cases - TNG's use of CG was quite minimal in comparison to the later series and they used practical models for nearly everything (IIRC the Defiant was the first ship to not use a practical model).

Seriously, people just need to stop assuming the worst because of one particular idiot.

[maxlords]

I heard about this happening last year and was wondering when this would finally hit. Got my preorder in a couple weeks ago - it was $14.99 on Amazon at the time. Still not sure if I'll pick up every last BD set, especially since the first season or two are kind of meh compared to the rest of the series.

Why would they redo all the special effects? Did Lucas get in bed with Roddenberry's heirs or something?

I'd buy Voyager on blu-ray, nothing else.

They have no choice, because the original effects were edited on video, limiting the effective resolution to 480i or thereabouts. For a proper HD remaster they're going back to the original shooting film and essentially re-doing the post-processing for every last episode.

Redoing special effects isn't necessarily bad, as long as whoever is overseeing the effort doesn't get overzealous about rewriting history.

Also, the prospects of this level of remaster are dim for Voyager and later seasons of DS9 - both used excessive CG that would have to be completely redone for HD and are new enough that they -might- have been shot on digital video instead of film, which pretty much throws the entire thing out the window.

EDIT: Random Googling suggests DS9 and VOY were indeed still shot on film, so if true it would just be the expense of redoing all the CG above what's being done with TNG.

Ah...thanks for that. Remastering would be a better term I suppose. As long as they keep the original look, it's all good

And yes, TNG is definitely super-hokey. I like it, but it's hokey and hasn't aged well at all.

[njiska]

I heard about this happening last year and was wondering when this would finally hit. Got my preorder in a couple weeks ago - it was $14.99 on Amazon at the time. Still not sure if I'll pick up every last BD set, especially since the first season or two are kind of meh compared to the rest of the series.

Why would they redo all the special effects? Did Lucas get in bed with Roddenberry's heirs or something?

I'd buy Voyager on blu-ray, nothing else.

They have no choice, because the original effects were edited on video, limiting the effective resolution to 480i or thereabouts. For a proper HD remaster they're going back to the original shooting film and essentially re-doing the post-processing for every last episode.

Redoing special effects isn't necessarily bad, as long as whoever is overseeing the effort doesn't get overzealous about rewriting history.

Also, the prospects of this level of remaster are dim for Voyager and later seasons of DS9 - both used excessive CG that would have to be completely redone for HD and are new enough that they -might- have been shot on digital video instead of film, which pretty much throws the entire thing out the window.

EDIT: Random Googling suggests DS9 and VOY were indeed still shot on film, so if true it would just be the expense of redoing all the CG above what's being done with TNG.

Ah...thanks for that. Remastering would be a better term I suppose. As long as they keep the original look, it's all good

And yes, TNG is definitely super-hokey. I like it, but it's hokey and hasn't aged well at all.

This is exactly why i'm willing to pay good money for these sets. They really put a lot of effort into doing it right.

[CMoon]

Just a meaningless comment on the survey (18 of you guys favoring TNG): Is this the nostalgia talking? Coming up on 40, I clearly remember TNG making the obvious shift from sci-fi to television melodrama. I'd love to hear the 'majority' explain why TNG was actually good. I really though it was ass upon first screening. That said, I hate TV, this might explain something.

As an aside, I feel the first star trek series worked in a large part because of the Outer Limits crew + Roddenbury. The other series just felt like TV to me.

[Ed Oscuro]

The things I remember TNG for (when it was on the air) were not melodramatic, mainly (although Worf's OSHA episode is pretty unintentionally funny in some ways, in retrospect), and the things I'm aware of more now are even more topically on the issues.

Star Trek was never (to find a writer of the really hard sci-fi) close to Hal Clement. In that sense it's a lot like many other melodramas in that it tries to look at real life through the lens of fiction. I always felt that Voyager was where the series was allowed to slide more into character-driven plot dramas based on weak stereotypes (growly 1st Season Worf notwithstanding) and "fun" episodes ("today, we are fighting Nazis, and their obvious allies the Hirogen") than TNG, which did have its fun episodes (they invented the holodeck episode after all!) but there was some fairly serious stuff in there all the same.

Witness Picard on torture: "There...are...FOUR lights!"

The original Star Trek's idea of heavily cerebral was "let's take out Spock's brain," or watching midgets get dissed by the Greek pantheon! Or comment on the horrors of bad children (multiple times!) IN SPACE!

Edit: It's interesting how the three "major" series (DS9 being the "cult" one that probably appealed more to the Babylon 5 types) are ranked here - pretty much according to what you'd find in a general poll, although I would have expected TOS to come out first. Make no mistake, TOS is kinda (okay, very) cheesy at times, but it is still the classic.

[CMoon]

The original Star Trek's idea of heavily cerebral was "let's take out Spock's brain," or watching midgets get dissed by the Greek pantheon! Or comment on the horrors of bad children (multiple times!) IN SPACE!

Ultimately all of the series above are going to suffer from being TV. I think you're really generalizing on the crap episodes, just like my memories of TNG are the counselor talking to everyone about their feelings, Data trying to be human, the dumb kid character, and hollodeck faggotry. I'm sure fans of TNG are going to dwell on that bullshit, just like I'm not going to dwell on any of the episodes from TOS that start spiraling down into Lost In Space fodder (there are clearly a fair number). On the other hand, episodes like "The Man Trap", "That Which Survives","The Balance of Terror", "Operation - Annihilate!", etc. were all, IMO better TV and better sci-fi than what TNG had to offer.

The things I remember TNG for (when it was on the air) were not melodramatic

Do you remember anything with that counselor Troy character (or whatever the hell her name was)? That said, I haven't seen any of these since their original broadcast, so my memory of these films is probably as bad or worse than anybody. Hell, maybe all that PC BS I remember from the series is just cobwebs in ol' duder's head.

[Ed Oscuro]

TNG perhaps suffers from internet "popularity" and so some of those things have become meme fodder whereas the things people focus on in TOS are more well-respected.

To be sure, the attempts to create dynamics between the cast in the first couple seasons of TNG weren't always so good - like you mentioned, Will Wheaton's character was pretty much unloved, Wolf I already mentioned being terrible early on, and some of the other characters weren't too great either (Troi's actress - Marina Sirtis - was, if I remember right, supposed to be more in line with a character out of Alien than what we got - there's some confusion possible because the security officer played by Denise Crosby was a bit closer to this). Troi had it even worse because Majel Roddenberry, Gene Roddenberry's widow, appeared more than a few times as her maybe flighty, cougar-esque mother, but by that time they were playing it for lulz more than with blank-stare seriousness. It definitely took them a while to figure it all out. Despite all that, when it was great, it was really great. And hell, who could find fault with Guinan, played by Whoopi Goldberg herself?

There was a special episode of Reading Rainbow (with LeVar Burton) whose memory I called on earlier in this thread for a memory of how they used to do the special effects. At least early on they were still doing things "the good ol' way" - tubes of glitter in water and model kit extras!

I ought to mention one other thing. Sure, sometimes the strength of the script and the character lines aren't so great in a show. But a great actor (and all the Trek franchises have had them) can still make you like, if not believe, the character. Even some of the quirky "creepy older fuzzy alien guy (who either hangs around a much slimmer and younger alien girl or has two wives each of whom also has two husbands)" characters (Neelix and Dr. Phlox) are somewhat saved by having great actors.

[Raytrace]

Just a meaningless comment on the survey (18 of you guys favoring TNG): Is this the nostalgia talking? Coming up on 40, I clearly remember TNG making the obvious shift from sci-fi to television melodrama. I'd love to hear the 'majority' explain why TNG was actually good. I really though it was ass upon first screening. That said, I hate TV, this might explain something.

As an aside, I feel the first star trek series worked in a large part because of the Outer Limits crew + Roddenbury. The other series just felt like TV to me.

I have to say, much as I do like TNG, one has to listen to any man who's avatar is They Live!

[Drum]

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 8:

http://twitter.com/tng_s8

[GaijinPunch]

Just a meaningless comment on the survey (18 of you guys favoring TNG): Is this the nostalgia talking? Coming up on 40,

Holy shit balls -- someone here is older than me besides PaCrappa (who has abandoned us? bastard)? Miss BSG, and I didn't even watch it until it was done. Woe is me.

[CMoon]

Holy shit balls -- someone here is older than me besides PaCrappa (who has abandoned us? bastard)?

*sighs*

One other point that hasn't come up is how long running TNG was. TOS was pretty short lived and although I like season 3, they were already losing steam and the plug was getting pulled. I think if you were only stuck with the first three seasons of TNG, it might not be remembered so fondly. As I recall, the earlier seasons were a bit stiff, but again, I haven't seen these in something like 25 years. More interesting is that I probably didn't even see some of the later episodes as I stopped watching TV cold turkey about 92-93. Maybe that's when all the great stuff happened?

[brentsg]

Special effects from TNG are so bad that they made ripping the DVDs difficult.

It took me a few Handbrake iterations to come out with something that was reasonably good.

GP, sad you missed out on looking forward to a new BSG episode every week!

Edit: Went with TOS and Enterprise. I liked TNG but Wesley and Q both drove me nuts. I never spent much time with Voyager or DS9, though the wife insists that DS9 is the shit. I actually really enjoyed Enterprise and will probably give it another viewing one day.

[nZero]

I think if you were only stuck with the first three seasons of TNG, it might not be remembered so fondly. As I recall, the earlier seasons were a bit stiff, but again, I haven't seen these in something like 25 years. More interesting is that I probably didn't even see some of the later episodes as I stopped watching TV cold turkey about 92-93. Maybe that's when all the great stuff happened?

The first couple seasons of TNG are pretty much unwatchable now, to me. I think that's been a trend for the modern Star Treks-- DS9 and Voyager took (at least) a couple of seasons to hit their stride as well. Although I never watched any of Enterprise, I seem to remember a boatload of "but it was just getting good!" nerd rage around the time of its cancellation.

[brentsg]

Although I never watched any of Enterprise, I seem to remember a boatload of "but it was just getting good!" nerd rage around the time of its cancellation.

They dicked around too much with a "temporal cold war" and it wasn't a great recurring theme. Time travel is tough to pull off, much less to keep touching it throughout multiple seasons.

Season 3 was awesome, with a solid bad guy and continuing plotline. Season 4 was strong, and the plans for S5 were really solid concepts.

Occasional tie-ins with TOS kept me going on S1-2, having been a fan as a child. The final two were really fun.

They've revealed some of the plot lines that would have been prevalent, had the show continued.
-Romulans as the main bad guys
-Building of the first starbase
-Origins of the Borg
-More Romulan stuff that would delve into T'Pol's lineage...

/nerdrage

[RGC]

I voted DS9, but personally only count series 4 onward. Prior to that, the stories were way more episodic. Not in itself a bad thing, but I didn't see it until 10 years after it was done, and found it took a lot of perseverance to get to the really juicy stuff. Those early instalments were strongly reminiscent of the Data (ex machina) mainstay episodes of TNG. Everything neatly packaged like The Outer Limits. I loved those TNG episodes as a youngster, but don't seem to get anything new out of them now -- just some mild comedy and giant sack of nostalgia. But those wouldn't be enough to make me buy a BR set.

Funnily enough, I did watch Best of Both Worlds again the other day, and still chuckle at Worf's emotional outcry 'He IS a Borg!'.


Edit: I definitely think TNG's longevity partly explains our retrospective warm fuzziness towards it. Like an old pair of slippers, or a faithful sheepdog. Come rain or shine, ol' Picard will be out there cruisin' the galaxy, retiring to his ready room, raising shields, speaking in metaphors, getting some vash, dusting relics, beating the shit out of nausicans, necking shots without wincing, reciting moby dick, and being morally insuperable.