Star Trek: The Next Generation in HD (part2)

The producer of the show that I worked with in 2005 told me it was Vancouver, but I may have misremembered. Paramount went back and forth on shooting shows there vs. LA, but that was pretty standard for syndicated shows in the 1990s.

 

Season 6 is now up for pre-order at Amazon...selling at $90.99 and the street date is June 3rd!!! The 2-part episode "Chains Of Command" is also available for $22.49 and is coming out the same day...

 

By the time June 3 rolls around the season set will probably be going for 59.99, and the "movie" will probably be 14.99.

 

The first seasons of TNG has now dropped to its lowest price ever: $31.49. That's just a little more than a dollar an episode. They've also cut the msrp from $129 to $76.

All of the other seasons have come down to $45.99.

And here's another Standard Definition to High Definition comparison put out by Trekcore.com:

 

I just dropped in to mention this; Amazon.com has them for $45.99. Beats the $88+ price on Amazon.ca.
I'm in NYC to see the ABB this week, so I ordered stuff from .com and shipped it to my hotel; quite the savings over the Canadian site doing that.
And yes, I picked up seasons four and five of TNG, so I'm up to date now.

 

Bad Star Trek joke....

Why did the Borg cross the road? It had assimilated the chicken.

 

Darryl

 

No it was definitely shot in L.A. They used the same soundstages that they had used for precious Trek series. You might be thinking of another show (X-Files maybe or Andromeda) but Trek has never been shot in Canada.

 

Night Terrors SD to HD comparison put out by Trek Core. This was a fairly creepy episode, and in HD it's creepier. The gruesome make up, etc., couldn't really be seen well in low rez....Best watched full screen 1080.

 

Forgot how much fun this episode was to watch...will dig it out and play it on my Season 4 BD box set tonight after work...

 

As I was reading the book "The Making of Star Trek Deep Space Nine" by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, I thought this was an interesting paragraph that help make the case for an HD rebuild of that show. Essentially the quote says that even though TVs of the 1990s couldn't see the details that they put into the show, they put them in there anyway:

"Another unusual—for television—capability built into the Deep Space Nine sets is the exceptionally high quality of their finishing details. Typical television sets are designed to the limit of resolution on a typical television screen, which isn't high. Their rough surfaces, bad seams, streaked paint, and wobbly graphics are not indicative of shoddy work, but a result of the knowledge that no one will ever see those flaws on their television at home. But Rick Berman, in particular, refuses to accept the 'just good enough' level of quality. The finishing detail of all STAR TREK sets, for Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation, are of the same quality we would see in sets built for motion pictures...." (p.168)

On the very next page, it talks about how the director of photographer for DS9, Marvin Rush, intentionally chose to shoot the show with particular lenses, as well as diffusion filters, to give the show a look quite different from what was seen in Next Generation. It's taken me a while to get used to this look—20 years, really—but now I think it fits with both the sometimes shades-of-grey political intrigue on the show, as well as the "spiritual" themes found in DS9.

 

Live ain't easy for a Borg named Hugh!

 

I love TNG. And I love the amazing HD transformation the show has underdone. It can't be overstated how unlikely, rewarding, and labor intensive this campaign has been.

All that said, I'll say that the obsessive compulsive lengths the Trek Core has gone seem a bit.... baffling. I don't want to criticize too much, as ultimately it's harmless so why should anyone get too worked up about it? But as a fellow fan, I'm hard pressed to make sense of why anyone would bother to go to effort they have to seemingly document just about each and every frame of the new HD versions of every episode. Is there an ultimate purpose behind the workload they have embraced?

To be clear, I'm not trying to demean anyone's passion here. Just trying to make sense of it.

 

Wanna put a contract out on that wire-head?

 

It's probably a p

Don't know. Just speculating. But for the person who is doing it it's perhaps almost relaxing and fun? It's also a way to help make the case for why CBS is going to the incredible expense and work of rebuilding the show from scratch.

 

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Sixth Season, rebuilt for blu-ray, gets a rave review from TrekCore:

http://trekcore.com/blog/2014/06/review-star-trek-the-next-generation-season-6-blu-ray/

"Remastering Quality
Two years down the line, and Star Trek: The Next Generation's massive remastering project is entering its final hours. As I type this review, the team over at CBS Digital in Los Angeles are putting the finishing touches to TNG's final season (due out later this year). After cutting their teeth on the first season back in 2012, this group of industry professionals have perfected their individual techniques to create a product which consistently draws rapturous praise from hundreds of thousands of fans across the globe.

Rebuilding this elaborate and technically challenging 25 year old TV show from the original 35mm film - element by element - is made to look like child's play when you watch the final product. The stunningly recreated visual effects are all seamlessly integrated into freshly scanned HD footage, hiding the labyrinthine nature of the project that the CBS Digital team are confronted with on a daily basis....

Verdict time. It's a no-brainer: Season Six represents another perfect example of CBS Digital's quality work bringing TNG into the high definition 21st century. If ever there was an example where more than five stars were necessary to grade the product, this would be it!"

 

Thanks for the review!

 

This is what happens with crazy fans who can't get laid.

 

Hope DS9 and Voyager will be remastered one day...

 

I'm sure they'll be done, although perhaps not with the kind of care and attention that TNG received. All the effects will likely be digital (and we know some of the original files still exist so it may be fairly easy to just update them rather than starting from scratch). I hope they do DS9 first because that'll give me an excuse to actually watch it.

 

I hope the remastering doesn't take away the darker tones of DS9.
It's one thing to make the picture clearer, it's another to change the feel of the show.

Darryl

 

The 7th and final season on Blu-ray available for pre-order, coming in early December.
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Star-Trek-The-Next-Generation-Season-7-Blu-ray/106184/

 

It will be great to have all 178 episodes in 1080p high definition video with lossless audio...hope CBS eventually does the same with "Deep Space 9" & "Voyager"...

 

Just checked at Amazon...the 2-hour series finale "All Good Things" is ALSO available for pre-order on blu-ray separately...price is $20.99 and street date is listed as Dec. 2nd...

 

That's cool. Best episode every. It's rare for a show to go out on top like that, but TNG pulled it off. All Good Things is better than any of the TNG theatrical movies.