Star Trek: The Next Generation in HD

They could fix that by transferring his sum knowledge and memories prior to his death to Data's "brother"...in fact the comic book tie-in to the current movie reboot did exactly that and he was promoted to Captain of the Enterprise a few years after "Nemesis"!!!

 

Ahh, thanks. I didn't even remember how that happened. Seems like I always fall asleep before the end of "Nemesis". I've tried it a few times, but never really gotten into it.

 

yea you right, First Contact was pretty good...still it seemed they didnt really seem to focus that cast on movies too long...I think there could be a nice long string of features and easy to resurrect Data anyway...I really liked that cast myself...

 

Well this is just a guess but I'm thinking they will syndicate the widescreen and put out the bd in the original aspect ratio.

 

Ohhhh if only it were pure economics....

 

No, that's not necessarily true. The show was already shot in 1.33, so any boom mikes and stuff will still be out of the frame. The real problem with pulling back and displaying more of the film frame left and right is the danger of revealing set edges, characters who aren't supposed to be in the frame, and stuff like that. There's not that much extra room -- maybe 15% at best -- but it would reduce the sting of losing so much foot room in a 16x9 crop. This is essentially what Ascent's post crew did with the Seinfeld shows.

I think at least a couple of the DPs are still alive and active, so maybe they could be brought in as consultants just to help make the final decisions. If it were up to me, that's what I would do. Everything I know at the moment is that the show is only being done at 4x3, but it's all very preliminary at the moment, and I think only 3 episodes are completed. I suspect all the work is being done at 2K resolution, so losing detail won't really be that much of an issue.

If they can find some or most of the bluescreen foreground elements (mostly model work), I think they could redo the effects work pretty effectively. Personally, I'd rather see them use as much of the original as possible and not try to do all the effects 100% in CG.

 

Vidiot: Great stuff. Thanks for your thoughts on this.

What do you think about 1.66 as a compromise? Widescreen, but very little cut off of the top and bottom. Barely noticeable black bars on the sides...

?

 

Would that be somewhat like the way BBC America airs the series? I seem to recall it being slightly letterboxed there.

 

They got 4 movies - seems like that was plenty. Can't say I bemoaned the end of the "TNG" movies because I only really liked the first two. Yes, I liked "Generations" - thought it was great, actually!

But "Insurrection" and "Nemesis" were mediocre at best. There's no reason to believe a fifth "TNG" movie would've been better.

If Paramount ever revisits "TNG", I think it'd make the most sense to do another reboot. Dunno if that'll ever happen, but it could be interesting...

 

They did, actually. TOS was remade in both a widescreen version and a squarescreen version -- same as with Space:1999. The widescreen version was made for future syndication.

Hopefully both versions will also be made for Next Gen -- but I hope that it will be the widesceen version that they decide to sell on BluRay.

 

Paramount didn't release the modified aspect ratio "TOS" on Blu-ray.

:thumbsdn:

 

Can't say I'm a fan. Maybe having some of the widescreen episodes made available for streaming, for comparison's sake? But if they're only going to do it once, OAR all the way.

 

I would like to see it formatted for widescreen if that's possible without modifying it. I'm not a purist for original aspect ratio if the material is worth it, especially on things like TNG where the only reason it was formatted 4:3 was because it was made specifically for TV.

 

Everything you just said here is contradictory. It HAS to be modified to be formatted for 16:9 since it WAS 4:3... exactly because of the reason you stated: it was formatted 4:3 specifically for TV, which had the ratio of 4:3 as that was the standard. There is no way to make it widescreen WITHOUT modifying it, which you just said you were against. You just argued with yourself.

 

Coming fresh off the series at the time and thinking about the potential that a next gen feature film could achieve based on the series finest episodes, I hated Generations after it came out. Now I absolutely love it.

 

I'm sure collectors can find the widescreen version, albeit compressed a bit. And you just know eventually it will be for sale on disc too.

 

Yes, but Next Gen, was originally filmed with widescreen in mind. It was formatted for tv with the 4x3 shape, but the original elements were done with future proofing the look of the show.

Sure it will be "different", but if they truly originally had 16x9 in mind during original production, maybe the 4x3 is the compromised look, due to SD tv of the day.

Perhaps the 16x9 transfer will be the more accurate look they initially envisioned.

 

I'm interested in how the will roll out the releases. One season a year, one season every six months, the whole thing at once? It might be fun/profitable for paramount to release episode in as close to real time as possible, ie. When a disc full of episodes is ready release it as a single disc (maybe only available thru paramounts website). Tell fans that you know it's hard to wait, so you are not going to make them wait, or make a deal with Netflix to exclusively make episodes available to stream as they become available, then when a full season gets completed release on disc.

 

That is just completely false. There wasn't even any experiments with a widescreen presentation of a ST show until work on both Voyager and Deep Space 9 was well into production and then nothing came of it until Enterprise. TNG was composed entirely for a 4:3 presentation.

 

Are you saying that post earlier in the thread was entirely wrong then?


EDIT< I just re-read it......."not sure how accurate...etc..."


Yes it was formatted for 4x3, for tv, but they have enough wiggle room width wise to expand the viewable image without zooming in on it. Remember the 4x3 image was done only for tv being all 4x3 at the time.

 

Yes, there is "wiggle room" on the negative, there is usually always "wiggle room" on those. That, however, doesn't mean that that unused space was to be seen, nor does it mean it was ever thought of as "future-proofing" for a 16:9 presentation. Depending on the scene any reformatting by using more of that image can adversely affect the composition of how the 4:3 presention was originally staged (the positioning of actors, stage, props.. etc. etc.).
Buffy for instance had it's post-season 3 DVD sets in Europe issued in widescreen unbeknownst to Joss Whedon who intentionally framed that show to be seen in 4:3.

By all means, let them do a widescreen version but leave that for the infidels watching the syndicated version or even downloading them off of iTunes, Amazon and the like. Leave the OAR version for those who care enough to buy the, most likely, expensive BD sets. No revisionistic tampering for BD, thank you very much.

 

Maybe - not the point. The point is that it'd be inappropriate for Paramount to only release "TOS" in fake widescreen...

 

These arguments are entirely bizarre. "It's okay to crop it because they would've shot it 16X9 if widescreen TVs existed at the time" is the argument? That makes no sense at all.

So it'd be cool with you guys if they cropped "Wizard of Oz" and "Casablanca" because they would've been widescreen if it existed at the time?

I really don't understand all the fake widescreen apologists here... :thumbsdn:

 

I'm thinking that if the show was shot in full frame 35mm but composited and shot for 4:3 then there is the possibility that directors could often have had things or actors in the edge of the full frame that would not appear when matted to 4:3 but would look very wrong if expanded to the full frame.

Maybe Patrick Stewart pulling faces trying to make Micheal Dorn corpse out of shot (4:3) but would appear if redone from full frame.

Not good. Either way whatever, I wish them luck.

More interested in the effects work rather than the live action which in TNG I find quite wanting these days.

 

Why all the hate for 16:9? I'm a big fan of the TNG, but I'm not a purist. If the shows were filmed in 16:9 35mm, and if the directors were keen on keeping the 16:9 frame as usable as their 4:3 cropped counterparts, then it shouldn't really be a problem. I'd prefer to see extra information versus black bars, as long as it "looks right".

If all depends on how it was filmed and how forward-thinking they were. But I wouldn't accept a 16:9 crop -- I would want at least all the original frame information.