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Some Cool Shots From The Astounding & Upcoming STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Season One Blu-ray!!
Here's a few images from the forthcoming STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Season One Blu-ray, featuring an astonishingly ambitious restoration of the series - a process which, essentially, created the capacity to present the show in true High Definition by reconstructing its entirety from the ground up (details HERE).
This was a phenomenally daunting and challenging process - which extras on the set detail in some length (imagine a warehouse evoking the building at the end of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and the beginning of that other Indy movie...well, not that big...but it's still big....) - filled with box after box after box after box after box after box of TREK footage which needed to be identified, cataloged, etc. After which eps were essentially assessed, cleaned up, and re-built, etc.
I'm hugely understating the magnitude of this undertaking - when you check out the Blu-ray set (which streets July 24), I highly recommend the extra series called STARDATE REVISITED, directed by Roger Lay, Jr. and Produced/Edited by Robert Meyer Burnett. This series of extras will, evidently, run across issuances of future seasons - the docs are extremely insightful and, most awesomely, surprisingly honest. Much like BBC's DOCTOR WHO DVD sets, STARDATE REVISITED does a very nice job being clear-headed about both the strengths and weaknesses of TNG...as well as giving one a very good sense of exactly how and why certain decisions were made during the show's development and production.
These STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Blu-rays are hugely critical for a number of reasons, but three factors shine above all now that I've looked upon these discs for some time.
1) You have never seen ST: TNG like this before. With its astonishing clarity, and the new revelation of detail which was evidently present all along but LITERALLY indiscernible amidst the dodgy resolution of previous presentations, TNG (on Blu) feels radically different than it did before. In many regards, it feels like a contemporary show produced in a sometimes retro way. This means we will, for the first time, be able to experience TNG with all the breadth that was intended - as opposed to viewing versions of it which were hamstrung due to previous presentational (is that a word?) technologies. The difference between 'then' and 'now' is arresting.
2) These Blu-rays offer HD presentations of episodes which did not exist as HD to begin with, and were challenging to present as such. Their presentation in this format is the product of tremendous ingenuity, inventiveness, and patience. HOW this was accomplished could, in theory, be applied to other titles. MEANING: future STAR TREK series might well enjoy the same treatment should the TNG Blus prove successful. DEEP SPACE NINE on Blu? Yes...please.
Leading into...
3) The dazzling results seen on the TREK: TNG Season One Blu-ray set suggest that any number of other series could be approached in the same manner, presuming the necessary raw material exists to begin with. Could STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's Blu-ray undertaking and success pave the way for other TV shows - whether they be legendary or forgotten - to be seen anew in breathtaking HD? Seems like this could well be the case. These TREK: TNG Blu-ray sets may not only be important to STAR TREK, but it's easy to imagine this effort eventually being regarded as critical to the preservation of television history in general.
Just my humble two cents for the moment - I'll be posting more thoughts as I wrap-up my journey through TNG S1 over the next week or so. For now, here are three images from restored episodes...representing 11001001, The Arsenal of Freedom, and Where No One Has Gone Before respectively. Quite frankly, I'm a tad hesitant to post these pics because I've yet to see a single promo shot from this boxed set which comes close to conveying the visual impact of the actual Blu-ray image. So, think of these as a tease and a taste of what you'll find on the set when it releases in a few weeks...but know that the real thing is truly something special to look upon.
More to come...
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Readers Talkback
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Probably. More money than sense.
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July 14, 2012, 11:57 a.m. CST
PLEASE DO A PROPER HD RELEASE OF THE ORIGINAL SIX FILMS THEN!
by Pixelsmack
Only Star Trek II got the white gloves restoration treatment. Plus we never got the superior Special Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. If Paramount is willing to front the money for the TOS and now TNG efforts, why not hit the original six films? All the new special FX created for TMP could be redone. Funny thing is, before all this TOS/TNG upgrading, it was thought such a huge task to redo the Special Edition VFX for TMP, but now it's no big deal. When compared to what they've been doing with TNG.
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It always bugged me the just super imposed the D onto that shot from Trek III, at least scale it correctly and change the door size. Still looks beautiful though.
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Fuck yes, count me in as a day 1 purchase. You hear that corporate bigwigs? MAKE IT, AND I WILL BUY IT.
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July 14, 2012, 12:19 p.m. CST
I'm anxiously awaiting for my preorder to arrive :) Also, Fathom is doing a showing in some theaters on July 23rd
by AlienFanatic
I'm gonna go watch 'em with my son. Hey, it's not every day you get to see a TV show in the theater. I figure it'll be worth it. http://bit.ly/N5c7H9
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July 14, 2012, 12:21 p.m. CST
The only time we saw a Starbase space dock in the TNG era...
by BoyNamedSue
We never saw a TOS movie-type spacedock in any TNG episode but for only one episode. Earth had one in the 23rd century, but it did not have one in the 24th century. I always wondered why that was overlooked.
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July 14, 2012, 12:30 p.m. CST
Any chance this HD version will reveal flaws not visible when they originally aired?
by BoyNamedSue
I saw a fair share of flaws on TOS Blu-Rays that weren't supposed to be seen. I saw coffee stains on Spock's blue shirt, Kirk covered in entirely too much makeup in The Enemy Within, and other minor things. That's the one shortcoming about HD....the quality is so good you see things you would never see on the old tube TVs. Right now, two of the female cast members on the new TNT Dallas have visible scars on their faces....those type scars wouldn't have been seen 20 years ago.
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Every zit, pock mark, pimple, scar, scratch and blemish is all there in total clarity. Most of them use the correct amount of make-up, but the ugly ones, the truly awful looking zombies are not spared. This set looks perfect, too bad the first season is so awful...
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July 14, 2012, 12:51 p.m. CST
I just wish they'd enhance the final three seasons and all of Trek thereafter.
by whyamihere
The constant soft-focus brightness of the series post-91 just drove me up a wall. No real-world edge to the series at all. Hey, that rhymes.
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July 14, 2012, 12:55 p.m. CST
Wow you can see the details of the ablative armor. Always wanted to see a battle with the space dock getting fired on and all the ships inside trying to escape.
by Cedric Ford
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Just beautiful! I've already pre-ordered!
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July 14, 2012, 12:56 p.m. CST
Appears that Tasha's eye-line, bean-line, and aiming point are three different spots.
by zacUpquark
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The best is being able to see the glue line on Shatner's hairpiece!
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I purchased the sneak peak set with three episodes and wow! With TOS you got new FX and more clairity with the live action. This however the FX are the same only much cleaner. The live action stuff really pops out! I never realized how greenish yellow Data's eyes were. With the uniforms the thread pattern is visable. The entire picture seems to have more contrast and is more pleasing to the eye ( as he said in the article like a new show ). Yes I've spent a lot of money on the series on DVD however I'm very tempted after seeing how clear this is ( the still pictures above only do it partial justice as you really need to see it in motion on a good TV ). If you love TNG you'll probably want this set.
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http://ie.ign.com/articles/2012/07/09/star-trek-the-next-generation-season-one-blu-ray-review
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July 14, 2012, 1:20 p.m. CST
Oops, that's what I get for trying to comment using a mobile
by Cervantes
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It's a little less obvious how ridiculously thick those doors are. Look up the non-HD version and it's brightly lit. The 4x3 criticism has no legitimacy. That is how the show was shot. Citizen Kane is 4x3. Use the zoom or stretch feature of your TV if you don't like it. As far as revealing flaws, There may be some of that but not as much as in TOS. Compared to the 1960s, by the late 1980s TV sets were bigger and many of them were connected to cable, so people could get a pretty clear standard-def image. TNG had high production values, feature-quality makeup, costumes, and sets. HD will be much more of a blessing than a curse. If you see a rough spot here and there it's a good trade for being able to see the actors' faces clearly and getting rid of the interlaced videotape look the show had which progressive flat screens are very unkind to. TNG as originally released looks bad on anything but a CRT TV.
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Wesley Crusher is God, I like totally forgot! And Dr Mom is a total milf And Troi was a total slut And Riker was never perpendicular And Picard was a Frenchman with an English accent But I worship 3rd season as if it were divinely inspired, which it was
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I hadn't thought about it, but its great to hear (pun!) that the same effort that was put into the visual transfer to blu-ray was put into 7.1 surround. Very amped for this release!
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July 14, 2012, 2:04 p.m. CST
Awesome awesome awesome. If I ever hit the lotto,I'm breaking off a big chunk to the restoration folks. Thanx for the pix. Now let's do FIREFLY.
by Mike McCutcheon
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July 14, 2012, 2:16 p.m. CST
Space scenes look glorious, but my good, HD really shows up the mock sets doesnt it
by FreeBeer
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I don't think HD is really at fault there.
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I agree. A "reimagination" of TMP would be interesting. The film's plot and story are great. The problem for all but the hardcore Trekkies is that the film is long, boring and spent wayyyy too much time on bad special effects that were unbelievably outdated just a few years later. A re-edit of TMP could introduce updated visual effects and a re-edited final product that would make it more interesting and not quite so self-aware.
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...that's Star Fleet Space Dock!
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I hear that the beige really pops for the 39 minutes of every episode they spend on the bridge.
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http://www.fathomevents.com/classics/event/startrektng.aspx?gclid=CNr0n4_-mbECFQY0QgodSAdshA
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Why would you want the original versions? If you read the article, it clearly explained that there were no new FX, no deleted scenes reintegrated, no new footage added or tampering of any kind. These episodes are merely cleaned up (rather radically) by going back to the original footage and painstakingly restoring it (often frame-by-frame) to Blu-Ray standard. If you want the "original" version (i.e. a worse-looking, soft, washed-out and vaguely grainy print transfer of the same exact footage, only with no depth or clarity), just keep your DVDs. Otherwise, if you want the same show you watched twenty years ago, only looking better than it ever has, this is what you want.
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And I have to say there are way more solid episodes than I expected. Sometimes the allegories are a little over the top, but that's about it. I almost feel the plot lines are more relevant today than they were however many years ago.
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July 14, 2012, 4 p.m. CST
@regan re:IGN. IGN is the People Magazine of reviews. I'd rather read Digital Bits or even Blu-ray reviews for an expert opinion.
by AlienFanatic
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July 14, 2012, 4:17 p.m. CST
DS9 is coming after TNG, if Blu-ray is still around...
by brodiebruce_405
...will be a few years, since they're only planning two TNG releases a year. Season one was the best of DS9, because it had Duet - literally the only good episode of DS9, an awful, badly acted, stupidly written show. These screens are so good, I may have to buy it after all, though the £50 price tag stings.
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The blu-ray of ST:TMP looks pretty good. It would be fun to have one of the re-edit also, but it wasn't really better, just different. Not everything they edited was for the best. Someone wrote a great, very long review online to this effect but I don't remember where. Anyway...I'm sure we'll get the Special Edition before too long, but the version that's out now looks good, and I'm glad that we get to see it, rather than it being erased from history like Lucas' films, the original edit of Blood Simple, etc.
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I've seen the blu-ray previews, and they have definitely tinkered with the FX here and there. There's a scene in the pilot where the ship fires an energy beam and it comes out of the wrong part of the E-D. In the new version they've changed it so it comes out of the right part. They're not making huge changes, but they are most definitely doing more than a simple clean up and high resolution scan.
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Even if they 'only' did a clean-up and high-res scan, what they're doing by definition is still tinkering. Still fun to see, though. If you watch the demo reel they had online they show these giant jellyfish-looking creatures from some episode and how now we can SEE them...but I wasn't so sure watching it how much the original effects people WANTED us to see them so sharply. Sometimes hazy/glow-y is a choice, right?
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July 14, 2012, 4:49 p.m. CST
Restoration can't disguise that the 80s Cocaine-Class Enterprise was the worst Enterprise ever...
by BurnHollywood
Thing looked like a flying porn producer's house.
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The Sonic Shower sounds like Robert Evans favorite sex position.
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July 14, 2012, 5:53 p.m. CST
Would it really make sense to have a Station like that in orbit?
by Jake Pantlin
That thing is huge. What if it was destroyed by an enemy and came crashing down on the Earth? It just seems to big. Would it not be more logical to have it orbit the moon, for safety reasons alone? Also, would a station like that effect the Earth's gravity at all?
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Haven't bothered with the teaser blu-ray yet, but I will be getting this set. The computer generated effects from several episodes, especially Encounter at Far Point, look very out of place at the original smooth 60fps interlaced format composited with the 24fps filmed material. I'm hoping they both now look like they belong in the same frame.
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Mostly Data smearing his makeup on everything, including his own shirt.
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Uhhh... well fine, yeah, it looks great but I don't know what to compare it with.
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Unless we can see Tasha's nipples through the uniform better. Used to squint at the screen to see if I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.
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http://tng.trekcore.com/bluray/
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I'm in Australia. I want to pick up the original serious. It's just hard Justifying spending $125 bucks on a season.
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July 15, 2012, 4:43 a.m. CST
Still wish they'd fixed ALL the dodgy handphaser beams throughout the TOS Remastered project, among other things.
by Cervantes
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TMP needs new 1080p FX, and TFF needs new FX and a new edit. Nemesis needs a new edit.
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The first season of STTNG was cringingly awful.
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There! Lets restart the "We fucking hate Wesley Crusher" threads that permeated the internet back when the series was new and relevant. IMHO I can't stand the Next Gen crew. A bald scrawny captain not as cool as Kirk, a lesbian looking butch, a cute Druish Princess who way too many geeks thought was hot, a black guy they couldn't give eyesight to, and a slightly feminine first mate who definitely was not as cool as Spock. Oh yeah throw in the know it all kid you want to die in every episode and his scene wasting doc mom. Data was actually somewhat interesting until they decided to start giving him human traits.
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July 15, 2012, 11:24 a.m. CST
ST:TNG on the big screen 7/23/12! Dress up as Han Solo
by Obi Wanna Cannoli
and give those ST virgins the middle finger
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I sold my original TOS box sets for the new fx versions, but I will not be getting this new set because I don't have a blu-ray player (I just don't see that big of a leap in difference) and just a change here and there in terms of new fx just doesn't interest me. For 4-5 seasons (maybe longer) TNG used the same ship for a dozen or so alien races, and reusing the Excelsior and Reliant model ships got really old really fast. Hell, did anyone notice they used the God-ship from first season's Haven for the alien base in that later episode where they all lost their memory? I know back on TOS when they reused stuff they figured no one would notice those details, but by the 80's fans got nitpicky. I was disapointed when in the beginning of DS9, Sisko is on a ship that is the old Reliant model, why would a officer of high praise be serving on a 100 year old ship?
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...but (A) why would you want to, and (B) why would you then want to buy it? It's still gonna be the same old lame-ass blight on the Star Trek franchise it's always been, at best serving as a far-too-long prelude to the first three seasons of DS9, which was then royally fucked over after the end of Next Gen as the pernicious twosome of Rick Berman and Brannon Braga devoted their full attention to it. I sat through each and every episode of Next Gen, at first because it was new, then because I was hopeful it would get better, then out of simple, damnable curiosity, and finally just to play out the string. I'll never do THAT again, so be sure. Only took a year of the "Worfed" DS9 to convince me that a once visionary (if plainly copied) take on the Star Trek universe was being flushed down the same hole as the preceding series. Same with Voyager, though it arguably had the best pilot/premiere of ANY Star Trek series. I gave Enterprise the first four eps just out of fairness, and then the Mirror Universe two-parter largely to see the second CG rendering of a Constitution-class starship, which didn't disappoint, though Scott Bacula's lack of acting talent sure did. But now the franchise is in the hands of folks who actually "get" Star Trek, so I'm entirely grateful to have at last been delivered from 18 years of cringing at the words "Star" and "Trek" (with the exception of Star Trek VI, natch). Now, except for this hideous misuse of technology, when I hear those words I go back to times of old when my head would instantly snap around and I'd yell, "YES, YES, WHAT? WHAT'D YOU SAY ABOUT STAR TREK?!" Can't wait for May of next year!
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July 15, 2012, 9:40 p.m. CST
I'm just gonna randomly say here I've been dating a cunt and it's over
by Autodidact
Bitch just tweeted/texted herself out of some prime dick!
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July 15, 2012, 9:41 p.m. CST
Let's put it this way I'd rather watch a Lwaxana Troi-centric episode marathon than spend another date with this stupid broad
by Autodidact
Bitch misses the point of every single thing I say.
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Matter of fact I feel kinda silly. Anyhow, this is love in the all-pervasive comms and social networking era, kids.
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what in the fuck does that have to do with anything?????????? on a higher note i must not get what star trek is about because i thought next generation was boring as shit, are the blue rays cool just because now it has pretty spaceship cgi????
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