Star Trek: Next Gen Blu-ray has Special Effects Retooled

[admin]

Star Trek: The Next Generation is finally getting a digital facelift seventeen years after the show’s seven-year run. CBS Paramount says it’s pulling out the stops on the show’s HD upconversion that will include digital touch-ups and an audio upgrade with a production that employs some 25,000 rolls of the TV series’ original negatives. It’s the show that never seems to go away and now that new interest has been piqued in the franchise with the 2009 film, Star Trek by JJ Abrams many are looking for a TV comeback. Meanwhile 20-million plus users of Netflix get their Trek Fix with ad-free streams of every TV series. Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation will be thrilled to learn that all 178 episodes are coming to Blu-ray… eventually. To whet our appetite however, digitally upgraded versions of select episodes of the series will arrive January 31, 2012. The upcoming sampler platter features three of the series best episodes and according to CBS Paramount - years of labor intensive remastering.


Discuss "Star Trek: Next Gen Blu-ray has Special Effects Retooled" here. Read the article.

[Wayde Robson]

This was just released today, it's in stores and pretty cheap. I just picked it up, looking forward to seeing how it looks.

[its phillip]

I don't think I'm going to pick up the sampler. I've already seen comparison screenshots and all that stuff, and they look great. I'm definitely going to buy the series on blu of course

[mike c]

i wonder how much for the full set?

and when will they ever get to ST Voyager on BD!?

[its phillip]

i wonder how much for the full set?

I haven't seen any pricing info...msrp for the original series is $130/season ($71 on amazon) and $322 for all three seasons ($183 amazon). Hopefully TNG will be less (but I doubt it). If they do the same pricing structure the complete set msrp will probably be ~$750.

and when will they ever get to ST Voyager on BD!?

Hopefully after DS9

[Wayde Robson]

I had a chance to watch Inner Light, one of my favourite episodes of NG, it’s the one where Picard lives a whole life on another planet.

I started noticing thick noise or graininess in some of the deep colors, like the back of Picard’s red jacket. I saw the same sheen of grain anytime there was adverse lighting such as the over-bright conditions outside in the sun or darkened shadowy areas. I was a bit disappointed thinking they’d clean up better. But overall, when lighting was good (which is 85-percent of the time) the picture quality was impressive. Skin tones looked amazing and detail popped.

Outer space scenes were particularly remarkable and the USS Enterprise from outside looks very clean and polished as you can imagine a Federation starship to be. Maybe a bit too clean however, evidence that you’re looking at a plastic model. But that’s a minor nit to pick.

Overall I found it impressive. I was happy that they maintained the show’s original 4:3 aspect ratio and didn’t attempt to widen the shots. It would have looked cheesy if they stretched it out or artificially added anything.

If you’re waiting for the show on Blu-ray to come out season-by-season based on the sampler episode I saw it will look good … but I think they could have done a little better job considering the price each season is going to fetch, the dedicated fans and the amount of work they put into the space scenes and recreating the special effects.