Well this would be a
HUGE undertaking, considering both the number of episodes, amount of VFX per episode, and the necessity to go back to the camera negative and edit from scratch, if it were to be done right. Anything less would, IMO be a waste of time and resources.
As mentioned somewhere upthread, my biggest concern would also be that viewership numbers or sales would at some point not meet with CBS's expectations, and the project have it's plug pulled half-way through. I, for one, would definitely be interested in TNG and DS9 on blu-ray in HD.
Really hope this happens, although HD in pan & scan is kind of an unwanted novelty these days, being so used to 2:35:1 and the other widscreen ratios.
TOS did gangbusters on blu-ray without being in widescreen, so I don't see aspect ratio being a concern for
TNG. To be clear, however, pan & scan refers to the reformatting of a widescreen image by cropping off the sides. As
TNG was never intended for widescreen in the first place, no pan & scan is required.
That said, take a look at this
Ex Astris Scientia article on converting
TNG footage to a widescreen aspect ratio for
ENT. While not perfect, I wouldn't be opposed to a judiciously cropped "pan & tilt" version (without the stretching that was applied) as an
option as long as the original 4:3 was also preserved. I've felt the same way about
TOS, as much as the new FX are fun to look at at times, it could also be fun to fill the widescreen frame, but only if the 4:3 frame is preserved an option (as the original
TOS VFX are still an option on blu-ray)
AFAIK, DS9 and Voyager will never happen on Blu-ray as they were shot straight on to video. There are no HD film masters to clean up and transfer.
ALL Trek was filmed on 35mm film until the final season of
ENT, so quality of the live action footage is not an issue. What is at issue is the anticipated sales of the subsequent series, balanced against the increased costs of new VFX production and editing the original negatives. It was the post-production process that, beginning with
TNG, was mastered on video tape. So all the edits and VFX would have to be recreated to muster full 1080p HD quality.
I'm sure they wouldn't bother, but seeing as the model work was also shot originally on film, the option exists to re-composite certain VFX shots as well (as demonstrated by the Big-E's beauty pass in
Generations.) Would love to see more shots of the 6' model rendered properly!!!