http://www.startrek.com/article/the-series-fans-want-to-see-on-blu-ray-next-is Interesting. I guess VOY is more popular than DS9 with the Trek fans on the official site. Will CBS look at the poll results to decide on what to release next after ENT?
What series do fans want to see in HD? Wow the one that had a large-breasted woman in catsuits. Funny that
It might defeat the intent of the poll, but the real answer is "all of them." If it were possible, instead of trickling them out to us over the course of years, I believe the majority of fans (who buy such) would prefer everything at once.
If anyone in any position of power is paying any attention to the poll, it's good news either way for both shows, as it's fairly close it shows there is a demand for both.
I think DS9 and VOY would both be great for blu-ray. First, I need to buy a blu-ray player. I think TNG getting remastered is what will force me to do so.
Voyager was a fun, undemanding little sci-fi show. You didn't need to worry about tedious Bajoran spiritual beliefs or ongoing wars with burn victims and their army of Predator knockoffs. Just the adventures of the crew that never gets home (until the final episode) and their slighty unhinged captain.
On a workload that allows two seasons to be remade in HD each year, I'm expecting that work begins on DS9 Season 1, about the same time they're on TNG Season 6. That's assuming CBS Digital are working their way through Star Trek on film stored deep underground at the saltmine, year-by-year. Maybe out on Blu ray Christmas next year? After that, TNG might be required to drop to a season a year... if they wanted to try and please two parts of the fanbase at once. There might be enough of a crossover between those 24th Century shows for such a strategy to work. They tried farming the new FX to a different outfit for TNG Season 2, in an effort to presumably speed up the process x2 and what I read, it didn't go down too well with the fans. Apart from one or two serious goofs, like a model shot that vanished before it reached the overscan area, I wasn't that bothered by the softer focus CG apparent in some of the planet surfaces etc. and from my point of view it was fairly in keeping with that whole year. In all probability, one of the later ones like Season 5 too, which always looked a bit misty and vaseline smeared. The remastering on Season 1 was so good, with sharpness and crisp contrast we've never been able to see before, and recomposited model shots and remade FX to match, it's probably set the benchmark too high... The team responsible going 110% has made them irreplaceable and if fans demand consistency, they have to patient. A few years ago, the hope of seeing any of the 1987-2001 run in High Definition was pretty much NIL. It's easy to suddenly take it all for granted, while the hard work going behind the scenes is almost on a scale of remaking everything from scratch.
Except the Hirogen are twice the Predator knock-off the Jem'Hadar were. (Assuming that's who you meant.)
With the number of fans who cry poor-mouth at every announcement, I doubt it. All-at-once is not helpful to retailers either. No shop wants dusty stock clogging the shelves, or one series overpowering other titles. Packaging can get very dated very quickly. For a series on DVD/Blu-Ray, they want something new and vibrant each month to promote on their "New Releases" shelves. All-at-once releases would go on discount all-at-once, too, and then vanish from shelves all-at-once as other brand new releases demand shelf space.
DS9 needs to come first, because frankly, if given the chance, I think it would get buried and forgotten otherwise. DS9 has always been the red-headed bastard step-child of Trek, despite being the best series. And we've seen what happens when you piss off the Niners: or do we forget that early Enterprise promo where they omitted Sisko and the uproar that garnered? Do DS9 first. Or hell, alternate - DS9 season 1, Voyager season 1. Back and forth. Whatever it takes. Just give us DS9 in HD. I'll willingly pay $80 a season for that. Again (did on DVD... )
How was Voyager produced anyway? Was it done on film like TNG? I think VOY made extensive use of CGI..all of that would have to be recreated...or maybe not...I read rumors somewhere that Voyagers CGI was actually produced in a res higher than full HD...not sure what it acutally true. Well..I would prefer DS9 first anway, because thats the series besides ENT that I haven´t seen more then 90%.
Well considering all the CG in Enterprise was only rendered at 720p I'd be very surprised if Voyager was done at a higher res.
Everything from TNG season 1 until I think about season 3 of Enterprise -- well, the live action stuff, anyway -- was done on film. So all of DS9 and Voyager's live action footage is sitting in a vault in all its high resolution film glory. The visual effects are trickier, of course. TNG's visual effects were edited and composited on video, but the original motion control model elements were all shot on film first and then transferred to video. So when they are doing the HD versions, they can actually go back to the original film elements and recomposite them in most cases. With only a handful of exceptions -- such as the soliton wave -- there was no CGI used in TNG. But DS9 and Voyager both make extensive use of CGI. And unless they were originally rendered at HD resolution, which I doubt considering Enterprise's were only done at 720p, then those all have to be re-rendered (if the original files are still available) or re-created from scratch (if they're not). So, ironically, it may be more difficult to get DS9 and Voyager into HD, even though they're newer series.
It's ironic how the show that got the least votes in the poll is already scheduled for a BD release, since ENT was filmed in HD and requires minimal effort to release. As for DS9 and VOY I'm sure they'll get a HD release though I'm not so sure they'll go the extra mile like they did for S1 TNG, but I could see them doing a good job for the live action portions of the series and a halfway decent upscale of the FX shots. You also have to factor in the fact that the tapes that DS9 and VOY are on aren't getting any younger and will eventually degrade to the point where they'll be as bad as TNG was before the remaster. There is also the cost of starting up a remastering project that was shut down (which also costs money) versus just continuing the restoration process that was already started. I'm pretty confident that DS9 and VOY will get the HD treatment at some point even if tptb don't bother with a BD, streaming and digital downloads is where things seem to be headed.